You can’t predict the future. You can build the fitness to respond to it. #MindCandy is fuel for strategic conversation about what’s next. Forward this to your leadership team and DM me for a conversation.
Will AI and consciousness ever neet
A stubbed toe. A slice of apple cake. A child’s cuddle. A chatbot can describe all three. What would it take for a machine to feel even one of them? In The MIT Press Reader, David Weinberger argues that things matter to us because we live in bodies that can be hurt, comforted and lost. A chatbot can reason, remember and change its mind. But, as he puts it, “it has nothing at stake, because it has no body to lose.” Give a robot a hand and it can pull away from a hot pan. A temperature sensor could explain every movement. Whether the heat hurts is another matter.
Then there’s wet AI.
Living neurons on a chip improved at Pong. In a later demonstration, human neurons controlled a player in Doom. A lab in Switzerland offers researchers remote access to brain organoids. You can sit at a laptop in another country while the living part of your experiment sits in a dish in Vevey.
Biobots make the question stranger still. Xenobots made from frog skin cells can swim and heal after injury. Anthrobots made from human windpipe cells helped neurons grow across a gap in a lab dish.
Wet AI starts with tissue that needs nutrients and can die. That gives us a way to test the first half of Weinberger’s argument. We can observe what damages the tissue. The harder part is knowing whether the damage matters to the thing we’ve built.
The leadership question
What are the implications of biological/caring AI?
The other prompts:
Data sovereignty is reshaping AI infrastructure
Organizations scaling sovereign AI no longer need to trade compute speed for strict data residency. Modern on-premises architecture bridges the gap between compliance and small-file storage performance.
https://www.cio.com/article/4246897/data-sovereignty-is-reshaping-ai-infrastructure.html
5 Essential Strategies to Unlock Enterprise Scale With AI
91% of data leaders report that data reliability is a barrier to moving GenAI initiatives from pilot to production.
https://www.informatica.com/resources/articles/data-management-strategy-enterprise-ai.html
Stop Collecting Data. Start Connecting It.
The filing cabinet was a brilliant innovation in 1898—but it’s time to break free of the idea that data belongs trapped inside a box. Instead, it needs to flow safely and securely through networks that can generate context, elevate our understanding, and deliver new revenue-enhancement opportunities that would otherwise have remained unseen.
https://www.forbes.com/sites/forbesbooksauthors/2026/11/09/stop-collecting-data-start-connecting-it/
A layman thinks about AI
11 questions on AI investing, from who will profit to its impact on credit markets, and explains why uncertainty is no reason to ignore it.
https://www.brookfield.com/views-news/insights/layman-thinks-about-ai#introduction
How to protect your brain from AI chatbots
Picture the cockpit of an aircraft. The pilot holding the steering column retains her illusion of control, but most decisions are effectively made before she even becomes aware of them.
The Hidden Cost of Moving Data (and How to Stop Paying It)
The board says: “Give us AI this year.” The playbook says: “First, fix the data. Migrate. Centralize. Govern. Then do AI.”The default reaction is to start moving data into a centralized platform. But this creates a problem. Every time you move data, it adds cost and risk. That should be a headache for C-level executives if they’re not aware of it.
https://www.snowflake.com/en/blog/hidden-cost-of-moving-data/
Why AI Needs a Separation of Powers
For companies adopting artificial intelligence, this concentration of algorithmic power poses a critical challenge to their autonomy and that of their customers.
https://knowledge.wharton.upenn.edu/article/why-ai-needs-a-separation-of-powers/
This AI Learned Language From the Recordings of a Baby’s First 1,000 Days
AI models that learn like kids could reveal the secrets of our early years and inspire more efficient machine minds.
