AI is built into everything now. In truth it has been for a really, really long time – as far back as the ‘60s. We’ve incorporated it into our daily lives with maps, with autocomplete, and with autocorrect. And we know from our experiences there that it isn’t always right! [I actually leave type-os in my personal texts rather than wrestle with the autocorrect monster. At least they know it’s really coming from me 😊]
I recently met with a Toronto company called Noviscent. They scan your AI code for security threats and can map it back to compliance frameworks, for example PIPEDA and ISO standards. This could be a game-changer because, to quote their language, so many opportunities stay confined to “demo-land”. Typically the folks with the skills that got them to the demo don’t have the skills to validate data protection and regulatory compliance, and they don’t have colleagues to turn to for in-house expertise.
The work that I do with ProofWorksAI comes much earlier in the process. Typically a client will be wanting to sell more product, and may be seeking (for example) to understand the features that are the most likely indicators, or identify the best time to launch something new. They have 4 or 5 (or 10!) different datasets about their clients and products, and when variables from all of that are correlated and analyzed, they get ongoing help solving these mysteries. To do that requires a custom AI, which means developers need a requirements document. We use industry methodologies to do thorough requirements gathering which factors in success factors, ROI, and technical specs.
And finally, the hosting dilemma. If you’re thinking of bringing in a new solution and want to “do it right” – there’s another hill to climb. The Patriot Act was a huge bone of contention when I was coming up in my career. I was excited to discover ThinkOn, a Canadian cloud company that stores data locally and has been built specifically to support the public sector space.
It’s also a Diamond Tier participant in NetZero, whose target is 0 carbon emissions by 2050 – the other half of “doing it right”. The big players have made substantial commitments to neutralizing carbon emissions, and campuses themselves – you know this – are making great strides to be sustainable through the research you’re conducting, by training tomorrow’s leaders, and through daily operations.