INDEPENDENT RESEARCH / PRACTICE NOTES

Ideas in motion, not ideas behind glass.¶

This is my working notebook on AI engineering, strategy, knowledge infrastructure, organizational transformation, and the human systems that determine whether innovation becomes real capability.

The notes range from emerging research questions to practical operating models. Some will become papers, tools, talks, or products. Others are here because thinking improves when it is made visible.

Evidence before theater Systems over slogans Useful, accountable AI

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Latest writing

February 16, 2023
in AI Governance, Human-Centered AI, Product Management
3 min read

Model behavior is an organizational decision

OpenAI has published a useful account of a difficult problem: how should a conversational artificial intelligence system behave, and who should decide? The company describes tensions among default behavior, user customization, safety boundaries, and the wide range of values held by people who use the system.

The question is often framed as model alignment. For organizations deploying these systems, it is also product governance. Every default encodes a decision about authority, acceptable variation, and whose judgment applies when values conflict.

February 7, 2023
in Human-Centered AI, Knowledge Strategy, Decision Support
3 min read

Search has become a knowledge-verification problem

Microsoft has introduced a new version of Bing that combines search with a conversational artificial intelligence system. Instead of returning only a ranked list of links, it can synthesize an answer, respond to follow-up questions, and show sources alongside the conversation.

This interface is convenient because it compresses the distance between a question and a usable explanation. It is risky for exactly the same reason.

February 1, 2023
in AI Strategy, Product Management, Operating Models
3 min read

A research preview has become a service

OpenAI has introduced ChatGPT Plus, a paid pilot that promises general access during busy periods, faster responses, and priority access to improvements. The price and feature list will receive most of the attention. The more consequential change is in the relationship between the user and the system.

A research preview invites exploration. A paid service creates expectations.

January 26, 2023
in AI Governance, Risk Management, Human-Centered AI
3 min read

AI risk management begins with context

The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) has released version 1.0 of its Artificial Intelligence Risk Management Framework (AI RMF). It is voluntary, sector-neutral, and deliberately flexible. That may frustrate anyone looking for a short compliance checklist. It is also the framework's most useful design choice.

Artificial intelligence (AI) risk is not a property of a model in isolation. It emerges from what the system is asked to do, the conditions under which it operates, the people who depend on it, and the organization's capacity to recognize and respond when it fails.

January 17, 2023
in AI Strategy, Platform Engineering, Enterprise Architecture
3 min read

Enterprise AI begins at the platform boundary

Microsoft has made Azure OpenAI Service generally available, giving approved customers access to large generative models through Azure's enterprise infrastructure. The announcement will be read primarily as expanded access to capable models. For organizations deciding whether to build with them, the more important development is the boundary being placed around those models.

Enterprise artificial intelligence (AI) begins where a general capability meets identity, data, security, reliability, cost, and accountability.

January 11, 2023
in AI Governance, Operating Models, Knowledge Strategy
3 min read

Responsible AI needs an operating system

Google has opened the year by publishing its most detailed account yet of how it puts artificial intelligence principles into practice. The report covers governance reviews, technical tools, education, and work across product teams. Its value is not that Google has found a universal formula. It is that the report makes a less glamorous truth visible: responsible artificial intelligence (AI) is an operating problem.

Principles matter. They tell an organization what it is trying to protect. But principles do not decide whether a particular use should proceed, determine which test is sufficient, or preserve the evidence behind a difficult exception.

January 5, 2023
in Human-Centered AI, Robotics, Digital Engineering
3 min read

Simulation is becoming part of the robotics product

The robots drawing attention at this week's Consumer Electronics Show (CES) are physical machines, but much of their meaningful development is happening somewhere less visible. NVIDIA's latest Isaac Sim release expands the use of synthetic data, cloud access, and human representations for developing and testing intelligent robots before they enter a warehouse, factory, or other operating environment.

That is more than a faster way to prototype. It suggests that simulation is becoming part of the robotics product itself.