Now is the time to live and let AI do the boring bits.

In this newsletter, I tell you what I learned from last week's workshop and then share with you a touching story of my deceased friend and the video I made just a week before she passed away.

AI again

I had the privilege and pleasure of running an Auspicious AI Master Class for the Hutt Chamber Of Commerce members again last Thursday. We had a room full of enthusiastic participants from various businesses, from sole traders to firms employing plenty of people.

The energy was palpable. These early adopters wanted to accelerate their adoption and get more done with AI. We hardly discussed the myths, dangers, and dystopian predictions in the headlines. Instead, it was a very hands-on and practical session.

Our discussion taught me three important things that are often overlooked when the media starts to get excited. 

1) People know their work but want new tools to do more with better quality, easier, and less fuss. 

2) People don't care who makes, owns and distributes the software if it delivers what they want.

3) People can change their tools in a split second if the new tool is easier to use than the previous one but has 80% familiarity with its look and feel. 

Let me elaborate.

If they are still going, most businesses have more successes than failures. It means they continuously learn new things, assess their operations, and try to find cracks before the dam breaks and the floods from the dirty waters of markets swallow them to oblivion.

In this context, it is dangerous to sell snake oil. People smell the rat. If you want to give them something new, even untested – you must do so that the benefits are clear, focused and easy to measure. They don't want to buy buzzwords instead of a working word processor. 

People are also agnostic. It does not matter if it is OPneAI, Anthropic, Google, Microsoft, Apple or whoever is the flavour of the month if the product delivers better results than the old ones. Tik-Tok may be a spy arm of the Chinese government, but if businesses can promote their stuff with it and get some revenue from less effort by using it, they will use Tik-Tok whatever the politics behind it are. That's capitalism for us, even if coming from China. Money has power, and its value isn't tainted by where it comes from – especially if you're earning or receiving it and not spending it.

The elephant in the room is called Ethics, but that's another story. However, we must remember that when blind people tried to figure it out, the one who touched its tail said its governance brush and the one who embraced its large foot was convinced that it was the trunk of a tree of principles. The third one who squeezed its proboscis said with certainty that it was the snake of free will and liberty. 

The elephant stays in the room, whatever we describe it. 

Why was ChatGPT so successful? The answer is that asking about something from ChatGPT does not require you to learn any new language, the process of jumping through the nerdy hoops. You use language that you already are using in your work. 

The 20% of the experience is new and fascinating, as are the speed, quality, and uncanny accuracy (or scary hallucinations) that come with the tool. It mostly happens under the bonnet, and you don't need to know how the engine works as long as it takes you where you want to go.

That's why when I showed Perplexity, the participants jumped immediately onto their mobile phones, downloaded the app and said goodbye to clunky Google search. Google search is so yesterday.

What are your early adopting thoughts about AI? Have you seen the light at the end of the dystopian tunnel?

From AI to Human Experience

As you have seen, I tend to address things that are not so comfortable and softy-soft in this newsletter. Some of my topics can even cause heebie-jeebies if you are not careful. 

I participated in our local SGI (Soka Gakkai International) meeting yesterday. It was a lovely gathering with people from all walks of life sharing their thoughts on life and Buddhism.

One topic we discussed at length was the concept of the four sufferings of life: birth, ageing, sickness, and death. We are all familiar with these sometimes very painful sufferings. Nobody can escape them – they form the base of being human and help us to sympathise or even love each other. 

Death is inevitable, but I learned very early that it is better to face it than try to push it away. It is like the key to opening the treasure trove of our lives and living to the fullest. 

If life is the journey, death should be our tour guide. It tells us to embrace life while we can, it urges us to show gratitude for what we have now, and it demands us to get rid of guilt but focus on transforming our attitudes and ways of perceiving the world now – not in some distant future because that future may never come. 

My friend left us a touching message

On the 19th of March, I had the humbling privilege of recording a video that my SGI friend Heather wanted to do.

Mid-last year, she was diagnosed with stage four lung cancer and was given six months to live. 

After the diagnosis, Heather didn't spend any time for pitying herself. She booked trips to the UK and Thailand to tick some huge boxes on her suddenly very real bucket list. Heather had no time to spend on splitting hairs but brushed with the largest brush of life she could find. And she completed everything like a champion. 

Her wisdom radiates from the video. When death is at your door, you don't have time for empty words. Heather passed away seven days later. We were there when she moved on. She died peacefully at noon, surrounded by her family and friends. 

If you watch the video, you will see a true heroine contemplating her life without any regrets, and her message at the end will make your day.

After I said my final farewell to Heather, who was lying so beautifully on her bed, the song from the musical Cabaret started to play in my head. Life is a Cabaret. It's a play. It is up to us to decide whether we want it to be a joyful celebration of endless possibilities or a vicious cycle of doubt, guilt and regrets. Heather chooses to live to the fullest till the end.

"I remember how she'd turn to me and say:

"What good is sitting all alone in your room?

Come hear the music play

Life is a cabaret, old chum

Come to the Cabaret!" And as for me, ha, and as for me

I made my mind up back in Chelsea

When I go I'm going like Elsie

Start by admitting from cradle to tomb

It isn't that long a stay

Life is a cabaret, old chum

It's only a cabaret, old chum

And I love a cabaret!" - Kander & Ebb, Liza Minelli.

So, what is there to lose? Let's celebrate life; let's give it a go with human touch in the front and centre and AI as a brilliant tool to make it more prosperous and fulfilling. Let the AI do the routines so you have time to touch hearts, not just brains, as Heather did.

Ngā mihi

Jussi

The Book of the Week: Harry Potter and the Cursed Child

"Harry Potter and the Cursed Child" is a two-part stage drama by Jack Thorne. It is inspired by an original story co-conceived by J.K. Rowling, John Tiffany, and Thorne. 

It is set nineteen years after the final Harry Potter book. The narrative revolves around Albus (Harry Potter's second son), who struggles with his father's formidable legacy and fame. 

On the Hogwarts Express, when he was going to Hogwarts, Albus befriends Scorpius Malfoy, the son of Draco Malfoy. Albus's resentment towards his father grows while he is bullied at the school, but he finds solace in his friendship with Scorpius, who faces rumours of being Voldemort's son.

The plot thickens when the boys discover a Time-Turner. However, their interference with the time creates a dark alternate reality where Voldemort rules, prompting a desperate effort to restore the original timeline.

Ultimately, the adventure allows Harry and Albus to mend their strained relationship, understanding and accepting each other's perspectives. The play concludes with Albus and Scorpius prepared to continue their schooling, having learned the profound consequences of meddling with time and the importance of family and friendship.

This script (I have not seen it on the stage yet) is a rich and troubling work. It makes me think how easy it is to create these "alternative realities" and get lost in time and lose ourselves "alternative re in the mazes of it. The world around us works exactly as we turn our Time-Turners. Cause and effect are simultaneous. 

You can get it from Apple Books or Amazon.

The quote of the week

Life isn't about finding yourself. Life is about creating yourself.

George Bernard Shaw