CTO Breakfast Notes for Sept. 8th, 2023

Another great CTO Breakfast discussion this month. Come join us on the first Friday of the month for breakfast. You can sign up for the email list on the website (https://ctobreakfast.com/) to get notified of future breakfasts. Can’t make it? Join us on the Slack channel. (Details on the website)

The topics for September included:

• Heber growth / Swiss Days / Airport improvements
• Dave Fletcher retired last week from being the Utah State CIO
• Claude AI – https://claude.ai/login
• Microsoft’s announcement of copyright indemnification for AI-generated content – https://blogs.microsoft.com/on-the-issues/2023/09/07/copilot-copyright-commitment-ai-legal-concerns/
• Utah State AI Strategic plan
• Private AI models to avoid exposing data to the public model
• Zwave wall switches
• NPS store in SLC – Great place for low-cost industrial surplus equipment – https://npsstore.com/
• Home Depot mobile app – Great for finding products in the store
• Buying floor model TVs to guarantee they work and get ~ 50% discount
• Using large language models for storytelling/writing, legislation, policies, and code. Prompt phrases: “Talk about their thoughts and emotions”, “give me 5 examples of”, “Go through each example and expand on the following topics”
• YouTube channels for niche topics
• Offroad recovery/towing – https://www.youtube.com/@MattsOffRoadRecovery
• Power washing – https://www.youtube.com/@SBPressureWashing
• PB mowing – https://www.youtube.com/@SBMowing
• Conspiracy theories on Maui wild fires vs. wind storm snapping power poles on the upper slope
• Directed energy weapons
• Fake super moon photos using tortillas on a black surface
• Derek Carter is doing another DevOps co-work day at BYU/UVU
• Date finalized next week
• Tool demo in the morning
• Full day, on your own for lunch
• Payment methods – Venmo, Zelle, Paypal
• Microsoft zero-day attack – BLASTPASS https://thehackernews.com/2023/09/apple-rushes-to-patch-zero-day-flaws.html
• Mcdonald’s ice cream machine uptime issues – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SrDEtSlqJC4
• BMW reversed their position on software-enabled features – https://www.forbes.com/sites/alistaircharlton/2023/09/07/bmw-drops-controversial-heated-seats-subscription-to-refocus-on-software-services/?sh=474dc4b86d1d
• Electric vs. gas vehicles
• Bellingcat open source intelligence agency – https://www.bellingcat.com/
• Family Search AI/LLM capabilities for handwriting recognition
• Duolingo, Google Translate, and other translation/language learning tools