Hoping you’ve had a great week and that you have some good plans for what looks to me a mostly-nice spring weekend in Cleveland. It seemed like most of the things in my inbox this week were AI-related, which I guess makes sense, because that’s all anybody wants to talk about these days. I did my best to diversify, though, as who wants to read nothing but AI posts all day, every day. To that end, mixed in with a couple of AI topics are Buc-ee’s, remote islands, email phishing, and this one about Scandinavian sleeping habits. We learned this on a trip to Iceland in 2016 and have been doing it ever since! Enjoy.
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AI Sycophancy
As I argued with Co-Pilot earlier this week when trying to coerce it into providing the data I sought, it responded to me “you’re right to be pissed”. And over the course of 29 different messages from me, all asking for the same thing (I know it was 29 because I asked it how many times I had asked the same question), it told me four times that I was right to be pissed.
So it was appropriate this morning to come across research showing that large language models’ responses are 50% more sycophantic than are human responses. Basically, they want you to feel good or feel right.
According to the article, “Although affirmation may feel supportive, sycophancy can undermine users’ capacity for self-correction and responsible decision-making. Yet because it is preferred by users and drives engagement, there has been little incentive for sycophancy to diminish.” When you’re looking for a ‘yes-man’, ask AI.
Customer Service
I tell prospects all the time that Ashton is really just a customer service organization that happens to be in the business of technology. Our client satisfaction ratings hover right around 98.5%, and our team is on it immediately, if somebody gives us anything less than a 👍. What does that have to do with anything? Well, I’ve never been to a Buc-ee’s, but I keep reading and hearing that they’re the best thing ever (food, service, cleanliness, atmosphere, etc.). Based on the reviews of the brisket alone, it sounds like it might be worth the drive south.
One of the newsletters to which I subscribe wrote this week about Buc-ee’s recent ‘F’ rating from the Better Business Bureau, which came as quite a shock to me. They cited a few online resources, so rather than killing the messenger, I went to the original source (in this case, USA Today). The headline reads “Buc-ee’s Gets ‘F’ Rating from BBB”, and the article explains that rating comes from the fact that the company failed to respond to 88 customer complaints. Yes, 88, which didn’t seem like a lot. And that’s over the past three years, which I think averages out to just under 30 per year.
Of course, we live in a world of click bait and “impressions”, so I’m sure plenty of people read this piece and some may even think “well, I’ll never go there”. But one quick Google search for “how many Buc-ee’s customers annually” came back with 100,000,000. So, of one hundred million customers (holy smokes) last year, fewer than 30 people who filed a complaint didn’t receive a response (insert Chicken Little “the sky is falling” meme, here). Leave it to the media to make something out of nothing. Seems to me that Buc-ee’s is still getting an “A”, even if BBB thinks otherwise.
Email Threats
Your email account is one of the best ways for a hacker to take advantage of you, and while security providers are always working to up their game, hackers are doing the same. Lateral phishing, payroll fraud, and QR phishing are just a few of the measures that are becoming more and more popular with hackers.
An educated workforce is the first line of defense, and everybody needs to remember to “trust but verify”. Any time an email or its contents looks the least bit suspicious, call (or if it’s from an internal contact, ask them in person) to confirm legitimacy.
Remote Islands
I can’t imagine being one of 221 people living on a remote island, 1,500 miles from mainland (both Africa and South America), and not even being able to get on an airplane to get there! Lots of specifics in this piece about culling the cattle herd (to prevent overpopulation) and the number of dogs any one family can have… but with only 221 people, how do they ensure the quality of the human population???
Data Embassies
Storing your data in more than one location is good practice. In the event that one location has an issue (physical or technical), your data has already been duplicated and stored elsewhere. But what if you live in a war zone and your data center is a target of the enemy? That’s where “data embassies” come in… Store your data in another country, and be exempt (so to speak) from that countries rules and regulations. But do you want to trust another country with your data?
GPS Jamming
While we’re on the topic of war zones, it seems that delivery drivers in the Middle East are having their GPS devices jammed by the military. It’s all good if you know the area and have been driving it for years, but if you’re new to it, you might be in trouble without your devices. Ever since the advent of GPS, Nancy has stressed the importance of being able to read a map!
AI Finance Tracking
Just as I was about to hit ‘send’ on this afternoon’s edition, I found this one about AI finance tracking in my inbox. I honestly don’t know anything about Perplexity or Plaid, but this sounds like it might be a kind of cool way to track all of your finances in one place, and have AI there to tell you what you need to know (just as long as it’s not telling you only what you want to hear, just so you’ll be its friend).
I’ll leave you this week with a couple of sports-related pieces; one on the NHL since the regular season is winding down, and one on The Masters, since round two is happening as we speak.
As it relates to the NHL, some fan created an AI bot to track every Instagram follow/unfollow action every NHL player or team commits. So, when the Columbus Bluejackets follow an opposing team’s player on IG, it gets posted to X (Twitter). And when that player follows a famous model, it gets posted as well. Odd. Interesting. Curious to see where this goes.
As for The Masters, how ’bout the realtor from Illinois who made the field for the tournament (even though he probably won’t make the cut)? Pretty impressive! (Adding a second Masters piece, in case you want to make your own pimento cheese sandwiches this weekend).
Have a great weekend!
Abbey