Reflections of The Industry

John the Baptist, incorporating elements from the Island of Misfit Toys, set in a 1960s science fiction and splatter art style. 

Ai is The Death of the Internet

I recently released my "Greg's Ai Predictions & Visions of the New World" on Grwalters dot com.

Predictions are easy and fun. I've done it before and I'll do it again.

In the past, it was an exercise in entertainment.

My current(2024) list sways from the death of the C-Suite to suburbs as workplaces - live in the city, work in the suburbs without driving, of course.

I will continue to add detail to each over the next few months or so; indeed, the list has grown by two, bringing the total up from a dozen.

So, without much fanfare, I released the vision to the world, the Universe.

All normal stuff.

I went to the mother-of-all-blogs, TheDeathOfTheCopier and searched "the death of the internet".

The result was jaw dropping, at least for me. The search pulled up a post dated September 21, 2014, "The Death of the Internet, Paper...and Single Payer Healthcare".

Innocuous.

Until I dug deeper into the past revealing the present AND FUTURE.

The Resurgence of Managed Print Services: A New Dawn?

I've been asking this for over a year now, "Is MpS is back?"

Surprisingly, dealers and salespeople have been telling me their Prospects are asking for managed print services. Prospects have a definition of managed print services, see a need and are actively seeking out providers.  

Not like the old days.

MPS is not merely surviving; it's thriving and adapting in ways that promise a brighter, more efficient future for businesses worldwide.

Send in the Robots: They're Already Here #Tesla

Tesla unveils its latest humanoid robot, Optimus Gen 2, in demo video

the video is real...

The Convergence, in my humble view, is the point in time when all things become one.

Like a gravity well or blackhole, everything in the real; time, technology, society, politics, even our individual conscious, share the same space and time.

Think of it like how phone, cable, and the internet were all single, siloed disciplines - now they are one.

For Ai, another step toward general intelligence involves participating on the same physical versus virtual world.  Sensors come to mind as Ai connects to the sights, sounds.  

Those two senses are covered. Touch, taste and smell are not far behind. 

Actually, they are already here.

My January 2023 Interview with GTP: Asking questions about data and quantum computing?

How important is asking questions when working with ChatGtp or any other AI?

One night, more accurately, early on January morning, I sat in front of a computer and hashed out an understanding with ChatGPT3.0.

We "talked" about questions and quantum computing.  Connecting desperate data sets and ubiquitous sensors.

This is the result of my interview of OpenAI ChatGPT, January, 2023.

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Artificial Intelligence And Your Dealership: The Next Managed Print Services?

Did you know that back in 2009, the term 'managed print services' was met with outright disdain? Dealers and OEMs would exclaim, 'Shrink the fleet to reduce costs? That's heresy in a world built on selling copiers!' Fast forward to today, and we're on the cusp of another paradigm and the most significant shift—this time, powered by Artificial Intelligence.

As Andrew Ng, co-founder of Google Brain and a leading voice in AI, puts it, 'AI is the new electricity.' Just as electricity transformed numerous industries over a century ago, AI is poised to do the same today. 

So, is AI merely the new MpS, or is it something far more transformative?

• Mckinsey: $4.4T of value added world-wide annually
• 80% of all jobs are subject to being enhanced by Generative AI
• In just the last year, a staggering 400 AI start-ups have emerged, gobbling up an eye-watering $24.6 billion in investment. Source: Visual Capitalist

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For the last six months, I've been using Artificial Intelligence (AI)in the form of a Large Language Model (LLM) every single day - cutting edge.  More like bleeding edge.

Why aren't you using AI? Today?

The Future of AI in the Workplace: Opportunities and Challenges

Source: Wall Street Journal

Date: May 15, 2023

Key Highlights:

• AI is transforming workplace ethics, with people more likely to instruct AI to use deception in negotiations, underscoring the need for research into AI's ethical implications.
• AI has the potential to augment the intelligence of older workers, enabling them to leverage their extensive experience and knowledge more effectively.
• Generative AI can significantly boost productivity, particularly for low-skilled workers, potentially narrowing the productivity gap between different skill levels.

Greg's Words

I've been talking about The Great Convergence for over a decade.  It's meant many different things: the convergence of TV, Cable, and the Internet.  The convergence of the internet and business software(the Cloud). Finally, the convergence of generations.

Artificial Intelligence gives every generation access to knowledge simultaneously.  Time will no longer dictate the accumulation of knowledge.  Indeed, artificial intelligence may disconnect wisdom from experiences.

Enjoy.

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The U.S.-China Standoff Intensifies: Recent Developments and Their Impact on Tech Trade

From Copiers to Superpowers: When Office Tech Meets International Espionage

Greg's Words

China is not our friend.  The country is not a good trade partner. The society is one of compliance with the state - China regulates everything from access to the Internet, to how many children a couple can create.  The political system is directly opposed to democracy, independence, and freedom.

But they make things really cheap - computer chips and Fentanyl. 

In the office technology niche, toner and printers from China are but a slice of the market; less than a sidebar in the world debate - somewhat analogous to a canary in the coal mine.

We've distilled multiple articles into this summary of the current situation: China wants to put a listening base on Cuba.

What we should do:

1. End the War in Ukraine
2. Invite Russia into NATO or
3. Dissolve NATO
4. Purchase the island of Cuba.

Article Executive Points -

• China and Cuba have reached a secret agreement for China to establish an electronic eavesdropping facility in Cuba, a development that poses a new geopolitical challenge to the U.S.
• The US-China relationship has further been strained by an incident where the U.S. shot down an alleged Chinese spy balloon. China insists it was a civilian airship used for meteorological research, but the US has protested against this as a violation of their sovereignty.
• These geopolitical tensions are playing out against the backdrop of an escalating tech trade war between the US and China. The tech industry, a major contributor to the US trade deficit with China, finds itself at the center of these trade disputes.

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DOTC 2022 Beyond the Internet: The Evolution of Global Connectivity

The Death of the Internet and Other Ramblings...

DOTC, 2022 remastered.

The original article was written in 2022. I've fed it to the LLM in the sky and asked to rewrite and incorporate its suggestions.

Enjoy. GW

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Executive Summary:

1. As we approach a new era of technological singularity, there are several indicators suggesting the demise of the Internet, including the shift towards cloud-based services, increasing privacy concerns, the diminishing relevance of traditional internet addresses, and the rise of Bio/Nanotechnology and direct device-to-device communication.
2. The evolution of technology is characterized by cycles of expansion and contraction, with the next expansion anticipated to move from the cloud to the human, leading to a global, person-to-person network.
3. The future may see a world where everything is interconnected through solar-powered, self-replicating, nano-bio-bots, rendering the concept of servers redundant as each individual and object becomes its own server, communicating directly with others.

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Companies Embrace Efficiency to Tackle Inflation and Economic Uncertainty:Without Copier Salespeople

 

Source: The Wall Street Journal

Date: April 29, 2023

Greg's Words

For decades, we in the copier industry have been telling prospects our hardware "increases productivity and reduces costs". We lied. Well, we defined the narrative to fit our mission of selling 10 copiers a month. (or whatever)

The world is increasing productivity and reducing costs through more efficient workflows - and if you are simply selling copiers, printers, or MpS, they are doing it without you and viewing your relationship as a target for cost reduction.

AI eats workflows 24/7 and will decimate everything from middle management to the C-Suite.

More than how the internet shook things up, bigger than that gift from Prometheus, and vastly more liberating than the invention of the Wheel, Generative AI is shifting our world, changing how we work, chit-chat, learn, and more. 

Hold onto your linen, because the speed of this tech revolution is faster than light. These jaw-dropping tools we're ogling at today? They'll be old news by year's end since they're leveling up like crazy and getting mixed into other gizmos and services at breakneck speed. 

Buckle up, buttercups, 'cause we're in for a wild one...

Key highlights: 

• Companies like AT&T and Meta Platforms are focusing on efficiency and productivity improvements in response to economic challenges. 
• AT&T's Project Raindrops initiative aims to simplify and eliminate unnecessary business processes, saving employees nearly 3 million hours a year. 
• While the impact of small improvements on the bottom line is difficult to quantify, research suggests that saved time is often reinvested in the company as additional work.

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Will AI Clones Replace Us?

 

Can AI Joanna fool the world and take a day off for the real Joanna?

Source: The Wall Street Journal

Date: April 28, 2023

Greg's Words

I remember the time I sold a PC, WordPerfect, and an HP Laser Series II to a legal assistant in a one-man lawyer office, in Grand Blanc, Michigan.  On her desk was an IBM Selectric.  She was proud of her ability to type four to five custom letters in 45 minutes; she was VERY good at her job and ran the office with razor-sharp efficiency.

Cutting edge, she convinced her boss to purchase a new contraption(IBM PS/2, AT?) to help her do more.

Her eyes lit up as letter after letter crept out of the LaserJet - blazing eight pages per minute.  She was giddy.

Suddenly, like a cloud drifting over the blueberry fields of Imlay City, her smile dissolved into shadow and I swear the blood rushed out of her cheeks.  Her cheer was supplanted by Doom.  She suddenly saw the whole of the Moon; her job, lifestyle, and future were shockingly in question. Obsolete.

Reading the Wall Street Journal entry by Joanna Stern, brought me back to that rainy, Mid-Michigan day in 1989.   Technology is so cool, it's Cold.

"AI Joanna" is the HP Series II of the day, a creation utilizing readily available resources producing less-than-perfect results.  Time is compressing, from 'normal' to 'AI Time', years are months, days hours and although AI Joanna is not 'perfect', somewhere in the wild, today, there is a perfect Replicant giving a local newscast or weather report.

We've put together a quick summary of the article.

Enjoy!

How the Adult Film Industry Helped Shape Technology as We Know It

Sex sells, but it also inspires: How the adult film industry shaped the tech landscape we know and love.

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Ok - here we go... a walk down memory lane and talk about the good old days of VHS and dial-up internet and porn. 

The adult film industry played a significant role in shaping the technology we use today. From the format wars to online streaming, porn was at the forefront of innovation. 

Today, as we enter the age of AI-based personal assistants, I'm left wondering: how will porn drive the evolution and standards? How'd porn impact tech in the past, and what it could mean for the future of AI.

First, we've been here before.  No matter how evolved one might think the human race is, base desires still drive progress in all things.  There's a coined phrase, "erotic technology impulse".  

John Tierney, a fellow at Columbia University studied the cultural impact of technology, traced the “erotic technological impulse” back at least 27,000 years—among the first clay-fired figures uncovered from that time were women with enhanced body parts. 

“Sometimes the erotic has been a force driving technological innovation,” Tierney wrote in The New York Times in 1994, “virtually always, from Stone Age sculpture to computer bulletin boards, it has been one of the first uses for a new medium.”

Fascinating.

The Land of Artificial Intelligence: Where SEO Goes to Die

Welcome to the future of search - where ChatGPT leads the way and SEO is a thing of the past.

Welcome to the Future.

This is why Google is freaking out and the behemoth, Microsoft, dropped ten billion dollars in the lap of OpenAI - Artificial Intelligence is changing the way we work, access information and Live and the adoption curve is a straight line up.

"There is blood in the water."

Artificial Intelligence, or Augmented Intelligence, is transforming the way we access information and work, rendering traditional search engines and websites obsolete. The impact of AI adoption is causing giants like Google and Microsoft to invest heavily in the technology, with OpenAI receiving a ten-billion-dollar investment from Microsoft.

The future of the PC is often attributed to  

"I think there is a world market for maybe five computers."

Thomas J. Watson, Jr., the former CEO of IBM, 1971

Supposedly.

ConnectWise FirstStrike: ChatGPT Integration and The DOTC AI in Sales Course

ConnectWise has integrated OpenAI's ChatGPT with its remote monitoring and management (RMM) tools, ConnectWise Automate and ConnectWise RMM. This integration makes ConnectWise the first to release an OpenAI integration in the managed services industry. MSPs will be able to automate customer ticketing and issue-tracking processes to provide faster response times and improve customer service and engagement.

"Things that I know or are rumored to be:

Business last year increased by 34% in some areas and 57% overall

The number of endpoints increased over the past 24 months..."

- GW

ChatGPT: The Next Step in Artificial Intelligence and Its Implications for the Workforce

I've been messing around with ChatGPT over the past week and let me tell you, things are about to change big time. 

To be honest, it's got me feeling pretty scared.

It's worth considering what would happen if we gave it more memory, access to the internet to continue updating its model

ChatGTP Rewrites a Original Post in the Voice of S King - Alpha or Omega? Yes.

The march toward oblivion continues AI and writing.  

Is it the Alpha or Omega? Yes.

The debate is just starting the result is inevitable.  Like the Luddites, haters of Gutenberg, chalk and slate tablets, calculators, spellcheck, wordprocessing templates, mail merge, answering machines, and 'talkies', to quote a great movie, "It just doesn't matter."

From Picese to Aquarius - Inevitable.

I took a very nice post on LinkedIn about a blue-ish typewriter and sent it through that Great Machine asking for a rewrite in the voice of Stephen King.

Four Flavors of AI Through the Eyes of ChatGPT

"Early adoption of these innovations can drive significant competitive advantage and business value and ease problems associated with the fragility of AI models."

The ChatGPT phenom is historic for those who generate content - this is certain.  But it doesn't take too much to see the linguistics app is just the tip of the iceberg.  It's more than asking Siri for directions and receiving unsolicited weather updates from Alexa.

• Tell it what you want to do on a spreadsheet and it will write the macro.
• Tell it what you want to program for the interwebs and it will write the HTML.
• Ask it to analyze a 1000-word article about the four types of AI, summarize it into a 500-word blog, and write both a Tweet and a LinkedIn post intro and it does.

Ask it to apply the previous content and write an article on the impact of AI on the Office Technology industry - in the voice of Hemingway - and then put together an outline, and agenda, for a show, with sample questions, about How a copier salesperson can use ChatGPT to find more prospects and sell more copiers and document management software solutions?

I did and it did.

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2023 Predictions - "After The Fire, the Fire Still Burns"

Past and Future According to Greg Walters

Here we go...

Upon an ocean of auguries and reflections, my contrarian tendencies pull me into ignoring if not despising each "end of the year" account and "predictions for next year".  So many articles and pontifications - it's stifling.  

Who needs it? 

Well, low and behold, I've surrendered to the waves, to the Fire.  Here is my contribution to the deadwood of 2022 and the albatross of 2023.

*SPECIAL NOTE IF YOU WANT TO SKIP TO SEE YOUR FUTURE SCROLL ALL THE WAY DOWN TO "Artificial Intelligence" becomes simply "Intelligent".*

Three Steps for Your #ManagedprintServices Practice

There were dark days.  

Back in 2007, MpS was new, on the edge, and a bit contrarian.  The year was 2007, copiers were flying off the shelf, and everybody signed a 60-month lease with an accompanying service agreement.  A4 was a dirty word.

MpS didn’t flourish it sputtered and more often failed. Stories of fallen MPS practices outnumbered the successful.

I, myself, declared MpS dead in 2011 because the discipline became adulterated into the lowest price possible. The race to the bottom was inevitable.

Today, I look upon the contemporary MpS ecosystem and see customers calling dealers looking to sign MpS contracts, more MpS press coverage, INCREASED membership in your MPSA, ridicule, and criticism from industry "pundits" and “shills” it’s beginning to feel like the ‘good old days.  Sorta. My optimism is cautionary.

#WorkFromHome Will Save Cities

I've been saying "the 'good' things about city life will move to where the customers and audiences live and work."

• "Broadway" moves off-broadway into the burbs and countryside...
• Marc Forgione opens in Brighton...
• The local coffee joint builds a conference room...
• 5G helps telepresence flourish...

All the good things about cities will move closer to their customers and audiences.  Makes sense.

But there is something else - Remote Workers will save NYC.