Category Archives: General

Anthropic’s Claude: Capabilities, Military Use, and Strategic Controversies

07 Saturday Mar 2026

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Claude is a family of large language models (LLMs) developed by the U.S.-based AI company Anthropic. Originally designed as a general-purpose generative AI, with broad capabilities in natural language understanding and generation, Claude has also become deeply embedded in national security and defense workflows through government contracts and classified integrations.

Technical Capabilities Relevant to Defense

As an advanced LLM, Claude’s core competencies include:

  • Large-Scale Data Processing: Claude can analyze and synthesize massive amounts of unstructured text, such as intelligence reports, intercepted communications, and strategic documents, far faster than human analysts.
  • Pattern Recognition & Trend Extraction: The model excels at identifying patterns and correlations across datasets, aiding threat detection and predictive analytics.
  • · Operational Simulation & Planning Support: Claude can be used to model strategic scenarios and evaluate possible outcomes under different assumptions, a capability prized in simulations and war-gaming.
  • · Cybersecurity Analysis: Specialized government-focused versions of Claude (e.g., Claude Gov) enhance analytics on cybersecurity threats.

To support classified defense audiences, Anthropic developed Claude Gov models, which are tailored for use in secure environments (e.g., AWS Impact Level 6 networks) where they handle sensitive or classified materials.

Actual and Reported Military Use Cases

Although direct evidence about specific military operations is often classified, multiple credible reports indicate Claude has already been used in defense contexts:

  • Intelligence and Decision Support: Claude has been integrated through third-party defense platforms such as Palantir, enabling analysts to process classified data and provide actionable summaries and insights.
  • Strategic & Operational Planning: U.S. defense agencies reportedly use Claude for scenario modeling, risk assessments, and planning support in time-sensitive situations.
  • Classified Operations: According to media reports, Claude was used in at least one classified U.S. military operation (e.g., operations in Venezuela), although precise details of its role remain disputed and the company’s usage policies prohibit direct application to violence or weapons control.

Ethical Guardrails and Usage Policies

Anthropic’s internal policies explicitly restrict certain types of applications for Claude:

  • No Fully Autonomous Weapons: Claude cannot, by company policy, make lethal force decisions or autonomously guide weapons without human oversight.
  • No Mass Domestic Surveillance: Anthropic refuses to allow Claude to be used for bulk monitoring or tracking of civilians within the United States.
  • Restrictions on Direct Violence and Weaponization: The usage policy forbids Claude from being used to design weapons or provide instructions for violent acts.

These safeguards are rooted in Anthropic’s commitment to “Constitutional AI” principles, a framework meant to align powerful models with ethical, legal, and safety considerations.

The Pentagon Dispute and Policy Clash

Despite Claude’s utility in defense workflows, tensions between Anthropic and the U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) have escalated sharply:

  • Contract and Requirements Conflict: The DoD has insisted that any vendor supplying AI under defense contracts must agree to allow their models to be used for “all lawful purposes,” which in practice could include weaponization, surveillance, and other sensitive applications. Anthropic has resisted removing its guardrails.
  • Supply-Chain Risk Designation: In February, March 2026, senior Pentagon officials reportedly labeled Anthropic a “supply chain risk” and President Trump ordered federal agencies to phase out Anthropic’s AI tools (including Claude) over security concerns.
  • Defense Production Act Threats: Defense leaders threatened to use statutory authorities to compel Anthropic to loosen its safety policies or risk losing contracts.

Anthropic’s leadership, while supportive of defense work, including intelligence analysis and cybersecurity support, has defended its limits as necessary for maintaining democratic norms and preventing dangerous misuse.

Capabilities vs. Limitations in Military Contexts

It’s important to distinguish Claude’s analytical empowerment from autonomous warfighting:

Strengths

  • Rapid synthesis of complex tactical and strategic information.
  • Enhanced intelligence-analysis throughput.
  • Assistance in planning, modeling, and decision support.
  • Adaption to classified workflows with enhanced security controls.

Limitations

  • Claude is not a perception and control system for autonomous physical systems (e.g., drones or missiles) in current defense roles. LLMs lack the real-time sensor integration and control fidelity required for kinetic systems.
  • Ethical policies and company restrictions preclude Claude from direct lethal action without human oversight.

Broader Implications for Military AI Governance

The Anthropic-DoD standoff highlights a broader debate in military AI:

  • Ethical Guardrails vs. Operational Flexibility: Should private firms impose strict ethical limits on how their AI is used — even by democratic governments, or should national security imperatives override those limits?
  • Human-in-the-Loop Requirements: Ensuring machines do not substitute critical human judgment in life-or-death scenarios remains a key policy concern.
  • Global Arms Competition: As other nations pursue AI-enabled warfare, the balance between safety and capability becomes a strategic consideration for democratic states.

Conclusion

Anthropic’s Claude demonstrates that LLMs are now at the forefront of modern defense intelligence and planning. Its deployment in classified defense workflows underscores the military’s appetite for AI-driven decision support. However, Claude’s integration into military systems has surfaced a fundamental conflict between ethical safeguards imposed by a private AI developer and government demands for comprehensive operational capability.

This clash, over autonomous weapons, mass surveillance, and contractual access, is now a defining case in how 21st-century militaries will govern and regulate artificial intelligence in practice.

J. Michael Dennis ll.l., ll.m.

AI Foresight Strategic Advisor

Based in Kingston, Ontario, Canada, J. Michael Dennis is a former barrister and solicitor, a Crisis & Reputation Management Expert, a Public Affairs & Corporate Communications Specialist, a Warrior for Common Sense and Free Speech. Today, J. Michael Dennis help executives and professionals understand, evaluate, and responsibly deploy AI without hype, technical overload, or strategic blindness.

Contact

jmdlive@jmichaeldennis.live

AI Reality Brief for Leaders

07 Saturday Mar 2026

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AI Reality Brief for Leaders

A Strategic Guide to Making AI Decisions Without Hype

Artificial intelligence has moved from research labs into boardrooms at extraordinary speed. Since the public release of systems such as OpenAI’s ChatGPT, Anthropic Claude and large-scale models from Google and Microsoft, executive pressure to “do something with AI” has intensified across every sector.

Yet beneath the enthusiasm lies a persistent strategic risk: leaders are being asked to make consequential capital, governance, and reputational decisions in an environment saturated with marketing claims, vendor exaggeration, and incomplete understanding.

This brief is designed to help leaders separate signal from noise. It does not argue for or against AI adoption. It establishes a disciplined framework for making AI decisions grounded in capability, constraint, risk, and measurable value.

1. The Current AI Landscape: Capability vs. Narrative

AI discourse currently oscillates between two extremes:

  • Inevitable transformation of all industries
  • Existential threat narratives
  • Productivity miracles with minimal integration cost

None of these narratives is operationally useful.

In practical terms, modern AI systems, particularly large language models and multimodal foundation models, are:

Strong at:

  • Pattern recognition at scale
  • Probabilistic text and content generation
  • Classification and summarization
  • Code assistance and automation of structured cognitive tasks
  • Augmenting knowledge workers

Weak at:

  • Causal reasoning
  • Accountability
  • Reliable long-term planning
  • High-stakes decision autonomy
  • Contextual judgment beyond training distributions

Leaders must evaluate AI systems as statistical engines, not as strategic agents.

The most expensive AI mistakes today are not technical failures: they are governance failures driven by misinterpretation of capability.

2. The Five Strategic Questions Before Any AI Investment

Before approving pilots, budgets, or enterprise integrations, leadership teams should formally answer five questions.

1. What Problem Are We Actually Solving?

AI should never be the starting point. Operational friction, cost inefficiency, risk exposure, or revenue stagnation should be.

If the problem cannot be precisely defined in business terms (cost, margin, time, risk, throughput), AI will not clarify it.

2. Is the Task Deterministic or Probabilistic?

AI performs best where tolerance for probabilistic output exists.

  • Drafting assistance → acceptable variance
  • Compliance decisions → low tolerance for variance

Misalignment here produces reputational and regulatory exposure.

3. What Data Governance Controls Exist?

AI systems amplify data conditions.

  • Poor data hygiene → scaled error
  • Unclear ownership → legal exposure
  • Cross-border data flow → regulatory risk

Without robust governance, AI increases operational fragility rather than resilience.

4. What Is the Integration Cost?

Vendor pricing is rarely the dominant cost driver.

Hidden costs include:

  • Workflow redesign
  • Change management
  • Legal review
  • Cybersecurity reinforcement
  • Staff retraining
  • Vendor dependency risk

True ROI must incorporate integration complexity, not just license fees.

5. Who Is Accountable?

AI cannot be accountable. Executives remain responsible.

Clear lines of responsibility must exist for:

  • Model oversight
  • Output validation
  • Escalation procedures
  • Incident response

Ambiguity in governance is a material board-level risk.

3. The AI Adoption Maturity Curve

Organizations typically move through four stages:

Stage 1 — Experimentation

Isolated pilots, informal use by employees, enthusiasm-driven testing.

Risk: Shadow AI, unmanaged data exposure.

Stage 2 — Tactical Integration

AI embedded in specific functions (marketing automation, customer service chatbots, coding assistance).

Risk: Fragmented strategy; tool proliferation.

Stage 3 — Strategic Alignment

Executive-level oversight; AI initiatives tied to KPIs and risk frameworks.

Risk: Overextension before governance maturity.

Stage 4 — Structural Integration

AI integrated into operational architecture with compliance, security, and accountability embedded.

Reality: Few organizations have genuinely reached this stage.

Most companies overestimate their maturity by at least one stage.

4. Where AI Delivers Real Enterprise Value

Across sectors, AI delivers measurable value in four domains:

1. Cognitive Throughput Expansion

Increasing output per knowledge worker without linear headcount growth.

2. Decision Support

Enhancing, not replacing, human judgment with predictive analytics and scenario modeling.

3. Operational Efficiency

Automating repetitive classification, routing, documentation, and monitoring tasks.

4. Risk Detection

Fraud detection, anomaly identification, compliance scanning.

What AI does notreliably deliver is autonomous strategic judgment.

Boards should treat AI as infrastructure augmentation, not leadership substitution.

5. The Governance Imperative

Regulatory scrutiny is increasing globally, including structured frameworks such as the European Union AI Act. Regardless of geography, the direction is clear:

  • Documentation requirements will increase
  • Transparency expectations will rise
  • Liability boundaries will tighten

Leaders should proactively establish:

  • AI risk committees or subcommittees
  • Model inventory and audit trails
  • Acceptable use policies
  • Vendor risk assessments
  • Incident response protocols

Governance is not a brake on innovation; it is a prerequisite for sustainable AI deployment.

6. Common Strategic Errors

Error 1: Confusing Demonstrations with Deployment

A compelling demo is not operational reliability.

Error 2: Over-Reliance on Vendor Narratives

Vendors optimize for growth. Executives must optimize for durability.

Error 3: Treating AI as a Cost-Cutting Tool Only

Pure cost reduction strategies underutilize AI’s potential in augmentation and innovation.

Error 4: Delegating AI Entirely to IT

AI is not merely a technical initiative. It is a strategic transformation issue involving operations, legal, HR, finance, and the board.

7. A Disciplined AI Decision Framework

For every proposed AI initiative, require:

  1. A written problem definition
  2. Quantified expected value
  3. Defined risk exposure
  4. Governance assignment
  5. Exit criteria if performance fails

This converts AI from enthusiasm-driven adoption to capital-disciplined investment.

8. The Executive Mindset Shift

Leaders do not need to become machine learning engineers.

They must become:

  • Fluent in probabilistic system behavior
  • Skeptical of anthropomorphic language
  • Structured in risk evaluation
  • Relentless in value measurement

AI is neither magic nor menace. It is an accelerating computational capability layer that amplifies both strengths and weaknesses of organizational structure.

Conclusion: Strategic Clarity Over Hype

The defining AI advantage will not belong to the earliest adopters.
It will belong to the most disciplined adopters.

Executives who:

  • Separate capability from narrative
  • Align AI with defined business objectives
  • Install governance before scale
  • Preserve human accountability

Will capture durable advantage.

Those who chase hype will accumulate technical debt, governance exposure, and strategic confusion.

The AI era does not require faster decisions.
It requires better ones.

Strategic clarity is now the differentiator.

J. Michael Dennis ll.l., ll.m.

Based in Kingston, Ontario, Canada, J. Michael Dennis is a former barrister and solicitor, a Crisis & Reputation Management Expert, a Public Affairs & Corporate Communications Specialist, a Warrior for Common Sense and Free Speech. Today, J. Michael Dennis help executives and professionals understand, evaluate, and responsibly deploy AI without hype, technical overload, or strategic blindness.

Contact

jmdlive@jmichaeldennis.live

Why AI Confusion Is Now a Board-Level Risk

16 Monday Feb 2026

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For most of the past decade, artificial intelligence was treated as a technical topic: something delegated to innovation teams; IT departments, or external vendors. That assumption is no longer viable. Today, AI confusion itself has become a material enterprise risk, and increasingly one that belongs squarely at the board of directors’ table.

The danger is not simply misuse of AI. It is misunderstanding AI: what it is, what it can do: what it cannot do, and how rapidly its economic and regulatory implications are evolving.

Boards that fail to resolve this confusion are beginning to expose their organizations to strategic, operational, legal, and reputational vulnerabilities simultaneously.

The New Nature of AI Risk

Traditional technology risks were largely implementation risks: cybersecurity breaches; system failures, or cost overruns. AI introduces a different category: cognitive risk at the leadership level.

Executives and directors now face a paradox:

  • AI capabilities are advancing faster than institutional learning cycles;
  • Vendors market AI aggressively using inconsistent terminology;
  • Internal teams often lack a shared definition of “AI adoption.”

As a result, organizations frequently believe they have an AI strategy when they actually possess only disconnected experiments.

This gap between perception and reality is where risk emerges.

Confusion Creates Strategic Misallocation

Many boards are currently making capital allocation decisions under ambiguous assumptions:

  • Treating automation, analytics, and generative AI as interchangeable;
  •  Overestimating short-term productivity gains;
  • Underestimating structural workforce changes;
  • Investing defensively because competitors appear to be moving faster.

Consulting analyses from reputable firms consistently show that the economic impact of AI depends less on model capability and more on organizational redesign. Yet governance conversations often remain tool-focused rather than transformation-focused.

The consequence is predictable: companies spend heavily without achieving measurable competitive advantage.

Vendor Narratives Are Outpacing Governance

Technology providers, including Microsoft, OpenAI, and NVIDIA, are advancing the frontier at extraordinary speed. Their messaging emphasizes opportunity, acceleration, and inevitability.

Boards, however, must operate under fiduciary duty, not technological optimism.

Without internal literacy, directors struggle to ask essential questions:

  • Are we buying capability or marketing?
  • Where does proprietary data actually flow?
  • What operational decisions are being delegated to probabilistic systems?
  • Who is accountable when AI outputs are wrong?

When governance lags behind adoption, risk accumulates silently.

The Regulatory Exposure Is Real, Even Without New Laws

Many directors assume AI risk will crystallize only once formal AI-specific regulation matures. In reality, existing frameworks already apply:

  • Privacy law;
  • Securities disclosure obligations;
  • Product liability;
  • Employment law, and fiduciary oversight duties.

If leadership cannot clearly explain how AI systems influence decisions, regulators may interpret that ambiguity as governance failure rather than technological complexity.

In other words, confusion itself can become evidence of inadequate oversight.

Operational Risk: The Illusion of Intelligence

Generative AI systems produce fluent outputs that appear authoritative. This creates a novel enterprise hazard: employees may rely on AI beyond validated use cases.

Common emerging failures include:

  • Hallucinated analysis entering internal reports;
  • Confidential data exposure through external tools;
  • Automated customer interactions generating legal exposure;
  • Inconsistent decision logic across departments.

These are not edge cases: they are scaling issues. And scaling issues are governance issues.

Why This Has Reached the Boardroom Now

Three structural shifts have elevated AI from CIO concern to board-level responsibility:

  • AI now affects revenue models, not just efficiency;
  • Adoption is employee-led, often occurring before policy exists;
  • Market expectations have shifted: investors increasingly interpret AI positioning as a proxy for future competitiveness.

Boards are therefore being evaluated not only on performance, but on technological judgment.

The Governance Gap

Most organizations currently sit in one of three unstable positions:

  • Overconfidence, declaring AI leadership without measurable integration;
  • Paralysis, delaying action due to uncertainty;
  • Fragmentation, allowing multiple uncoordinated AI initiatives.

None of these states are sustainable.

Effective oversight requires boards to transition from asking: “Are we using AI?” to asking:

  • Where does AI change decision authority?
  • Which risks are amplified by probabilistic systems?
  • What capabilities must leadership personally understand?

What Boards Must Do Next

AI governance does not require directors to become technologists. It requires structured clarity.

Practical steps include:

  • Establishing a shared organizational definition of AI;
  • Creating board-level AI literacy sessions;
  • Requiring management to map AI systems to business processes;
  • Introducing AI risk reporting alongside cybersecurity reporting, and Assigning explicit executive accountability for AI outcomes.

The goal is not control over technology: it is control over understanding.

The Core Insight

The defining risk of this moment is not artificial intelligence itself. It is leadership operating under inconsistent mental models while deploying systems that reshape how decisions are made.

Historically, boards governed assets they understood. AI breaks that precedent.

Organizations that resolve AI confusion early will treat it as a strategic capability. Those that do not may discover, too late, that uncertainty at the top cascades into exposure everywhere else.

In 2026, AI literacy is no longer a competitive advantage.
It is becoming a fiduciary requirement.

J. Michael Dennis ll.l., ll.m.

Based in Kingston, Ontario, Canada, J. Michael Dennis is a former barrister and solicitor, a Crisis & Reputation Management Expert, a Public Affairs & Corporate Communications Specialist, a Warrior for Common Sense and Free Speech. Today, J. Michael Dennis help executives and professionals understand, evaluate, and responsibly deploy AI without hype, technical overload, or strategic blindness.

Contact

jmdlive@jmichaeldennis.live

I Am Done with Trump

11 Wednesday Feb 2026

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WHY I CAN NO LONGER SUFFER DONALD J. TRUMP

Donald J. Trump

There was a time when I admired Donald J. Trump, not for his policies, but for his apparent resilience. He seemed capable of surviving political, legal, and personal crises that would have ended most careers. His refusal to quit, his instinct to fight back, and his sheer stamina gave the impression of strength.

Over time, however, that impression collapsed.

What once looked like resilience increasingly revealed itself as dominance without discipline, aggression without responsibility, and defiance without purpose. Trump’s behavior consistently demonstrates a lack of conscientiousness: disregard for norms, institutions, truth, and even basic consistency. Loyalty is demanded, but rarely reciprocated. Accountability is avoided, not embraced.

Equally troubling is his emotional instability. Criticism is treated as persecution, disagreement as betrayal, and compromise as weakness. This fuels a pattern of grievance, paranoia, and hostility that poisons discourse rather than leading it. Leadership requires emotional regulation; Trump thrives on emotional escalation.

Most damaging of all is his relentless self-centeredness. Everything becomes about personal victory, personal humiliation, or personal revenge. The public good is secondary to the preservation of ego. When antisocial behavior, lying, intimidation, scapegoating, becomes routine rather than exceptional, admiration turns into disillusionment.

I eventually concluded that what I once mistook for strength was merely survival instinct untethered from character. Trump may be educated and experienced, but education without integrity and experience without responsibility amount to little. In the end, I no longer see a fighter worthy of respect, only someone endlessly struggling to protect himself, offering nothing larger than that struggle.

J. Michael Dennis

From Tools to Partners, The Future of Artificial Intelligence

11 Wednesday Feb 2026

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Artificial Intelligence is no longer a speculative technology on the horizon: it is an operational reality reshaping economies, institutions, and human work. While most discussions about AI focus narrowly on tools, models, or short-term productivity gains, the true future of AI is broader and more consequential: AI is evolving from a passive instrument into an active cognitive partner embedded across society. Understanding this transition is essential for leaders, professionals, and policymakers who want to remain relevant in an AI-driven world.

1. From Narrow Automation to Generalized Intelligence

Early AI systems were designed to perform narrowly defined tasks, recognizing images, translating text, or optimizing logistics. The next phase is characterized by generalized capability, systems that can reason across domains, adapt to new contexts, and collaborate with humans in complex problem-solving.

Key shifts include: Multimodal intelligence (text, image, audio, video, and action); Persistent memory and long-term context; Autonomous goal decomposition and planning; Self-improvement through feedback loops. This does not imply human-level consciousness, but it does mean human-comparable competence across many cognitive tasks.

2. AI as a Cognitive Infrastructure

AI is becoming a foundational layer, similar to electricity or the internet, rather than a standalone product. In the future, AI will be: Embedded invisibly in workflows; Integrated into decision-making systems; Continuously adaptive to users and environments. Organizations will not ask “Should we use AI?” but rather “How is intelligence flowing through our systems?” Competitive advantage will come from orchestrating intelligence, not merely adopting tools.

3. The Transformation of Work and Expertise

In the coming years, AI will not simply eliminate jobs; it will redefine expertise. Routine cognitive labor will be increasingly automated, while human value will concentrate in areas where: Judgment under uncertainty matters; Ethical, social, and contextual reasoning is required; Creativity and strategic synthesis are essential; Accountability and trust are critical.

The most valuable professionals will be those who can: Think systemically; Ask high-quality questions; Supervise and align AI systems; Translate between technical, business, and human domains. In short, the future belongs to AI-augmented professionals, not AI-replaced ones.

4. Governance, Trust, and Alignment

As AI systems gain autonomy and scale, governance becomes a central challenge. The future of AI will be shaped as much by policy and ethics as by technology. Critical issues include: Model transparency and explainability; Bias, fairness, and representational harm; Data ownership and privacy; Accountability for AI-driven decisions; Alignment with human values and societal goals.

Nations and organizations that establish trustworthy AI frameworks will gain long-term legitimacy and public acceptance.

5. The Rise of Personal and Collective AI

We are moving toward a world where individuals have persistent personal AI agents, teams collaborate with shared AI copilots and organizations operate with collective intelligence systems.

These systems will learn individual preferences and goals, act as cognitive extensions of the user and coordinate knowledge across groups at scale. This represents a fundamental shift in how humans think, learn, and collaborate.

6. Risks, Limits, and Reality Checks

Despite rapid progress, AI is not magic. The future will include technical limitations and failures, over-reliance and skill atrophy, concentration of power among a few actors and misuse in surveillance, manipulation, and conflict.

Responsible progress requires clear-eyed realism, not blind optimism or reflexive fear.

Choosing the Future of AI

The future of AI is not predetermined. It will be shaped by how organizations deploy it, how governments regulate it, how professionals adapt to it and how society defines acceptable use.

AI’s ultimate impact will depend less on what the technology can do, and more on what we choose to do with it. Those who engage early, thoughtfully, ethically, and strategically, will help define an AI-enabled future that amplifies human potential rather than diminishes it.

J. Michael Dennis ll.l., ll.m.

Based in Kingston, Ontario, Canada, J. Michael Dennis is a former barrister and solicitor, a Crisis & Reputation Management Expert, a Public Affairs & Corporate Communications Specialist, a Warrior for Common Sense and Free Speech. Today, J. Michael Dennis help executives and professionals understand, evaluate, and responsibly deploy AI without hype, technical overload, or strategic blindness.

Contact

jmdlive@jmichaeldennis.live

The Future of AI: A Consultant’s Perspective

11 Wednesday Feb 2026

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A Consultant’s Perspective on What Actually Matters

As an AI Consultant, I spend far less time discussing models, benchmarks, or product launches than most people expect. Those details matter, but they are not where the real transformation is happening.

The future of Artificial Intelligence will not be decided by algorithms alone. It will be decided by how organizations, leaders, and institutions choose to integrate intelligence into their decision-making, operations, and culture.

From the field, the signal is clear: AI is moving from a tool you “use” to a system you work with.

1. AI Is Becoming Strategic Infrastructure, Not Software

Most organizations still approach AI as a technology purchase. That mindset is already obsolete. AI is rapidly becoming cognitive infrastructure, a layer that influences: How decisions are made; How work is coordinated; How knowledge flows across the organization; How risks are identified and mitigated.

In the near future, competitive advantage will not come from having access to AI (everyone will), but from how intelligently it is embedded into business processes and governance structures.

This is not an IT problem. It is a leadership problem.

2. The Real Shift: From Automation to Augmentation

The dominant narrative focuses on job displacement. In practice, what I observe is something subtler and more disruptive: the redefinition of expertise.

AI excels at: Pattern recognition; Synthesis at scale; Speed and consistency. Humans remain essential for: Judgment under uncertainty; Contextual and ethical reasoning; Strategic prioritization; Accountability.

The future belongs to professionals who can collaborate with AI systems, supervise them, and translate their outputs into real-world decisions. Organizations that fail to reskill their people around this reality will fall behind, regardless of how advanced their tools appear.

3. Why Most AI Initiatives Fail

From a consulting standpoint, AI failures rarely stem from weak models. They stem from: Poor problem definition; Misaligned incentives; Lack of data governance; Absence of ownership and accountability; Unrealistic expectations driven by hype.

Successful AI adoption requires discipline: Clear use cases tied to measurable outcomes; Human-in-the-loop design; Change management, not just deployment; Continuous evaluation and iteration.

AI is not a one-time implementation. It is an ongoing organizational capability.

4. Trust, Governance, and the Consultant’s Blind Spot

As AI systems gain autonomy, trust becomes the limiting factor.

Leaders increasingly ask: “Can we explain this decision?”; “Who is accountable if this goes wrong?”; “Are we exposing ourselves to legal or reputational risk?”

The future of AI will be constrained, and/or enabled, by governance. Consultants and leaders who ignore this dimension are setting their organizations up for long-term failure.

Responsible AI is not a moral luxury; it is a strategic necessity.

5. The Rise of Personal and Organizational AI Agents

We are entering a phase where AI will be persistent, personalized, and proactive.

In practical terms: Executives will work with AI advisors; Teams will share AI copilots; Organizations will develop collective intelligence systems.

The consultant’s role will evolve accordingly: from recommending tools to architecting intelligence ecosystems aligned with strategy, culture, and values.

6. What Leaders Should Be Doing Now

From my perspective, the organizations that will thrive are already: Treating AI as a board-level topic; Investing in AI literacy across leadership; Designing governance before scaling deployment; Experimenting in controlled, high-impact areas; Focusing on augmentation, not replacement.

Waiting for “mature” AI is a strategic error. Maturity comes from engagement.

Conclusion: AI Will Reward Clarity, Not Hype

The future of AI will not favor the loudest adopters or the most aggressive automators. It will favor those who approach AI with clarity of purpose, discipline of execution, and respect for human judgment.

As an AI Consultant, my role is not to sell technology, it is to help organizations think clearly about intelligence: how it is created, governed, and applied. Those who do this well will not just survive the AI transition. They will shape it.

J. Michael Dennis ll.l., ll.m.

Based in Kingston, Ontario, Canada, J. Michael Dennis is a former barrister and solicitor, a Crisis & Reputation Management Expert, a Public Affairs & Corporate Communications Specialist, a Warrior for Common Sense and Free Speech. Today, J. Michael Dennis help executives and professionals understand, evaluate, and responsibly deploy AI without hype, technical overload, or strategic blindness.

Contact

jmdlive@jmichaeldennis.live

How To Become A Millionaire By 30

04 Thursday Apr 2024

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To become a millionaire by the age of 30 may seem like a lofty goal, but it is not impossible. Get ready to learn valuable insights and practical tips that can put you on the path to building wealth and realizing your dreams and become a millionaire before you hit 30!

Set Clear Financial Goals

Setting clear financial goals is the foundation for becoming a millionaire. Start by identifying what you truly want to accomplish financially. Do you want to retire early? Start your own business? Whatever it may be, write it down and make it specific.

Next, break your goals into actionable steps. Break them down into smaller, more manageable tasks that will help you make progress towards your ultimate goal. Creating a timeline for achieving each milestone is crucial for staying on track. Set deadlines for yourself and hold yourself accountable. It is important to be realistic with your timeline, but make sure to push yourself to achieve the milestones in a timely manner.

Develop a Millionaire Mindset

Believing in your ability to become a millionaire is the first step towards achieving it. It is important to have a positive mindset and believe that you have the potential to create wealth. By embracing a growth mindset, you open yourself up to learning and growth opportunities that will help you along your journey.

Embracing failure and learning from it is another key aspect of developing a millionaire mindset. Failure is not the end, but rather a stepping stone towards success. View failures as valuable learning experiences and opportunities for growth. Learn from your mistakes and adjust your strategies as you go along.

Staying focused and persistent is essential. Becoming a millionaire does not happen overnight, and it requires consistent effort and dedication. There will inevitably be challenges and setbacks along the way, but it is important to stay focused on your goals and persist through any obstacles that come your way.

Educate Yourself

Knowledge is power when it comes to wealth creation. Educate yourself on personal finance and wealth-building principles. Read books on personal finance and wealth creation to gain insights from experts in the field.

Taking courses or attending seminars on investing can also be beneficial. These educational opportunities can provide you with the knowledge and skills needed to make informed investment decisions. Stay updated with current market trends by following financial news and reading reputable publications. Being knowledgeable about the market can help you identify potential investment opportunities and make well-informed decisions.

Finding mentors in your field of interest can be invaluable. Seek out individuals who have achieved the level of success you desire and learn from their experiences. They can offer guidance, advice, and support as you navigate your own financial journey. Surrounding yourself with successful individuals can also influence and inspire you to reach for higher levels of success.

Save and Invest Wisely

Creating a budget and sticking to it is fundamental for managing your finances effectively. A budget helps you track your income and expenses, enabling you to identify areas where you can reduce unnecessary spending and save money. It is important to monitor your budget regularly and adjust as needed to ensure you are on track to meet your savings goals.

Minimizing unnecessary expenses is crucial for maximizing your savings potential. Evaluate your expenses and determine if there are any areas where you can cut back. This could include reducing dining out, entertainment expenses, or luxury purchases. By making small sacrifices now, you can allocate more funds towards savings and investment opportunities.

Saving a portion of your income regularly is essential for building wealth. Make it a priority to save a certain percentage of your income each month. Set up automatic transfers to a savings or investment account to ensure consistency in your savings habits. Over time, your savings will accumulate and compound, helping you reach your financial goals faster.

Diversifying your investments is important for managing risk and maximizing returns. Spread your investments across different asset classes, such as stocks, bonds, real estate, and alternative investments. This diversification helps to mitigate risk by reducing the impact of any single investment performing poorly. Consult with a financial advisor to determine the best investment strategy for your specific goals and risk tolerance.

Taking calculated risks is a key component of wealth creation. It is important to assess the potential risks before making investment decisions, but also be willing to take calculated risks when the potential for reward outweighs the potential for loss. Be cautious and do thorough research before making any investment decisions, but also be willing to step out of your comfort zone.

Start a Side Hustle

A side hustle can be a powerful tool for increasing your income and accelerating your path to becoming a millionaire. Identify your skills and interests and explore different income-generating opportunities that align with them. It could be freelancing, starting a small business, or investing in a rental property.

Creating a business plan is essential for starting a successful side hustle. Outline your goals, target market, competitive landscape, and financial projections. A well-thought-out business plan will guide your decision-making process and provide a roadmap for success.

Allocate time and effort to your side hustle. Treat it as a legitimate business and dedicate consistent time and energy towards its growth and success. It may require sacrifices and hard work in the beginning, but the potential for financial rewards can be significant.

Network and Build Connections

Networking and building connections can open doors to new opportunities and accelerate your path to success. Attend industry events and conferences to meet like-minded individuals and potential mentors or business partners. These events provide valuable opportunities for learning, networking, and gaining insights from industry experts.

Joining professional organizations related to your field of interest can also be beneficial. These organizations often offer networking events, educational resources, and access to a community of professionals who can provide support and guidance.

Building a strong online presence is essential in today’s digital age. Create a professional LinkedIn profile and connect with influential individuals in your field. Share valuable content, contribute to online discussions, and actively engage with others in your industry. This online presence can help you establish credibility, build connections, and open opportunities for growth.

Work Hard and Smart

To become a millionaire, it is important to work hard and smart. Set ambitious goals for your career and constantly seek opportunities for growth and advancement. Be proactive in seeking out new challenges and responsibilities that push you to develop new skills and expand your knowledge.

Continuously improving your skills is crucial in staying competitive in today’s ever-evolving job market. Attend workshops, take online courses, and seek out mentors who can help you enhance your skill set. The more valuable and marketable your skills are, the greater your earning potential.

Staying motivated and disciplined is essential for long-term success. It is important to maintain a strong work ethic and remain focused on your goals, even when faced with obstacles or setbacks. Develop effective time management strategies and prioritize your tasks to ensure you are making progress towards your goals.

Learn to Manage Risks

Managing risks is an integral part of wealth creation. Before making investment decisions, it is important to assess potential risks and understand the potential impact on your financial well-being. Conduct thorough research and consult with financial professionals before investing in any particular asset or market.

Diversifying your investment portfolio is a key risk management strategy. By spreading your investments across different asset classes and sectors, you reduce the risk of one investment negatively impacting your overall portfolio. Diversification helps to ensure that the impact of any individual investment’s poor performance is minimized.

Having an emergency fund is important for managing unexpected financial hardships. Aim to have at least three to six months’ worth of living expenses saved in an easily accessible account. This fund serves as a safety net in case of job loss, medical emergencies, or other unforeseen circumstances.

Obtaining appropriate insurance coverage is crucial for managing various risks. Make sure you have insurance policies in place to protect yourself, your assets, and your loved ones. This includes health insurance, life insurance, disability insurance, and property insurance. Consult with an insurance professional to ensure you have adequate coverage based on your specific needs.

Stay Disciplined and Avoid Debt

Living within your means is essential for achieving financial success. It is important to spend less than you earn and avoid excessive debt. When you spend more than you earn, you create a cycle of financial stress and struggle to reach your wealth creation goals.

Avoid unnecessary debt whenever possible. Only take on debt for essential purchases, such as a home or education, and avoid high-interest debt, such as credit card debt. Pay off high-interest debts as soon as possible to minimize the amount of interest you pay over time.

Use credit wisely and responsibly. Establish a good credit history by making timely payments and keeping your credit utilization ratio low. This will enable you to access favorable interest rates and terms when you need to take on debt for important investments, such as purchasing a home or starting a business.

Conclusion

Becoming a millionaire requires commitment, persistence, and a clear plan of action. By setting clear financial goals, cultivating a millionaire mindset, educating yourself, saving and investing wisely, starting a side hustle, networking, and building connections, working hard and smart, managing risks, staying disciplined, and avoiding unnecessary debt, you can pave your way to financial success. Commit to your goals, stay focused and persistent, learn from successful self-made millionaires, and most importantly, believe in your ability to create wealth.

Michel Ouellette JMD, ll.l., ll.m.

JMD Live Online Subscription link

J. Michael Dennis, ll.l., ll.m.

Business & Corporate Strategist

Systemic Strategic Planning

Quality Assurance, Occupational Health & Safety, Environmental Protection, Regulatory Compliance, Crisis & Reputation Management

Skype: jmdlive

Email: jmdlive@jmichaeldennis.live

Web: https://www.jmichaeldennis.live

Phone: 24/7 Emergency Access

Available to our clients/business partners

How To Become A Millionaire By 30

04 Thursday Apr 2024

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To become a millionaire by the age of 30 may seem like a lofty goal, but it is not impossible. Get ready to learn valuable insights and practical tips that can put you on the path to building wealth and realizing your dreams and become a millionaire before you hit 30!

Set Clear Financial Goals

Setting clear financial goals is the foundation for becoming a millionaire. Start by identifying what you truly want to accomplish financially. Do you want to retire early? Start your own business? Whatever it may be, write it down and make it specific.

Next, break your goals into actionable steps. Break them down into smaller, more manageable tasks that will help you make progress towards your ultimate goal. Creating a timeline for achieving each milestone is crucial for staying on track. Set deadlines for yourself and hold yourself accountable. It is important to be realistic with your timeline, but make sure to push yourself to achieve the milestones in a timely manner.

Develop a Millionaire Mindset

Believing in your ability to become a millionaire is the first step towards achieving it. It is important to have a positive mindset and believe that you have the potential to create wealth. By embracing a growth mindset, you open yourself up to learning and growth opportunities that will help you along your journey.

Embracing failure and learning from it is another key aspect of developing a millionaire mindset. Failure is not the end, but rather a stepping stone towards success. View failures as valuable learning experiences and opportunities for growth. Learn from your mistakes and adjust your strategies as you go along.

Staying focused and persistent is essential. Becoming a millionaire does not happen overnight, and it requires consistent effort and dedication. There will inevitably be challenges and setbacks along the way, but it is important to stay focused on your goals and persist through any obstacles that come your way.

Educate Yourself

Knowledge is power when it comes to wealth creation. Educate yourself on personal finance and wealth-building principles. Read books on personal finance and wealth creation to gain insights from experts in the field.

Taking courses or attending seminars on investing can also be beneficial. These educational opportunities can provide you with the knowledge and skills needed to make informed investment decisions. Stay updated with current market trends by following financial news and reading reputable publications. Being knowledgeable about the market can help you identify potential investment opportunities and make well-informed decisions.

Finding mentors in your field of interest can be invaluable. Seek out individuals who have achieved the level of success you desire and learn from their experiences. They can offer guidance, advice, and support as you navigate your own financial journey. Surrounding yourself with successful individuals can also influence and inspire you to reach for higher levels of success.

Save and Invest Wisely

Creating a budget and sticking to it is fundamental for managing your finances effectively. A budget helps you track your income and expenses, enabling you to identify areas where you can reduce unnecessary spending and save money. It is important to monitor your budget regularly and adjust as needed to ensure you are on track to meet your savings goals.

Minimizing unnecessary expenses is crucial for maximizing your savings potential. Evaluate your expenses and determine if there are any areas where you can cut back. This could include reducing dining out, entertainment expenses, or luxury purchases. By making small sacrifices now, you can allocate more funds towards savings and investment opportunities.

Saving a portion of your income regularly is essential for building wealth. Make it a priority to save a certain percentage of your income each month. Set up automatic transfers to a savings or investment account to ensure consistency in your savings habits. Over time, your savings will accumulate and compound, helping you reach your financial goals faster.

Diversifying your investments is important for managing risk and maximizing returns. Spread your investments across different asset classes, such as stocks, bonds, real estate, and alternative investments. This diversification helps to mitigate risk by reducing the impact of any single investment performing poorly. Consult with a financial advisor to determine the best investment strategy for your specific goals and risk tolerance.

Taking calculated risks is a key component of wealth creation. It is important to assess the potential risks before making investment decisions, but also be willing to take calculated risks when the potential for reward outweighs the potential for loss. Be cautious and do thorough research before making any investment decisions, but also be willing to step out of your comfort zone.

Start a Side Hustle

A side hustle can be a powerful tool for increasing your income and accelerating your path to becoming a millionaire. Identify your skills and interests and explore different income-generating opportunities that align with them. It could be freelancing, starting a small business, or investing in a rental property.

Creating a business plan is essential for starting a successful side hustle. Outline your goals, target market, competitive landscape, and financial projections. A well-thought-out business plan will guide your decision-making process and provide a roadmap for success.

Allocate time and effort to your side hustle. Treat it as a legitimate business and dedicate consistent time and energy towards its growth and success. It may require sacrifices and hard work in the beginning, but the potential for financial rewards can be significant.

Network and Build Connections

Networking and building connections can open doors to new opportunities and accelerate your path to success. Attend industry events and conferences to meet like-minded individuals and potential mentors or business partners. These events provide valuable opportunities for learning, networking, and gaining insights from industry experts.

Joining professional organizations related to your field of interest can also be beneficial. These organizations often offer networking events, educational resources, and access to a community of professionals who can provide support and guidance.

Building a strong online presence is essential in today’s digital age. Create a professional LinkedIn profile and connect with influential individuals in your field. Share valuable content, contribute to online discussions, and actively engage with others in your industry. This online presence can help you establish credibility, build connections, and open opportunities for growth.

Work Hard and Smart

To become a millionaire, it is important to work hard and smart. Set ambitious goals for your career and constantly seek opportunities for growth and advancement. Be proactive in seeking out new challenges and responsibilities that push you to develop new skills and expand your knowledge.

Continuously improving your skills is crucial in staying competitive in today’s ever-evolving job market. Attend workshops, take online courses, and seek out mentors who can help you enhance your skill set. The more valuable and marketable your skills are, the greater your earning potential.

Staying motivated and disciplined is essential for long-term success. It is important to maintain a strong work ethic and remain focused on your goals, even when faced with obstacles or setbacks. Develop effective time management strategies and prioritize your tasks to ensure you are making progress towards your goals.

Learn to Manage Risks

Managing risks is an integral part of wealth creation. Before making investment decisions, it is important to assess potential risks and understand the potential impact on your financial well-being. Conduct thorough research and consult with financial professionals before investing in any particular asset or market.

Diversifying your investment portfolio is a key risk management strategy. By spreading your investments across different asset classes and sectors, you reduce the risk of one investment negatively impacting your overall portfolio. Diversification helps to ensure that the impact of any individual investment’s poor performance is minimized.

Having an emergency fund is important for managing unexpected financial hardships. Aim to have at least three to six months’ worth of living expenses saved in an easily accessible account. This fund serves as a safety net in case of job loss, medical emergencies, or other unforeseen circumstances.

Obtaining appropriate insurance coverage is crucial for managing various risks. Make sure you have insurance policies in place to protect yourself, your assets, and your loved ones. This includes health insurance, life insurance, disability insurance, and property insurance. Consult with an insurance professional to ensure you have adequate coverage based on your specific needs.

Stay Disciplined and Avoid Debt

Living within your means is essential for achieving financial success. It is important to spend less than you earn and avoid excessive debt. When you spend more than you earn, you create a cycle of financial stress and struggle to reach your wealth creation goals.

Avoid unnecessary debt whenever possible. Only take on debt for essential purchases, such as a home or education, and avoid high-interest debt, such as credit card debt. Pay off high-interest debts as soon as possible to minimize the amount of interest you pay over time.

Use credit wisely and responsibly. Establish a good credit history by making timely payments and keeping your credit utilization ratio low. This will enable you to access favorable interest rates and terms when you need to take on debt for important investments, such as purchasing a home or starting a business.

Conclusion

Becoming a millionaire requires commitment, persistence, and a clear plan of action. By setting clear financial goals, cultivating a millionaire mindset, educating yourself, saving and investing wisely, starting a side hustle, networking, and building connections, working hard and smart, managing risks, staying disciplined, and avoiding unnecessary debt, you can pave your way to financial success. Commit to your goals, stay focused and persistent, learn from successful self-made millionaires, and most importantly, believe in your ability to create wealth.

Michel Ouellette JMD, ll.l., ll.m.

JMD Live Online Subscription link

J. Michael Dennis, ll.l., ll.m.

Business & Corporate Strategist

Systemic Strategic Planning

Quality Assurance, Occupational Health & Safety, Environmental Protection, Regulatory Compliance, Crisis & Reputation Management

Skype: jmdlive

Email: jmdlive@jmichaeldennis.live

Web: https://www.jmichaeldennis.live

Phone: 24/7 Emergency Access

Available to our clients/business partners

The Future of Artificial Intelligence & Digital Marketing

03 Wednesday Apr 2024

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Generative AI has been seen by some as a sort of magical tool that is able to create unique images, voices, and videos with minimal effort. But it has been extremely controversial for creative professionals. In these early days of the technology, some less-than-honest creators have been using it as a quick shortcut that used AI-generated imagery. AI-generated images often appear high quality at first glance, but contain inconsistencies in areas including hands, fingers, or background details. Once your eye is trained to spot these flaws, they cannot be unseen.

AI can be very positive or very negative, very constructive, or very destructive. AI is a Language Learning Machine [LLM]. Feed it with falsehoods and immoral or illegal information, you will end up with a vey evil machine. Feed it with wisdom and absolute truth, you will end up with a very helpful, powerful, and constructive assistant.

I created my own AI assistant, a clone of myself fed with wisdom, veracity, and exactness. Here is how to get started in using AI to look at data and engagement, helping harness creative marketing potential.

In the face of macro headwinds, many marketing teams have shifted their focus towards efficiency and return on investment (ROI), inadvertently relegating creativity to the backseat. This efficiency-driven approach, while necessary, often results in marketers spending a significant amount of time on routine tasks, leaving less room for creative experimentation. On top of that, marketers may lack the knowledge or access to innovative tools and technologies that can foster creativity. This dynamic presents a unique challenge for marketing teams striving to balance efficiency with creative innovation.

Artificial Intelligence (AI) presents a promising solution to this productivity paradox. Furthermore, AI can provide a canvas for experimentation, sparking creativity by offering new ways to engage audiences and personalize content. And many marketers seem eager to embrace these opportunities. Marketers clearly recognize the potential, but the reality is many marketers and consumers are still learning about AI, including how to put it into practice. The complexity of AI technologies coupled with a lack of knowledge about how to effectively use them can be a major barrier to reaping its benefits. Overcoming these obstacles is crucial for marketers to fully harness the potential of AI in fostering creativity while maintaining efficiency.

So, what can marketing leaders do to set their teams up in 2024 for success?

A staggering 98% of surveyed marketers identified issues holding them back from being creative and strategic. The obstacles are not singular, but rather a combination of four parallel challenges, and the focus areas are not all too surprising. These include an overemphasis on KPIs that stifles creativity, too much time spent on routine tasks, a lack of technology to execute creative ideas, and difficulty demonstrating the ROI of creativity. Helping marketing teams execute faster and more effectively is a powerful first step to help them move past these challenges and get back to the work they’re passionate about.

AI’s Role in Achieving Data Agility and Higher Productivity

With more time for strategic work, marketers can tackle challenges associated with breaking down silos across teams to leverage data more effectively and drive business outcomes. Despite the vast amounts of data generated daily, only 24% of brands are currently mapping customer behavior and sentiment, and a mere 6% are applying customer insights to their product and brand approach.

This underutilization of data is a missed opportunity, especially considering AI’s capacity to process, analyze, and draw meaningful insights from complex data sets, enabling it to predict customer behavior, preferences, and trends. AI can be the bridge that by enabling businesses to make informed strategic decisions that significantly impact the customer experience.

By leveraging AI and breaking down silos between teams, brands can achieve higher productivity to gain a competitive and creative edge. As businesses move beyond vanity metrics and aim to deepen first-party relationships with customers, it is crucial that they can quickly act on data to create personalized experiences in-the-moment and at scale. And doing this can really pay off.

Marketers Need Cross-Functional Allies

For teams to be strategic, creative, and maximize their data usage for customer engagement they need to work more cross-functionally. Unlocking the full potential of AI necessitates a deeper collaboration with teams responsible for data management, including those handling data warehouses, business intelligence applications, CRMs, and other data-rich platforms. The siloed approach of the past is no longer effective in a world where customer touchpoints require stronger alignment and partnership between teams that manage data to power experiences across various channels. This type of collaboration requires a shift in mindset, breaking down departmental barriers, and encouraging open communication, especially as execution moves faster with AI.

At JMD Live ONLINE BUSINESS CONSULTING, we use AI not only to help our customers craft creative, personalized experiences, but we also experiment with AI in our own marketing to save valuable time and resources in customer engagement, while increasing our strategic cross-functional collaboration and creativity in social and digital engagement.

AI is a transformative force that is reshaping marketing. The challenges marketers face today, from the pressure to deliver ROI, the time-consuming routine tasks, to the underutilization of data, are not insurmountable. However, the journey to fully realize the benefits of AI requires not just the adoption of technology, but also a shift in mindset, a commitment to continuous learning, and a culture of cross-functional collaboration. Only then can we fully unlock the creative potential of AI.

Michel Ouellette JMD, ll.l., ll.m.

JMD Live Online Subscription link

J. Michael Dennis, ll.l., ll.m.

Business & Corporate Strategist

Systemic Strategic Planning

Quality Assurance, Occupational Health & Safety, Environmental Protection, Regulatory Compliance, Crisis & Reputation Management

Skype: jmdlive

Email: jmdlive@jmichaeldennis.live

Web: https://www.jmichaeldennis.live

Phone: 24/7 Emergency Access

Available to our clients/business partners

Embracing AI

02 Tuesday Apr 2024

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“You may not know what is coming down the pike, the article posited, but if you are wearing the right clothes and sporting the right hairstyle when the acquiring company shows up, you could stand out and survive.”

The fact is, despite the fear and hype, generative AI remains an enigma.

A recent study reveals that 63% of leaders feel that AI must play a significant role in their business but 91% do not yet know how. At the same time, there is a palpable sense of urgency: over half of C-suite executives believe that their business will be dead by 2030 if they do not embrace AI. Uncertainty and speed are scary bedfellows: 79% of my readers and followers do not trust corporations to make responsible choices about implementing AI.

Most experts believe that AI will support, not replace, human performance. But people who use AI will likely replace those who do not. You have a choice. You can ignore AI until you have a better sense of how it will affect your life. Or you can be proactive. There has never been a better time to lean on your growth mindset, to become an avid student of this vast and fast technology. Here are five ways to build the skills you need to survive.

Get Ahead Of The Learning Curve

The jargon around AI is like a new language. Start by learning as much as you can. Knowledge is power, and with a little work, you can flex yours.

Beyond just learning how AI works, explore where it works or does not. AI has promise, but it is not without pitfalls. For example, many companies are using hiring algorithms to surface talent and missing good people because their algorithms are too narrow and are inundated with resume when their algorithms are too broad. Understand how companies are using AI well and where they are stumbling.

Explore the philosophical and moral quandaries that underlie AI’s potential for good and bad. Embracing the rabbit hole means exploring at every turn. It is amazing how proficient you can become when you let your curiosity take the reins.

Experiment A Lot

Adopting an experimental mindset is the best way to gain in-the-trenches experience. Start with a non-proprietary work project. Feed it to a large language model like ChatGPT and ask it what it would add. Prompt it to rephrase your work or to recast it for someone without expertise. Because you are experimenting in a field you already know, you will quickly gauge the value of its inputs. It will also encourage you to see your own work from different angles.

Experimenting with this technology does not have to mean more work. You can play with AI, write your memoir in the style of your favorite author, animate your doodles or your children’s artwork, use AI to turn a still picture into an avatar that talks to you, chat with historical figures. The AI-driven experimental possibilities are endless.

Do not Accept AI At Face Value

Large language models, with their very human-like communications, can feel misleadingly when they produce data-rich answers in record time. But they can hallucinate, make up responses where their training data is lacking based on plausible but incorrect logic. And AI algorithms have been known to rely on shortcut learning, causing false correlations, amplifying discrimination, and producing unreliable results. Do not accept AI’s outputs at face value. Challenge assumptions and triangulate with other research.

In my first foray with AI, I sought research-based insights, together with the relevant sources. Impressed by the outcomes, I looked up the sources, only to find that the authors and the journals were real, but the papers did not exist. Treat AI like a first-year intern: “Eager To Please But Far From Perfect”.

Get Really Good At Asking Questions

New technologies cultivate new jobs. And AI is proving to be fertile soil. The World Economic Forum named prompt engineering, “the art and science of asking the right questions”, the #1 job of the future in 2023. Asking good questions helps you learn from diverse perspectives. Engaging with algorithms is no exception: better questions give you more outputs to explore a wider array of possibilities and find better solutions.

The most effective human questions are open-ended, curious, and personal. But when it comes to a Large Language Model [LLM], clarity is king. Frame the context of the inquiry and the perspective you want the LLM to take, a specific point of view, a particular profession, or an identity to assume. Provide context: what you need and what you want to do with it, examples, process steps and even desired references. Finally, spell out the output, including format and style. The art of good prompts allows AI to handle the rote retrieval of technical information, freeing humans to access and curate a wealth of knowledge, and to combine and rapidly test new ideas in even the most technically complex contexts. Done well, it is a powerful man-machine partnership.

Do not Go It Alone

In the zeal to adapt, do not forsake the superpower that makes humans more effective than any machine: our ability to work and thrive in community.

Throughout history, humans have leveraged their collective strength to make sense of thorny challenges and new threats. Working with others helps you experiment broadly, debate ethical implications, and share results to learn faster. And collaboration neutralizes the anxiety that comes with impending existential change. Widening the group of AI learners in your organization helps you to be part of crafting the strategy instead of waiting to see where the chips fall. Build a broadly diverse learning community to garner the best and most varied ideas. Your collective wisdom will make you and your colleagues indispensable to your organization’s AI future.

Thankfully, you do not need a makeover to weather the AI storm. But your mindset probably does. This is not the time to take a wait-and-see approach. Even if it is hard to imagine how generative AI will affect your job right now, the train is already barreling down the tracks. To stand out from the crowd and be ready for what comes, get ready now. A deeper understanding of AI and its trajectories is one of the most effective job skills you can develop for today and tomorrow. The only thing we know for sure is that AI will fundamentally change the world of work. Instead of waiting for the road to clear, forge the path.

Michel Ouellette JMD, ll.l., ll.m.

JMD Live Online Subscription link

J. Michael Dennis, ll.l., ll.m.

Business & Corporate Strategist

Systemic Strategic Planning

Quality Assurance, Occupational Health & Safety, Environmental Protection, Regulatory Compliance, Crisis & Reputation Management

Skype: jmdlive

Email: jmdlive@jmichaeldennis.live

Web: https://www.jmichaeldennis.live

Phone: 24/7 Emergency Access

Available to our clients/business partners