Posted on 08/03/2026 3:15:27 PM PDT by E. Pluribus Unum
I served as the chief information officer of the athletic apparel company Lululemon for eight years. Deploying new technologies, artificial intelligence included, was part of the job. But when I left, my successor was handed a new title: chief A.I. and technology officer.
I winced — not about the person but about the pattern. Companies these days are quick to stick “A.I.” in news releases, in earnings calls, in product names, in job postings and in titles at the top of their organizations. The real question is what strategy sits behind the abbreviation. A title costs nothing, but it doesn’t produce anything, either.
And that’s a problem. When companies mistake an announcement for a strategy, they spend real money — and sometimes cut real jobs — chasing a future that isn’t actually being built. And in doing so, they’re persuading Americans to reject a powerful innovation that could do so much good for all of us.
I have spent 30 years in technology, and like many of my peers, I used the newest tools to solve hard problems. In the internet era, my colleagues and I built a tool that let every customer check the inventory in each of Nordstrom’s stores. It increased sales significantly. When I was at Lululemon, we found a way to use A.I. to help executives better predict which products would sell in which stores. It took time, lots of people and big budgets.
Then ChatGPT arrived. This new technology was easy to understand for most nontechnologists — a chief executive, board member or investor — a healthy portion of whom began demanding their organizations immediately embed the technology throughout their operations. A.I. companies started popping up like food trucks at a street fair.
These A.I. companies arrived armed with demonstrations, and the demos were amazing...
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
AI can be a great augmentation tool that helps people do their tasks/jobs better. Not a great replace everyone tool.
Well, it has applications just about everywhere.
Something about he was a big shot at a company with a funny name.
2. Buries the money shot: "A.I. is a genuinely powerful technology that still needs people, and putting it to use is slow, human work."
3. Fails to realize that those scales are rapidly tilting away from "people".
4. Fails to realize the top AI is a jr. dev without prompts, a sr. dev with prompts, for the yearly cost of ONE corporate dinner. That is an unmatchable force multiplier.
5. AGI is going to happen, it's going to happen soon, and 'articles' like this are just NYeT sewage floating down the Hudson.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.