Interesting article in the paper today - Quebec City is using Google AI technology to improve traffic flow. Using data from Google Maps and a specific purpose AI, traffic light timing is adjusted to optimize traffic flow resulting in lower drive times and thereby reducing carbon dioxide emissions. 19 cities around the world are using this technology now. The article doesn't address the issue of real time adjustments but why couldn't that happen? I suspect this is how many AI implementations will happen - rather quietly and under the covers but making real differences in the real world. Hopefully positive differences of course but that's not quite clear yet…

ChatGPT 5 is out and while the reviews are mixed (at best) it's clear that progress, for all the big AIs, is ongoing. After all, they're not burning the money and there's a lot of money… So? So, we're going to pivot a bit. Why create content that an AI can find for you? Sure we could likely sell the product for awhile but I think we need to add more value… not just about using an AI as a tool but more as a partner… a fast, pretty smart, but still makes mistakes partner.

We're working away on ten modules about AI and Project Management. They're for PMI certified practitioners looking for some AI information along with PDUs… this all makes sense… or, at least it did. Does it still? Often I'll create some content, hopefully well researched and thought out. The goal is usually to offer the user some actionable advice or a word to the wise. But increasingly I wonder if the user could simply ask their AI a few good questions and get answers that are good enough? This is 1. Rather interesting, and 2. A tad disturbing if you're in the business of selling content. How does one stay ahead?

There's an old quote I recall - "never say something is impossible, you'll just piss off the people already doing it."

Remember the good old days (early July of this year) when it was commonly acknowledged that AI wasn't particularly good at math? Well, Google DeepMind just received gold level marks at the International Mathematical Olympiad. What's really interesting about this accomplishment is that the AI did NOT require that the problem to be solved was first translated into a programming language - it was all done using natural language… this is HUGE I think. And, clearly the AI is demonstrating high level reasoning and abstract thinking (should that be in quotes?) as well.

To go back to the quote; it seems increasingly fraught to argue that AI can't do something "human"… maybe not now but by next week? Perhaps. All swords are double sided… this sword is particularly sharp I think.