Everyone’s favorite topic these days is so-called “artificial intelligence” (AI), and while much of the hype about it—as a force for good or evil—is a bit overblown, there is no denying that it has even in its short existence been highly transformational. We devoted Issue 1 of our new WhatTheyThink Quarterly Journal to the topic, our workflow and software experts Pat McGrew and Ryan McAbee have been writing extensively about its applications in print management (see this week’s feature, for example), and Heidi Tolliver-Walker has been looking at the use of AI and AI-adjacent technologies in a variety of print-related applications, ranging from AI copy and image generation, to how it is impacting the workforce, to how it’s changing the way potential customers find your business—to whether we will ever need humans again or if it’s destroying the planet.

Some people are exceedingly skeptical about AI, and while a healthy dose of skepticism is a good thing, dismissing it out of hand is the wrong approach. In some ways, I am reminded of the mid-1990s, the early days of the Internet, and the onset of the “dot-com boom.” Every press release we received at the time touted some “online” feature of whatever it was they were promoting, and it was tempting to think of the Internet as a fad—or, as it was disparaged at the time, “CB radio of the 90s” (Google’s AI Overview attributes this quote to Mark Weiswasser, a then-executive at ABC, which may be true, although I seem to recall humorist Dave Barry writing something similar). And no one was more skeptical about the potential and the potential impact of the Internet than the printing industry—with the exception of the “dot-com portals” like Noosh.com (which is the only one I remember) that flourished for a brief period and kept trade publications flush with ad revenue.

I think we’re in a similar spot with AI right now. The hype machine is on overload, and people are either obsessed with it or dismissive of it. I think “cautious investigation” is probably the best strategy right now with regard to AI, which is why we called Issue 1 of our Quarterly Journal the “AI Reality Check.”