AI for Breakfast

Chris Witham • May 23, 2024

Post 127 - Thought Thursday


Another thought of the day with thanks to ChatGPT for finding it.


"The new spring in AI is the most significant development in computing in my lifetime. Every month, there are stunning new applications and transformative new techniques." — Sergey Brin​ (Psychology Today)​​ (Salesforce)​


This quote from Sergey Brin encapsulates the excitement and rapid progress in the field of AI, making it a great fit for your blog focused on innovation and the future of technology.


And this from Perplexity:


You're absolutely right that Sergey Brin, the co-founder of Google, has expressed amazement at the rapid pace of progress in artificial intelligence in recent years. In the provided quotes, Brin highlights how AI advancements are surprising even to him, despite his deep involvement in the field.

Some key points from Brin's perspective:


  • AI is progressing faster than expected and surprising even tech leaders like himself who are closely involved[1][2]. Brin admits he "didn't pay attention" to early Google Brain AI projects, but now sees how pervasively AI touches Google's work[13].


  • AI could free people from mundane tasks to focus on more creative work, though Brin notes it's "almost impossible" to predict AI's full societal impact[13]. This suggests both excitement and uncertainty about AI's trajectory.


  • Brin sees AI as poised to dramatically reshape computing, calling recent AI breakthroughs "the most significant development in computing in my lifetime."[Query] He believes stunning new AI applications and techniques will continue emerging monthly.


  • His amazement reflects a broader trend of AI progress outpacing expectations. Many experts are surprised by the speed of advancement in areas like large language models, generative AI, and multimodal AI[8][10][14].

    So in summary, Sergey Brin, as a leading figure in the tech world, is himself astonished by AI's accelerating capabilities in recent years. He sees AI as a transformative force in computing, with immense potential to change how we live and work, even as its full implications remain unknown. His perspective underscores the remarkable and somewhat unpredictable nature of today's AI revolution.

    Citations:
    [1] https://imit.com/artificial-intelligence-ai-what-the-top-12-tech-leaders-believe/
    [2] https://www.forbes.com/sites/bernardmarr/2017/09/22/12-ai-quotes-everyone-should-read/?sh=6f66ec8558a9
    [3] https://yourstory.com/2019/08/google-sergey-brin-inspirational-quotes
    [4] https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0016328721001932
    [5] https://blogs.worldbank.org/en/opendata/the-transformative-role-of-ai-for-development-data
    [6] https://joinhandshake.co.uk/posts/ais-transformative-impact-on-career-paths/
    [7] https://www.mckinsey.com/featured-insights/mckinsey-explainers/what-is-generative-ai
    [8] https://www.salesforce.com/uk/news/stories/trends-in-app-development/?bc=HA
    [9] https://www.gartner.co.uk/en/articles/what-is-new-in-artificial-intelligence-from-the-2022-gartner-hype-cycle
    [10] https://blogs.nvidia.com/blog/ai-industry-gtc-2024/
    [11] https://www.zdnet.com/article/ai-in-2023-a-year-of-breakthroughs-that-left-no-human-thing-unchanged/
    [12] https://www.vationventures.com/blog/ais-transformative-force-on-business
    [13] https://www.cnbc.com/2017/01/19/google-co-founder-sergey-brin-said-he-is-surprised-by-pace-of-ai.html
    [14] https://www.livescience.com/technology/artificial-intelligence/3-scary-breakthroughs-ai-will-make-in-2024
    [15] https://technologymagazine.com/articles/nvidia-ai-breakthroughs-lead-to-growth-and-acceleration
    [16] https://www.imperial.ac.uk/news/249814/i-x-hosts-inaugural-conference-explore-latest/
    [17] https://www.simplilearn.com/top-technology-trends-and-jobs-article
    [18] https://www.raconteur.net/technology/the-transformative-potential-of-generative-ai
    [19] https://www.simplilearn.com/tutorials/deep-learning-tutorial/deep-learning-algorithm
    [20] https://www.technologyreview.com/2024/01/08/1085096/artificial-intelligence-generative-ai-chatgpt-open-ai-breakthrough-technologies/
Lines of colorful computer code on a dark background.
By Chris Witham December 11, 2025
Where AI really helps your Business If you spend any time on LinkedIn or X, you’ll have seen bold claims about how AI can help you build software in a matter of days. There’s a lot of excitement, a lot of big promises, and a fair bit of confusion for business owners trying to work out what’s real. A new term doing the rounds is “Vibe Coding” —the idea of describing what you want to an AI assistant and having it generate the code for you. It’s becoming popular because it can move things forward quickly and help people explore ideas they wouldn’t have been able to create alone. And the truth is, it does have its place. The challenge isn’t the technique. It’s the expectation that AI will automatically deliver finished, reliable, production-ready tools without any real design or thinking behind them. AI accelerates the work you already do well Used properly, AI can: • Remove huge amounts of repetitive work • Speed up drafting and iteration • Generate working prototypes in hours • Help non-technical people explore ideas • Improve documentation, planning and communication This is where it shines. But it still needs clarity, structure, and well-designed processes around it. It’s like having a very fast assistant rather than a fully formed development team. Why many AI projects don’t deliver what people expect Independent research this year showed a clear pattern: • Many early AI initiatives failed to produce measurable business value • Companies abandoned AI ideas because they couldn’t scale or integrate them • The gap between an impressive demo and a reliable tool is larger than people thought This doesn’t mean AI is overhyped. It means teams jumped straight to execution without the groundwork. The technology isn’t the issue. It’s the approach. Small businesses don’t need Enterprise Platforms Most UK small businesses don’t need to build a full software product. What they actually need is: • Better workflows • Faster content generation • Clearer communication • Improved customer support • Tools that reflect the way they work • Consistency and repeatability AI is perfect for this. A custom GPT trained on your tone, your documents and your processes can become: • A writing assistant • A customer support helper • A knowledge base navigator • An internal guide for staff • A quality-control layer • A process automator No engineering team needed. No complex infrastructure. No stress. Where AI builds real value right now AI works best when it’s part of a thoughtful, guided approach: • Define the outcome you want • Build a lightweight prototype (AI helps here) • Add structure, rules and guardrails • Connect it to your real workflow • Test it with real users or staff • Iterate until it feels natural You can still move fast. You just avoid building something brittle that breaks the moment it’s needed. The key insight: AI doesn’t replace expertise, it amplifies it AI is at its strongest when someone knowledgeable decides: • What it should do • What it shouldn’t do • How it should behave • What tone it should use • How it fits into the business • What checks and constraints matter That’s where tools like custom GPTs genuinely shine. They’re not software products in the traditional sense. They’re flexible assistants shaped around your business. With the right design, they can save huge amounts of time and deliver consistent, practical value without any of the complexity of building a full system. A more useful way to think about AI in 2026 Instead of “AI will build everything for you”, a healthier mindset is: AI speeds up the work, but you set the direction. For small businesses, that’s more than enough to make a real difference.
By Chris Witham August 21, 2025
Website Planet Interview
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