Maria stretched her arms, taking in a deep breath as she savored the lingering flavor of dark, rich black coffee. She waited for the system to log in and connect to her biweekly meeting with her informal innovation group, a bunch of semiretired professionals passionate about quality practices and all things new.

Over the past several months, perhaps longer, they had been discussing the need for new innovation standards, at the same time questioning the term “innovation standardization” itself. Some called it an oxymoron.

The meeting started with the usual courtesies, and then Ben mentioned ChatGPT. It had been the buzz lately. Had anyone heard of it or played with it?

Maria chimed in, “I bet it’s the next level of AI and all set to beat us humans in writing, computing, and search power. It’s like Google search using standard human lingo and getting a humanlike answer!”

Curt said, “I was rather impressed, although I found it amusing that when I asked for the current date ChatGPT couldn’t provide it!”

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