When I first thought about what AI is, two things really stuck out in my mind: Artificial Intelligence and Hollywood.
Dan ZinmanArtificial? Hmm, give me the real thing; Hollywood? Thoughts of Terminator (Skynet developed by Cyberdyne Systems), The Matrix (humanity trapped in a simulated reality), and Mission Impossible: Dead Reckoning with The Entity. Sound familiar?
My professional career started with the IBM XT, which really was a game changer in the business PC world. Since then, it has always been faster computing speeds with greater capacities.
Note: This article does not attempt to cover backpropagation algorithms or deep emergent neural pathways. For that, you'll need to consult with AI experts.
From 1 Million to 1 Quadrillion Operations Per Second
Using the IBM XT as the baseline for computing power, I’ve assigned it a value of 1X, or 1 million operations/second. Fast forward to Y2K, it was the Pentium chip, Microsoft Office, and business internet acceleration. With that, think ~100X faster, or 1 billion/second. Ready for some real horsepower in 2025? Think NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090, the cloud, and data centers; how about 10,000X faster, or one quadrillion operations/second? That's a mind-boggling scale.
That is a lot of capability, but we're just scratching the surface of Amplified or Alienating intelligence, especially when it seems that in less than a year, all I hear about is AI this and AI that. I also remember the same thing 25 years ago: .com this and .com that.
I didn’t realize that AI has been around for some time. Much of AI has been in the background, with examples including spellcheckers, rules-based “if-then-go-to,” spam filters with machine learning to identify and block unwanted emails. How about voice assistants like Siri, which utilize technologies such as natural language processing and machine learning to understand and respond? These stealthy AI integrations have been quietly powering our daily lives.
So here we are today with all this processing power; how best to utilize it for efficiency and productivity? How do we harness it for efficiency and productivity? What I found is that the term “Artificial Intelligence” dates back to the 1950s, referring to “thinking machines.” Great then (Jetsons-like), but so misunderstood now.
Compartmentalize AI into Various Business Disciplines
To help compartmentalize AI into the various business disciplines, I like to think of AI as the following:
- Authentic Intelligence: It’s something coming from a living human being. Be involved and engaged. No different than talking or meeting vs. emailing or texting.
- Ample Intelligence: Informative, as this is the easiest to use with sites such as ChatGPT, Gemini, Grok, and Copilot. Think of it as a library on steroids at your fingertips. Authentic Intelligence tip: Don’t assume the information is correct and up to date. It could be how a question is structured, or the source(s) being outdated or biased. As an example, if an EPA inspector is coming next week, what has changed in 40 CFR Part 433 (Metal Finishing Effluent Guidelines) in the past year?
- Automated Intelligence: Repetitive, what are the activities that are repetitive, best suited to automate? An example is generating monthly chemical inventory count sheets with last-month ending quantities pre-filled.
- Anticipated Intelligence: Predictive; it’s like having a business crystal ball. Here’s one that has us all guessing: what does the combination of raw materials plus energy spike from global events mean for the full-year 2026 pricing strategy?
- Acquisition Intelligence: New business strategies that include growth in existing customers and new customers. Wouldn’t it be nice to identify companies promoting various processes in their literature/website that are in your sweet spot? ·
- Analytical Intelligence: Interpreting data from your ERP, would tracking labor hours per process vs. output and spotting underutilization tied to seasonal dips be of value?
Turn Power Into Real Amplification
If this represents an opportunity for Amplified Intelligence, we're on the right track, and the next article will delve into specific AI tools that can be incorporated into our businesses. Stay tuned; let's turn this power into real amplification, not alienation.
By the way, for those who have read this entire article and question whether it was AI-written, I am guilty as charged. I utilized both Ample Intelligence for research purposes and Authentic Intelligence confirming I, as a human, wrote this article.
Dan Zinman, Vice President of Sales and Marketing at Miles Chemical, based in Arleta, California. Visit www.mileschemical.com.
