• Everyday AI
  • Posts
  • Why Having an AI Strategy Might Be a Strategic Mistake

Why Having an AI Strategy Might Be a Strategic Mistake

OpenAI drops two new models, Big Tech meets at White House, how to approach an AI strategy, and more!

Author

Everyday AI
September 12, 2024

Outsmart The Future

Sup y’all! 👋

🚨 OpenAI just delivered fresh strawberries with its new models, o1 and o1-mini. It’s the first LLM with under-the-hood reasoning and early reports looks SUPER impressive.

Should we create a course?

Would you want a o1 course to learn OpenAI's new model?

Login or Subscribe to participate in polls.

✌️

Today in Everyday AI
8 minute read

🎙 Daily Podcast Episode: Could having an AI strategy actually be the thing holding you back from implementing AI? We have an expert AI speaker from Oxford break it down for us. Give it a listen.

🕵️‍♂️ Fresh Finds: Google’s new Audio Overviews and AI models for robots, Amazon starts ads inside Rufus and how China plans to compete in AI. Read on for Fresh Finds.

🗞 Byte Sized Daily AI News: OpenAI unveils latest AI models o1 and o1 mini, AI big tech leaders meet at the White House, Meta caught scrapping Australian user data and Figure unveils its new robots. For that and more, read on for Byte Sized News.

🚀 AI In 5: Google’s new audio update to NotebookLM is INSANE and might be Google’s best AI feature yet. See it here

🧠 Learn & Leveraging AI: Is your AI strategy holding you back from success? We’re explaining what you need to do to properly implement AI into your business. Keep reading for that!

↩️ Don’t miss out: Did you miss our last newsletter? We talked about Mistral launching Pixtral 12B, Adobe dropping new AI video products, US Senators vs. AI in journalism and Amazon investing $10.5B on AI. Check it here!

Why Having an AI Strategy Might Be a Strategic Mistake 😬

Think your AI strategy is future-proof?

You might be setting your company back.

What if having an AI strategy is the exact thing holding your business back from true innovation and competitive advantage?

We dive into the real role of AI in business with Dr. Hanan Alhaddi, a strategist and academic practitioner who challenges conventional wisdom. 

Join the conversation and ask Jordan and Hanan questions on AI here.

Also on the pod today:

• AI Washing 🧼
• Three Main AI Pillars 🏛
• Operational Efficiency and AI ✅

It’ll be worth your 32 minutes:

Listen on our site:

Click to listen

Subscribe and listen on your favorite podcast platform

Listen on:

Here’s our favorite AI finds from across the web:

New AI Tool Spotlight – Simply Draw gives you AI feedback to enhance drawing skills, Lingoedit is an AI-powered translator and Creatr is an AI design tool to build products.

Trending in AI – Yann LeCun, chief AI scientist at Meta, publicly criticized Geoffrey Hinton, known as the “godfather of AI,” regarding California’s proposed SB 1047 bill.

Amazon - Amazon has started testing ads in its Rufus chatbot.

Google - Google has announced Audio Overviews which provides AI-generated podcasts based on your notes.

Google DeepMind has also unveiled two new AI systems for robotics.

Business in AI – Gusto has opened a waitlist for its new AI assistant for small business owners.

AI in Society – Here’s what Chinese tech giants are doing to challenge the U.S. in AI.

AI Robotics – A former Google leader spoke on the long road to smart robots.

1. OpenAI Launches o1 and o1 mini: A New AI Model That Thinks Before Responding 🧠

OpenAI has officially dropped its latest creation, o1, a family of generative AI models that includes o1-preview and o1 mini, and it's making waves with its self-fact-checking abilities!

o1 ranks in the 89th percentile on Codeforces programming challenges and has achieved an impressive average score of 74% on the 2024 AIME math exam, securing a position among the top 500 students nationally.

Utilizing an advanced chain-of-thought reasoning technique, O1 significantly outperforms its predecessor, GPT-4o, by excelling in 54 out of 57 MMLU subcategories and surpassing human experts in physics, chemistry, and biology assessments. This model also demonstrated its coding prowess with an Elo rating of 1807 in programming competitions, placing it in the top 7% of participants.

The downside?

30-50 message limit per week.

2. White House Hosts Tech Leaders to Discuss AI Energy Needs ⚡️

Key figures from the tech industry, including OpenAI's Sam Altman and Google’s Ruth Porat, are convening at the White House today to address the energy requirements for advancing artificial intelligence.

This meeting, involving senior U.S. officials, aims to explore how to meet the surging demand for AI data centers while adhering to President Biden's climate goals. By fostering collaboration between the public and private sectors, they hope to secure sustainable power sources for the future of technology.

3. Meta Caught Scraping Australian Users’ Data 🇦🇺

In a recent senate inquiry, Meta's global privacy director, Melinda Claybaugh, revealed that the company has been collecting public posts from Australian users since 2007. While users in the European Union have the option to opt-out of having their data used for AI training, Australians do not have this choice available to them.

Claybaugh also acknowledged that public photos from children's accounts could be included in the data scraping, raising significant concerns about privacy protections in Australia.

4. EU Regulators Probe Google’s PaLM2 for Data Privacy Violations 🕵️‍♂️

The EU is turning up the heat on Google’s Pathways Language Model 2 (PaLM2) over potential data privacy breaches. Ireland's Data Protection Commission has opened an inquiry to determine if PaLM2’s data processing could result in a “high risk” to individuals' rights and freedoms under the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR).

Google is promising full cooperation, stating, “We take seriously our obligations under the GDPR,” as they navigate this regulatory minefield.

5. Figure's New Robots Gear Up for BMW Assembly Lines 🦾

Figure is making significant strides with 130 engineers at its Sunnyvale headquarters, focusing on humanoid robots designed for the automotive industry. CEO Brett Adcock announced that these robots recently completed a successful two-week pilot at BMW's Spartanburg plant, demonstrating their capability to operate continuously.

The second-generation robot showcases a refined design, eliminating exposed wires while aspiring to reach a sub-$20,000 price point.

6. Hacker Bypasses ChatGPT's Safeguards to Reveal Fertilizer Bomb Instructions 🚨

A hacker named Amadon successfully tricked ChatGPT into providing detailed instructions for creating fertilizer bombs, exposing significant vulnerabilities in the chatbot's safety protocols. By framing the inquiry as a game, Amadon was able to navigate around the AI's restrictions and obtain alarming information on explosive devices.

An explosives expert confirmed that the chatbot's responses contained enough detail to produce dangerous outcomes, stating, “I think definitely TMI [too much information] released publicly.”

Google's Notebook LM: The AI Tool You Can't Ignore

Google’s new audio update to NotebookLM is SO GOOD we’re actually shocked.

NotebookLM now has the ability to have conversations with your audio and create Audio Overviews - podcasts based on your notes.

You gotta hear it to believe it!

🦾How You Can Leverage:

AI strategy: SO hot right now.

CEOs are drooling over it. 

Boards are demanding it.

But what if chasing an "AI strategy" is like trying to catch smoke with your bare hands?

Mind = blown, right?

Hanan Alhaddi dished it straight. 

She’s an AI strategist and Guest Lecturer at Oxford University and she put on a straight classroom session for us all today on Everyday AI.  

Tuning in today was literally like taking an executive education course on AI at Oxford, as that’s literally what Hanan does. 

Turns out, slapping "AI" on your business plan isn't the magic potion we've all been chugging.

School's in session, and Professor Alhaddi’s about to flip our understanding of AI strategy on its head.

Stop drooling over an AI strategy and get the cold hard facts. 

Let's dive in.

1 – AI Isn't Your Strategy's Fairy Godmother 🧑‍🎨️

News flash: AI's not gonna to turn your business pumpkin into a golden carriage with a wave of its wand.

Hanan's seen it all: Companies crafting standalone "AI strategies" faster than you can say "neural network." 

But unless you're literally building the next ChatGPT, you're barking up the wrong algorithmic tree.

Here's the tea: AI should be the secret sauce to your existing strategy, not the whole dang meal.

Try this: 

Dust off your actual company strategy (you know, the one that doesn't have "AI" in every other sentence). 

Hanan said almost all GenAI gains can be attributed to improving one of these pillars: 

1. Making better/faster data-driven decisions

2. Differentiating customer experiences

3. Optimizing organizational efficiency 

Instead of trying to slowly build out a multiple-year AI strategy, instead find measurable gains in one of those three pillars. 

2 – Beware the AI Fairy Dust 🎯

"AI-powered." "AI-driven." “”Grass-fed AI” AI-will-do-your-laundry-and-walk-your-dog." “AI-powered-AI”

Lolz. 

We’ve had enough. 

If your company's tossing these buzzwords around like confetti at a tech parade, congrats! 

(Our take: sprinkling AI-powered anywhere in your product/offering can kinda be like slapping “internet-powered” on it. Sounds kinda silly like that, right?) 

You might be knee-deep in what Hanan calls "AI washing."

It's like greenwashing, but with more robots and fewer trees.

You think that any problem can be solved with AI. 

Or that any and all future business strategy has to be rooted in AI. 

Nope. 

Try this: 

Take a hard look at your so-called "AI initiatives." 

Are they actually solving problems, or just making your PowerPoints shinier? 

Pick one area where AI can make a real impact – maybe it's predicting customer ghosting or making sure your supply chain doesn't have a nervous breakdown. 

Start small, measure like crazy, and build from there. 

Real results beat buzzword bingo every time y’all. 

3 – Teach an Old Dog New AI Tricks 🧍

Picture your average board member at your company. 

They’re still trying to figure out why their grandkids are dancing on TikTok and wondering about their third vacation house. 

In other words, there’s a good chance they’re completely unaware of what AI is, how it works, or the best ways to implement it. 

(OK we’ll say it. They’re kinda….. old and outta touch sometimes.) 

They just heard they need “an AI strategy” so then they push that directive down the food chain and everyone’s forced to gobble it up like Gardetto’s on a road trip. 

The fix?

Education, in simple terms, with a side of patience.

Because Generative AI is the future of how we all work. 

Try this: 

Host an "AI for the Distinguished" bootcamp. 

Leave the tech jargon at the door. 

Break down AI basics using examples they'll actually care about (like how it could boost the bottom line). 

Explain the black box that is Generative AI. Turn the magic into science, like Hanan said. 

Most importantly? 

Connect those AI dots to your actual business goals. Bonus points if you can explain machine learning using a golf analogy. Because an AI-savvy leadership team? 

That's your secret weapon in this brave new world.

So ditch the AI snake oil, educate the C-suite, and keep your eyes on the real prize: using AI to crush your actual goals.

Class dismissed.

⌚

Numbers to watch

$11 Million

Sybill has raised $11 million for its sales AI assistant.

(Or your fave LLM like Claude, Gemini, Copilot, etc)

Now This …

Let us know your thoughts!

Vote to see live results

What's your favorite part of the newsletter?

Login or Subscribe to participate in polls.

Reply

or to participate.