MAXX Potential

I Taught My Mother-In-Law How to Clone Herself

A Professional’s Tools for AI-Generated Videos

By Tucker Mahan, Director of Emerging Technology

AI is more user-friendly than ever before.

If AI makes it possible for anyone to write up an article or create a video, it stands to reason that we’re about to see so much more content online. A statistic from Europol said 90% of the Internet will be completely AI generated by 2026. It might even be faster than that. 

This unlocks so many possibilities. AI tools are user friendly and intuitive, enabling people who are not tech-savvy to use them, which brings me to how I taught my mother-in-law to use an AI tool to clone herself.

Cloning My Mother-in-Law

In a recent conversation with my mother-in-law, we were discussing AI and my latest blog post “What are the Biggest Concerns and Best Benefits about Deepfake Technology?” came up. Her immediate reaction, “Oh my gosh, you have to clone me!” 

The plan was that I would take her video and voice recordings, set up her account, and start creating webinars for her. It was a good plan. I’ve been working with HeyGen (affiliate link) AI-generated videos for a while, and I’d be able to get her up and running pretty quickly, with plenty of time before her upcoming meetings.

I set up her account and completed most of the steps. And then I hit a problem I didn’t foresee, but I can’t even be mad about it.

One of the steps for cloning via HeyGen requires the person to upload a video with a consent script that contains a secure token. I didn’t think it would be a problem to use FaceTime. I was wrong. It didn’t work, and I couldn’t just go to her house because I was sick.

So there I am, training my mother-in-law to do technology over a phone call because she has to be the one to make the video, read the script, and upload it immediately to HeyGen.

Sure, I was frustrated that I couldn’t just do what I had intended, without an elevated account tier. I had her permission, but HeyGen made sure of it. They demonstrated that they’re keeping consent and privacy at the forefront of their product development.

That’s just one reason why I like HeyGen.

The HeyGen tool is user-friendly, and it’s been cool to explore. Use our affiliate link to sign up for a HeyGen account.

Training the Audio of My Mother-in-Law’s Clone

I encouraged my mother-in-law to read her script with a wide range of emotions. As with most Generative AI tools, higher quality input will produce higher quality results. If you train a voice clone with a very natural, no excitement voice tone, it’s not going to be able to express a wide range of emotions. Any clone will speak just like the provided sample, and adding cues like “said excitedly” or “said emphatically,” will flex as far as your sample did. 

We experimented with ElevenLabs, which is focused on Multilingual Voice AI such as Text to Speech or Speech to Speech. In general, Voice AI is getting better at lifelike speech, being able to clone human voice samples with less data and produce quality results. In fact, utilizing some of these tools, emotions, pauses, and pronunciation guidance can be incorporated in a text transcript, and the effects will come through in the audio.

Another tip I shared with my mother-in-law was to consider keeping her voice sample relevant to the material she intended to produce, using any industry specific terms that may come up often in her webinar script. Doing so will help the AI better replicate how you pronounce specific words or phrases, although there are methods to fix those errors later using the in transcript prompting. For example, I know without a doubt whenever I’m typing “MAXX Potential” to be spoken by AI, I should use “m a x” instead of “m a x x” to avoid issues. 

Choosing the AI Clone Video

When my mother-in-law and I were hatching the idea of developing her AI clone for her webinars, we had a choice for her AI video: the video clone avatar and photo avatar.

For video clone avatars, these are created using video footage and then can lip-sync the audio text whereas photo avatars will animate a still image with lip syncing to the audio text. We opted to use a Fine-Tuned video clone avatar, as the results are typically much more realistic. That said, being able to animate a person’s picture into a video is beyond useful and a much faster solution. 

In the end, we created an AI video for my mother-in-law that had her in it sharing the information that her audience wanted, and it was without needing my mother-in-law to spend hours in a filming studio. 

Tucker’s Top Key Takeaways for AI

  • Understand AI capabilities, and you can make yourself more efficient.
  • AI is the most user-friendly that it’s ever been.
  • Responsible use of AI means protecting privacy.
  • Garbage in; garbage out AKA Learn better AI prompting.

Explore AI Clone Capabilities

AI has dominated the conversation in the tech industry for the last year, and it’s here to stay. This tech revolution means that each of us can have an AI sidekick to get tasks done, bring virtual personalities to life, and solve problems. If you’re not exploring the AI capabilities for your business, it’s time to start.

As the Director of Emerging Technology at MAXX Potential, I’m interested in continuing to explore the possibilities of AI, and we build automated workflows to help your team get more work done. Reach out about your project.

Resources

MORE POSTS

I Taught My Mother-In-Law How to Clone Herself

A Professional’s Tools for AI-Generated Videos

By Tucker Mahan, Director of Emerging Technology

AI is more user-friendly than ever before.

If AI makes it possible for anyone to write up an article or create a video, it stands to reason that we’re about to see so much more content online. A statistic from Europol said 90% of the Internet will be completely AI generated by 2026. It might even be faster than that. 

This unlocks so many possibilities. AI tools are user friendly and intuitive, enabling people who are not tech-savvy to use them, which brings me to how I taught my mother-in-law to use an AI tool to clone herself.

Cloning My Mother-in-Law

In a recent conversation with my mother-in-law, we were discussing AI and my latest blog post “What are the Biggest Concerns and Best Benefits about Deepfake Technology?” came up. Her immediate reaction, “Oh my gosh, you have to clone me!” 

The plan was that I would take her video and voice recordings, set up her account, and start creating webinars for her. It was a good plan. I’ve been working with HeyGen (affiliate link) AI-generated videos for a while, and I’d be able to get her up and running pretty quickly, with plenty of time before her upcoming meetings.

I set up her account and completed most of the steps. And then I hit a problem I didn’t foresee, but I can’t even be mad about it.

One of the steps for cloning via HeyGen requires the person to upload a video with a consent script that contains a secure token. I didn’t think it would be a problem to use FaceTime. I was wrong. It didn’t work, and I couldn’t just go to her house because I was sick.

So there I am, training my mother-in-law to do technology over a phone call because she has to be the one to make the video, read the script, and upload it immediately to HeyGen.

Sure, I was frustrated that I couldn’t just do what I had intended, without an elevated account tier. I had her permission, but HeyGen made sure of it. They demonstrated that they’re keeping consent and privacy at the forefront of their product development.

That’s just one reason why I like HeyGen.

The HeyGen tool is user-friendly, and it’s been cool to explore. Use our affiliate link to sign up for a HeyGen account.

Training the Audio of My Mother-in-Law’s Clone

I encouraged my mother-in-law to read her script with a wide range of emotions. As with most Generative AI tools, higher quality input will produce higher quality results. If you train a voice clone with a very natural, no excitement voice tone, it’s not going to be able to express a wide range of emotions. Any clone will speak just like the provided sample, and adding cues like “said excitedly” or “said emphatically,” will flex as far as your sample did. 

We experimented with ElevenLabs, which is focused on Multilingual Voice AI such as Text to Speech or Speech to Speech. In general, Voice AI is getting better at lifelike speech, being able to clone human voice samples with less data and produce quality results. In fact, utilizing some of these tools, emotions, pauses, and pronunciation guidance can be incorporated in a text transcript, and the effects will come through in the audio.

Another tip I shared with my mother-in-law was to consider keeping her voice sample relevant to the material she intended to produce, using any industry specific terms that may come up often in her webinar script. Doing so will help the AI better replicate how you pronounce specific words or phrases, although there are methods to fix those errors later using the in transcript prompting. For example, I know without a doubt whenever I’m typing “MAXX Potential” to be spoken by AI, I should use “m a x” instead of “m a x x” to avoid issues. 

Choosing the AI Clone Video

When my mother-in-law and I were hatching the idea of developing her AI clone for her webinars, we had a choice for her AI video: the video clone avatar and photo avatar.

For video clone avatars, these are created using video footage and then can lip-sync the audio text whereas photo avatars will animate a still image with lip syncing to the audio text. We opted to use a Fine-Tuned video clone avatar, as the results are typically much more realistic. That said, being able to animate a person’s picture into a video is beyond useful and a much faster solution. 

In the end, we created an AI video for my mother-in-law that had her in it sharing the information that her audience wanted, and it was without needing my mother-in-law to spend hours in a filming studio. 

Tucker’s Top Key Takeaways for AI

  • Understand AI capabilities, and you can make yourself more efficient.
  • AI is the most user-friendly that it’s ever been.
  • Responsible use of AI means protecting privacy.
  • Garbage in; garbage out AKA Learn better AI prompting.

Explore AI Clone Capabilities

AI has dominated the conversation in the tech industry for the last year, and it’s here to stay. This tech revolution means that each of us can have an AI sidekick to get tasks done, bring virtual personalities to life, and solve problems. If you’re not exploring the AI capabilities for your business, it’s time to start.

As the Director of Emerging Technology at MAXX Potential, I’m interested in continuing to explore the possibilities of AI, and we build automated workflows to help your team get more work done. Reach out about your project.

Resources

What are the Biggest Concerns and Best Benefits about Deepfake Technology?

Understanding the Deepfake Landscape

By Tucker Mahan, MAXX Potential Director of Emerging Technology

All content above is AI generated, aside from the blog excerpt. Some translations may be inaccurate but are provided for learning purposes of technology’s current capabilities.

Have you ever needed to be filmed and when you watched the video back you were cringing? I have. With deepfake technology, you could skip the filming and still bring your face and voice to the content that you’re creating – maybe without some of those awkward gestures and mannerisms.

A few years ago, deepfake was a possibility only available to the people who understood what was going on behind the scenes. Now deepfake technology programs make it far more user-friendly though it still requires some technical skill.

So what is deepfake? Deepfake technology uses Artificial Intelligence (AI) to create, edit, modify, and alter video and audio, allowing the image or sound to become more believable and real. This means that technology can now mimic real humans both in image and sound fairly accurately.

Like any other advancement, deepfake tech offers opportunity and concern. While the general population gets a kick out of impersonating famous celebrities, bad actors are tapping into super convincing phishing content, such as vishing (voice impersonation) or smishing (sms impersonation).

With every new capability of deepfake comes the need for smart protection for your company, yourself, and your tech.

Want to skip the read? Allow “Tucker” to narrate for you:

Biggest Concerns in Deepfake Technology

Do bad actors adopt technology like this faster than the general public? It’s possible because most tech advancements take a minute to digest, understand, and determine an action plan. 

If bad actors are learning deepfake technology alongside enterprises, it’s very possible that enterprises are still vulnerable to malicious attacks – not to mention social engineering since most people are unaware of this new technology for phishing.

Bad actors are most likely to target people who are unaware of deepfake technologies, meaning that companies, communities, and schools need to start educating people about the possibility of deepfake-based attacks.

When it comes to my biggest concerns for deepfake technology, I see three main categories: misinformation and manipulation; social engineering attacks; and identity theft and fraud.

Misinformation and Manipulation

We often rely on the phrase “seeing is believing;” however, deepfake technology is making it even more difficult to discern real content from fabricated content. I see it a lot on social media where someone will reshare an image, believing the product to be real, and a quick image search reveals that the product is fake. If you look closely, you may be able to spot the AI-generated bloopers in the photo, but it’s becoming harder and harder.

Deepfake technology can already generate celebrity lookalike videos, and now AI-created “virtual influencers” are on the rise. I have more questions than answers on what we’ll see next, but I expect a lot of repercussions in the form of changing copyright laws, lawsuits, and governance acts through these uncertain times.

Social Engineering

Social engineering is all about using what you know or can find out to be able to break confidentiality. Deepfake social engineering attacks elevate the risk because now bad actors can impersonate trusted contacts of their target using voice clone and face swap. 

For example, there was a season of time where companies were being targeted by bad actors who were impersonating the CEO to email or text employees, asking them to buy gift cards. The urgency of the text along with the authority of the company CEO likely worked on a lot of people. Deepfake will make these attacks even more sophisticated.

Identity Theft and Fraud

Tech experts warn that deepfake technology could be used by bad actors to bypass biometric authentication in scenarios where a face scan is used. This could give bad actors access to crucial information, secure areas, or devices.

Sumsub published its Identity Fraud Report in November 2023, and it found that deepfakes accounted for most of the AI-powered fraud attacks. In fact, AI-powered techniques were among the top five tools used in fraud online in 2023.

Potential Benefits of Deepfake Technology

It’s up to personal opinion whether or not the benefits of deepfake technology outweigh the security risks; however, opportunity is there for dope advancements. Companies will be able to upgrade their security systems to fight threats, red team detrimental issues, accommodate people with hearing loss, and receive better translations.

I’d break the benefits of deepfake technology into three different categories: Interpersonal, security, and media.

Interpersonal Possibilities

I was at a conference a couple of years ago where one of the speakers was hypothesizing on the potential use cases of deepfake technology, and he presented the idea of using your last saved voicemail of your grandfather with deepfake technology so that you could hear his voice again. That idea seemed super cool, and deepfake could help us remember our loved ones better.

Another company is exploring what deepfake can do for sms, iMessage, and WhatsApp where users could set their chosen language and then all incoming messages would be automatically translated.

Security Measures

Deepfake and generative AI technology can create powerful training grounds for security teams to red team specific situations in order to make security advancements. Companies will be able to better protect their data as attacks become more refined.

We already know that deepfakes have the potential to be used to circumvent biometric authentication security, so it’s important for companies to use this information to find more holes in the security systems.

Media Madness

Channel 1 News shocked people with the possibilities by promising a platform that would individualize news to you. They promise personalization powered by generative AI with its full launch in 2024, think TikTok meets Hacker News.

For content creators, the deepfake possibilities are super beneficial because they could create a deepfake version of themselves that could do their educational content, advertising, and so much more. Again, this sounds great to me, as I’d love to never be in front of a camera again.

Lip sync dubbing will improve so much from deepfake technology. It will be possible for movies in other languages to have actors who appear to be speaking the dubbed language rather than lips that move to the original filmed language.

Recognizing Deepfakes

Spotting deepfakes will become a necessary skill for most people, especially in scenarios where a bad actor could be seeking sensitive information. 

When it comes to social engineering, you can have the best security system in place, but if your company and team are not educated on recognizing deepfake phishing attempts, then your company is vulnerable. Train your people.

Some of the best ways to recognize deepfake impersonations are with attention to detail and critical thinking.

  • Where’s the emphasis on audio voices?
  • Is the pitch variation off from a normal cadence?
  • What’s the pause length between words and sentences?
  • Does the accent match the person you know?
  • Are there odd blinking patterns?
  • Do hand gestures line up with the content?
  • Are the mannerisms right for the person you know?

People’s voices fluctuate according to the situation. If you’re happy, that adjusts the tone, pitch, and emphasis of how someone speaks. Take a clip of someone who’s happy and use it in a deepfake tool where you’re trying to be threatening, the tone might not match the message. 

Humans also quickly pick up on accents from other areas, so a voice clone won’t always match the accent of a person without a large sampling of how they speak. While I’m not a linguist, accommodation within language is fascinating, as it suggests humans adjust their speech to mirror one another in order to inspire better collaboration. Voice cloning isn’t good enough to pick up this nuance.

One of the best ways to recognize deepfakes is to interact with deepfakes in video and audio often. With so much of our day-to-day being in the digital realm, it’s time to realize that all digital content could now be fake.

Conclusion

The possibilities of deepfake are great, and with that great power comes specific responsibility to be smart around deepfake security and use cases.

If you’re not excited about the possibilities of deepfake technology, look it up. I honestly believe that deepfake will bring some advanced attacks from bad actors to our companies, and it’s worth knowing about. Don’t get caught off guard. 

Do you think Deepfake is a Threat or an Opportunity? Tell us your thoughts!

MORE POSTS

What are the Biggest Concerns and Best Benefits about Deepfake Technology?

Understanding the Deepfake Landscape

By Tucker Mahan, MAXX Potential Director of Emerging Technology

All content above is AI generated, aside from the blog excerpt. Some translations may be inaccurate but are provided for learning purposes of technology’s current capabilities.

Have you ever needed to be filmed and when you watched the video back you were cringing? I have. With deepfake technology, you could skip the filming and still bring your face and voice to the content that you’re creating – maybe without some of those awkward gestures and mannerisms.

A few years ago, deepfake was a possibility only available to the people who understood what was going on behind the scenes. Now deepfake technology programs make it far more user-friendly though it still requires some technical skill.

So what is deepfake? Deepfake technology uses Artificial Intelligence (AI) to create, edit, modify, and alter video and audio, allowing the image or sound to become more believable and real. This means that technology can now mimic real humans both in image and sound fairly accurately.

Like any other advancement, deepfake tech offers opportunity and concern. While the general population gets a kick out of impersonating famous celebrities, bad actors are tapping into super convincing phishing content, such as vishing (voice impersonation) or smishing (sms impersonation).

With every new capability of deepfake comes the need for smart protection for your company, yourself, and your tech.

Want to skip the read? Allow “Tucker” to narrate for you:

Biggest Concerns in Deepfake Technology

Do bad actors adopt technology like this faster than the general public? It’s possible because most tech advancements take a minute to digest, understand, and determine an action plan. 

If bad actors are learning deepfake technology alongside enterprises, it’s very possible that enterprises are still vulnerable to malicious attacks – not to mention social engineering since most people are unaware of this new technology for phishing.

Bad actors are most likely to target people who are unaware of deepfake technologies, meaning that companies, communities, and schools need to start educating people about the possibility of deepfake-based attacks.

When it comes to my biggest concerns for deepfake technology, I see three main categories: misinformation and manipulation; social engineering attacks; and identity theft and fraud.

Misinformation and Manipulation

We often rely on the phrase “seeing is believing;” however, deepfake technology is making it even more difficult to discern real content from fabricated content. I see it a lot on social media where someone will reshare an image, believing the product to be real, and a quick image search reveals that the product is fake. If you look closely, you may be able to spot the AI-generated bloopers in the photo, but it’s becoming harder and harder.

Deepfake technology can already generate celebrity lookalike videos, and now AI-created “virtual influencers” are on the rise. I have more questions than answers on what we’ll see next, but I expect a lot of repercussions in the form of changing copyright laws, lawsuits, and governance acts through these uncertain times.

Social Engineering

Social engineering is all about using what you know or can find out to be able to break confidentiality. Deepfake social engineering attacks elevate the risk because now bad actors can impersonate trusted contacts of their target using voice clone and face swap. 

For example, there was a season of time where companies were being targeted by bad actors who were impersonating the CEO to email or text employees, asking them to buy gift cards. The urgency of the text along with the authority of the company CEO likely worked on a lot of people. Deepfake will make these attacks even more sophisticated.

Identity Theft and Fraud

Tech experts warn that deepfake technology could be used by bad actors to bypass biometric authentication in scenarios where a face scan is used. This could give bad actors access to crucial information, secure areas, or devices.

Sumsub published its Identity Fraud Report in November 2023, and it found that deepfakes accounted for most of the AI-powered fraud attacks. In fact, AI-powered techniques were among the top five tools used in fraud online in 2023.

Potential Benefits of Deepfake Technology

It’s up to personal opinion whether or not the benefits of deepfake technology outweigh the security risks; however, opportunity is there for dope advancements. Companies will be able to upgrade their security systems to fight threats, red team detrimental issues, accommodate people with hearing loss, and receive better translations.

I’d break the benefits of deepfake technology into three different categories: Interpersonal, security, and media.

Interpersonal Possibilities

I was at a conference a couple of years ago where one of the speakers was hypothesizing on the potential use cases of deepfake technology, and he presented the idea of using your last saved voicemail of your grandfather with deepfake technology so that you could hear his voice again. That idea seemed super cool, and deepfake could help us remember our loved ones better.

Another company is exploring what deepfake can do for sms, iMessage, and WhatsApp where users could set their chosen language and then all incoming messages would be automatically translated.

Security Measures

Deepfake and generative AI technology can create powerful training grounds for security teams to red team specific situations in order to make security advancements. Companies will be able to better protect their data as attacks become more refined.

We already know that deepfakes have the potential to be used to circumvent biometric authentication security, so it’s important for companies to use this information to find more holes in the security systems.

Media Madness

Channel 1 News shocked people with the possibilities by promising a platform that would individualize news to you. They promise personalization powered by generative AI with its full launch in 2024, think TikTok meets Hacker News.

For content creators, the deepfake possibilities are super beneficial because they could create a deepfake version of themselves that could do their educational content, advertising, and so much more. Again, this sounds great to me, as I’d love to never be in front of a camera again.

Lip sync dubbing will improve so much from deepfake technology. It will be possible for movies in other languages to have actors who appear to be speaking the dubbed language rather than lips that move to the original filmed language.

Recognizing Deepfakes

Spotting deepfakes will become a necessary skill for most people, especially in scenarios where a bad actor could be seeking sensitive information. 

When it comes to social engineering, you can have the best security system in place, but if your company and team are not educated on recognizing deepfake phishing attempts, then your company is vulnerable. Train your people.

Some of the best ways to recognize deepfake impersonations are with attention to detail and critical thinking.

  • Where’s the emphasis on audio voices?
  • Is the pitch variation off from a normal cadence?
  • What’s the pause length between words and sentences?
  • Does the accent match the person you know?
  • Are there odd blinking patterns?
  • Do hand gestures line up with the content?
  • Are the mannerisms right for the person you know?

People’s voices fluctuate according to the situation. If you’re happy, that adjusts the tone, pitch, and emphasis of how someone speaks. Take a clip of someone who’s happy and use it in a deepfake tool where you’re trying to be threatening, the tone might not match the message. 

Humans also quickly pick up on accents from other areas, so a voice clone won’t always match the accent of a person without a large sampling of how they speak. While I’m not a linguist, accommodation within language is fascinating, as it suggests humans adjust their speech to mirror one another in order to inspire better collaboration. Voice cloning isn’t good enough to pick up this nuance.

One of the best ways to recognize deepfakes is to interact with deepfakes in video and audio often. With so much of our day-to-day being in the digital realm, it’s time to realize that all digital content could now be fake.

Conclusion

The possibilities of deepfake are great, and with that great power comes specific responsibility to be smart around deepfake security and use cases.

If you’re not excited about the possibilities of deepfake technology, look it up. I honestly believe that deepfake will bring some advanced attacks from bad actors to our companies, and it’s worth knowing about. Don’t get caught off guard. 

Do you think Deepfake is a Threat or an Opportunity? Tell us your thoughts!

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Spence Weiss

Junior BI Developer, Swedish Match

By MAXX Potential

Spence Weiss worked as an Apprentice for over a year, attaining Level 2 Apprentice status and gaining valuable on-the-job tech experience before he exited MAXX Potential to work at Swedish Match as a Junior BI Developer.

What were you doing before MAXX Potential? What drew you to pursue a career in technology?

I graduated with a degree in business but struggled with finding a job that didn’t involve sales.  Eventually, I started getting into SQL due to many jobs having it as a required skill, but I still struggled to find anything with my lack of experience in the field. MAXX Potential came to my attention through a friend of mine who had success with them, and I decided to apply best decision I ever made.

Can you talk about what you’re currently working on? What are some of your job responsibilities?

I am a BI Developer, and my job mainly revolves around creating, improving, and maintaining Power BI reports for our production and sales teams. These include the standard dashboard-type reports. I also try to create automated solutions with Power Automate or SQL stored procedures whenever possible, and recently, I have also been involved in our organization’s shift from on-prem to cloud-based data servers. SQL is really the common thread behind our data organization and what my team does on a daily basis.

What’s the most rewarding thing about your current role?

The elation that comes with successfully solving a meaningful problem is second to none, be it the creation of a desired report, the fixing of bugs, or the creation of an automated solution to a time-consuming task. It really gives me a sense of meaning when I can create something that helps the business in a visible way.

How do you keep your skills up to date? What’s the best way to learn new concepts, technologies, programming languages, etc.?

Having to use my skills every day gives me plenty of practice! Also, from time to time, I like to take online courses to bring my skills up to the next level, and conferences/seminars can also do the same while also exposing you to different perspectives. Luckily, my organization encourages both. Honestly, the best way to learn new technological skills is to find a learning format that most interests you. For example, I love to view it as a problem-solving exercise, either one I created myself or one I found elsewhere. For me at least, solving problems is much more fun than reading textbooks!

What’s the best piece of advice you can give to someone early in their IT career or looking to get their start?

Find something that you enjoy doing, get good at it, and network with groups/organizations that involve that thing. Really it’s that last part that is the most important, and it’s also the thing we, as IT professionals, tend to neglect the most, unfortunately. MAXX Potential is a fantastic environment to do both, so if you want a career in IT and are reading this, apply!

Interested in becoming or working with a MAXX Apprentice? Attend Career Lab or explore MAXX Business Solutions!

MORE POSTS

Spence Weiss

Junior BI Developer, Swedish Match

By MAXX Potential

Spence Weiss worked as an Apprentice for over a year, attaining Level 2 Apprentice status and gaining valuable on-the-job tech experience before he exited MAXX Potential to work at Swedish Match as a Junior BI Developer.

What were you doing before MAXX Potential? What drew you to pursue a career in technology?

I graduated with a degree in business but struggled with finding a job that didn’t involve sales.  Eventually, I started getting into SQL due to many jobs having it as a required skill, but I still struggled to find anything with my lack of experience in the field. MAXX Potential came to my attention through a friend of mine who had success with them, and I decided to apply best decision I ever made.

Can you talk about what you’re currently working on? What are some of your job responsibilities?

I am a BI Developer, and my job mainly revolves around creating, improving, and maintaining Power BI reports for our production and sales teams. These include the standard dashboard-type reports. I also try to create automated solutions with Power Automate or SQL stored procedures whenever possible, and recently, I have also been involved in our organization’s shift from on-prem to cloud-based data servers. SQL is really the common thread behind our data organization and what my team does on a daily basis.

What’s the most rewarding thing about your current role?

The elation that comes with successfully solving a meaningful problem is second to none, be it the creation of a desired report, the fixing of bugs, or the creation of an automated solution to a time-consuming task. It really gives me a sense of meaning when I can create something that helps the business in a visible way.

How do you keep your skills up to date? What’s the best way to learn new concepts, technologies, programming languages, etc.?

Having to use my skills every day gives me plenty of practice! Also, from time to time, I like to take online courses to bring my skills up to the next level, and conferences/seminars can also do the same while also exposing you to different perspectives. Luckily, my organization encourages both. Honestly, the best way to learn new technological skills is to find a learning format that most interests you. For example, I love to view it as a problem-solving exercise, either one I created myself or one I found elsewhere. For me at least, solving problems is much more fun than reading textbooks!

What’s the best piece of advice you can give to someone early in their IT career or looking to get their start?

Find something that you enjoy doing, get good at it, and network with groups/organizations that involve that thing. Really it’s that last part that is the most important, and it’s also the thing we, as IT professionals, tend to neglect the most, unfortunately. MAXX Potential is a fantastic environment to do both, so if you want a career in IT and are reading this, apply!

Interested in becoming or working with a MAXX Apprentice? Attend Career Lab or explore MAXX Business Solutions!

Eddie Cardwell

Data Analyst, Hamilton Beach Brands

By MAXX Potential

Eddie worked as an Apprentice for over a year and a half, gaining valuable on-the-job tech experience before he exited MAXX Potential to work at Hamilton Beach Brands as a Data Analyst.

What were you doing before MAXX Potential? What drew you to pursue a career in technology?

I was a Florist at Coleman Brothers Flowers before MAXX. 

I’ve always found myself gravitating towards computers, eager to understand how they functioned and what they could do. This curiosity led me to delve deeper into coding, software development, and machine learning. I believed that my career in technology would allow me to combine my natural curiosity, problem-solving skills, and passion for making a meaningful difference in the world.

Can you talk about what you’re currently working on? What are some of your job responsibilities?

I am currently working on projects that use SQL, Python, Machine Learning, and Power BI to clean and present data to help the business make better decisions and improve productivity. 

Below is part of the actual list of responsibilities from the job posting:

  • Collect and validate data and apply advanced statistical methods to identify trends.  
  • Contribute to the development of data structures that support the generation of business insights and strategic decision-making. 
  • Maintain and execute data infrastructure and self-sustained scripts for periodic reporting processes.  
  • Assist in the periodic validation of extracted and transformed data through self-sustained scripts.  
  • Support the Supply Chain Ops, Quality Engineering, Sales, among other departments in maintaining automated reports, code libraries and extracts, and develop ad-hoc reports as needed.  
  • Perform data analysis, visualizations, and utilize appropriate metrics and dashboards to meet business requirements. 

Aid the Analytics Team in creating management dashboards and reports using Power BI and migrate existing Tableau reports to Power BI.

What’s the most rewarding thing about your current role?

The work my team does has a substantial impact on the company’s decision-making process. Knowing that my work contributes directly to the success and growth of the organization is extremely rewarding.

How do you keep your skills up to date? What’s the best way to learn new concepts, technologies, programming languages, etc.?

I keep my skills up to date by taking online courses, and constantly discussing and working on side projects with friends and coworkers.

What’s the best piece of advice you can give to someone early in their IT career or looking to get their start?

My advice would be to build a solid technical foundation by getting as much hands-on experience as possible. Start your own project for something you are passionate about and never be afraid to ask questions. Stay Curious.

 

Interested in becoming or working with a MAXX Apprentice? Attend Career Lab or explore MAXX Business Solutions.

MORE POSTS

Eddie Cardwell

Data Analyst, Hamilton Beach Brands

By MAXX Potential

Eddie worked as an Apprentice for over a year and a half, gaining valuable on-the-job tech experience before he exited MAXX Potential to work at Hamilton Beach Brands as a Data Analyst.

What were you doing before MAXX Potential? What drew you to pursue a career in technology?

I was a Florist at Coleman Brothers Flowers before MAXX. 

I’ve always found myself gravitating towards computers, eager to understand how they functioned and what they could do. This curiosity led me to delve deeper into coding, software development, and machine learning. I believed that my career in technology would allow me to combine my natural curiosity, problem-solving skills, and passion for making a meaningful difference in the world.

Can you talk about what you’re currently working on? What are some of your job responsibilities?

I am currently working on projects that use SQL, Python, Machine Learning, and Power BI to clean and present data to help the business make better decisions and improve productivity. 

Below is part of the actual list of responsibilities from the job posting:

  • Collect and validate data and apply advanced statistical methods to identify trends.  
  • Contribute to the development of data structures that support the generation of business insights and strategic decision-making. 
  • Maintain and execute data infrastructure and self-sustained scripts for periodic reporting processes.  
  • Assist in the periodic validation of extracted and transformed data through self-sustained scripts.  
  • Support the Supply Chain Ops, Quality Engineering, Sales, among other departments in maintaining automated reports, code libraries and extracts, and develop ad-hoc reports as needed.  
  • Perform data analysis, visualizations, and utilize appropriate metrics and dashboards to meet business requirements. 

Aid the Analytics Team in creating management dashboards and reports using Power BI and migrate existing Tableau reports to Power BI.

What’s the most rewarding thing about your current role?

The work my team does has a substantial impact on the company’s decision-making process. Knowing that my work contributes directly to the success and growth of the organization is extremely rewarding.

How do you keep your skills up to date? What’s the best way to learn new concepts, technologies, programming languages, etc.?

I keep my skills up to date by taking online courses, and constantly discussing and working on side projects with friends and coworkers.

What’s the best piece of advice you can give to someone early in their IT career or looking to get their start?

My advice would be to build a solid technical foundation by getting as much hands-on experience as possible. Start your own project for something you are passionate about and never be afraid to ask questions. Stay Curious.

 

Interested in becoming or working with a MAXX Apprentice? Attend Career Lab or explore MAXX Business Solutions.

Parker Benbow

Web Specialist, UpSpring PR

By MAXX Potential

Parker worked as an Apprentice for a year and a half, attaining Level 3 Apprentice status while gaining valuable on-the-job tech experience. He exited MAXX Potential to work at UpSpring PR as a Web Specialist.

What were you doing before MAXX Potential? What drew you to pursue a career in technology?

Before MAXX Potential, I was working in design and customer services jobs. The choice to pursue technology was sparked by a desire to grow and further progress in those types of roles. I experienced roadblocks for consideration of those roles. I did not have the technical skill sets for them and lacked an understanding and mentorship of how to begin and work to obtain them.

Can you talk about what you’re currently working on? What are some of your job responsibilities?

I am working on a web team that is housed under my company’s creative team. Personally it’s been really great for me to still be around the creative conversations and assist with those tasks as team responsibilities ebb and flow. 

Primarily I am working through client websites, conducting audits of websites, strategizing a sitemap and wire-frames of their homepage, and working through the actual build/re-build of the site and continuing site maintenance. This does vary a bit from client to client and scope of the project. The builds themselves shift between a few different platforms; primarily Squarespace, and WordPress. 

However we just launched our company’s first Webflow build for a client, and it was a big win to get through the challenges of an entirely new-to-everyone platform and be able to see the potential it has for us moving forward. It was a really challenging build, and it was a really great experience to become the company’s expert on the Webflow build on one of my first projects.

What’s the most rewarding thing about your current role?

There is absolutely so much encouragement for continued learning and growth. Coming into this role, I had very little exposure to the depth of UX strategy and to some of our site platforms. I’ve grown tremendously in the last few months and learned so much in that time. 

Webflow was something that I had never heard of before, and now the client has a complete and elaborate site. The sense of accomplishment I get each time another hurdle is crossed alongside the feedback from the team and my client is so so so nice!

How do you keep your skills up to date? What’s the best way to learn new concepts, technologies, programming languages, etc.?

I think maybe this is a bit easier now in this role, as so much of it is “the task at hand”. There will be an idea or request thrown around and then it moves into researching if something is possible and how do you build it. If it is not possible, how close can we get? 

This all reminds me of a lot of what I learned at MAXX Potential – that you can’t learn just by studying, to really understand something you have to build it yourself. And there becomes a lot of that! A few times it has been “We tried and built and tested x, y, and z. Ultimately the client went with Option A. But now I have the resources and familiarity with x, y, and z.”

In trying to research those requests I have also stumbled upon a lot of other ideas or functions that seem interesting. There are dozens of tutorials, forums, and channels, and while maybe this thing isn’t actually a solution I’m looking for, it is still a great idea of what the potential is for other strategies.

What’s the best piece of advice you can give to someone early in their IT career or looking to get their start?

Everything is figure-outable, but pick one thing first.

You will be able to research and study and test to figure out anything you are working on. It’s probably going to be frustrating and confusing, but you’ll have an epiphany a few days later when doing something else and it will all click. The trick though is to keep moving in the same direction and have a solid grasp before moving on. A loose knowledge of things doesn’t help much, but a deep understanding of a topic relates to other topics you wouldn’t expect.

Interested in becoming or working with a MAXX Apprentice? Attend Career Lab or explore MAXX Business Solutions!

MORE POSTS

Parker Benbow

Web Specialist, UpSpring PR

By MAXX Potential

Parker worked as an Apprentice for a year and a half, attaining Level 3 Apprentice status while gaining valuable on-the-job tech experience. He exited MAXX Potential to work at UpSpring PR as a Web Specialist.

What were you doing before MAXX Potential? What drew you to pursue a career in technology?

Before MAXX Potential, I was working in design and customer services jobs. The choice to pursue technology was sparked by a desire to grow and further progress in those types of roles. I experienced roadblocks for consideration of those roles. I did not have the technical skill sets for them and lacked an understanding and mentorship of how to begin and work to obtain them.

Can you talk about what you’re currently working on? What are some of your job responsibilities?

I am working on a web team that is housed under my company’s creative team. Personally it’s been really great for me to still be around the creative conversations and assist with those tasks as team responsibilities ebb and flow. 

Primarily I am working through client websites, conducting audits of websites, strategizing a sitemap and wire-frames of their homepage, and working through the actual build/re-build of the site and continuing site maintenance. This does vary a bit from client to client and scope of the project. The builds themselves shift between a few different platforms; primarily Squarespace, and WordPress. 

However we just launched our company’s first Webflow build for a client, and it was a big win to get through the challenges of an entirely new-to-everyone platform and be able to see the potential it has for us moving forward. It was a really challenging build, and it was a really great experience to become the company’s expert on the Webflow build on one of my first projects.

What’s the most rewarding thing about your current role?

There is absolutely so much encouragement for continued learning and growth. Coming into this role, I had very little exposure to the depth of UX strategy and to some of our site platforms. I’ve grown tremendously in the last few months and learned so much in that time. 

Webflow was something that I had never heard of before, and now the client has a complete and elaborate site. The sense of accomplishment I get each time another hurdle is crossed alongside the feedback from the team and my client is so so so nice!

How do you keep your skills up to date? What’s the best way to learn new concepts, technologies, programming languages, etc.?

I think maybe this is a bit easier now in this role, as so much of it is “the task at hand”. There will be an idea or request thrown around and then it moves into researching if something is possible and how do you build it. If it is not possible, how close can we get? 

This all reminds me of a lot of what I learned at MAXX Potential – that you can’t learn just by studying, to really understand something you have to build it yourself. And there becomes a lot of that! A few times it has been “We tried and built and tested x, y, and z. Ultimately the client went with Option A. But now I have the resources and familiarity with x, y, and z.”

In trying to research those requests I have also stumbled upon a lot of other ideas or functions that seem interesting. There are dozens of tutorials, forums, and channels, and while maybe this thing isn’t actually a solution I’m looking for, it is still a great idea of what the potential is for other strategies.

What’s the best piece of advice you can give to someone early in their IT career or looking to get their start?

Everything is figure-outable, but pick one thing first.

You will be able to research and study and test to figure out anything you are working on. It’s probably going to be frustrating and confusing, but you’ll have an epiphany a few days later when doing something else and it will all click. The trick though is to keep moving in the same direction and have a solid grasp before moving on. A loose knowledge of things doesn’t help much, but a deep understanding of a topic relates to other topics you wouldn’t expect.

Interested in becoming or working with a MAXX Apprentice? Attend Career Lab or explore MAXX Business Solutions!

Kevin Zhou

Full Stack Software Engineer, Fuel Digital

By MAXX Potential

Kevin worked as an Apprentice for less than a year, attaining Level 3 Apprentice status while gaining valuable on-the-job tech experience. He exited MAXX Potential to work at Fuel Digital as a Full Stack Software Engineer.

What were you doing before MAXX Potential? What drew you to pursue a career in technology?

I studied Economics and Statistics in college before I joined MAXX.

I’ve always been fascinated by the ability to bring ideas to life through code. Software engineering offers a unique blend of creativity and logic that constantly challenges and excites me.

Can you talk about what you’re currently working on? What are some of your job responsibilities?

Building custom software and integration for our client. One major part of my job is to integrate Filevine, a case management tool, into our client’s custom system.

What’s the most rewarding thing about your current role?

Being able to work with a client directly and work with talented and friendly co-workers on new challenges.

How do you keep your skills up to date? What’s the best way to learn new concepts, technologies, programming languages, etc.?

I keep my skills up to date by building projects that interest me, and I subscribe to the freecodecamp newsletter. They publish video tutorials on trending tech stacks.

What’s the best piece of advice you can give to someone early in their IT career or looking to get their start?

Hone your problem solving skills. This is the universal skill you will need no matter what.

Interested in becoming or working with a MAXX Apprentice? Attend Career Lab or explore MAXX Business Solutions!

MORE POSTS

Kevin Zhou

Full Stack Software Engineer, Fuel Digital

By MAXX Potential

Kevin worked as an Apprentice for less than a year, attaining Level 3 Apprentice status while gaining valuable on-the-job tech experience. He exited MAXX Potential to work at Fuel Digital as a Full Stack Software Engineer.

What were you doing before MAXX Potential? What drew you to pursue a career in technology?

I studied Economics and Statistics in college before I joined MAXX.

I’ve always been fascinated by the ability to bring ideas to life through code. Software engineering offers a unique blend of creativity and logic that constantly challenges and excites me.

Can you talk about what you’re currently working on? What are some of your job responsibilities?

Building custom software and integration for our client. One major part of my job is to integrate Filevine, a case management tool, into our client’s custom system.

What’s the most rewarding thing about your current role?

Being able to work with a client directly and work with talented and friendly co-workers on new challenges.

How do you keep your skills up to date? What’s the best way to learn new concepts, technologies, programming languages, etc.?

I keep my skills up to date by building projects that interest me, and I subscribe to the freecodecamp newsletter. They publish video tutorials on trending tech stacks.

What’s the best piece of advice you can give to someone early in their IT career or looking to get their start?

Hone your problem solving skills. This is the universal skill you will need no matter what.

Interested in becoming or working with a MAXX Apprentice? Attend Career Lab or explore MAXX Business Solutions!

Demystifying Spooky AI Technology Fears

How AI Technology Benefits Employees and Companies

By MAXX Potential

From science fiction to reality, Artificial Intelligence (AI) technology evokes many emotions in humans, whether it is fear or intrigue. AI technology has become a part of our daily lives from the in-home speakers that answer our questions to chatGPT and other LLMs that have revolutionized software’s generative capabilities. It’s exciting and terrifying.

Tech professionals guess at what these advancements will mean for humans, and some people experience so much fear about what AI could mean for our world. We wanted to talk about some of those spooky AI technology fears and do our best to demystify them.

Body Snatching: AI will replace human jobs

As language learning models, automation, and machine learning advances, it’s no surprise that workers fear for their jobs. Common questions circulate: Will machines replace humans? How can I protect my job? What can I do to work with AI now?

Some version of automation has been in use since the 1700s to handle repetitive tasks, and yet, the skill of automation now can be seen as scary. Automation and machines should replace workers who may face dangerous scenarios every day where a machine would be better equipped and safer to handle the work. 

“While I do believe that years later AI will take away some jobs I do believe that it will open many other types of job opportunities that could be more technical or something that we never would have thought of before.” Says James Stanley, MAXX Apprentice, in “From Hobby to Innovation: Exploring AI Passion Projects.”

The truth is that AI technology is inspiring workers to reimagine job roles.  AI allows humans to focus on higher-level responsibilities that use skills like critical thinking, creativity, and empathy. AI can enable workers to be more productive, take on more fulfilling responsibilities, and create entirely new types of jobs. With thoughtful implementation, AI can be harnessed to create positive economic and workforce impacts.

Poltergeist Prejudice: Perpetuated Bias, Ethical Concerns, and Irresponsibility

AI technology speeds up tasks like sorting through resumes for a job opening or tracking data. With that said, AI systems can inherit and amplify existing societal biases. This raises a number of concerns as more and more organizations turn to AI technologies for the automation capabilities. 

A National Institute of Standards and Technology report shared a study of 189 facial recognition algorithms and how most of them demonstrated bias. The researchers reported that the technology falsely identified Black and Asian faces 10 to 100 times more often than they did white faces. Women were also more often falsely identified.

Governments seek to determine best ways to regulate AI with New York City being the first to pass a law in 2021 with rules enforced this July. Thoughtful design and smart governance frameworks are required to ensure that AI doesn’t perpetuate societal problems. Companies and governments deploying AI must audit for biases, ensure transparency, evaluate use cases carefully, and institute human oversight measures.

In a “New Regulatory Approach to Facial Recognition,” Jason Schultz, a professor at the New York University School of Law, believes that facial recognition companies must consider new, consent-based approaches to their image gathering as right-of-publicity claims gain momentum. As technology advances so too must the guiding principles and frameworks to protect privacy, avoid bias, and disrupt irresponsibility.

AI Data Voodoo: Protecting User Data While Leveraging AI

Data breaches are scary, and bad actors are discovering new ways to use AI technologies to access user information, such as the AI-controlled botnet data breach with TaskRabbit in 2018 or the more recent and accidental Microsoft AI researchers data leak. Protecting private information alongside the use of AI is important.

Three possible solutions to protecting user data include federated learning, differential privacy, and encrypted data. Federated learning trains AI models with decentralized data stored on user devices while differential privacy anonymizes data by adding controlled noise. End-to-end encryption also helps keep information secure. 

Let’s not forget that AI and automation are powerful tools in cybersecurity, and they have demonstrated accelerated data breach identification and containment, saving companies as much as USD 1.8 million in data breach costs according to the Cost of a Data Breach 2023 global survey.

With deliberate effort, companies can find ways to benefit from AI while also earning user trust through robust privacy protections. Establishing oversight groups and following frameworks like the EU’s GDPR can guide policies that give users more control over their data. Being transparent, providing opt-out options, and restricting data usage are key principles.

Bewitching: AI Dependence vs. AI Assistance

Artificial Intelligence can be scary because some view it as a complete replacement of humans across the board; however, that skips the fact that humans have a unique ability to make decisions based on data as well as external factors. AI technologies can be a great tool, but they work best with a human manager. The goal of AI should be to augment, not replace, human intelligence.

One article observes that “the fear of AI often boils down to the fear of loss – loss of control, loss of privacy, and loss of human value.”

Some solutions for preventing overreliance include having humans remain “in the loop” for consequential decisions rather than fully automating them. Companies and governments deploying AI should also conduct impact assessments to anticipate risks. Additionally, requiring transparency and explanation from AI systems can build understanding and trust in their capabilities.

AI can be viewed as a powerful collaborative tool rather than a decision-making authority. While AI dependence is a valid concern, keeping humans ultimately in control can allow society to reap the benefits of AI assistance without surrendering our agency or discernment. The ideal future combines the strengths of human and artificial intelligence.

The key is shaping policies, education, incentives, and labor models to focus AI on enhancing humans rather than replacing them. With forethought, humans and AI can positively co-evolve. Truth is that AI is not even ready or able to completely replace humans.

 

Interested in learning about how AI can cut business costs and boost company productivity? Reach out to MAXXpotential.com about your interest in optimizing your back office capabilities.

MORE POSTS

Demystifying Spooky AI Technology Fears

How AI Technology Benefits Employees and Companies

By MAXX Potential

From science fiction to reality, Artificial Intelligence (AI) technology evokes many emotions in humans, whether it is fear or intrigue. AI technology has become a part of our daily lives from the in-home speakers that answer our questions to chatGPT and other LLMs that have revolutionized software’s generative capabilities. It’s exciting and terrifying.

Tech professionals guess at what these advancements will mean for humans, and some people experience so much fear about what AI could mean for our world. We wanted to talk about some of those spooky AI technology fears and do our best to demystify them.

Body Snatching: AI will replace human jobs

As language learning models, automation, and machine learning advances, it’s no surprise that workers fear for their jobs. Common questions circulate: Will machines replace humans? How can I protect my job? What can I do to work with AI now?

Some version of automation has been in use since the 1700s to handle repetitive tasks, and yet, the skill of automation now can be seen as scary. Automation and machines should replace workers who may face dangerous scenarios every day where a machine would be better equipped and safer to handle the work. 

“While I do believe that years later AI will take away some jobs I do believe that it will open many other types of job opportunities that could be more technical or something that we never would have thought of before.” Says James Stanley, MAXX Apprentice, in “From Hobby to Innovation: Exploring AI Passion Projects.”

The truth is that AI technology is inspiring workers to reimagine job roles.  AI allows humans to focus on higher-level responsibilities that use skills like critical thinking, creativity, and empathy. AI can enable workers to be more productive, take on more fulfilling responsibilities, and create entirely new types of jobs. With thoughtful implementation, AI can be harnessed to create positive economic and workforce impacts.

Poltergeist Prejudice: Perpetuated Bias, Ethical Concerns, and Irresponsibility

AI technology speeds up tasks like sorting through resumes for a job opening or tracking data. With that said, AI systems can inherit and amplify existing societal biases. This raises a number of concerns as more and more organizations turn to AI technologies for the automation capabilities. 

A National Institute of Standards and Technology report shared a study of 189 facial recognition algorithms and how most of them demonstrated bias. The researchers reported that the technology falsely identified Black and Asian faces 10 to 100 times more often than they did white faces. Women were also more often falsely identified.

Governments seek to determine best ways to regulate AI with New York City being the first to pass a law in 2021 with rules enforced this July. Thoughtful design and smart governance frameworks are required to ensure that AI doesn’t perpetuate societal problems. Companies and governments deploying AI must audit for biases, ensure transparency, evaluate use cases carefully, and institute human oversight measures.

In a “New Regulatory Approach to Facial Recognition,” Jason Schultz, a professor at the New York University School of Law, believes that facial recognition companies must consider new, consent-based approaches to their image gathering as right-of-publicity claims gain momentum. As technology advances so too must the guiding principles and frameworks to protect privacy, avoid bias, and disrupt irresponsibility.

AI Data Voodoo: Protecting User Data While Leveraging AI

Data breaches are scary, and bad actors are discovering new ways to use AI technologies to access user information, such as the AI-controlled botnet data breach with TaskRabbit in 2018 or the more recent and accidental Microsoft AI researchers data leak. Protecting private information alongside the use of AI is important.

Three possible solutions to protecting user data include federated learning, differential privacy, and encrypted data. Federated learning trains AI models with decentralized data stored on user devices while differential privacy anonymizes data by adding controlled noise. End-to-end encryption also helps keep information secure. 

Let’s not forget that AI and automation are powerful tools in cybersecurity, and they have demonstrated accelerated data breach identification and containment, saving companies as much as USD 1.8 million in data breach costs according to the Cost of a Data Breach 2023 global survey.

With deliberate effort, companies can find ways to benefit from AI while also earning user trust through robust privacy protections. Establishing oversight groups and following frameworks like the EU’s GDPR can guide policies that give users more control over their data. Being transparent, providing opt-out options, and restricting data usage are key principles.

Bewitching: AI Dependence vs. AI Assistance

Artificial Intelligence can be scary because some view it as a complete replacement of humans across the board; however, that skips the fact that humans have a unique ability to make decisions based on data as well as external factors. AI technologies can be a great tool, but they work best with a human manager. The goal of AI should be to augment, not replace, human intelligence.

One article observes that “the fear of AI often boils down to the fear of loss – loss of control, loss of privacy, and loss of human value.”

Some solutions for preventing overreliance include having humans remain “in the loop” for consequential decisions rather than fully automating them. Companies and governments deploying AI should also conduct impact assessments to anticipate risks. Additionally, requiring transparency and explanation from AI systems can build understanding and trust in their capabilities.

AI can be viewed as a powerful collaborative tool rather than a decision-making authority. While AI dependence is a valid concern, keeping humans ultimately in control can allow society to reap the benefits of AI assistance without surrendering our agency or discernment. The ideal future combines the strengths of human and artificial intelligence.

The key is shaping policies, education, incentives, and labor models to focus AI on enhancing humans rather than replacing them. With forethought, humans and AI can positively co-evolve. Truth is that AI is not even ready or able to completely replace humans.

 

Interested in learning about how AI can cut business costs and boost company productivity? Reach out to MAXXpotential.com about your interest in optimizing your back office capabilities.

The Synergy of Humans and Machines in Modern Cybersecurity

By MAXX Potential

Modern cybersecurity invokes an intricate dance between humans and machines, especially in a rapidly evolving digital landscape. The music that holds this dance together is the Security Operations Center (SOC). 

The SOC team monitors the entire IT infrastructure, including applications and communication, of a business every hour of the day. The team, along with their cybersecurity software tools, detects cyber threats in real time and addresses them. The teamwork between human and machine optimizes the process.

As machines gain more abilities through Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Language Learning Models (LLMs), it’s crucial for humans and companies to keep up with these changes. At the forefront of these advancements are those teams who implement cybersecurity with the aid of smart technology to keep information safe.

Machines Scale; Humans Synthesize

One of the fundamental aspects of the human-machine partnership in cybersecurity is the ability of machines to process vast amounts of data at lightning speed. Machines excel at tasks that require sifting through massive datasets, identifying anomalies, and flagging potential threats. This computational prowess is unmatched by human capabilities.

“The need for Cybersecurity in the first place is because of malicious actors trying to get into other people’s systems.” MAXX Apprentice Sherlene Eke points out.

Sherlene works alongside the SIEM tool, QRadar to protect against cyber threats. Used mainly for Security Logging and Incident Response, QRadar streamlines the generation of identified security threats and triggers alerts from various other security tools. Sherlene responds to alerts and determines next steps with her team when needed.

Cybersecurity software tools are important to protecting information, and at the end of the day, we need humans to maintain and work alongside these tools. Sherlene says it best. “Every software can have glitches and requires constant updates/patching not just to make it secure but also to keep up with new technologies.” 

SOC professionals shine in their ability to synthesize information delivered by their cybersecurity software. Through intuition and context, humans discern patterns and recognize the broader implications of the data processed by machines. While machines can identify anomalies, it’s often the human who determines whether an anomaly is a legitimate threat or a false positive.

Adaptability in a Changing Landscape & Learning Together

The cybersecurity landscape is in a constant state of flux, with cyber threats advancing at an alarming pace. The solution to staying ahead of cyber threats is through the adaptability of teamwork between humans and machines.

Humans possess the remarkable ability to adapt to new and unforeseen challenges. The capacity for critical thinking and problem-solving allows them to stay ahead of bad actors who are constantly devising new tactics. 

“Many tactics used in malicious messages still slip past the automated systems.” Julia Brigden, MAXX Apprentice, shares. She works with Mimecast, an advanced phishing and fraud detection security tool. 

“I think we all want to assume the automated system will prevent problematic messages from getting through, but the fact of the matter is I still have to investigate and remove dozens of malicious emails daily.” Julia said.

In the face of ongoing and smarter cyber threats, the dynamic partnership between humans and automation is key to staying resilient and managing cybersecurity.

Embrace the Power of Organization

A great cybersecurity team is not only supported by security software, but they also are made up of individualized teams with specific roles. An organization’s cybersecurity team includes an incident response team, global support team, risk team, app security team, and the physical security team. Each team has a role to play in protecting the business. When a business faces a cyber threat, these teams band together to eliminate the threat.

In incidents involving data breaches or cyberattacks, the human element becomes crucial in managing the impact on the company, the workers, and the individuals. People are the ones who work together with their security tools to eliminate the security threat and determine further solutions.

“There will always be a human element,” Sherlene shared. “Maybe not fully involved in the day to day but in the background of it.”

The Future of Cybersecurity is Human and AI Partnership

It’s not a matter of choosing one over the other but rather recognizing the complementary strengths that humans and AI bring to the table.

“The major takeaway is human vigilance is a very important and necessary part of cybersecurity.” Julia shared.

In a holistic approach to security, humans and machines work hand in hand. Machines process vast amounts of data and identify potential threats, while humans apply their intuition, adaptability, and emotional intelligence to make informed decisions. This synergy creates a formidable defense against the ever-evolving landscape of cyber threats.

Partner with MAXX Potential on your next project at MAXXpotential.com/contact.

MORE POSTS

The Synergy of Humans and Machines in Modern Cybersecurity

By MAXX Potential

Modern cybersecurity invokes an intricate dance between humans and machines, especially in a rapidly evolving digital landscape. The music that holds this dance together is the Security Operations Center (SOC). 

The SOC team monitors the entire IT infrastructure, including applications and communication, of a business every hour of the day. The team, along with their cybersecurity software tools, detects cyber threats in real time and addresses them. The teamwork between human and machine optimizes the process.

As machines gain more abilities through Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Language Learning Models (LLMs), it’s crucial for humans and companies to keep up with these changes. At the forefront of these advancements are those teams who implement cybersecurity with the aid of smart technology to keep information safe.

Machines Scale; Humans Synthesize

One of the fundamental aspects of the human-machine partnership in cybersecurity is the ability of machines to process vast amounts of data at lightning speed. Machines excel at tasks that require sifting through massive datasets, identifying anomalies, and flagging potential threats. This computational prowess is unmatched by human capabilities.

“The need for Cybersecurity in the first place is because of malicious actors trying to get into other people’s systems.” MAXX Apprentice Sherlene Eke points out.

Sherlene works alongside the SIEM tool, QRadar to protect against cyber threats. Used mainly for Security Logging and Incident Response, QRadar streamlines the generation of identified security threats and triggers alerts from various other security tools. Sherlene responds to alerts and determines next steps with her team when needed.

Cybersecurity software tools are important to protecting information, and at the end of the day, we need humans to maintain and work alongside these tools. Sherlene says it best. “Every software can have glitches and requires constant updates/patching not just to make it secure but also to keep up with new technologies.” 

SOC professionals shine in their ability to synthesize information delivered by their cybersecurity software. Through intuition and context, humans discern patterns and recognize the broader implications of the data processed by machines. While machines can identify anomalies, it’s often the human who determines whether an anomaly is a legitimate threat or a false positive.

Adaptability in a Changing Landscape & Learning Together

The cybersecurity landscape is in a constant state of flux, with cyber threats advancing at an alarming pace. The solution to staying ahead of cyber threats is through the adaptability of teamwork between humans and machines.

Humans possess the remarkable ability to adapt to new and unforeseen challenges. The capacity for critical thinking and problem-solving allows them to stay ahead of bad actors who are constantly devising new tactics. 

“Many tactics used in malicious messages still slip past the automated systems.” Julia Brigden, MAXX Apprentice, shares. She works with Mimecast, an advanced phishing and fraud detection security tool. 

“I think we all want to assume the automated system will prevent problematic messages from getting through, but the fact of the matter is I still have to investigate and remove dozens of malicious emails daily.” Julia said.

In the face of ongoing and smarter cyber threats, the dynamic partnership between humans and automation is key to staying resilient and managing cybersecurity.

Embrace the Power of Organization

A great cybersecurity team is not only supported by security software, but they also are made up of individualized teams with specific roles. An organization’s cybersecurity team includes an incident response team, global support team, risk team, app security team, and the physical security team. Each team has a role to play in protecting the business. When a business faces a cyber threat, these teams band together to eliminate the threat.

In incidents involving data breaches or cyberattacks, the human element becomes crucial in managing the impact on the company, the workers, and the individuals. People are the ones who work together with their security tools to eliminate the security threat and determine further solutions.

“There will always be a human element,” Sherlene shared. “Maybe not fully involved in the day to day but in the background of it.”

The Future of Cybersecurity is Human and AI Partnership

It’s not a matter of choosing one over the other but rather recognizing the complementary strengths that humans and AI bring to the table.

“The major takeaway is human vigilance is a very important and necessary part of cybersecurity.” Julia shared.

In a holistic approach to security, humans and machines work hand in hand. Machines process vast amounts of data and identify potential threats, while humans apply their intuition, adaptability, and emotional intelligence to make informed decisions. This synergy creates a formidable defense against the ever-evolving landscape of cyber threats.

Partner with MAXX Potential on your next project at MAXXpotential.com/contact.

Understanding Large Language Models in Education: A Quick Guide for Teachers

By MAXX Potential

What's the Buzz About LLMs?

Students are increasingly harnessing the power of Large Language Models (LLMs) like ChatGPT for academic tasks such as research and homework. These AI systems are trained on enormous datasets, making them adept at understanding and generating human-like language.

When used correctly, LLMs have the potential of being a warm-up for creativity or an assistant in brainstorming. This technology is known for making things up so it’s crucial that educators understand how to implement this technology in the classroom.

“There are not going to be shortcuts to the learning process – there are going to be better ways to learn and worse ways to learn,” says Jack Goodman, Studiosity’s founder and chair, in ComputerWeekly. “But you won’t learn to know what you think if you don’t learn to express yourself with language.”

How LLMs Function

In simple terms, these models predict the subsequent word in a text string based on the preceding words. This ability allows them to interact in a human-like way, answering questions, summarizing articles, or even engaging in dialogues. 

“Another important development is the use of pre-training, where a language model is first trained on a large dataset before being fine-tuned on a specific task.” ScienceDirect article points out. This pre-training and fine-tuning process greatly enhances the model’s performance, making it not only more accurate but also more versatile in handling specialized tasks, from academic research to customer service interactions.

Want to learn more about how this technology works? Dive deeper into the subject with our AI Learning Resources.

The Double-Edged Sword of LLMs

The efficiency of LLMs brings both opportunities and challenges. As these systems become more advanced, they pose difficulties for anti-plagiarism tools to differentiate between student-created and AI-generated content. This increasing proficiency can be both an asset and a potential issue, particularly in academic settings.

Other concerns raised are about students and educators relying too heavily on the model, negatively influencing critical thinking and problem solving skills. LLMs have the ability to transform the education landscape, and educators and students need to know how to use this tool best.

An Action Plan for Educators

To navigate this complex landscape, educators should be well-informed about the capabilities and limitations of LLMs. This knowledge will help in formulating educational policies that promote the ethical and effective use of such tools. For actionable insights and comprehensive guidelines, educators can check out our AI Learning Resources.

LLMs provide a great resource for educators to create personalized learning experiences for their students. For example, the models could be used to analyze a student’s writing and provide tailored feedback and suggested resources to assist the student’s learning. This frees up an educator to focus on other parts of education.

Educators can effectively prepare for a future where LLMs will play an increasingly significant role in the educational environment.

 

 

Sources:

MORE POSTS

Understanding Large Language Models in Education: A Quick Guide for Teachers

By MAXX Potential

What's the Buzz About LLMs?

Students are increasingly harnessing the power of Large Language Models (LLMs) like ChatGPT for academic tasks such as research and homework. These AI systems are trained on enormous datasets, making them adept at understanding and generating human-like language.

When used correctly, LLMs have the potential of being a warm-up for creativity or an assistant in brainstorming. This technology is known for making things up so it’s crucial that educators understand how to implement this technology in the classroom.

“There are not going to be shortcuts to the learning process – there are going to be better ways to learn and worse ways to learn,” says Jack Goodman, Studiosity’s founder and chair, in ComputerWeekly. “But you won’t learn to know what you think if you don’t learn to express yourself with language.”

How LLMs Function

In simple terms, these models predict the subsequent word in a text string based on the preceding words. This ability allows them to interact in a human-like way, answering questions, summarizing articles, or even engaging in dialogues. 

“Another important development is the use of pre-training, where a language model is first trained on a large dataset before being fine-tuned on a specific task.” ScienceDirect article points out. This pre-training and fine-tuning process greatly enhances the model’s performance, making it not only more accurate but also more versatile in handling specialized tasks, from academic research to customer service interactions.

Want to learn more about how this technology works? Dive deeper into the subject with our AI Learning Resources.

The Double-Edged Sword of LLMs

The efficiency of LLMs brings both opportunities and challenges. As these systems become more advanced, they pose difficulties for anti-plagiarism tools to differentiate between student-created and AI-generated content. This increasing proficiency can be both an asset and a potential issue, particularly in academic settings.

Other concerns raised are about students and educators relying too heavily on the model, negatively influencing critical thinking and problem solving skills. LLMs have the ability to transform the education landscape, and educators and students need to know how to use this tool best.

An Action Plan for Educators

To navigate this complex landscape, educators should be well-informed about the capabilities and limitations of LLMs. This knowledge will help in formulating educational policies that promote the ethical and effective use of such tools. For actionable insights and comprehensive guidelines, educators can check out our AI Learning Resources.

LLMs provide a great resource for educators to create personalized learning experiences for their students. For example, the models could be used to analyze a student’s writing and provide tailored feedback and suggested resources to assist the student’s learning. This frees up an educator to focus on other parts of education.

Educators can effectively prepare for a future where LLMs will play an increasingly significant role in the educational environment.

 

 

Sources: