HIGHLIGHTS ADVANCED MATERIALS & PROCESSES | OCTOBER 2023 50 LEADERSHIP COLUMNS the staff and I are exploring AI and machine learning applications to innovate our offerings and to optimize the way we work. An exciting development is the use of bot technology to navigate our 110 years of materials science data to create customized solutions. Those of you who attend IMAT this year will be able to see a demonstration project on the show floor, and we look forward to seeing you to share our progress and gather your input. We are also experimenting with systems improvements in our publications, education, IT, sales, marketing, and human resources areas. While it is too early to know how many new products these efforts will yield or how much time and effort our operational improvements will generate, we are well ahead of many of our sister societies who are only beginning to think about the new realities of AI. At ASM International, we have offered prompt engineering training to our managers and we are all actively experimenting with it. I think of AI as our new partner, a 21st century tool to help us be more creative, efficient, and powerful in meeting the needs of our members and customers. I hope to see many of you this month at IMAT and to learn more about your professional challenges and the way you see our materials science and engineering landscape changing. I look forward to updating you on the work we have been doing this year to improve service, form new partnerships, increase international outreach, and adjust our financial model. We are also beginning our governance modernization journey to ensure inclusive and effective practices. Our organization is well-positioned for a bright future and I thank all of you for your input, ideas, and contributions in achieving it. Sandy Robert, CAE Executive Director, ASM International sandy.robert@asminternational.org EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR CORNER Meet Our New Partner: Arti cial Intelligence On November 30, 2022, the artificial intelligence company OpenAI launched ChatGPT with very limited expectations. Its technology is based on predictive language modeling and generates text based on context, past conversations, and prompts. The November iteration was not the first version of this technology, but the first to be introduced to the public. Within five days, over a million people signed up to use it and the astonishment of initial users at what this software could do, how swiftly, and how accurately caused a media sensation. When I wrote to you last fall, little did I realize how much this technology would affect ASM’s business strategy and operations. While there are many unanswered questions about how to harness the technology in ways that improve systems while maintaining ethical rigor, it is clear that not only is artificial intelligence here to stay, its uses are accelerating rapidly. For any who doubt AI’s near term and future impact, look no further than the last two issues of Harvard Business Review: The July/August issue is titled “Gen-AI and the New Age of Human Creativity” and the September/ October issue headline is “Reskilling in the Age of AI.” You’ll find articles on prompt engineering, leveraging AI in product design and optimization, workforce implications, and the human dimensions of trust and wellbeing. As we continue to wrestle with refining our association’s business model and the revenue pressures we face, Robert Williams FROM THE PRESIDENT’S DESK Leading ASM International: A Retrospective My year as president of ASM International is drawing to an end, so it’s a good time to look back and see what has changed and what still needs to change. Change is the only constant across our troubled world and no less so at ASM. As Gordon Gee, my good friend and former president here at Ohio State used to say, “If you don’t like change, what do you think about irrelevance?” We are fortunate to have attracted and retained Sandy Robert as our executive director, now leading us for over 20 months. Steady and committed leadership is essential as any organization weathers change, and Sandy demonstrates these characteristics. One of the most important roles of the board, and particularly the president, is to support the executive director and staff leadership as they implement change. During more than 20 years, I have chaired and served on many boards, from private companies to school boards, state agency boards, and multimillion-dollar nonprofits and I currently serve on the board of trustees of Florida Polytechnic University. From this experience, it is my view that a board should always “keep its nose in and its hands out (of the organization)” and focus on advising and supporting rather
RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy MTYyMzk3NQ==