Abstract

Generative AI has rapidly moved from a research curiosity to a force reshaping the modern workplace. Popularized by large language models such as ChatGPT, this technological shift challenges long-standing assumptions about human labor, productivity, education, and decision-making. This presentation provides a practical overview of artificial intelligence, tracing its evolution from early statistical models and expert systems to today’s power-hungry, transformer-based generative models. It distinguishes among major AI categories—predictive AI, robotic process automation, computer vision, natural language processing, and generative AI—and examines foundational models, small language models, and task-specific systems, highlighting the absence of a single “best” model for all use cases.
Drawing on real-world applications across software development, business operations, healthcare, education, and research, the talk frames generative AI as a co-pilot that augments human creativity and productivity rather than a fully autonomous replacement. At the same time, it critically addresses risks including job displacement, bias, misinformation, privacy concerns, and over-reliance on automated systems. Emerging trends such as agentic AI, “vibe coding,” and domain-specific small models signal a shift from hype toward pragmatic deployment.
The presentation concludes by arguing that the future impact of generative AI will depend less on technological capability than on societal choices—how we retrain workers, redesign education, establish ethical frameworks, and align human agency with increasingly capable machines.

Bio

David Whaley, Director of Strategic Partnerships at ARM, is a focused technology professional with experience leading software products through complete life cycles and building and managing strategic partner alliances. He delights in enabling teams to grow, learn, and accomplish great things. He delivers innovative, relevant, and cutting edge products that delight customers. He has expertise in customer requirement gathering and prioritization, Agile development environments, market development, influencing key decision-makers, and managing fast-moving, high-profile programs and partnerships. He has the ability and experience to work at all levels of an organization. 

ACCOMPLISHMENTS
• Led product teams and launched software products including: iTAP®- mobile device predictive text input, QuickPrint™- handwriting recognition, and WordScan™- desktop OCR (MacUser Eddy award winner).
• Grew a software licensing business around a predictive text input technology achieving profitability and driving $12M+ in annual revenue. Leading product management, marketing, business development, and remote customer teams.
• Realigned and prioritized Intel’s OS support plan-of-record to add $30M in annual revenue to existing CPU silicon product lines resulting in a Division Recognition Award for 2014.
• Led Motorola’s Google/Android organization-wide partnership during the introduction of the Android tablet OS release and seeded the developer ecosystem to introduce the first tablet-optimized Android applications.
• Built strategic alliances with high profile partners including: Google, Microsoft, Facebook, Twitter, Adobe, and others.

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