LUDLOW, Vt. – Bruce Schmidt, vice president, general manager, and the friendly face of Okemo Mountain Resort, was inducted into the Ludlow Rotary Club at its Sept. 29 meeting. Rotarian Tom Harris, who did the induction, acknowledged Schmidt’s multiple contributions to the community over the years, including his long tenure as selectboard member. Harris indicated the Ludlow Rotary Club is happy to now have that experience and commitment as part of its membership.
The guest speaker for the meeting, Mike Lennon, founder of Eternity Marketing, spoke about using artificial intelligence (AI) in daily work and life. Lennon suggested that businesses want search results optimization when someone searches for them on the web. He argued that it can be enhanced using AI because of its ability to mimic human behavior over time and with repeated use. Essentially, AI can learn a business and its commonly used language. As it is used, it hallucinates far less frequently, and becomes more accurate with its ability to search via keywords. In order for AI to complete a task correctly, each request must have specificity, resulting in a better output.
Ultimately, AI can write blogs, generate posts for social media, or create an email marketing segment with photos and copy. ChatGPT is an AI-powered language model developed by OpenAI, capable of generating human-like text based on context and past conversations. Since its launch in November 2022, it has gained more followers than any other app. However, it can generate incorrect information. ChatGPT has to learn over time to autocomplete based on the user entering correct information. Lennon cautioned that when you upload information to any of these sites, it gives web access to your data. He does encourage using a site to become familiar with its capabilities and limitations. Club members had several questions for Lennon about using any of the AI sites.
Anyone interested in learning more about joining Rotary is invited to contact Kevin Barnes, membership chairman, at 802-228-8877, to receive an invitation to a meeting.