LLMs [that is, large language model generative AI systems] are essentially ‘conventional wisdom’ machines. Bruno Massarelli read more »

[I’m interrupting my series on generative AI for this bulletin on Silicon Valley Bank.] read more »

I love you. Bing/ChatGPT to tech reporter

It’s almost impossible to overestimate the stakes for generative AI systems like ChatGPT. Google has long dominated internet search, holding more than a 90% market share. Microsoft’s Bing, meanwhile, has been a pathetic also-ran, holding down market shares in the single digits and being not only largely ignored but also ridiculed. Google’s dominance brings in about $200 billion a year in advertising revenue. read more »

ChatGPT is scary good. Elon Musk

Every so often a technology captures the world’s imagination. The Economist read more »

A month or so ago a reader of these pages wrote in to let me know she had concluded that my essays had been written by “a particularly dim-witted Artificial Intelligence bot.” read more »

I’d assured Joe Hardy that his vision for Nemacolin was flat-out nuts. But Joe was as good as his word and over the years Nemacolin blossomed into a first-class destination resort. Joe’s hotel gained Triple A 5-Diamond status, the resort’s wine cellar grew into the largest in Pennsylvania, and his restaurant became the most expensive place to eat in the state (for a while). read more »

I guess that all I can hope for is that, when people think of me, they think, ‘Hey, that jackass started out with only $5,000 and made a fortune. Maybe I can, too!’ Joe Hardy to Jeff Sewald in Pittsburgh Quarterly read more »

I had no choice but to fire “Harry” on the spot – and then have him carefully escorted off the property so he wouldn’t steal the silverware –  but that left me with no one to run Nemacolin and four muckety-mucks arriving in a few days. “Don,” the weird private eye I’d hired, promptly offered to “take command.” read more »

I’d hired a guy named “Harry” to run Nemacolin for me, and a private eye named “Don” to check up on Harry, but I wasn’t a completely hands-off boss. As Harry began improving the ambience of the place, I got involved, changing the named from “Nemacolin” to “Nemacolin Woodlands” and sketching out a logo that we would use throughout the place, including on the new, expensive china we were ordering. read more »

Back some years ago I became the head of a family office for one of America’s wealthiest families. Very near the top of my to-do list, which the family had unceremoniously handed me on my first day, was something that read, “Sell Nemacolin.” read more »