I don't understand the point of AI

I run a team of younger technicians and would hear them make comments about AI.  I avoided chat gpt and what not.  I am not afraid of it and somewhat amused by the concept.    I had two engineers fly in to run an intense class for my techs and first thing they did was pull up AI and put crazy questions in there.  Everyone had a good laugh and it was a great ice breaker.  I went home and pulled up an AI tool and asked it if was cable of being Jacis for me as in Iron Man.  The responses were pointed and disappointing.  Still to this day I would be on board if I can walk around and have AI be Jarvis and makes things more efficient.  I don't want it to do my work for me but be at least good enough to carry the tools I need and reduce my effort to input my queries and get a unbiased real deal output  otherwise AI is an overprice icebreaker for the beginning of a grueling class...

I run a team of younger technicians and would hear them make comments about AI.  I avoided chat gpt and what not.  I am not afraid of it and somewhat amused by the concept.    I had two engineers fly in to run an intense class for my techs and first thing they did was pull up AI and put crazy questions in there.  Everyone had a good laugh and it was a great ice breaker.  I went home and pulled up an AI tool and asked it if was cable of being Jacis for me as in Iron Man.  The responses were pointed and disappointing.  Still to this day I would be on board if I can walk around and have AI be Jarvis and makes things more efficient.  I don't want it to do my work for me but be at least good enough to carry the tools I need and reduce my effort to input my queries and get a unbiased real deal output  otherwise AI is an overprice icebreaker for the beginning of a grueling class...

I am siding with Sir Tim Berners-Lee on this AI front (he was referring to the operation of social media platforms and how they have been deploying AI algorithms):

"It is really important that we realise this toxicity comes from the algorithms and you can change that," said Berners-Lee. 

"There's some coder who can just sit there and tweak the way the AI is trained so that it can be more healthy, constructive, creative and helpful".

https://www.euronews.com/next/2024/11/21/world-wide-web-inventor-says-algorithms-should-be-blamed-for-toxicity-on-social-media#:~:text=in%20youth%20culture.-,%22It%20is%20really%20important%20that%20we%20realise%20this%20toxicity%20comes,constructive%2C%20creative%20and%20helpful%22.

Back in my first career, I used to work in the large IT department of a multi-national company which used to consult with Sir Tim (when he was "Tim") on e.g. the (very) early adoption of: the internet, email and the formative stages of associated application development (all very much beta). 

You know, when people had role titles like "Systems Engineer" (with the emphasis on Engineer) and a business continuity mindset (across all in the department) meant the luxury afforded us of planning and testing wasn't a euphemism for ..."disaster" already happened and our customers noticed it first (because we were forced by non-IT Line Management bean-counters to try it first in live production) and "recovery" was an automated computer job control language / procedure alternate schedule suite of production-preservation actions (with 98.99% availability of all services with little human endeavour) which we would weather-eye (post mortem if necessary) the next morning over our first coffee ...rather than an interminable flurry of social media posts along the lines of "we are working on it, now customers have reported it" (with the bean-counters in a super-tail-spin-lather by that inevitable stage!).  The modern IT professionals know what ought to be done and have the competence / capabilities ...but are often not allowed to do so ...hello, AI World (if we don't catch a good firm grasp on the tail of the dragon).

My own outlook on AI is "harness it, but don't accept being hassled by it".  Design it, test it, review it and fix it if it is an annoying burden.  What I don't subscribe to is the: "ooh, new sparkly thing ...must use it to show off progress and scrap jobs".  Like sny other IT "thing", it should become a stable tool for business operation and providing products and services actually welcomed by members of the public (not allowed to be the wild west play thing preserve of a handful of tech-bro-oligarchs with a, let us say, less than altruistic moral compass).

I like your imagery of "AI as an Ice Breaker".  I shall ponder that further.

All this trip down memory lane means over breakfast this morning; I will be reflecting upon a happy few weeks of yesteryear: spent booking constrained minutes of satellite time slots via the Goonhilly Earth Station satellite dish (before trans-atlantic undersea internet cables were a commercially viable option). 

Why? 

Because unsavoury characters "accidentally" dragging their ships anchors across international undersea cables, these days, means all of our resilience hopes may indeed rest once again upon the bright young things of Cornwall et al. being "A1" (A one) not "AI" (Artificial Intelligence). 

For the benefit of younger viewers: "A1" used to be the commonplace shorthand for "excellent" (very good or well, excellent / derived from a vessel in Lloyd's Register of Shipping having been designated as equipped to the highest standard; first class). 

Our New World Order means many professionals and populations alike; are going to need to have a good lateral brainstorming session, step up, and link innovative capabilities to demonstrate and preserve critical infrastructure resilience in the face of hostile actors.

Some of our Nordic cousins never stood down their resilience mindset and preparedness training (we, each of us, need to dust off and spin-up our own versions of "resilience first"). 

As much as anything; it is about diligent, relentless, resourcefulness.  Being willing to be flexible and creative about problem-solving and getting on with implementing improvements in support of resilience prevailing.

The sands of time mean; it is no longer about the luxury of indulging in:

- AI nightmare-mongering and anxiousness.

Rather:

- asking how AI helps in bolstering resilience is the watch phrase of today.

There is no more bandwidth available for accommodation of political rhetoric, or grand standing, or point scoring, or finger-pointing, or name-calling, or prevarication.  Leaders must rise to meet the challenge.  Populations must play their individual parts too.

Now, where do we feel AI can be reliably harnessed in support of this endeavour? 

(As opposed to enduring the hassle and the immature backdoor security exposure ...to potentially be exploited by the subterfuge of the unwelcome actors?).

AI needs to shape up ...or ship out. 

(The UK's history as a maritime nation infiltrates our vernacular ...pervasively ... I couldn't resist that one!  That is to say: "used as an ultimatum to someone to improve their performance, or behaviour, or face being made to leave").

I believe we are all going to be too busy, for sometime, (dealing with the essentials of resilience demands), to spend too much time polishing a promising laboratory experiment - which is demonstrably still in its infancy. 

We can still look forward to the day when AI's training wheels may be (safely) discarded.