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If you still have an uneasy feeling about all the hype surrounding genAI, you're certainly not alone.

Maybe I can put that uneasiness into words for you.

I've been neither a proponent nor an opponent of genAI, but I have pulled some of the threads on either side of the pro/con argument. And when I do that, I get dragged. Now, look, I've come to terms with the fact that I'm just not controversial enough to generate viral pushback. So usually, like 99 percent of the time I get called out on something, there's an ulterior motive at work.

Recently, however, I got called out in a completely different way.

"Hi Joe. I've been following you for years, and I highly respect your writing. But, you're wrong about generative AI."

This was worth looking into. So I did. And I realized I should clarify exactly what I think about the genAI hype, because there are a lot of people who can't quite put their finger on why a science so full of promise is coming off as junk.

The problem -- my problem -- with generative AI isn't the science. At all. It's the application.

First, I need to explain where I'm coming from. I'm not knee-deep in the weeds of genAI, and I don't have a horse in this gold rush. But I'm not just a casual observer, either.

Back in 2010, I was the co-inventor of the first commercially available genAI platform, Automated Insights, which we sold to private equity in 2015 after generating over a billion machine-written articles covering everything from fantasy football to quarterly earnings reports and much more.

To dumb my contributions down a bit, I hold a patent for the part that told the computers what to say, and the CEO holds another for the part that made the computers say it. I got........

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