Hoping you’re staying cool and comfortable during the stickiest weather we’ve had this summer. As much as I try to go until December 1 before turning on our heat, I try to go until July 1 before turning on the AC. That fell apart on Wednesday as we finally caved in and closed the windows/fired up the cooling unit. Nancy’s broken ankle (suffered a week ago Sunday) is healing properly, and she appreciates the cooler air in the house. Meantime, I’m about to start wearing bubble wrap, because one week after she broke her ankle, my mom had a spill and broke her femur. All I can say is that it’s a good thing I have an orthopedic surgeon on speed dial and facebook messenger!
And speaking of Nancy, if you happen to see her, make sure to wish her a happy 33rd anniversary (today, June 12)! And congratulate her for putting up with me for that many years. And also wish my mom a quick recovery!
Now that that’s all out of of the way, you can scroll down for what seems to be a bunch of AI stuff (which is getting kind of boring, if you ask me). Fear not, though- In addition to AI broccoli and synthetic media, I have seersucker and Lord Stanley’s Cup!
Something about ...
Synthetic Media
Interesting piece on “synthetic media” (think deepfakes) and the idea that, rather than falling for AI generated images, people are going to stop believing authentic content (can confirm).
AI Web Users
While “experts” had once predicted that, by 2027, there would be more bots and AI agents surfing the web tselhan there was human traffic, it actually happened a year earlier. Research shows that 57% of web traffic is bots and AI agents while only 42% is human traffic. The increase in bots/AI agents comes from people sending agents online to do their dirty work for them. Personally, I’m not that busy that I need an agent to find a fishing guide, book my airfare, and confirm dinner reservations in Montana for me. I prefer to do that all myself, thank you very much.
Curious to know how many of you have one (or multiple) agents handling your personal business. And if my buddy Christofer is reading this, I’ll tell you next week how many agents he has running behind the scenes!
Lord Stanley's Cup
I will admit that while this year’s Stanley Cup finals are already being considered among the greatest hockey playoff series of all time, I haven’t been watching all that closely (tho I did watch game five last night while sitting on the deck, doing some work). My team (Edmonton) lost early on, so that took the fun out. And I’ve never cared for either Carolina or Vegas. Add to that the fact that one of our two dogs loses his mind when hockey is on tv (I can’t figure out whether it’s the crowd noise, the constant talking by the play by play announcer, or something else, but it doesn’t happen with baseball, football, lacrosse or any other sport), and it makes it difficult to watch, especially if it’s a game in which I don’t have a vested interest.
That all being said, I’ll probably pay more attention to these last two or three games, especially when Stanley is in the house and the chants of “We want the Cup” begin. As far as I’m concerned, there’s no better moment in sports than when the NHL commissioner hands the Cup to the winning team’s captain, and the guessing begins as to who he’ll hand it off to, next.
And since I’ve always been full of useless information, I imagine that I’m one of few who knows that the name of the primary “keeper of the Cup” is Phil Pritchard. Anybody else have that info tucked away in the back of their brain?
AI Broccoli Farming
AI is many things to many people. In the case of a broccoli farmer from Japan, he’s using AI to open/close the roof panels on his greenhouses, determine how to automatically control a tractor and keep it driving in a straight line, figure out how/when to water his plants, and act as an agent in the group chat between he and his employees. Pretty cool.
Religious Exemptions
Don’t want to use AI for your job? One employee was just given a religious exemption.
Seersucker
I broke out the seersucker pants on Wednesday for the first time this year, thanks to the heat. Then an article appeared listing 18 things men should do this summer. In addition to fishing (✅), mowing the lawn (✅), going to a ballgame (✅)and peeing outside (✅) was listed “wearing a seersucker suit.
Since the article was most recently updated five years ago, I figured I should see if it’s still current (not the I care about whatever is current as it regards fashion trends); and what do you know, but Congress just anointed June as “Seersucker Appreciation Month“. So, while I may or may not be fashionable, I am timely.
Mythos
Anthropic released their newest AI solution for public use earlier this week, after spending 1,000 hours confirming that it couldn’t be “jailbroken”. When the concerns are based on things like people using AI to create biological warfare agents, I’d like to think that they’d spend more than 1,000 hours on security!
AI Issues
Thanks to AI, the following things are happening; Microsoft released more patches on “Patch Tuesday” than they ever have before, as AI finds more and more vulnerabilities (that’s a good thing, unless you’re patching manually, in which case you’re completely overwhelmed and need to call Ashton!), CISA has changed guidelines, requiring the federal government to patch urgent vulnerabilities within three days (since hackers are using AI to find more and more opportunities), and insurance carriers are denying more AI claims due to increased cyberliability and the fact that only 21% of companies have AI guidance in place (good reason to call us for an AI readiness assessment).
I’ll leave you this week with a wicked line drive back through the box, a crazy baseball stat relating to distance between bat and ball on a swinging strike, and a reader submission following up on last week’s piece about crazy collections.
Have a great weekend!
Abbey