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Best Laid Plans of AI, How To Validate Ideas And A System Definition
AI has still a way to go to be useful AND safe. Knowing the true purpose of a system is a critical first step before any action.
Elhadj Chikhaoui
February 12, 2023
Hello and welcome to the Generalist's Thinkbox!
I'm Elhadj and I'll be your host today. An entrepreneur/indie hacker by choice and passion! Through this newsletter, I aim to share interesting tidbits regarding tech, business, product management, spirituality, systems' thinking and everything in between! Being a generalist means having a wide range of interests, yet it can be overwhelming to make sense of all that info coming from every direction. I know, I've been there.
By learning to connect the dot, we widen our perspective, supercharge our productivity and spot unique opportunities
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For now, let's get on with today's program :
The Best And Worst of AI In One Example
How To Leverage Data To Validate Ideas?
What's A System?
Let's get to it!
Tech:
To say that AI is a white hot trend taking over the world by storm is a gentle understatement. The number of stories, use cases and general weird experiments happening right now around ChatGPT is crazy. There are also some big moves being made by big players (Microsoft, Google) to assert dominance. One particular "experiment" showcases some of the best and the worst of this trend at the same time :
The dialogue is written by GPT-3, and according to the creator, nearly everything else about the show is generative, including the speech, camera cuts, shot length, scene length, character blocking and movement, and music.
The fact that it's streamed on Twitch adds an extra layer of craziness to the whole thing that makes the experiment worth following...
...Until something went wrong. The stream was banned due to (AI-generated) transphobic and homophobic standup bit aired during the show. Apparently, GPT-3 is much more prone to these behaviors than it's more advanced cousin, ChatGPT.
It's not sure whether the experiment will go back after the ban period is over.
Business:
Hinted at during the last issue, I wrote this on Hackernoon that got quite a few reads (1400 and counting!) and I think it's worth sharing. An idea generation and validation step-by-step approach to unearth valuabke insights for seemingly basic information. It's also highly actionable, which is the kind of content I gravitate towards.
Systems Thinking:
This will be a recurring segment where I share insights regarding systems thinking, its definitions, and practical examples of its uses!
From the 'Introduction To Systems Thinking' book by Daniel Kim, the characterestics of a "System" are as follows:
Systems have purpose.
All parts must be present for a system to carry out its purpose optimally.
The order in which the parts are arranged affects the performance of a system.
Systems attempt to maintain stability through feedback.
If one these characterestics is missing, then you're not dealing with a system. More importantly, understanding the true purpose of a system is a critical step before proceeding with any action.
And it's arguably much easier to understand the purpose of a non-living system than a living one. You know what the purpose of a car is. You know what the purpose of a computer is....etc.
However, living (and social) systems (the human body, the ecosystem...etc) are a different matter entirely. And as such, it's very important to put systems into the proper context.
We'll see that in the next issue, so stay tuned!
Misc.:
A quick round-up of some of the most interesting pieces I came across:
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That's a wrap!
Thanks for being a valued member of the Thinkbox!
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