Opinion | I Helped Run Lululemon. The A.I. Revolution Is a Hot Mess. – The New York Times
[Ed note: this may be behind a paywall.]
I served as the chief information officer of the athletic apparel company Lululemon for eight years. Deploying new technologies, artificial intelligence included, was part of the job. But when I left, my successor was handed a new title: chief A.I. and technology officer.
I winced — not about the person but about the pattern. Companies these days are quick to stick “A.I.” in news releases, in earnings calls, in product names, in job postings and in titles at the top of their organizations. The real question is what strategy sits behind the abbreviation. A title costs nothing, but it doesn’t produce anything, either.
And that’s a problem. When companies mistake an announcement for a strategy, eventually they end up spending real money — and sometimes cut real jobs — chasing a future that isn’t actually being built. And in doing so, they’re persuading Americans to reject a powerful innovation that could do so much good for all of us.
The main thrust of this article seems to be that some fears of AI are the result of over-confidence and over-hyping AI and also poor implementation of AI that causes negative results, eroding trust in those who pushed it in the first place. For example, when layoffs come because AI can supposedly “do those jobs now” only to have the companies quietly hire back people to the laid off positions, trust disappears and fears rise.
We have to remember that AI is a tool and it can be used and misused. It behooves us to learn how to use it.
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