If Microsoft’s AI tool, Copilot, didn’t give you satisfactory responses to your prompts, that’s your fault:
Linked - Microsoft Says Copilot Users Would Love It More If They Wrote Better Prompts
It’s never a good look when technologists respond to criticism like this.
Welcome to this week’s collection of thought-provoking things. Each week, I’ll share information about careers and workplace culture, mental health in the workplace, talent development, and important information about privacy, security, and legal tech.
You can find out all about me here - Mike McBride Online.
As I mentioned in the linked post above, the hype around AI is massive, and much of it surrounds the idea that AI Chatbots are so easy to use that anyone can use them. There’s no training needed, and they’ll change your world. Please don’t throw that back at me when they don't.
We've seen this before. Ask anyone who dared question blockchain, NFTs, the metaverse, or crypto. The criticism was met with similar responses, usually as "you don't get it." This response was meant to dismiss your concerns as uneducated, and yet there were severe problems with those emerging technologies, and we've seen them play out. Let me give you an example of a problem that exists. I gave Copliot a URL and asked it to summarize the article at that link. It was a very eloquent and detailed summary. Unfortunately, none of the information in the summary matched the article. It seems that Copilot took the words from the URL rather than following the link, searching the Web, finding other websites, and providing a summary. That's not a poor prompt. That's a misunderstanding of what I instructed it to do.
AI might eventually change the world. However, the technology that exists can be disappointing. Microsoft and other AI champions need to accept that and work to improve it. Telling people they aren't prompting correctly isn't how to get buy-in. It's elitist for no reason.
Related - Disillusioned Businesses Discovering That AI Kind of Sucks
Careers and the Workplace
Maribel Rivera has an essential message for the legal community - Beyond the Jokes this April 1st: A Serious Take on Sexual Harassment Awareness.
While we’re on the topic - Creating Safe Spaces via The Masters Conference and Women in eDiscovery
Linked - How To Communicate Better At Work Easily And Accomplish More
This is the key to all the skills that Liz writes about to help us communicate better. If the leaders in your workplace are not communicating, and we see how critical listening is to that communication, the rest of the team is unlikely to be doing it well, either. It's a modeled behavior. When leaders are open to connection, listen carefully to their reports, and work toward clarity and agreement, that flows into how the team interacts. When leaders only issue directives without consideration for the humans who report to them, you'll see that same behavior across the team.
If you struggle with networking but know it’s necessary, maybe this can help. - Transform Your Approach to Networking to Grow Your Career
There is some interesting discussion about law firms and “doing things the way we’ve always done them” in this article. Maybe it’s time to embrace change. - The Cost of Tradition: Unpacking Law Firms' Return-to-Work Policies
Training and Development
Mental Health in the Workplace
Nicole notes that the mental health statistics are “particularly troubling.” She’s right. - ABA Legal Profession Report Part 1: Wages, Pro Bono Work, and Mental Health.
These stats are a few years old now. I wonder if it’s gotten any better. - Linked: Male Leaders Are the Leading Cause of Burnout for Working Women, Study Finds
Privacy, Security, and Legal Tech
Craig Ball adds his take on the ongoing discussion - What’s All the Fuss About Linked Attachments?
Five Great Reads on Cyber, Data, and Legal Discovery for March 2024
There is a lot of talk about using AI in the legal industry, but I sometimes wonder if we’ve gotten ahead of this conversation - Emerging Use Cases and the Future of AI for Legal
Bringing this issue full circle. If you wonder whether Microsoft is betting the entire business on AI, they are - Microsoft, OpenAI plan $100 billion data-center project, media report says.
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