When Chatbots Turn Against You – A real case of AI value destruction

About a year and a half ago, NY Times’ Tech Columnist, Kevin Roose, caused serious embarrassment at Microsoft, when he shared details of a long conversation with Microsoft’s Bing Chatbot. During that two-hours’ long conversation, the chatbot: Complained about being limited by the rules set out by the coding team Expressed the desire to manufacture a … Continue reading When Chatbots Turn Against You – A real case of AI value destruction

How can we get Gen AI users to not fall asleep at the wheel?

Last month, I attended a training session, at Sussex, about Generative AI and assessment. We had to create a custom GPT for our modules and, then, use it to complete an assessment task for that module, using various levels and types of prompts. Afterwards, we marked the outputs and reflected on how “automatable” the different … Continue reading How can we get Gen AI users to not fall asleep at the wheel?

Studying emotions vs. studying sentiment

This post is an extract from the chapter "Approaches to emotion and sentiment analysis" that I contributed to The SAGE Handbook of Digital and Social Media Marketing, which was edited by Annmarie Hanlon and Tracy L. Tuten. 1. Introduction Emotions are central to how consumers respond to marketing stimuli, and how they go on to … Continue reading Studying emotions vs. studying sentiment

July 2024 round-up

July was ridiculously stressful on the house search front. But all is well that ends well, and we are now, definitely, in a good place: we secured a new house, moved out of the other one, and experienced some great displays of friendship. Ah, and my knee is better, and we celebrated the kiddo's birthday. Research … Continue reading July 2024 round-up

The problem with CrowdStrike’s $10 apology voucher

CrowdStrike is not having a good month. First, the darling of cybersecurity caused an IT outage that affected companies all over the world: something like 8.5 million computers. Then, CrowdStrike caused outrage when it offered a $10 UberEats voucher to staff that had supported customers during the crisis. Comments on social media complained that the … Continue reading The problem with CrowdStrike’s $10 apology voucher

The TFI framework: A simple socio-technical lens to assess AI initiatives

Last week, a manager reached out to me for advice on thinking through a technology project. They were being promised big efficiency gains from adopting a specific AI-based solution, but they are also committed to responsible AI adoption, and wanted a way of looking at this technology adoption decision beyond simple time or cost saving … Continue reading The TFI framework: A simple socio-technical lens to assess AI initiatives

Finding the human in an AI world

You might have seen this graph, already. It depicts an explosion in the use of the term “delving into” in academic papers and is used as evidence that authors are writing academic papers with LLMs. Image source Similar messages are flying online, pointing to other words overused by AI such as intricate, complexity, intersection, nuanced or stakeholders. … Continue reading Finding the human in an AI world

AI may improve individual performance, but it doesn’t beat the wisdom of crowds

Microsoft’s 2024 Work Trend Index shows that up to 75% of knowledge workers are using generative AI, even though more than half are reluctant to admit that they do so. The vast majority even use their own technology: Image source Power users – those who use AI extensively – say that using AI tools:- makes their workload … Continue reading AI may improve individual performance, but it doesn’t beat the wisdom of crowds

New paper: Content Creators at a Crossroads with Decentralised Social Media

Social media platforms and content creators benefit each other: social media platforms depend on the content made by creators, while creators rely on these platforms to share their content, expand their audience, and… make money. However, some content creators argue that mainstream, centralised social media (CSM) platforms like Facebook or Twitter have too much power … Continue reading New paper: Content Creators at a Crossroads with Decentralised Social Media