Categories
Artificial Intelligence Education Reading

Latest Read: The Worlds I See

The Worlds I See: Curiosity, Exploration, and Discovery at the Dawn of AI by Fei-Fei Li.

The Worlds I See: Curiosity, Exploration, and Discovery at the Dawn of AI by Fei-Fei Li

Fei-Fei holds a BA in Physics from Princeton University, MS and PhD in Electrical Engineering from California Institute of Technology. She is Professor in the Computer Science Department at Stanford University and Co-Director of Stanford’s Human-Centered AI Institute.

A Former Director of Stanford’s AI Lab she also served as Vice President and Chief Scientist for AI/ML at Google Cloud during her sabbatical from Stanford. She is co-founder of the nonprofit organization AI4ALL, aimed at increasing diversity and inclusion in AI education.

This book is a wonderful story of Fei-Fei’s life including the hardships her family endured leaving China to settle in America and smuggling to get by while a young girl. Another inspiration for the American dream as she took care of her ailing mother who dedicated her life to her daughter.

Throughout the book it is very clear Fei-Fei is moving between AI’s ability to become somewhat alarming to very optimistic to the potential of this technology.

Categories
Education Reading

Latest Read: The Innovation Ultimatum

The Innovation Ultimatum: Six Strategic Technologies That Will Reshape Every Business in the 2020s by Steve Brown

The Innovation Ultimatum: Six Strategic Technologies That Will Reshape Every Business in the 2020s by Steve Brown

Steve holds a MSc in Microelectronic Systems From The University of Manchester UK. Today he is a self employed AI Futurist. Previously in marketing roles at Intel and DeepMind.

My organization considered bringing Steve to speak at our annual employee development day. Since his book is available in our Learning Management System, I took the time to understand his position and learn potential impacts upon our organization.

Steve is outlining a guide to six key technologies that promise to reshape society and businessin the coming decade: artificial intelligence (AI), distributed ledgers and blockchain, the Internet of Things (IoT), autonomous machines, virtual and augmented reality, and 5G.

As usual the first to embrace any one will reap the rewards. However this is no longer a hard truth.
Steve does in fact start strong in the first section addressing AI and blockchain. Then the remainder of the book is repetitive and disappointing.

Categories
Education Innovation Reading

Latest Read: Doing Agile Right

Doing Agile Right: Transformation Without Chaos by Darrell Rigby, Sarah Elk, and Steve Berez

Doing Agile Right: Transformation Without Chaos by Darrell Rigby, Sarah Elk, and Steve Berez

Darrell holds a MBA from Harvard Business School. He is a Senior Partner at Bain & Company and is a founder and leader of Bain’s Innovation and Agile Practices. Sarah holds an MBA from Harvard Business School and is a partner at Bain & Company with a focus on agile transformations and organizational change. Steve holds an MBA from Harvard Business School and is a partner at Bain & Company specializing in technology and agile practices. As a team they provide a deep and well-rounded perspective on implementing agile methodologies while avoiding common pitfalls associated with chaotic transformations.

Agile is a project management and software development approach that emphasizes flexibility, collaboration, and customer-centricity. It breaks projects into smaller phases called sprints. This permits teams to adapt quickly to changes and deliver value faster. It certainly has the power to transform work, but only if it’s implemented the correct way.

This isn’t a product or goal in itself, it’s a means to becoming an efficient operation. This book is really a must-read for any organization making transitions. They addresses the challenges many organizations face when implementing agile methodologies. They emphasize understanding and applying agile principles effectively in order to to achieve real transformation without falling into chaos. Today this is a tall order indeed, more than ever before.

Categories
Artificial Intelligence Education Innovation Reading

Latest Read: Brave New Worlds

Brave New Words: How AI Will Revolutionize Education by Salman Khan.

Brave New Words: How AI Will Revolutionize Education by Salman Khan

Sal holds BS in both mathematics and electrical engineering from MIT. He holds a MS in electrical engineering also from MIT with a MBA from Harvard Business School. Sal founded Khan Academy after tutoring his cousin in mathematics in 2004 and launched online video tutorials in 2006.

He wrote Brave New Worlds in fact for general audiences to teach them about the AI revolution in education. He addresses the implications for parents and how to best address AI for good. Sal starts simple with ChatGPT, showing how it will transform learning. In fact, there is a roadmap addressing teachers, parents, and even students on how to engage our AI world. Sal demonstrates his AI-powered tutoring service Khanmigo which was obviously developed by Khan Academy.

Readers will also appreciate this is not an AI technology book. Sal is laying out the impact upon our society and implications from educational administrators, teachers, and guidance counselors, to hiring managers. Companies will certainly demand employees be AI aware in their education to make their workplace competitive.

Categories
Artificial Intelligence Education Innovation Reading

Latest Read: The DevSecOps Playbook

The DevSecOps Playbook: Deliver Continuous Security at Speed by Sean D. Mack.

The DevSecOps Playbook: Deliver Continuous Security at Speed by Sean D. Mack

Sean holds a BS in Computer and Information Sciences from UC Santa Cruz and MBA from Seattle University. He is CIO and CISO at Wiley, VP of Operations and Applications at Pearson, Director of Global Product Development and Delivery at Experian, and Senior Director of Technical Operations at RealNetworks.

In fact, the term Development, Security, and Operations (DevSecOps) stands for a framework that integrates security into all phases of the software development lifecycle. Today more than ever before DevSecOps must deliver continuous security at the speed of business. DevSecOps can only succeed when the organization supports the triad of people, process, and tech to delver strong cybersecurity infrastructure and practices.

To simplify, DevSecOps emphasizes incorporating security measures from the beginning of the development process, rather than treating them as an afterthought or post deployment requirement. This approach identifies and mitigates potential security risks early on.

Sean outlines why it’s critical to shift security considerations to the front-end of the development cycle, how to do this, and how the evolution of a standard security model since the pandemic has impacted modern cybersecurity.