From limitations to hallucinations: The hardest parts of working in AI
October 25, 2023
Liberty IT’s Robert McCullough discusses working with generative AI and the difficulties of assessing potential versus hype in the space.
When asked about what sets generative AI apart from other emerging technologies, Robert McCullough points to the accessibility of the tech.
“As programmers, we write code as instructions to create outcomes. In generative AI, anyone who can ask a question can get up and get going with it.
“I was chatting to a colleague the other day whose eight-year-old was using generative AI to create all manner of things and that’s really calling home the intuitiveness of it.”
However, McCullough adds that this is a “double-edged sword” as, just like in real life, “how you ask a question can influence the outcome greatly”.
McCullough is a senior solutions architect at Liberty IT, where he has worked on a variety of projects for the last 15 years.
‘Sometimes we don’t hear about the problems from our customers unless they think they are solvable’
I work in the Incubator, which is a space that’s primary purpose is to explore and exploit emerging technologies to deliver business value, so there’s a lot of working in spaces where there’s a huge amount of unknowns. I work with several engineering teams and into a larger architecture team. It helps to be comfortable being uncomfortable in the space given the nature of the work.
After dropping off the kids, I spend a few minutes glancing at my inbox and Teams messages and prioritising anything that needs immediate attention and setting reminders or follow-ups for the less urgent ones. As generative AI is the current focus, I spend about 30 minutes reading what has changed overnight, as the pace of change is so rapid it seems like every day there is some announcement or advancement in the field.
As an architecture team, we have a daily stand-up meeting which is always really interesting, as there’s a diversity of work and challenges and I find it refreshing to talk about other problems or get insights from others into mine.
I’m a firm believer that architects shouldn’t live in some kind of ivory tower making edicts, but should be couched in reality and involve a lot of time with the people actually implementing and/or being impacted by the changes, so I would check in with some members of the teams and see if I can help them at all. I will say that often I end up learning as much, if not more, from the team than they do from me! Currently we have a small but talented team working on some generative AI-related projects with scaling to meet demand from users across the globe.
The afternoon for me varies, as it’s usually dictated by what the current challenge with generative AI that impacts users or our use cases is, so it really could be anything. As Liberty IT is a subsidiary of Liberty Mutual, this is also when our...
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