On buying a car

I am scared of my car retiring. In time, of course, one will have to buy a new car. And that is the moment I am terrified of. 

Because, now, buying a car means: 

A. No USB port - so the only way to listen to music is through streaming. I don't want to use the internet for something as basic as listening to music in my car. Bring back the cassette tapes please. 

B. My data goes to the car manufacturer - THIS is the real reason i dont want to upgrade that car. Once upon a time, you bought a car and paid for it in cash or loan. Today, you buy a car and pay for it in cash AND the leak of your data to their servers for all infinity. Dear Lord, the car, once bought, is my asset. It is not a subscription. It is MINE. And therefore, my location data is mine. I do not want to pay for a car in cash + data ad infinitum. 

C. Automatics only - My dad taught me to drive. Listening to a car and changing gears just right is micro moments of connecting with him. I would never drive an automatic. I LOVE the gears. I love the connection that sound of the car gives me with the car. (Yes, I have driven an automatic. Incredibly convenient, thank you). But most new models come with automatic transmission! 

D. Proximity Sensors - This is my second biggest issue. Manufacturers are idiot proofing cars. Some of us are not idiots. We like to take responsibility for our cars. We like to know the dimensions of our car and move through traffic or tight spaces accordingly. If you had to innovate, maybe you should have created 90 degree movement axles. The proximity sensors and their beep beep drives me totally up the wall. This is India - 2 inches is "bahut jagah hai". Your proximity sensors are made for god-knows-where and start screaming at 8 inches! They make the driver more nervous than the proximity itself. 

E. The SCREENS - The screens scream. I am very sensitive to LED light-based screens and use them sparingly. For 25 years, I have been able to drive perfectly fine without staring into a large screen roughly to the left of where my eyes should be (on the road, straight ahead). I do not want a car with an in built screen. There is a whole youtube channel playing outside my windscreen! The ONLY thing for which i can envisage using a screen is navigation, and for that, a mini screen in front - in the dashboard, should do just fine. The best innovation done was by Honda - they placed the speedometer close to the eye level, so the driver does not have to look away from the road to monitor their speed. Why manufacturers thought a great way to increase road safety is to force the driver to look periodically to the left and down, instead of the road, I have no idea. But i do not agree with the car manufacturers on that one. While driving, i love the road. That's where i want to look. 

My son said I should at least take a test drive. I tried. Started by asking - What happens to the data you collect from me? How is it safeguarded? What is my right to delete? As you can guess, the conversation did not go much further. My son shook his head and gave up. 

Sam Altman

 

Errm.. as it turns out, I kind of agree with Raj, but I would remove the word concept from his note. It WAS their worst product, it was released wayyyyyy too prematurely but by making it public from waitlist, they created an unnecessary dogfight in the industry - leading to a deluge of non-market ready LLMs, none of which is quite able to deliver as promised - 3.8 years and counting. So, "current tech" WAS the keyword.

10th December 2024: Geoffrey Hinton gave a speech while accepting his Nobel Prize. (No Thank you, no honored-to-be-here. This man used the highest platform available to him to warn against the invention winning him that Nobel).

June 2024: He said the same thing at the AI for Good Summit.

May 2023: He quit Google after being one of the pioneers, citing risks from the technology.

His speeches were actively kept off google search results on AI safeguards (I have experienced this myself).

29th July 2026: 1100 IT staffers and leaders signed a letter, asking Washington to "pace" the development of AI. Signatories include Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei, Claude Code’s head Boris Cherny, OpenAI co-founders John Schulman and Wojiciech Zaremba, and Meta’s vice-president of AI research Dawn Song.

Note: This is the first time that employees and leaders have come together to say the same thing.

Is this a case of "What goes around comes around", or a case of "Next time, listen to the experts"?

Its not social media

 Dear Human Interaction Platforms:

Terrible UX will make network effect disappear really, really fast.

Human users don't quiet quit. They abandon in droves.

Then bots fly in to fill the vacuum before you can notice.

That is how dead internet is born.

Love,

Orkut

Google Wave

Ryze

...

PS: Its not social media because it doesnt feel social any more. It feels mechanical. 

The 4 stages of Enterprise AI Adoption

1. Eureka! - This is where the enterprise discovers the magic of AI and the various things it can do. At this point, most organizations have crossed this stage. 

2. Euphoria - This is the stage where the magic of AI becomes the silver bullet. It was at this stage of deployment that Ford fired its engineers last year. In this stage, enterprises believe that AI will optimally replace human talent and start working towards that. 

3. Awakening - At this point, AI slop starts to impact operations. India's legal system is currently at this stage. The courts are warning legal firms and lawyers against manufactured citings. Enterprises begin to realise that the silver bullet may be more silver coated than silver composed. Ford is now rehiring engineers, possibly at this stage of evolution. This stage leads to a deep phase of introspection and iteration as mistakes become stepping stones and RL (reinforcement learning) moves from the machine to the enterprise (pun intended). 

4. Enlightenment - At this stage, an enterprise has put in place an AI Fair Use policy. It knows where and how to harness the magic of AI, has decent guardrails and governance in place, and has discovered the magic mix of human talent and AI. Some consulting firms now bill the client for human and AI talent separately. 

If you are an enterprise somewhere on this journey, here are quick things to get right at each stage. 

1. Eureka - Discovery. Find the right tools. Choose based on the provider, bcs models are transient, but providers bring the ethos. Models will be succeeded or retired, possibly faster than now. Understand the strength of each provider. Don't just go by the most shiny toy in the room. Test your own use cases against multiple models from each provider so that you get a sense of 'fit for purpose'. 

2. Euphoria - Contrary to popular opinion, euphoria is a necessary stage for enterprise-wide AI adoption. People need to try out and believe in the magic of AI if it has to be truly accepted as a way of life. Allow people to experiment and find their own Gods. At this point, it is wise to have a bottom-up approach and let the field users tell us what is working for them (And, do not fire anyone at this stage) 

3. Awakening - This is where the real test begins. Have early warning systems in place so that the warnings appear before operations are actually disrupted. Listen to the naysayers (they are always there) and the Luddites. They always can pinpoint the blind spots that enthusiastic AI adopters cannot see. Monitor. Get Warning. Act on each one. 

4. Enlightenment - Eternal vigilance is the price of liberty. This is a moving target. Guardrails will need to be tightened with each government regulation or model change. Ensure there is a monitoring team whose job is to ensure we don't go back to Awakening. 

 Let's play a fun game - How will I...?

I will post simple tasks. You find a way to get the answer without using AI in particular and if possible, tech in general.

If you are able to do the task, post in comments how you were able to do it. :)

First challenge - Find out the name of the Indian king who was defeated in the first Arab invasion of Sindh.

Type of Challenge: No computers or mobiles allowed.

Level of Challenge:

Making Boards responsible for AI mistakes

 RBI's draft guidelines, released on 24th June, have asked for a Board approved Risk Management plan.

The EU, in the meantime, has made Boards responsible. Directly.

The world has never placed responsibility this firmly at the highest possible level.