Avoiding The AI Hypetrain
I have to admit, I do find it a bit amusing to watch someone climb onboard a hypetrain at the exact moment that said train is hurtling off a cliff. It does spoil the fun though, when that someone is an apex organization for the national coopererative movement. Unfortunately, that's what it felt like last week when I happened upon a video of NCBA CLUSA's most recent Co-op Circle Happy Hour. The topic for the event was "Cooperatives on AI, Data, and Democracy"; and the first 10 minutes consisted of a presentation by NCBA's Senior Director of Information Technology about ways that co-ops can use "AI."
I put "AI" in scare-quotes because that term covers a broad range of tools that have very little, if anything, in common with each other.