Moving to Monthly(ish)
I need a bit of space from AI.
Diving down the AI rabbit hole over the last few months has been quite a trip.
I started out in November 2022 understanding AI at a very superficial level as something that helps power social media algorithms and Google search results. Then ChatGPT happened and I started paying attention for real. Here in April 2023, I’m honestly not quite sure what to make of it, but I’m confident it’s way bigger than something that designs TikTok and YouTube feeds (which would be an important enough impact to warrant more attention than it gets).
I started this newsletter in part to give me a reason to keep up with AI technology as it relates to the AEC industry, where my professional services firm lives. That mission quickly morphed into one of tracking, and learning about, AI tech more broadly as I became fascinated by near daily news about one mind-blowing development after another.
Come to find out there are some very smart and well-funded folks out there dead set on creating computer intelligence that rivals, and eventually far surpasses, that of humans.
Will they succeed? What will it mean if they do?
These are questions that I’ve thought a lot about over the last few months. Too much, truth be told.
If I had to guess I’d say we’re heading for some wild times. If 2030 looks as much like today as today looks like 2016 I will be surprised.
But I could certainly be wrong. I could be caught up in the hype. The recent developments could turn out to be a blip. For one reason or a hundred all of this technology could fail to result in the society-shaking changes that many expect.
The bottom line is it exceeds my faculties to predict where this technology will go and the impacts it will have. Yet it’s very difficult to resist the allure of trying to figure it out in some misguided attempt to be prepared for an unknowable future.
Never let the future disturb you. You will meet it, if you have to, with the same weapons of reason which today arm you against the present. —Marcus Aurelius, Meditations 7.6
This is all to say I think I’m best served backing away from following the frenetic pace of AI development so closely. It’s not good for me—I need some space. I can’t see the big picture, can’t focus on the broad strokes that will actually impact my day-to-day.
It’s all out of my control anyway, of course. OpenAI, Microsoft, Google, Anthropic, et al. are going to do what they’re going to do, and the world will react. We’ll make the best of whatever the playing field is at the time.
I’m expecting there will still be some stuff worth writing about on the topic of AI in general, and as it relates to AEC in particular. I want to do my best to filter out the noise and report on the more powerful big picture trends and actual applications that are demonstrated to be impacting the world today—and spend less time on the latest updates, predictions, and speculation.
There are plenty of places to go for that kind of futurism and headline news. I’ll link to some YouTube channels at the end of the article that you may want to check out if that’s what you’re after.
I’m planning to write a bit less often—monthly, more or less. Please subscribe or share if that seems like something you’d like to see.
I’d love to hear your questions, if you have any, and I’ll do my best to answer them in the next post.
Be well.
-Matt
AI YouTube
Links are not endorsements. I’ve found these channels to be interesting. Proceed at your own risk.