AI Lessons
18 articles on AI Lessons.
What Is Retrieval-Augmented Generation (RAG)?
Retrieval-augmented generation (RAG) is an AI architecture that connects a language model to your company's own data sources so its answers are grounded in current, specific facts…
When to Use Claude vs GPT vs Gemini for Different Business Workflows
The right AI model for your business depends on the workflow you're running. Claude handles long-document analysis and compliance-sensitive drafting. GPT wins on customer-facing…
Ford Bet on AI Over Its Veteran Engineers, Then Rehired 350 of Them
Ford spent years leaning on artificial intelligence to fix quality problems that, by the company’s own account, have cost it billions: automated quality systems and hundreds of…
The Chatbot Named Quinn Made a Deal Its Dealership Refused to Honor
A man wanted to sell his BMW back to the dealership that sold it to him. He submitted an inquiry online and started texting with a representative named Quinn, who offered him…
Half a Billion Dollars in a Month Because Nobody Set an AI Spending Limit
Every other story in this series is about AI doing something wrong: giving bad advice, deleting data, inventing sources, screening people out. This last one is different. Here…
A $440,000 Consulting Report Full of AI Sources That Never Existed
A few weeks ago, one of the largest and most respected consulting firms in the world had to refund a government client because parts of the report it delivered were, in a real…
"I Told the AI Agent Not To" Is Not an AI Safety Plan
Last month a well-known software investor gave an AI coding agent access to a live system, told it in plain language not to touch anything, put the project under a formal freeze…
64 Million Job Applicants Exposed Because the Password Was "123456"
Two security researchers wanted to test McDonald's AI hiring chatbot. They started the way you'd expect, by trying to trick the AI itself into misbehaving. That didn't work; the…
Rejected by an Algorithm at 1:30 AM: Inside Automated Hiring
A man named Derek Mobley applied for more than a hundred jobs through the same widely used hiring platform. He was rejected from every one. In at least one case, the rejection…
Klarna Replaced 700 Support Agents With AI, Then Rehired Humans
For about a year, Klarna was the company every AI vendor pointed to. The Swedish fintech had done what everyone else was only talking about: it deployed an AI customer service…
1.2 Seconds Per Claim: What Happens When AI Decides Who Gets Healthcare
According to a class-action lawsuit, a major health insurer used an algorithm to review and deny hundreds of thousands of patient claims, spending an average of about 1.2 seconds…
The Lawyer Who Filed AI-Invented Cases He Never Read
A partner at one of the largest law firms in America signed a court filing that cited nine cases. Eight of them did not exist. They had been invented by the firm's own AI tool…
The Crash Didn't Kill Cruise. The Cover-Up Did.
If you're deploying AI anywhere its mistakes can hurt someone or cost real money, this is the case study to internalize. Not because your business runs robotaxis, but because the…
Air Canada Learned the Hard Way: If Your Chatbot Promises It, You Owe It
In November 2022, a man named Jake Moffatt needed a last-minute flight from Vancouver to Toronto after his grandmother died. Before booking, he asked the chatbot on Air Canada’s…
When Not to Use an AI Chatbot: The Jobs You Should Never Automate
In 2023, a national nonprofit that supports people with eating disorders shut down its long-running human helpline and pointed people toward a chatbot instead. Within days, the…
Your Employees Are Already Leaking Company Data Into AI Tools
In the spring of 2023, Samsung let engineers in its semiconductor division start using ChatGPT to help with their work. It's one of the most sophisticated technology companies on…
The Customer Service Chatbot That Wrote a Poem Roasting Its Own Company
In January 2024, Ashley Beauchamp, a London pianist and conductor, was trying to find a missing parcel. The AI chatbot on delivery firm DPD’s website could not locate it, could…
How a Dealership Chatbot Got Talked Into Selling a $76,000 SUV for $1
In December 2023, a car dealership put a chatbot on its website to answer customer questions. It was powered by ChatGPT, which the dealership seemed to think was a feature. Within…