Glenn Strong

Assistant Professor at School of Computer Science and Statistics, @tcddublinscss @tcddublin
Over there: @[email protected]

[Peter Girnus 🦅 @gothburz]

Last quarter I rolled out Microsoft Copilot to 4,000 employees.

$30 per seat per month.

$1.4 million annually.

I called it "digital transformation."

The board loved that phrase.

They approved it in eleven minutes.

No one asked what it would actually do.

Including me.

I told everyone it would "10x productivity."

That's not a real number.

But it sounds like one.

HR asked how we'd measure the 10x.

I said we'd "leverage analytics dashboards."

They stopped asking.

Three months later I checked the usage reports.

47 people had opened it.

12 had used it more than once.

One of them was me.

I used it to summarize an email I could have read in 30 seconds.

It took 45 seconds.

Plus the time it took to fix the hallucinations.

But I called it a "pilot success."

Success means the pilot didn't visibly fail.

The CFO asked about ROI.

I showed him a graph.

The graph went up and to the right.

It measured "AI enablement."

I made that metric up.

He nodded approvingly.

We're "AI-enabled" now.

I don't know what that means.

But it's in our investor deck.

A senior developer asked why we didn't use Claude or ChatGPT.

I said we needed "enterprise-grade security."

He asked what that meant.

I said "compliance."

He asked which compliance.

I said "all of them."

He looked skeptical.

I scheduled him for a "career development conversation."

He stopped asking questions.

Microsoft sent a case study team.

They wanted to feature us as a success story.

I told them we "saved 40,000 hours."

I calculated that number by multiplying employees by a number I made up.

They didn't verify it.

They never do.

Now we're on Microsoft's website.

"Global enterprise achieves 40,000 hours of productivity gains with Copilot."

The CEO shared it on LinkedIn.

He got 3,000 likes.

He's never used Copilot.

None of the executives have.

We have an exemption.

"Strategic focus requires minimal digital distraction."

I wrote that policy.

The licenses renew next month.

I'm requesting an expansion.

5,000 more seats.

We haven't used the first 4,000.

But this time we'll "drive adoption."

Adoption means mandatory training.

Training means a 45-minute webinar no one watches.

But completion will be tracked.

Completion is a metric.

Metrics go in dashboards.

Dashboards go in board presentations.

Board presentations get me promoted.

I'll be SVP by Q3.

I still don't know what Copilot does.

But I know what it's for.

It's for showing we're "investing in AI."

Investment means spending.

Spending means commitment.

Commitment means we're serious about the future.

The future is whatever I say it is.

As long as the graph goes up and to the right.

[Rose Fleming @RoseFle54723126]

Those sex education and safety programmes in schools the far right hate, educated this little girl enough that she immediately told her mother what he did to her.

[Pytchlang @pytchlang]

Sharing our work at #IEEE #FIE2025, so many great conversations about computing education.

[Eleanor Burnhill @ElMcM]

At just 19-years old Ava Crean from Limerick was the first Irish woman across the line in Dublin @rtenews #irishlifedublinmarathon

[Cathal Dennehy @Cathal_Dennehy]

Remarkable story at the Dublin Marathon where 19-year-old Ava Crean from Limerick takes the women's national title in 2:34:12, a 9-minute PB - 6th overall.

Crean had never run competitively before signing up for the Manchester Marathon in April - listing her target time as 3:30.

[Ballinrobe CS @brobesch]

Fantastic Computer Science trip to @tcddublin where our students got hands-on testing with @pytchlang ! Huge thanks to Ben North and Glenn Strong for sharing their time, insights, and energy with us. #ComputerScience #Pytch #STEMEducation #TrinityCollegeDublin #CSTrip

[Stammy @Stammy]

i don’t know who needs to hear this but don’t update to macOS Tahoe if you use 3 dongles to connect to your original iPod via FireWire. Tahoe removes FireWire support

[Irish Times Business @IrishTimesBiz]

Facing the Windows 10 shutdown and can't - or don't want to - invest in a new laptop?A Linux OS developed in Dublin might be the answer. Derek Scally looks at the opportunity for ZorinOS. https://t.co/oqJSUROIAJ

[Zachtronics @zachtronics]

If you like Zachtronics games, you'll probably like Kaizen: A Factory Story, a new game made by the same people working at a new, legally distinct game studio called Coincidence! Zach is back!

[School of Computer Science and Statistics, TCD @tcddublinscss]

SCSS Prof. Gaye Stephens explored the ‘Winters of AI’ and its evolution since the 1950s at a full-house GenAI in healthcare event hosted by @TCD_SNM @tcddublinscss Attendees tackled real-world scenarios, ending with a lively panel discussion.

[Tyler Austin Harper @Tyler_A_Harper]

Says something about the priorities of university admins that they mobilized to rapidly enact sweeping institutional changes during the COVID crisis (because it threatened The Money) but not AI, the gravest danger to higher ed in modern history, which merely threatens learning.

[Arthouse Shawn Levy @firagawalkwthme]

“Grok explain this?”
“Grok context?”
“Grok is this rea—”

[Barry O'Sullivan @siliconbarry]

Sad to see @GalwayCoCo shutting down the amazing and iconic Misunderstood Heron on the shores of Killary Harbour. Amazing food and lovely people. 8 jobs gone unfortunately.

[School of Computer Science and Statistics, TCD @tcddublinscss]

What fantastic news! 👏👏

[U.S. Graphics Company @usgraphics]

Berkeley Mono v2 is here + the new U.S. Graphics Company website!

[School of Computer Science and Statistics, TCD @tcddublinscss]

🎉 Congrats to Prof. Carl Vogel, winner of the Trinity Inventor Award at the 2024 Trinity Innovation Awards!

His pioneering work in the Generative AI revolution in text processing through LLMs is driving innovation and real-world impact. 👏👏

https://t.co/d7uWGNezNw

[Sweet Meteor O'Death @smod4real]

RIP to everyone killed by the gods for their hubris but im different. and better. maybe even better than the gods

[Irish Universities Assoc. @IUAofficial]

Ireland has one of the worst third-level student-staff ratios in the developed world. 📢Ask your election candidates to #InvestInHigherEd and back students.

#GeneralElection2024 #GE24
@TheUSI
@DCUSU @maynoothsu @UCCSU @UCDSU @tcdsu @tudublinsu @UL_StudentLife @uniofgalway

[hackaday @hackaday]

BASIC Co-Inventor Thomas Kurtz Has Passed Away
https://t.co/qyM2c0SB8w

[David K Smith @professor_dave]

It's timely to highlight the life & work of computer scientist Lynn Conway.
In the late 1960s, she transitioned from male to female and was sacked by IBM as a result. For some years, she went underground and, for the rest of her career, worked as a woman - herstory unknown.