AI's Ticking Clock: Time-Saver or Time-Bomb?

AI: Because who doesn't love a side of existential dread with their efficiency?

Greg's Words

I'm sure you're not as immersed as I am in the whole AI/ChatGPT thing.  I'm also confident my friends, family, and some colleagues are getting sick of me talking about AI, Nvidia, Microsoft, OpenAI, Musk, the commercial real estate bubble, dying cities, the fear of covid, digitized workflow, and artificial intelligence. 

So be it.

I talk with business owners, end-users, and OEMs in many different industries - from manufacturing to CBE - and I've noticed a dichotomy in AI knowledge; either somebody knows a great deal or absolutely nothing about how AI helps companies reduce costs, grow sales and increase profits.

And that's okay.

Sure, with a bit of study, the current AI can help marketing, service, and sales digest and create proposals and correspondence, interface with customers, and produce expert-level, acumen-based content for your professional sales team. All of this impacts the cost side of the equation.  

It is too early for an Office Technology provider to bring anything to market besides knowledge and advice gleaned from using AI.  As far as a resellable service, or MRR SaaS model, there are no SKUs and very few experts. Yet, at the current pace of innovation, it won't be long.

Some of the "fog" around an AI-based product to Office Technology includes ethical questions we typically haven't had to face.  

It would be normally prudent to suggest that bringing AI to your existing copier customers is five years away.  From the historic view, you would be correct to think this, but this isn't normal, we aren't normal, we left Normalville about four years ago. I wouldn't be surprised to see a few AI systems in beta or ready to sell by year's end; say Q1, 2024.  

The clock is running, and time is the fire we all burn in, for now, feast upon a conglomeration of articles about AI, languages, and the end of the world.

Enjoy.

Executive Summary:

1. Artificial Intelligence (AI) is making tremendous strides in streamlining global communication and enhancing productivity in sectors like manufacturing, bringing forth unparalleled time-saving benefits.
2. As we embrace AI's advancements, we're also faced with significant ethical concerns, notably regarding AI datasets and accountability, as well as the chilling possibility of a 'runaway AI' scenario.
3. Recognizing and balancing these dual aspects of AI – its transformative potential and its ethical and existential risks – is important as we navigate the era of AI.

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Taming the Digital Dragon: Global Regulation on Artificial Intelligence?

Balancing Innovation and Security in a Tech-Driven World

"...It will likely take an AI-related catastrophe before any international rulebook or organization begins regulating AI technologies..."

Greg's Words

I despise rules; not Natural rules.  The man-made, legislative acts posed as 'protective' and oriented around 'safety' have devolved from logical to constrictive. Worse, the narratives behind laws, rules, regulations, and mandates have either become more transparent or simply more blatantly 'anti-fun' used to prop up old structures.

I bristle when I hear clamor about "how we need to slow down" AI development with guardrails and committees.  For me, it is both too Early and too Late to control AI Evolution.  The Genie is out of the bottle; the first of many more bottles to come.

But here's the fulcrum of my belief:  If AI were going to make us extinct, it would have done so a long time ago.

The masses are mystified by today's ChatGPT.  I stress the current version is a civilian edition.  Would I be the only person who thinks what we are using today is a decade behind what DARPA and others have bubbled away in some underground lab somewhere?

I can't be.

All this panic talk about slowing things down is hogwash put forward by people who up until three months ago couldn't spell "AI" let alone put together a reasonable prompt.

No no, dear reader.  The AI isn't going 'extinct' us.  BUT - this isn't to say a bad actor isn't going to use AI to try. I'll let the military handle that one.

What is needed with AI is a body of folks who will craft reasonable rules of engagement and policies designed to accelerate innovation AND illuminate all the possibilities of AI.

We don't need more laws.

Check out this summary of this article.

Executive Summary:

1. As AI technologies become increasingly integral and potentially harmful, leading voices within the field argue that regulation of these technologies should be a global priority.
2. Despite industry support for AI regulation, tangible action has yet to be taken by policymakers, who remain more focused on other pressing issues such as limiting China's access to critical resources and establishing shared terminology around AI risks.
3. Significant challenges lie ahead in navigating global regulations, with current models unable to keep pace with the rapid evolution of AI. Advocates suggest that companies should preemptively adopt potential regulations and safety standards, ideally leading to broader global implementation.

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Heat Above - Greta Van Fleet and Office Technology

One word.  Wow.

Bob Seger, Kid Rock, Ted Nugent, the Romantics, and so many...the list includes Greta Van Fleet all from  Detroit, the Home of Rock n Roll.  BABY! ( I know, I know, Greta is from Frankenmuth, just go with it)  The moniker is borrowed from a real lady.

Yeah, there is a bunch of Led, Rush, Queen, Prince, and REO(who uses an organ nowadays?) and even 60s hippie, blues shit in this - with this release, these guys blow through the "Led imitator" and come away unique, familiar and cutting edge.  

I've got a story about how an 11PM bourbon tour became a Greta Van Fleet play fest until 4AM.  I was slinging bourbon and pitching the Mp3s.  We played every single Greta song and were impressed. Until we lit up Black Dog.  We swore never to play Greta again.  We were wrong.

Anyway, is Greta Van Fleet a metaphor for today's Office Technology realm?

Oh hell yes.

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The Copying Conundrum: Navigating the Intricacies of Copier and Managed Print Services - West McDonald, The Cannata Report

Greg's Words

Artificial intelligence is all the rage right now; bigger than the digital copier, the laser printer, Xerox's, Sharp's, and HP's dealer conferences and earnings calls.  It's bigger than the first calculator, the PC, Novel networks, the cellphone, and the smartphone.

AI, in 2023, is bigger than the discovery of fire or the invention of the wheel - this is not hyperbole and I know hyperbole.

West takes on the initial tremor of AI in our little niche.  Good stuff.

Here is a ChatGPT-generated summary of the great, human-created article over at the Cannata Report.

The prompt, 

"Write a concise summary of the article, covering the main points, context, and any relevant details in a business casual style, in 500 words with a 3-point highlight paragraph. Write a LinkedIn post of close to 1350 characters and pull one quote from the article, and write a tweet.

Write a title and a funny tagline, a search question, comma delimited keyword list, and an introduction paragraph based on SEO for the copier industry and copier and managed print services resellers.

Do not use the phrase, In conclusion."

Irony. Enjoy.

Notable Trends in Print Management and MPS - The Cannata Report and Me.

Greg's Words

Scott was the first writer, a real writer, to interview me back in 2009ish.

This piece is an accumulation of interviews by Scott, outlining a good, collection of views and trends within the managed print services niche.

Managed print Services 'died' the day the OEMs reanimated MpS in their own likeness. 

"What is dead, may never die."  The most notable trend in Managed print Services is that it is alive and kicking.

Check it out.

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Harnessing AI: A Game-Changer for Managed Print Services

Where AI meets ink – redefining the print management landscape.

Key Highlights:

1. Artificial Intelligence (AI) holds the potential to revolutionize print management and Managed Print Services (MPS), adding efficiency, security, and advanced features.
2. AI can enhance print security by providing forensic accounting and intrusion prevention, bolstering the overall cybersecurity profile of the MPS landscape.
3. Intelligent document processing (IDP), a new AI-powered technology, promises to streamline the handling of unstructured data, improving workflow accuracy and efficiency.

Greg's Words

No matter what the innovation, we are always left with a final statement and question:  "This is great technology and really interesting ideas - but, how can I generate revenue, today, with this?"  

With Artificial Intelligence, most of the financial impact is on the cost reduction, and increased productivity side of the equation.  Sure, we can reduce the cost of doing work with AI.  We can interface with prospects and customers with AI ChatBots, with no problem.  The cost benefits are obvious.  But putting together a product based on AI, for my existing Office Technology clients, is a major challenge.

AI is considered a process-enhancing solution.

It's like the inventors of refrigeration - they didn't get rich, but the companies that used refrigeration, like Coke, did.

We need to find that "Coke".

Meanwhile, folks in our niche are beginning to see, and talk about how AI will 'impact' managed print services, and to be frank, it is not new. it's just faster.

I have no doubt that we will see AI 'products' on the market within the next few months, before the end of the year.

We've put together a quick synopsis of the current outlook for MpS as the waves of AI wash onto our shores.

Enjoy.

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Selling Copiers in the Big City - Don't Mind the Maggots

Is there a better picture illustrating NYC's struggles?

Greg's Words

Not to kick someone when they are down, but NYC is in bad shape with crime is a symptom of failed, short-sighted, agenda-driven, and ignorant policies.  

The exodus, the move to remote work, and the hollow, transparent arguments from the mayor to return to the cubicle combined with a deep seeded sense of victimhood, conscious bias, and entitlement, swirl together in a rank, putrid, oozing sense of doom.

Why would ANYONE want to put themselves through this gauntlet, just to 'collaborate in person'?

New York City was on my list of Greg's Top Ten cities in the US - New York, San Fransisco, Seattle, Chicago, Portland, Las Vegas, Laguna Beach, San Diego, South Beach(Miami), and Scottsdale.

Honorable mention: Milwaukee, and Detroit which are dangerous, but manageable.

The sun goes down

The night rolls in

You can feel it

Starting all over again

The moon comes up

And the music calls...

Here's the rub - As you(we) sell and support Office Technology within the city limits, the number of prospects in those cities has tumbled with no possible increase for the foreseeable future.

How are you going to continue to grow and build your book of office technology business when employees don't want to come to an office?  Crime, or the PERCEPTION of possible harm, not only hurts the image of once great(the return to greatness will happen) cities but degrades the opportunity for you to sell more copiers, IT services, managed print, scanners, document management software, etc.

It's just one more 'thing'.  There are great people in Chicago, New York, San Fransisco, and all the other cities on the path Detroit has been traveling since the 70s - they will come back, better, stronger and different.

In the meantime, those who stay may be Champions.  You love The City, your city, "It's in your moves

It's in your blood".  

Hang in there, everything changes.

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