A real human is writing this article. How long will you know that for certain? That is another story. To chronicle the journey and help tell that story, today, Techstrong Group is very happy to launch the newest member of our lineup, Techstrong.ai.
Why did we launch Techstrong.ai? Well, that’s probably obvious to many of you already. A quick perusal of the rest of our properties (Cloud Native Now, DevOps.com, DigitalCxO, Security Boulevard) shows a large percentage of the content we create and distribute across all of our channels is already heavily AI-centric. Of course, it’s not just our communities–AI has taken the entire world by storm.
AI is not a new concept. Any 20th-century science fiction fan knows AI has been a familiar sci-fi theme for authors, creators, writers and artists. By the late 1980s, AI made the leap from science fiction to science fact, and since the 2000s, many dollars have been spent and many hours of brain power expended to try to understand, apply and advance AI for real-world use cases.
For many folks, though, AI really got real with the release of OpenAI’s ChatGPT. The large language model (LLM) generative AI with a chatbot front end has ignited a firestorm of attention worldwide. VC money is pouring in and everyone is trying to “AI enable” their applications; at the same time, there’s a vocal backlash from thought leaders trying to stop–or at least slow down– its further development until we can properly assess the risks and try to put some mitigating measures in place.
My personal experience is that progress can never be stopped while we assess risk. When did technology stall because of security concerns? Unfortunately, just about never. Also, how would we even enforce such a development stoppage? Would labs in Beijing or Moscow or Bangalore stop? I’d guess the answer is no–so let’s not expect them to stop in the West, either.
For better or worse, the AI genie is out of the bottle. I have seen many technological innovations during my career. Most of them fall into the category of tech-specific innovation. By that I mean that most of those innovations acutely disrupted the tech market. A great example is cloud computing. Yes, your mom saw the IBM commercials and, when asked where their pictures are, vaguely pointed upward and said, “The cloud …” Beyond that, the cloud hasn’t changed too much for the average tech consumer. They don’t think about where their apps come from or whether or not they are scalable. They aren’t thinking about whether their digital files, apps, photos, software, etc. live In the cloud or in a private data center or are right on their personal computing device–it’s all the same to them.
But every once in a while a tech innovation comes along that transcends technology and tears through the very fabric of civilization. We believe that AI is that kind of technology–perhaps the biggest thing since the internet itself. AI will disrupt one vertical market after another.
For any of you that have shown ChatGPT to less-tech-savvy folks, you know that while you might be showing them the technology’s version of cheap parlor tricks, the notion that this is some sort of black magic is prevalent. People think it is sentient. What I’m getting at is this: The potential for misinformation is huge, and so is the need to separate the real from the fake (deepfake?) and document the true story.
That is what Techstrong.ai is all about. We intend to document the forward march of AI as it disrupts so many models in existence today. We realize that it is still early in the game. AI has just burst on the scene. But now is the time for Techstrong.ai to come together and add our take to the developing storylines.
Of course, it is not just our story–it’s your story, too. We welcome your support and participation. Whether as a contributor, community member or any other way you want to participate. Like our other Techstrong communities, we will be creating and distributing content, covering many verticals in a variety of mediums. Audio, video, written, learning events and graphic formats are all part of the story.
We will be introducing the initial sponsors of Techstrong.ai shortly. If you would like to be involved, reach out to us.
Oh, and we promise: If anything here is not generated by real humans, you’ll be the first to know.
