ResponsibleAI

Hello, and welcome to Responsible, by ClearOPS, a newsletter about ResponsibleAI and other responsible business practices.

Welcome to my favorite day of the week! I am Caroline, your host for this newsletter. I am corporate attorney, founder of an AI Governance tech company using Gen AI and an amateur cook.

What I have for you this week:

• Won’t you be my … friend, AI?

• I tried, and failed, to find a website builder that was all done by Gen AI

• Caroline’s weekly musings

• Chef Maggie recipe of the week!

• How to build an AI Governance program

• AI Bites & Tools Tried

Last week, Google’s Dear Sidney ad was removed after being placed in its ads rotation during the Olympic games. In case you did not see it or hear about it, the ad depicted a father using Gemini AI to help write a heart felt letter from his daughter to her favorite Olympic athlete. The backlash over this was significant.

Understandably. If Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone had read a letter supposed to be from a child who looked up to her as a hero and then found out it was written by a machine, I can surmise that she would feel tricked or even defrauded.

Using AI to manipulate a human connection is against most ethics principles.

Avi Schiffmann, the founder of an AI companion necklace, Friend, strongly disagrees.

He thinks an AI friend that “solves the loneliness epidemic” is going to be big and raised $2.5M from some successful investors to get it going. He states clearly that his AI is not meant to perform tasks, like Alexa. Instead, it is meant to be a constant companion, like a dog who talks. There is no privacy with Friend (except, supposedly, all your conversations stay on the device) and Schiffmann believes that people crave it, even if no one is really saying that at the moment.

I can’t help but wonder if Gen Z entering into the workforce is bringing with it a connection to the online world, an emotional one, that us older folks cannot comprehend.

I am trying to keep an open mind, but it is really hard because my ethics cries out against it.

When I originally started this newsletter, I spoke about researching various AI tools and giving an opinion on how they work. For the past month, I have been testing a website builder called B12. With B12, you enter a few prompts about your new business and it will create a website for you.

I did this with a new domain I bought, called ClearOPSAI.com. The reason I chose B12 is because it promises to help with SEO, which is notoriously challenging for those who don’t live in that world.

aka me.

After a month playing with B12 and being frequently pushed their support services, which means actual people building my website for me, I can confidently opine that using text to generate a website is still an immature market. It is why they push those people intensive services. The website is fine, but it certainly isn’t mind blowing. But the worst part is it is a one prompt or nothing sort of experience. Where is my ability to custom prompt each segment, page or picture even?

That is not to say I do not like my interaction with B12. I have found it to be a better experience than Wix or Squarespace and a lot easier to learn than Webflow. If I was launching a new company, I would use B12, with the intent of moving to Webflow once I had a little traction. If you try it, let me know.

Caroline’s musings: