Today, this approach has many modern computer scientists wondering if that was the wrong question to ask, and if reframing the relationship between AI and human workers away from competition and towards collaboration is the right path to take. Has Pursuing Turing?s Standard Created Economic Inequities? Director Erik Brynjolfsson of Stanford?s Digital Economy Lab certainly seems to think so. According to Brynjolfsson, advances in AI have created some serious problems, as he has argued in D?dalus, a journal produced by the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. In his contribution to the Spring 2022 issue of the journal, The Turing Trap: The Promise & Peril of Human-Like Artificial Intelligence, Brynjolfsson states that the goal of AI swiftly became a mission to overtake the capabilities of the human mind. That, he says, was the big mistake.  Brynjolfsson?s paper posits that the aforementioned obsession with creating a human-like machine has done little but exacerbated wage inequality. According to Brynjolfsson, the AI that?s been created has done little but remove the need for human employees, and while this has had positive impacts on productivity, the benefits of this productivity tend to float up to business owners and leaders. In fact, Brynjolfsson points to this divide as the cause of wage stagnation amongst workers while millionaires and billionaires just get richer. It?s a phenomenon that he had dubbed ?the Turing Trap,? as indicated in the title of his article. Comparing the creation of AI to the inherent desire for apotheosis that humans have repeatedly demonstrated in stories throughout history?creating life in their own image, like the golem of Jewish folklore, the automatons that the ancient Greeks told tales of Dedalus creating, as well as the efforts of inventors in real life from the early Islamic kingdoms to the minds of the European Renaissance. Modern popular culture has continued this pattern, depicting artificial intelligence as human-like, often featuring AI seeking out a greater level of humanity. Brynjolfsson feels that this is the wrong approach. According to Brynjolfsson, AI Would Be Better Used as ?Augmentation? Let?s explain what he means. Human employees can do certain things very well. AI can do certain things very well. And?this is key? the things that your human employees can do well aren?t always the same things that an AI can do well. Therefore, posits Brynjolfsson, it only makes sense that AI be used to supplement the capabilities of human employees. Not only would this help to promote improved productivity, the benefits of doing so would remain with the workers who are ?partnered? with AI, as their work becomes more valuable as well. Unfortunately, substitution or replacement is considerably more attainable than augmentation, simply because there?s no precedent for it in many cases. It is also important to note that other research has shown that there are very particular tasks that people do and don?t want automated as a rule?so things like ?cleaning toilets? were popular ideas, while ?opening gifts? was decidedly not. In terms of professional uses, however, augmentation demonstrates much more obvious cases. Many people have presumed that automation powered by AI will be used as an excuse to replace the human worker, but others have argued that AI?s use only covers a small part of what different jobs contain in their responsibilities. So, Artificial Intelligence Should Be Seen […]

Productivity The most important part of collaboration is that people are able to work together to accomplish a singular goal; and fortunately for all of us, software developers identified this years ago. For a while now, the predominant productivity suites have come with real-time collaboration. This means that multiple people can contribute on a database, on a document, on a presentation, all at once. This built-in collaboration not only can make things move a touch faster, it can also give a tremendous amount of insight into the people you have working for you. The more you know about your employees, the easier it is to manage them. The better they?re managed, the more productive the whole team will be. Communication Communication has long been integral to collaboration. Without consistent communication, who would know what needs to be done or what has been done? Communications can have the opposite effect on collaborative outcomes, of course, and for that reason, it is important for an organization to have communications tools that push collaborative efforts toward positive outcomes rather than wasteful and costly ones. To accomplish this there are new ?collaboration tools? which integrate video conferencing (often with VoIP integrated), instant messaging, and a forum type-platform that gives a whole organization a way to manage tasks, services, and projects. Development Developing a business that makes money and doesn?t crash and burn at the first sign of adversity is hard, hard work. That?s why it is essential to have a solid business development program going on. Most SMBs don?t have a dedicated department that does only this, they typically depend on decision-makers working through the data the business creates to come up with strategies to lead the business forward in prosperity. Since it takes input from every department to make decisions on how policy and procedures are created, businesses set up business intelligence and business analytics platforms to help them track how their current processes are working and give them the underlying information to make strategic changes at a business.  At White Mountain IT Services, we work with New Hampshire businesses that, just like your organization, need the years of experience that our technicians have accrued putting together technology strategies that improve collaboration and build high degrees of efficiency, productivity, and security. Give us a call today at (603) 889-0800 for more information.

Implement Secure Wireless  Having a secure wireless network is extremely important for most businesses today. Not only because it makes it easier to connect devices around the business, but it also gives you the option to provide a Wi-Fi connection that guests and other visitors can use. Unfortunately, that altruism can backfire in a big way. You will want to separate the guest accounts from the productivity accounts to avoid any potential problems with guests bringing malware onto the network.  Antivirus and Anti-Malware With so much data coming in and out of a business? network, it stands to reason that some malicious code will get through. Of course, if this malicious code were to be executed it could cause major problems for your organization. This is where antivirus and anti-malware tools come in. They effectively search your network or endpoints for malicious code and then quarantine it so you can decide what to do with it. Firewalls Firewalls do the same thing, but they are set up as a proactive system. It is essentially a filter that constantly monitors network traffic and isolates and quarantines data that may be problematic. What?s best is that they can be set up between any piece of hardware. This gives additional support to all security strategies within a business? computing environment.  Password Managers The password manager is a platform where people can save all their passwords so they don?t have to remember the dozens they create for business and personal use. This does two things: it keeps a repository of all saved passwords, which means that users only have to remember one; and, it provides the impetus for people to really create unique and secure passwords for every account.  Multi-Factor Authentication Finally, we get to multi-factor authentication (also known as two-factor authentication). This is a strategy more than it is a workable tool. Essentially, password-laden accounts have the option to give users an additional layer of security by making them authenticate by entering a code or thumbprint or some other form of authentication. To learn more about how your business can use today?s security tools to secure your network and infrastructure, give us a call today at (603) 889-0800.

For modern businesses, having a centralized network is still normal. On this network you?ll find at the very least email, some sort of file database support, a security solution, and a backup system. You would also have some endpoints, whether they are workstations, laptops, or mobile devices. That?s about as bare bones as any business could get. As the organization grows, more has to be added. Some organizations have moved significant parts of their computing infrastructure offsite, either to the cloud or to a colocation center where they still have a good deal of control over the management of the infrastructure.  Besides servers and endpoints, there are plenty of pieces of technology the average business uses. There is the modem, and the routers, switches, printers, and more. Then there are other options that businesses often take advantage of such as security systems, digital signage, and other solutions that require additional hardware. All of which come with an assigned cost.  The scaling of all this hardware doesn?t necessarily happen as the company grows. While some organizations may need a hosted VoIP system, for others it simply doesn’t make any sense. This goes for CRM or any other management software, security systems, productivity software, cloud storage, and other software-based solutions. Since many cloud-based platforms are beginning to see higher degrees of utilization, a lot of companies are avoiding huge upfront costs associated with purchasing hardware by relying on these cloud systems, which are more attractive, but whose TCO may actually be higher. By transferring the type of expense to a more recurring, operational expense, today?s businesses are able to accomplish more with less. Additionally, most businesses today are beginning to utilize online marketing platforms, whether they be through a dedicated website, social media platforms, or other means. The cost of these strategies tend to be variable even though most organizations will adhere to a very fixed percentage of total revenue for a marketing budget.  How Small Business IT Deployment Stacks Up As you might expect, the average small business spends a higher percentage of their revenue on IT than larger organizations. According to Gartner, most small businesses, which make up over 99 percent of surveyed companies, and nearly 83 percent of total IT dollars, will spend upward of six percent of their revenue on IT, while larger organizations typically spend around three percent of theirs. This means that smaller businesses are paying more of their available money to get the IT that larger organizations get. This can present problems if a core part of a small business? IT infrastructure fails, or if there is a project that is mismanaged or fails to meet the expected return; a cost that many larger organizations can manage.  However, the market for IT seems very strong with one survey concluding that technology spending across small businesses has grown a whopping 4.8 percent over the past six years; and is expected to grow another 5.1 percent in 2023.  Obviously, larger businesses don?t pay quite as much per worker, but they are cognizant of technology innovation, especially with new solutions available that can reduce downtime, manage mounds of company data, and reduce management costs at the same time. Most larger businesses have already implemented a lot of the technological systems that smaller businesses struggle to implement, so they […]

Unfollowing vs Unfriending First, it?s important to distinguish between the two actions. Unfollowing is different from unfriending. The latter is reserved for only those who you wish to remove entirely from your feed. The Unfollow feature is more for staying connected, but without the constant updates in your news feed. So, unless you?re interested in removing your virtual connection to an account entirely, the Unfollow option will be the preferred choice. Unfollow a Friend or Page You can unfollow a friend or a page with relative ease. All you have to do is navigate to the top of the profile to find the blue button. It should say Following. If you click that button, you?ll see options, one of which is Unfollow. Once you click the option, the process will complete. If you?re using the mobile application, the feature works the same way. Look for the Following button, tap it, and select the appropriate response. If you see something in your news feed that you would prefer to never see again, you can unfollow someone directly from there, too. You just click the ellipsis button and select the option to Unfollow that user. If you?d rather just keep your social media activity to a minimum while in the workplace rather than simply curating your feed, you can do that through the use of a web content blocker. This will keep time wasted by your employees to a minimum while they are at work. If you?d rather not block certain websites from all employees, then you also have that capability. You can receive insights into how your team uses these websites and restrict access according to what you feel is necessary. It?s great for maintaining productivity without being overly restrictive for all. To learn more about how you can effectively leverage technology for the sake of productivity, reach out to us at (603) 889-0800.