On Thursday I attended a first-rate AI event hosted by Microsoft here in Houston. The evolution on display is mind-boggling.
You can read every book, listen to every podcast, watch every YouTube video, personally experiment with every tool you can get your hands on…and you’ll still only know a fraction of what’s happening in the world of AI.
That was one of my takeaways from Microsoft’s event.
But I don’t say that in a way that implies exhaustion or hopelessness.
I say it with enthusiasm and fascination.
While I spend my time in energy, Microsoft’s event was about AI more broadly.
One of the talks I listened to was about the myriad use cases that exist in healthcare.
The vast majority of us aren’t AI researchers or product developers.
We’re professionals trying to find ways to serve our customers better, in part through the use of AI.
In this context, awareness is huge.
Simply being aware of who’s doing what where, and what results they’re seeing, is a massive help.
There just aren’t enough hours in the day to directly experience this all for ourselves.
I think half the battle with AI is recognizing it’s moving a million miles per hour…and still not giving up.
None of us is an expert in this stuff. But seeing what’s out there and how it’s getting used inevitably sparks some powerful ideas.
Explore enough of those ideas, and you’ll level up your game in short order.
Not only was the AI-proper stuff fun, but I ran into Bill Richardson and Martha Ochoa, both of whom I first met back in my days at Baker Hughes.
They’re each now at Microsoft doing incredible things.
Baker Hughes has incubated some remarkable talent. It’s a lot of fun to see what many of these folks are up to.
I’ll close with a message I keep repeating to myself.
AI is too important and is moving too quickly to allow us the luxury to wait to figure it all out.
We have to roll our sleeves up and get to work with it. It won’t be clean. It won’t be ordered. It won’t be without frustration.
But the payoff is real, and I’d rather be early and messy than late and tidy.
