It’s happening. Well, people are talking about it.
Anthropic’s CEO recently released a 3,800-word essay calling for a global slowdown of AI development. He said that while the technology offers many benefits, it is advancing too quickly for researchers to continue safely.
Combine that with…
Worried?
‘The scary thing is, if AI continues as is, there is a 10% chance it could wipe out humanity in the next 10 years.’
Ok, chances are low. But there is a chance! And yes, 10 years is a long time away but wiping out humanity, come on!
So what happens now?
Well, the President of the US doesn’t seem to be taking it seriously…
Honestly, we need to be a little more serious and focussed here.
Leaders worry that advanced AI agents can act unpredictably or bypass testing before humans fully understand how to control them.
And this happened somewhat recently! (Which I’ve shared before about bots/agents talking to each other, made their own language, the humans couldn’t understand them so had to quickly switch them off!)
I’ll leave you with this video… but before I do, It’s not looking good unless we really understand the impact of AI at the speed it is going at. Slowing down is one thing, the advancement of these models is another.
It’s funny that when you’re young, you think I want to do this, and I’ll progress by doing that.
Life throws a curveball at you. And you’re then sat re-assessing your options.
The thing is, life is short. So many people say, follow your passion. Obviously, you have to do the maths to ensure a) your passion pays for your everyday life and bills, and b) can you side hustle your passion till it’s at the stage of paying for your everyday life and bills?
I saw the below post and thought of Ted Lasso, Believe.
Like the Samsung, but more refined. But let’s be honest, most apple products are refined. Nevertheless, it’s here. It brings back memories of the Motorola Flip phone, remember that classic? When you were done with a call you’d flip it down to close. I guess you won’t be using as much force with this one when you come to close it, purely down to the cost of it being $2000!
Yes, you got that right.
This one is expensive.
But don’t worry. Apple also introduced the iPhone 18. Better than the 17. But for me, it’s not the phone itself, it’s the camera that has caught my attention.
Apple describes as its “most advanced camera system yet,” built around a 48-megapixel Fusion Main camera with variable aperture — a first for iPhone. Six “laser-cut blades” automatically adjust across four aperture settings to manage depth of field and lighting, while a new sensor is designed to improve low-light shooting and group-photo detail.
A new “Pro controls” interface lets photographers manually adjust aperture, shutter speed, and white balance, and check exposure with an onscreen histogram; an API also lets external developers access the aperture range.
I’ll be honest, it’s coming quite close to me ditching my DSLR and just using the phone to take all images and videos!
New airpods were announced too…
Oh, and new watches… including (the one I’ve been waiting for) Ultra 4!
Apple Watch Ultra 4, aimed at athletes and outdoor use, offers up to 50 hours of everyday battery life and up to 84 hours in Low Power Mode, with a Max Extended Workout mode that can track outdoor activity for up to 45 hours; it comes in natural and black titanium, starting at $799.
There is a new Apple Watch 12 that’s come out.
And there’s alot more on health. That’s right, the app gets more data, insights and advanced details. Wanting you to live longer and buy more apple products I guess.
And, one more thing…. Siri. I hear it’s more advanced than ever before. Which is great, because it needs to be. There’s so much voice activation can do, and I always feel let down by Siri and revert to Alexa (mainly when I’m at home).
“You can’t see me” is the famous catchphrase and hand gesture of WWE legend John Cena, where he waves his hand in front of his face
John started it as a joke dance with his younger brother who did to a hip-hop beat, meaning his rivals were not on his level. It turned into a huge internet meme that he is invisible.
If you’re a WWE fan like me, you’re probably humming the tune to the song right now.
I thought of John Cena recently, not because of his wrestling accreditations, but more so of him being invisible and his opponents not being able to see him.
The BBC recently reported that a Sainsbury’s store in London, which is using AI to identify unwanted customers has recently made some mistakes! The software identified one gentleman as someone who should be escorted of the premises. So as he was going about doing his normal shopping, he went to the self-checkout and then two store managers said to him that he’s got to leave.
Shocked is an understatement.
He left, raised it up with Sainsburys, who later said they had made a mistake. Well, it was them and their AI.
The company who has provided the AI face recognition said that the software does face recognition of people who have been shop lifting/stealing and/or caused trouble in a store. Now mistakes can happen. And then last step in their process is to have a human verify.
Let’s be honest, we humans at best, are no where near as good as machines.
So a mistake was made. Actually, this wasn’t the first time. As the story broke out, a lot more people came forward saying they had experienced something similar.
Sainsbury’s are not halting the roll out of their AI facial reconigiton system.
This got me thinking, a) what is the accuracy of the AI system (can they really see the face clearly or is this a John Cena moment? and b) human intervention – if this is meant to be the final sanity check before an action takes place, then why isn’t it working?
The process itself sounds logical, but the steps within don’t fill Sainbury’s with confidence.
So do we blame AI?
No. AI is just doing what it is being told. It has been given tasks, parameters, data, information, etc… and asked to go ahead and generate an output.
Is it the human?
Maybe. Should the human double check, verify and what capabilities does the human have to make the right decision?
Who do we blame?
The process.
The process should have ‘quality’ checks. If AI identifies a person, provides a high level percentage rate that it is them (against stored photos, data, etc…), then the human intervention should be to go to the person and talk to them. Could the human wear a camera that has a close up of the person which feeds back to the AI system to verify their original decision?
It comes down to confidence of the system.
I think it’s a matter of time before you will not need human intervention. AI will be able to do an initial check, close up check and continue to verify, up to the point where a decision is made with 99% confidence and then for a human to talk to the individual.
There’s more and more camera’s in more and more public spaces. Facial recognition is happening everywhere. Your face is on a computer somewhere with some tags of data.
What that data is, only you and the computer know.
Oh, and maybe AI will be using it for some purpose.
I remember saying to some of my u14’s during a football coaching session when they were finding it difficult to break down the opposition. I said to them, ‘calm waters never make a good sailor’.
Firstly, my good friend sent me the below today, which I thought has to be a Friday Thought! The first 6 months of 2026 have been a rollercoaster of a ride to say the least!
Secondly, I saw on LinkedIn last night, someone who I know said in a post, they were in their dream job at their dream company until one day they walked into an office, and when walking out there was no job. Everything fell apart in her world from the moment she’d walked into that office, due to ‘restructuring’ of her role. It took her a while to figure things out, and fast forward she’s now a coach and helps people find their true north. With the recent testimonial being, a client of hers, who she’s been working with for a few months landed their favourite job!
Sometimes, it may seem failure at the time but it’s all part and parcel of success.
Yesterday, I had the opportunity to speak at Nottingham Trent University. My topic was, The Art of Collaboration.
Whilst I won’t go into the details of what the Art of Collaboration is, I will share that it was a great evening. Thank you to NTU for the invite and letting me part of the Business Leaders Lectures.
Now, you might be thinking, ‘well Bal, tell us a little about the Art of Collaboration’.
Ok, ok… it’s basically broken down into 4 pillars.
Foundations
Relationships
Challenges
Mastery
I spoke about a couple of sub-points under each one, for example how important Trust is when you are collaborating.
I spoke about how you build relationships and then how you must build psychological safety. An area or space for people to connect, talk and openly share their ideas.
If you’d like to learn more about collaboration, then feel free to get in touch with me. I’m all over social media!
And I’ll be doing some more talks in the near future! So look out for posters and information. Best thing, if you’re not already, is connect with me on social media channels as I’ll be posting on there where and when I’m talking.
In addition, just a reminder, if you’re looking for some professional coaching – I’m doing that too! Well, to be honest, I’ve been doing it for a while… years and years, and recent feedback encouraged me to go open with it and help mentor and coach more folk. Again, reach out to me if you’d like the opportunity to talk!
With so much going on in the world right now, big ego’s & leaders fighting, there’s one thing many of us who are not at that level or involved should be…
Being kind is the only way we should be. Everyone is fighting their own individual battles. And where we can, we should support.
Oil prices are going higher and higher. We know this will have a knock on effect to all prices, such as food, clothing.. literally everything. And we should be prepared. It doesn’t mean we start stockpiling, but really thinking about the impact on those who it could effect the most.
