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Opinion > Columns
Industry experts and KM leaders share their ideas about the state of Knowledge Management in the world today and where it is going.

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On Chat AI and BS

So, I'm sticking with hallucinations for all of chat AI's statements, true or false. But that leaves us with a question: Why isn't there a word that perfectly expresses this situation? The answer is easy: LLMs are doing something genuinely new in our history. Our lack of a perfectly apt verb proves it.

Inefficient at the speed of light

While process mining started years ago as a mainly data-driven exercise, its stated goal is to be knowledge-driven. Given KM's multidisciplinary scope, we can play a major role in achieving that goal. Any process, no matter how simple, has the potential to reach across an entire business ecosystem, including all stakeholders. This seems like a perfect match for collaborative workflow, AI/ML, knowledge graphs, human sensemaking, and many of the other arrows in our KM quiver.

The end of tech glory days

The tech industry's glory days may be fading a little, but this is not a time for despair. It's an opportunity for renewal. By shifting to a needs-driven approach, the industry can ensure its relevance in a rapidly changing landscape.

The third place of knowledge management

The third place I alluded to goes far beyond mechanistic KM or curated knowledge and takes us into the actual world of tacit knowledge. Here, knowledge comes from and often remains as personal experience, impressions, and intuition; it's undocumented and often hidden and elusive.

Will AGI be intelligent?

AGI's holistic approach not only could enhance the accuracy and reliability of its decisions, but it would also mirror the interconnectedness of the real world.

Was the web good for knowledge management?

So, yes, the web enables everyone with an internet connection and the freedom to use it to contribute to our new, global, contentious, and contradictory knowledge space. But I did not foresee the dark side because of an optimism born of privilege.

Should we go back to paper-based KM?

The sheer volume of largely useless data we have accumulated across the years severely limits the ability of AI to work well, and it comes at a heavy environmental and financial cost.

8 billion and counting

The message is clear: No single person or committee or group can weave the best paths through the infinite maze of possible event chains. Only humans and machines working together, side by side, can produce a better result than would ever be possible from either one alone.

When is good enough enough?

Our goal should be to improve the quality of knowledge assets and their accuracy and relevance in use. Much of this will come from human expertise and effort, increasingly combined with the power of AI.

Get your game on: KM skills needed for reliable use of LLMs

There is no questioning that generative AI is here to stay, but its use in mission-critical work has some way to go before it can be trusted and let loose.

Are you data-driven or knowledge-driven?

We no longer need to blindly accept the output of even the most sophisticated AI/ML platforms. In fact, we should not consider any artifact, whether produced by humans or machines, as valid knowledge unless it contains not only supporting data and analyses, including provenance, but also an explanation of the underlying plausibility.

What are your chatbot’s pronouns?

We don't have pronouns by which we can address inanimate objects because we haven't had any occasions to have actual conversations with them.

The ChatGPT ways of knowledge

These two types of knowing—understanding the world and understanding knowledge—are, in some important ways, at odds in AI-based chatbots.

The evolution of the KM technology stack

Historically, KM managers have tried to centralize knowledge assets into a single KM platform and curate within it. But outside of a few niche use cases, this has not been feasible for many years. Combining few KM human resources and an increasing data deluge makes it impractical. That is not to say we don't have the tools and resources to manage knowledge assets effectively; rather, we need to recognize corporate realities, be open to innovation, and embrace radical change.

Tags, AI, and dimensions

Tags have become so common that they've faded from consciousness since 2007, although sometimes a clever hashtag pops up.

AI’s new type of knowledge

This way of knowing works pragmatically for some very complex systems of the sort we find in the real world. But, oddly, itseems not to work so well in some artificially simple systems.

Return on … Infrastructure???

As our physical and IT infrastructure continues to grow in size, complexity, and vulnerability, people and the knowledge they possess will play an ever-increasing role.

Three trends in ’23

The combined human and computing clouds will drive our core KM processes of search, collaboration, and discovery to new heights.

Knowledge as I remember it

The web transformed the role of knowledge by making it instantly available but not inherently reliable.

Getting more confused about regulating social media

Out of the mix of commercial greed, politics, and genuine desires to make the world better, we'll try many ways to "fix" social media. But I think it may take a couple of generations, affected by what we do, for us to begin to agree about what's right and wrong.