<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.01 Transitional//EN"><html><head><meta content="text/html;charset=UTF-8" http-equiv="Content-Type"></head><body ><div style="font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; color: rgb(0, 0, 0);"><p style="line-height:1.7999999999999998;margin-right: -9pt;margin-top:5pt;margin-bottom:9pt;" dir="ltr"><span class="highlight" style="background-color:transparent"><span class="colour" style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0)"><span class="font" style="font-family:Verdana, sans-serif"><span class="size" style="font-size: 11pt; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Hi All,</span></span></span></span><br></p><p style="line-height:1.7999999999999998;margin-right: -9pt;margin-top:5pt;margin-bottom:9pt;" dir="ltr"><span class="highlight" style="background-color:transparent"><span class="colour" style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0)"><span class="font" style="font-family:Verdana, sans-serif"><span class="size" style="font-size: 11pt; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Below is the summary of the Western Mass Survey on LLMs' Utility for Firms. I merged LivingLocal413.com’s similar survey answers. The survey is not statistically significant, just suggestive, so below I link to some of my firm’s curation of recent articles and studies. Next week I’ll email HT survey respondents the text of all the comments submitted in the survey.</span></span></span></span><br></p><p style="line-height:1.7999999999999998;margin-right: -9pt;margin-top:5pt;margin-bottom:9pt;" dir="ltr"><span class="highlight" style="background-color:transparent"><span class="colour" style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0)"><b><span class="font" style="font-family:Verdana, sans-serif"><span class="size" style="font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Upshot: </span></span></b></span></span><br></p><ul style="margin-top:0;margin-bottom:0;padding-inline-start:48px;"><li aria-level="1" style="list-style-type:disc;font-size:11pt;font-family:Verdana,sans-serif;color:#000000;background-color:transparent;font-weight:400;font-style:normal;font-variant:normal;text-decoration:none;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre;" dir="ltr"><p role="presentation" style="line-height: 1.8; margin-right: -9pt; margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0pt;" dir="ltr"><span class="highlight" style="background-color:transparent"><span class="colour" style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0)"><span class="font" style="font-family:Verdana, sans-serif"><span class="size" style="font-size: 11pt; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Big opportunities for all. <span class="highlight" style="background-color:transparent"><span class="colour" style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0)"><span class="font" style="font-family:Verdana, sans-serif"><span class="size" style="font-size: 11pt; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">All business types can benefit from wise LLM adoption.</span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span><br></p></li><li aria-level="1" style="list-style-type:disc;font-size:11pt;font-family:Verdana,sans-serif;color:#000000;background-color:transparent;font-weight:400;font-style:normal;font-variant:normal;text-decoration:none;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre;" dir="ltr"><p role="presentation" style="line-height: 1.8; margin-right: -9pt; margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0pt;" dir="ltr"><span class="highlight" style="background-color:transparent"><span class="colour" style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0)"><span class="font" style="font-family:Verdana, sans-serif"><span class="size" style="font-size: 11pt; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Human AI/LLM managers are vital to success and will be for years to come.</span></span></span></span><br></p></li><li aria-level="1" style="list-style-type:disc;font-size:11pt;font-family:Verdana,sans-serif;color:#000000;background-color:transparent;font-weight:400;font-style:normal;font-variant:normal;text-decoration:none;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre;" dir="ltr"><p role="presentation" style="line-height: 1.8; margin-right: -9pt; margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0pt;" dir="ltr"><span class="highlight" style="background-color:transparent"><span class="colour" style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0)"><span class="font" style="font-family:Verdana, sans-serif"><span class="size" style="font-size: 11pt; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Pro guidance will save a lot of time/money, boosting ROI.</span></span></span></span><br></p></li><li aria-level="1" style="list-style-type:disc;font-size:11pt;font-family:Verdana,sans-serif;color:#000000;background-color:transparent;font-weight:400;font-style:normal;font-variant:normal;text-decoration:none;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre;" dir="ltr"><p role="presentation" style="line-height: 1.8; margin-right: -9pt; margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 9pt;" dir="ltr"><span class="highlight" style="background-color:transparent"><span class="colour" style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0)"><span class="font" style="font-family:Verdana, sans-serif"><span class="size" style="font-size: 11pt; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">However, except for case histories--which may be extremes on the upside in the articles--I found only a few good hard numbers on money and time returns (ROI). This relates to my concluding Afterword on Corrupted Journalism.</span></span></span></span><br></p></li></ul><p style="line-height:1.7999999999999998;margin-left: 36pt;margin-right: -9pt;text-align: center;margin-top:5pt;margin-bottom:9pt;" dir="ltr"><span class="highlight" style="background-color:transparent"><span class="colour" style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0)"><span class="font" style="font-family:Verdana, sans-serif"><span class="size" style="font-size: 11pt; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="border:none;display:inline-block;overflow:hidden;width:785px;height:265px;"><img style="margin-left:0px;margin-top:0px;" height="265" width="785" src="https://lh7-rt.googleusercontent.com/docsz/AD_4nXdChUUwuRG36AMZ-ntdC1SPfwPKEbRaH1e9wVYDrbaVyesdDxbEsKefLyPhXy1TSUwSScC2CWk57vfhCpQrU1QpllvWMjaHH4sVtu-VlGeeI-ZT4gDoIKgite7ZjDAGiqgdDXrvCQ?key=lcuwXtsnOnJ1ENBVk9wSBQ"></span></span></span></span></span><br></p><p style="line-height:1.7999999999999998;margin-left: 36pt;margin-right: -9pt;text-align: center;margin-top:5pt;margin-bottom:9pt;" dir="ltr"><span class="highlight" style="background-color:transparent"><span class="colour" style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0)"><span class="font" style="font-family:Verdana, sans-serif"><span class="size" style="font-size: 11pt; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="border:none;display:inline-block;overflow:hidden;width:797px;height:285px;"><img style="margin-left:0px;margin-top:0px;" height="285" width="797" src="https://lh7-rt.googleusercontent.com/docsz/AD_4nXd2BcWaSPkoaemXsx_u2qgnH2JcnCmHfWg186c8YTpTjew9BPMqADdA-CaOhhFgcrCHle8Q4niZtAbfRSKqXUsQTHMqnvp2Rgpj8zmecT-zHAujSud-HeqcCTQ1-5tmTVHspYRGpg?key=lcuwXtsnOnJ1ENBVk9wSBQ"></span></span></span></span></span><br></p><p style="line-height:1.7999999999999998;margin-right: -9pt;margin-top:5pt;margin-bottom:9pt;" dir="ltr"><span class="highlight" style="background-color:transparent"><span class="colour" style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0)"><span class="font" style="font-family:Verdana, sans-serif"><span class="size" style="font-size: 11pt; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">See my </span></span></span></span><a style="text-decoration:none;" href="https://docs.google.com/document/d/17-q1DiWX_6FRqzGZEPrOf5EQqPTaZTb03zRQGeSrsuY/edit?usp=sharing" target="_blank"><span class="highlight" style="background-color:transparent"><span class="colour" style="color:rgb(17, 85, 204)"><span class="font" style="font-family:Verdana, sans-serif"><span class="size" style="font-size:11pt"><u style="font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration-skip-ink: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Q3-4 2024 Articles and Studies on Actual Use of LLMs in Business</u></span></span></span></span></a><span class="highlight" style="background-color:transparent"><span class="colour" style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0)"><span class="font" style="font-family:Verdana, sans-serif"><span class="size" style="font-size: 11pt; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">. All articles and most studies cited are within the last 3 months. Soon I’ll distill and frame it within the fifth installment of my firm’s </span></span></span></span><a style="text-decoration:none;" href="https://www.2disc.com/blog/gpts-for-upper-management/" target="_blank"><span class="highlight" style="background-color:transparent"><span class="colour" style="color:rgb(17, 85, 204)"><span class="font" style="font-family:Verdana, sans-serif"><span class="size" style="font-size:11pt"><u style="font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration-skip-ink: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">blog series on AI/LLMs</u></span></span></span></span></a><span class="highlight" style="background-color:transparent"><span class="colour" style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0)"><span class="font" style="font-family:Verdana, sans-serif"><span class="size" style="font-size: 11pt; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">.</span></span></span></span><br></p><p style="line-height:1.7999999999999998;margin-right: -9pt;margin-top:5pt;margin-bottom:9pt;" dir="ltr"><span class="highlight" style="background-color:transparent"><span class="colour" style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0)"><span class="font" style="font-family:Verdana, sans-serif"><span class="size" style="font-size: 11pt; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">I believe our region can prosper if, under one umbrella or another, we share advice from our LLM experiences. </span></span></span></span><span class="highlight" style="background-color:transparent"><span class="colour" style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0)"><span class="font" style="font-family:Verdana, sans-serif"><span class="size" style="font-size: 11pt; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><b id="docs-internal-guid-5a9bcee8-7fff-7ce4-348d-a4ad6ec9a489" style="font-weight:normal;"><span style="font-size:11pt;font-family:Verdana,sans-serif;color:#000000;background-color:transparent;font-weight:400;font-style:normal;font-variant:normal;text-decoration:none;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre;white-space:pre-wrap;">I like that</span><a style="text-decoration:none;" href="https://www.livinglocal413.org/" target="_blank"><span style="font-size:11pt;font-family:Verdana,sans-serif;color:#000000;background-color:transparent;font-weight:400;font-style:normal;font-variant:normal;text-decoration:none;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre;white-space:pre-wrap;"> Bill Cole’s </span><span style="font-size:11pt;font-family:Verdana,sans-serif;color:#1155cc;background-color:transparent;font-weight:400;font-style:normal;font-variant:normal;text-decoration:underline;-webkit-text-decoration-skip:none;text-decoration-skip-ink:none;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre;white-space:pre-wrap;">LivingLocal413</span></a><span style="font-size:11pt;font-family:Verdana,sans-serif;color:#000000;background-color:transparent;font-weight:400;font-style:normal;font-variant:normal;text-decoration:none;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre;white-space:pre-wrap;"> aims for non-digital gatherings of warm bodies together with online connections, and among my more sedate fantasies is <b id="docs-internal-guid-f51fcd7b-7fff-47ef-6472-cd8833ce2f37" style="font-weight:normal;"><span style="font-size:11pt;font-family:Verdana,sans-serif;color:#000000;background-color:transparent;font-weight:400;font-style:normal;font-variant:normal;text-decoration:none;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre;white-space:pre-wrap;">LL413’s</span></b> future partnership with Rich Roth’s Hidden-Tech</span></b> <img style="vertical-align: middle; width: 24px; height: 24px;" src="cid:0.28869202970.7982622180285474143.1933067e82d__smiley__img__src" data-attr="smiley" width="24" height="24">.</span></span></span></span><br></p><p style="line-height:1.7999999999999998;margin-right: -9pt;margin-top:5pt;margin-bottom:9pt;" dir="ltr"><span class="highlight" style="background-color:transparent"><span class="colour" style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0)"><b><span class="font" style="font-family:Verdana, sans-serif"><span class="size" style="font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Afterword on Corrupted Journalism</span></span></b></span></span><br></p><p style="line-height:1.7999999999999998;margin-right: -9pt;margin-top:5pt;margin-bottom:9pt;" dir="ltr"><span class="highlight" style="background-color:transparent"><span class="colour" style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0)"><span class="font" style="font-family:Verdana, sans-serif"><span class="size" style="font-size: 11pt; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">A plague threatening Democracy is the prevalence now of news for sale--largely due to Google taking ~80% of news channels' ad revenue. I see this in my industry, throughout general news outlets, and in polling/surveys bought by, and distorted to benefit, the buyer. AI/LLMs’ huge venture capital investments are buying lots of positive news, articles, and studies. Universities bend if not fall to that same sickle because they often get huge grants from tech corporations. It takes more time than working people have to verify each article, though I’ve done so for core LLM concepts at my firm, as well as for the news most important to our nation and its health. Regarding the articles I cite in the doc linked above, I believe they are not too distorted by money interests and are true enough for making sound decisions, but I also suspect that actual aggregate data on time/money invested vs. profit (or public benefit for nonprofits) would tamp down the stats and outlook for micro-, small-, and medium-sized business.</span></span></span></span><br></p><div><br></div><div class="zmail_signature_below"><div id="" data-zbluepencil-ignore="true" data-sigid="1535369000000073001"><div style="font-family: Verdana; font-size: 12px; line-height: normal; margin: 0px"><span class="size" style="font-size:13px"><span class="font" style="font-family:verdana, sans-serif">Best Regards,<br></span></span></div><div style="font-family: Verdana; font-size: 12px; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 15px"><span class="size" style="font-size:13px"><span class="font" style="font-family:verdana, sans-serif"><br></span></span></div><div style="font-family: Verdana; font-size: 12px; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; color: rgb(170, 48, 37)"><b><span class="size" style="font-size:13px"><span class="font" style="font-family:verdana, sans-serif">Rob Laporte</span></span></b><span class="size" style="font-size:13px"><span class="font" style="font-family:verdana, sans-serif"><br></span></span></div><div style="font-family: Verdana; font-size: 12px; line-height: normal; margin: 0px"><span class="size" style="font-size:13px"><span class="font" style="font-family:verdana, sans-serif">CEO | R&D Manager</span><span class="font" style="font-family:verdana, sans-serif"><br></span></span></div><div style="font-family: Verdana; font-size: 12px; line-height: normal; margin: 0px"><b><span class="size" style="font-size:13px"><span class="font" style="font-family:verdana, sans-serif">DISC - Making Websites Make Money</span></span></b><span class="size" style="font-size:13px"><span class="font" style="font-family:verdana, sans-serif"><br><a href="mailto:Rob@2disc.com" target="_blank">Rob@2disc.com</a>, <span class="size" style="font-size:13px"><span class="font" style="font-family:verdana, sans-serif">413-584-6500</span></span></span></span><br></div><div style="font-family: Verdana; font-size: 12px; line-height: normal; margin: 0px"><span class="size" style="font-size:13px"><span class="font" style="font-family:verdana, sans-serif"><a target="_blank" href="https://www.2disc.com">www.2disc.com</a></span></span><span class="size" style="font-size:16px"><span class="font" style="font-family:arial, helvetica, sans-serif, sans-serif"></span></span><br></div><div style="font-family: Verdana; font-size: 12px; line-height: normal"><span class="size" style="font-size:16px"><span class="font" style="font-family:arial, helvetica, sans-serif, sans-serif"></span></span><br></div><div><b style="font-family: Verdana; font-size: 12px; line-height: normal"><span class="size" style="font-size:16px"><span class="font" style="font-family:arial, helvetica, sans-serif, sans-serif"><span class="colour" style="color:rgb(153, 0, 0)">NOTE:</span></span></span></b><span class="size" style="font-size:16px"><span class="font" style="font-family:arial, helvetica, sans-serif, sans-serif"><span class="colour" style="color:rgb(153, 0, 0)"> Emails can be blocked by spam filters throughout the web. 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