Explaining decisions made with AI — a statutory requirement (1/2) A guide for non-technical stakeholders As part of my work on an ML/AI related innovation project, with strong ethical implications, I’m reading a number of related documents. Here is the first of a series of articles summarising my learnings. This article is a Tl;Dr summary of “Explaining decision made with AI” by CIO and Alan Turing Institute. But why this summary: first, the original document is 100+ pages, the second that while there is interesting information, the document suffers what so many of such documents suffer from ..read more

Early thoughts on using LLMs for story writing In the vast landscape of online content, we frequently encounter articles proclaiming revolutionary tricks to enhance productivity using tools like chatGPT. As someone skeptical of such ‘quick fixes’ in the productivity space, my curiosity led me to explore the potential of using chatGPT to generate user stories. In this exploration, I discovered both promising aspects and limitations that merit consideration. Online platforms, particularly LinkedIn, are flooded with clickbait, touting generative AI, particularly chatGPT, as the ultimate tool ..read more

Explaining decisions made with AI — a statutory requirement (2/2) More details… This is the second part of my posts reviewing the ICO/Turing Institute guidance on AI explainability of algorithmic decisions. This post adds further detail to the overview given in part 1 and doesn’t really make that much sense on it’s own… Explaining decisions made with AI — a statutory requirement (1/2) Legal basis While we are only more recently seeing explicit legal considerations regarding algorithms, existing regulations and legal provisions, even if they do not mention AI specifically (often deliberat ..read more

Musings on existential risk I’m very excited to announce my lightning talk at DevOps Days Amsterdam 19th -21st June Here is a teaser… https://medium.com/media/891ddf38440808bc9cc0fdd9cf542052/href If that sounds interesting, why not join us in Amsterdam later this year: Devopsdays Amsterdam 2024 The end of civilisations was originally published in The Digital Business Analyst on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story ..read more

Why agile has failed — and hasn’t… The talk of Agile’s demise has been circulating for some time. While I can’t entirely dismiss the sentiment, I find it misleading for those not deeply immersed in the debate. Let’s dissect what has truly met its demise and what persists… Recently, I came across this article titled “Agile has failed. Officially.” by Tamás Polgár), which is one example of this type of argument. The point made by Tamás and similar critics is that Agile doesn’t work, because organisations are not successful in applying ‘Agile’ AND that any new variant (e.g. Agile2) is just p ..read more

We need to seriously start thinking about our stance on AI artwork by Maria Bartuszová | Tate Modern So while I think that the Future of Life Institute’s recent open letter Pause Giant AI Experiments: An Open Letter - Future of Life Institute is a bit messy, overly dramatic and scare-mongering and — imo — driven by a mix of good and dubious agendas, I am firmly behind its sentiment and believe that we need to seriously start thinking about how we govern AI. Because even if the risks is low, eventually we’ll need policies, let’s ‘AI’ will catch us off guard (and we really do ..read more

A look at a cross-functional approach to product innovation (with a specific example in language assessment) This is a summary of a talk Anthony Nicols and I gave at the 2023 e-Assessment Conference in London, where we shared how we enabled an innovation team at the British Council to deliver the “future of (English) teaching, learning and assessment”. While the post may seem focused on language assessment, we believe that the concepts and ideas apply to innovation initiatives in general. Why a new approach In today’s fast-changing world, innovation, including AI, ML, and the metaver ..read more

Looking and dealing with compliance in new ways The way we ‘do’ compliance traditionally is a disaster. Not only is it painful, but it also doesn’t work particularly well. Neither does it support business needs nor does it make compliance itself efficient or massively effective. But there is a better way: compliance by design |continuous compliance. This different way not only makes dealing with compliance easier, but also more effective, and in fact, opens up value opportunities. This one comes to you right from Capetown South Africa I have written about such a new approach, both, o ..read more

DevOpsDays Zürich — Compliance by Design | Continuous Compliance Yet another excellent DevOps Days conference Ok, to be honest, I expected nothing less: DevOps Days have proven again, that they are one of the best conferences on the planet. And while they are called ‘DevOps’ the are really about software engineering best practices. So apart from the conference being non profit, having it’s usual intimate — ok, I give you, that sounds weird — feel, the high calibre of individuals from all walks of software delivery, it was organised like a Swiss clockwork (see what I’m do there?) and also has a ..read more

A framework for efficiently analysing (business) problems Lean (business) problem analysis is an attempt at a lightweight pattern built on the principles of lean, agility, user centricity and systems thinking that organisations, teams and individuals can apply to get to grips with business problems and challenges efficiently and effectively. This one’s coming to your right from Espresso Lab in Dubai Lean problem analysis is an approach that helps organisations, teams and individuals solve business problems in an efficient and effective manner by applying the paradigms of user centricity ..read more