Life’s pace returned to an amble last week after several spent in sprint mode; the added velocity a result of our efforts to keep the family’s elders on the right side of the grass!
A task my fiancéeic and I would have been unable to accomplish if not for our parent's proximity to the region's Level II trauma center, Stamford Hospital.
Reveling in our slower pulses, Guy and I spent Saturday on the couch. Watching the British crown their new King–while celebrating the one-year anniversary of my own crowning achievement: being named THE best dressed male at the 148th Kentucky Derby!
How Smart?
Artificial intelligence or AI is believed by some to be so powerful a tool that it's presence on earth may represent a terminal even for mankind; noted physicist Steven Hawking opining before his passing in 2018 that the development of AI could, “spell the end of the human race!”
And Hawking was not alone! Recently machine learning expert and “Godfather of AI” Geoffrey Hinton quite his job at Google to “warn humanity about the dangers of AI.”
Until my AI masters tell me to stop, I'm using artificial intelligence to replace my own wherever possible including on a creative project employing two different machine learning tools.
I've also employed AI use into my SCORE mentoring where possible. The technology is a force multiplier when it comes to creating the large documents typical of mentoring work such as business plans and RFP's needing seconds to create what might otherwise take an entrepreneur weeks!
THE Prompt
The foundation of AI use is an effective prompt; THE prompt a narrative of unlimited length and detail–with the good ones directing machine learning systems to do that which humans cannot do.
Or that they choose not to! As was the case this past weekend when I was loathe to break the first chill vibes the home has felt in weeks, to do the research necessary to keep my promise and report on the recent earnings announcements from Sherwin-Williams, PPG and Masco.
Cautious having read the warnings, I kept the mood light, so as not to upset THE bot.
“You are a blogger whose audience is independent paint and hardware retailers. You don’t want the world to end BUT–you promised your readers that you would report on recent earnings announcements from Sherwin-Williams, PPG and Masco and were wondering if AI could hack a quick solution?
Your task is to generate a report which focuses on the change in total sales at all three companies expressed as a percentage and compared to the same quarter in the previous year. Compare those results to the rate of inflation.
To prepare to write your blog you must read all announcements related to the recent earnings results and any transcripts of interviews with company executives have provided related to those announcements.
Your blog must include mentions of the two top-ranked keywords from your reading, any unfavorable press associated with the announcements and any concerns you may have for independent paint and hardware retailers given your understanding of the earnings news"
Because Mark Lipton would do all that!
"You have gained your understanding of the independent channel by reading the entirety of Mark’s work, which is posted here: https://www.markliptonpaint.com/blog.
Your blog is 250-300 words in length and begins with a one-to-two sentence summary of the results from all three companies.
Your writing style should be imitative of Mark's, and try to work in a joke about #Dan!"
Which fortunately, is not as easy as it looks!
