AI for Deep (and Accurate) Analysis
Gen AI gives answers based on probability, and it's tuned to give pleasing results. Without proper guardrails, those results can be anything from pandering to hallucinatory.
THOUGHTS
Ideas, perspectives,and occasional wisdom
Hearing how to best construct content so it’s most impactful was really interesting — it made me think back on what my best learning experiences were.
Don’t ban AI in schools
NYC public schools put a one-year moratorium on student-facing generative AI through 8th grade. Kids with their own devices will use it anyway; kids on school-issued devices won’t. And a major purpose of school is to prepare kids for life beyond school.
Yes, GenAI can design things. You still need a human designer.
Volunteers at the theater company I helped start have been using GenAI to design flyers. The layouts come back clean: aligned columns, consistent margins. They also come back with colors that miss our style guide, pages that don't fit standard paper, and my last name spelled wrong. That one got me. GenAI is great for a quick prototype, and a human still has to finish it.
Want a better AI? Dial down the warmth.
AI feedback that feels warm and affirming can also make it more likely to agree when you're wrong. Two studies show how sycophancy can distort both AI accuracy and human judgment. The fix isn't a rude AI. It's asking for evidence, candor, and challenge instead of validation.
I (Nearly) Social Engineered My Way Into My Client's Amazon Account
A client had a unique password and two-factor authentication, but somebody still added an unfamiliar authenticator app to her Amazon account. Then I watched a support rep unlock it with only an e-mail address and phone number. You can get hacked even if your security is hardened, and paying attention can still catch it.
Don't Let Your AI Pretend to Be Human
A small business wanted to name its new AI receptionist after a real employee, and pass it off as human. That's the mistake. People sense pretty quickly when a voice isn't quite right, and the moment they realize they've been fooled, they feel tricked and lose trust. The fix isn't a better voice, it's transparency. So this week, if you're letting AI answer your phone, make it honest about what it is.
How Much of Your Information Are You Feeding the AI?
Those built-in AI assistants popping up in your email, your notetaker, your CRM are genuinely helpful, and they're free, which is exactly why I'd pause. When something digital is free, you're usually paying for it with something other than money, and here that something is your data. So this week, figure out whether your AI is training on what you feed it, and set your limits.
Are You Letting AI Think for You?
"ChatGPT, write a response to this message." Quick, easy, done. And that's exactly how outsourcing the work quietly becomes outsourcing the thinking. There's a name for it, cognitive offloading, and the research is unsettling: the heaviest AI users score the lowest on critical thinking. But I don't think the fix is less AI. It's remembering that AI can generate, but a human should elevate.
The Person on the Call Is Your Partner. (Except… It Isn't.)
You get a video call and it's your business partner — her face, her voice, the way she laughs at the end of a sentence — asking you to move money today. In early 2024, that exact scenario cost one firm $25.6 million, and the raw material to fake you or your partner is already out there. Here's the both/and: the deepfakes are astonishing, and the two defenses that beat them are almost stupidly simple, and very human.
Is AI Amplifying Us? Or Slowing Us Down?
Over lunch yesterday, a friend asked me whether AI is actually making people less productive. I've felt both sides of it: the artificial-productivity treadmill of prompting and waiting, and the real lift of research done in minutes. Here's the honest question to ask before you reach for AI. Is it going to elevate what I can do, or just sideline my brain?
The HIPAA Security Rule could catch up to digital reality this year
Small and solo practices: it’s way past time for you to catch up too! HIPAA is the 1996 federal law that outlines the standards health practices follow in protecting their patients’ private information (their protected health…
AI Is Only as Good as the Human Using It
A recent notification on my phone’s lock screen: “Dinner music praised; expressions of love and admiration shared; pride conveyed.” Thanks, Siri, really nailed that sentiment. We live in a world of constant dehumanizing AI influence. But it still needs saying: AI is only as good as the human using it. …
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