I won't be making friends today, so pardon me if I sound like this guy:

... but I need to rant, because I feel like my LinkedIn feed more and more resembles the turn of the 2010s, when my aunt and her friends found out about Facebook.

• You'll have a BUNCH of generic posts, comments - and now even newsletters 🙄 - written with the most basic ChatGPT inputs
• Every one of these posts, by the way, now ends with a bunch of hashtags that are totally random and barely related
• Meeting minutes/synthesis will use the word "delve" so much that they obviously result from a single-prompt use of ChatGPT
• ... and very inspired Dall-E artists will produce the blandest of all pictures ⬇️

Rant Over (I promise)

So, are we doomed to see AI take over and human connections fade away? Was the dead internet theory right after all?

To me, it all depends on what we use AI for.

A LinkedIn post's impression number is a vanity metric - it doesn't bring much beyond inflated ego. So, if you feel like you need that self-boost by letting ChatGPT write daily for you, who am I to judge?

But there are other fields where AI actually augments the human and really adds value.

(You might remember how I leverage 22 AI tools to push out my podcasts ⬇️)

Did you try the "Google Killer"?

Let me use this example to picture what I mean here.

End of July, OpenAI announced Search GPT, an AI-powered search engine.

Why is this even a thing? Well, simply put because... Google became pretty lame.

When there's a gap in user experience, there's an opportunity for improvement (using AI or something else!).

Ironically, that's exactly how Google took over Yahoo (and it might happen again)

If you want to try for yourself how an AI-powered search engine changes your approach to good old Googling, try out Perplexity - you'll thank me later.

And here is where I'd connect it back to water tech.

Could AI become tomorrow's Water UI?

From GIS to hydraulic modeling through SCADA, Calculation Tools, and a bunch of HMIs, the daily life of a water operator, manager, or executive is full of software that's... let's say, challenging to love.

For the best of the past decade, water software companies have started hiring UI/UX experts to solve this and make their tools a bit more user-friendly.

But first, it's a long way to go, and second, even when the UI is perfect, if you have 10 different interfaces to learn, chances are you'll never be confident with any.

(Personally, every time I don't open Photoshop for 2 weeks, I return to not knowing where to change a color 😅)

➡️ What if this wasn't needed anymore?

We could easily, today, have an interface using natural language, and allowing to tap into a bunch of water software, leveraging your average LLM.

... and we could easily, tomorrow, use an interface, still in natural language, to not only gather data but also operate a plant, manage a network, or plan an extension, leveraging a Large Action Model (LAM).

We're not yet fully there for the latter (remember Rabbit AI?) - but I'd be ready to bet, it will be there before the end of the decade.

Bottom Line: use AI to solve for the Water Sector's silver wave, and for God's sake, embrace back writing your LinkedIn posts yourself!

My two cents 😂

🎧 This week on the Podcast: KANDO

Ari Goldfarb was on my mic' 214 episodes ago - time flies, and especially when you're discussing AI's applications with a cutting-edge water start-up.

It certainly was time to update my (and hopefully your) knowledge of Kando , especially as they're alpha-releasing their brand new Water LLM: STREAMi!

So actually, in this week's conversation with Ori Reshef , we have a guest star that shows up towards the middle, I would be spoiling you if I told you, it's a robot, right?

In concrete terms, STREAMi could swiftly become Kando's user interface (don't worry, the traditional platform won't fade away; it's one MORE way to interact), which opens interesting questions as to... what else could that LLM become the UI for.

Some more ground we cover:

• How Kando uses AI to improve wastewater quality and
• How it does so by feeding STREAMi (and beyond) with real-time data (and APIs)
• How AI can help address workforce shortages in the water industry
• Why you should come to visit Kando at WEFtec to get your hands on STREAMi (and more!)

Tune in wherever you get your podcasts from!

🍿 Snacking Content

🍎 Nothing against Retno Marsudi, but when the UN shared last week, that they FINALLY have appointed a Special Envoy for water, all I could think of is: if it took them 77 weeks to fulfill the MAIN promise of the UN Water Conference, it makes you wonder how humanity stands any chance to reach SDG6 by 2030.

⬇️ A right time, I think, for a shameless plug

There are not many more snacks for this week: I had to allocate time to prepare for next week's Rethinking Water Conference in New York. See you in the Big Apple!

That's it for this week - if any of this is of interest to you, make sure to subscribe! I'll be back next week with a bit more AI to close this Season 11 (and I'll have some news to share 😉)