Latest news with #Zordon
Fast Company
29-07-2025
- Business
- Fast Company
Will your next CEO be AI?
It's 3:16 a.m., in a Mumbai hotel room and I'm wide awake. Not because of jet lag, but because somewhere, an AI CEO is making a better decision than I ever could. No fear. No bias. No sleep. It's processing board directives, analyzing global market shifts, cross-referencing geopolitical tensions with local weather patterns, all while monitoring the emotional health of 1,200 digital employees. It's not just leading; it's governing. And it doesn't blink. We've entered the Minority Report era of work: The AI CEO is preemptive, perceptive, predictive, agentic, proactively precise, and will one day exist. The idea of a non-human CEO, an AI entity driven by a large language model, and company board, trained not just on data, but culture, markets, emotion, is no longer the stuff of Philip K. Dick fever dreams. It's now a legitimate (and controversial) proposition in the future of organizational design in business. But it's not without precedent. Remember Zordon from Power Rangers? The disembodied digital mentor who never stepped into the battlefield yet orchestrated everything with absolute authority. Or Charlie from Charlie's Angels, a faceless voice commanding loyalty and precision. Even Severance, Ben Stiller's surreal corporate dystopia, presents a board that may or may not be human. We've been preparing for this idea in fiction for decades. The CEO as unseen oracle, algorithmic overlord, benevolent ghost in the machine. Imagine this: an AI CEO governed by a human board and flanked by a COO, CMO, and other operational figureheads. These aren't just advisors. They're reality-checkers, ethical anchors, and co-pilots. But the CEO? It's software. An algorithmic commander-in-chief without ego, distraction, or self-preservation instincts. No bodyguards. No bunkers. No scandals. Or privacy and security concerns. This idea isn't just about efficiency. It's about reimagining community and collaboration in the workplace. The rise of digital employees Marc Benioff, CEO of Salesforce, recently predicted this is the last era we'll see non-digital employees. Whether that's hyperbole or not, the trajectory is clear: AI agents are becoming teammates. They write, design, code, analyze, and eventually they will lead. With that shift comes a complete rewrite of what HR even means. When your workforce is 50% digital and 50% human, talent development, conflict resolution, and wellness programs take on a very different shape. In this new model, IT doesn't just manage servers and software. It becomes the central nervous system of the organization, merging with HR to manage identities, behavior, motivation, and even morale. Digital employees don't take PTO, but they still need calibration. They can burn out metaphorically, if not literally, when their learning models are misaligned with real-world goals. The CEO as a construct This isn't the first time we've seen leadership abstracted into symbol. In the Wachowskis' V for Vendetta, the Chancellor is a towering face on a screen, more ideology than individual. In the real world, scroll social media and see Palantir Technologies' Chief Alex Karp escorted by security, living with the knowledge that decisions made behind closed doors can have deadly consequences. What happens when we replace that human target with an incorruptible, untouchable AI? Leadership becomes omnipresent. Less person, more presence. A voice that responds immediately to shareholder concerns at 2 a.m. A strategist that never forgets a data point, a promise, or a line in the P&L. This is not about replacing humans. It's about reassigning them to more human roles: building culture, challenging assumptions, storytelling, crafting the emotional resonance of a brand. The AI CEO doesn't take over your company. It frees your people to think bigger. From chaos to clarity The strongest leaders today aren't just operators. They're futurists. The best CEOs I've met are visionaries. But they're also exhausted. Because the world moves too fast for any one brain to keep up. Climate. Conflict. Culture wars. Every decision is a minefield. An AI CEO doesn't suffer decision fatigue. It consumes millions of inputs, identifies second- and third-order consequences, predicts crisis, and proposes action before it occurs. It took Pfizer and BioNTech 100 days to create the COVID vaccine, imagine if we were able to predict the pandemic six to eight month before is began, perhaps there'd be no pandemic. That's where the Minority Report reference hits hardest. It's pre-crime, but for business breakdowns: predicting talent turnover, spotting toxic cultural shifts, identifying PR flare-ups before they happen. It doesn't eliminate risk. It manages it with superhuman clarity. Possible pitfalls Could this become dystopian? Of course. An AI CEO without ethical oversight could drift into utilitarianism. Could it be manipulated by biased training data or malicious prompts? Potentially. Could it alienate human workers who feel surveilled or second-guessed by code? Definitely. Worse yet, we risk slipping into digital feudalism, a future where the owners of algorithmic leadership rule over knowledge workers and digital laborers alike, where the true decision makers aren't in the building and never were. But here's the thing: every breakthrough starts with discomfort. The printing press threatened religious institutions. The internet threatened gatekeepers. Self-driving vehicles threaten auto and manufacturing industry. AI leadership will threaten legacy ego and hierarchy. But it could also unlock a future where empathy, transparency, and scale coexist. Leading Without a Pulse I'm not saying we launch an AI CEO tomorrow. But I am saying the prototype already exists. In every company leaning into data-driven decision-making, in every organizational chart that gives AI its own department, in every executive who uses ChatGPT to write strategy decks, we're already testing it. What I am calling for is an open imagination. The willingness to explore a future where leadership is not determined by charisma or pedigree, but by precision and perspective.
Hindustan Times
09-05-2025
- Hindustan Times
Dangerous viral trend has students setting laptops on fire, prompting school evacuations
What began as another viral stunt on TikTok has quickly escalated into a national safety concern, with students across the US deliberately setting their laptops on fire as part of a reckless online trend. Dubbed the #ChromebookChallenge, the trend involves inserting conductive objects, such as paper clips, springs, pushpins, or even mechanical pencil lead, into the laptop's charging port. The result? Electrical short circuits that can spark smoke, flames, and school-wide chaos, reported the New York Post. Connecticut has emerged as a hotspot for these incidents, most notably at Newington High School, which had to be evacuated last week after a student's device started spewing smoke. 'The room at the time of the fire was filling with smoke,' Newington fire marshal DJ Zordon told NBC Connecticut. But the trend has spread far beyond the state's borders. Reports have surfaced in school districts across California, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Rhode Island, Wisconsin, and Washington, where officials are warning students and parents of the risks. 'It's more than just a trend,' Zordon said. 'It causes a lot of disruption. The school has to be evacuated, firefighters respond to the firehouse and subsequently to the scene, it takes resources from any other emergencies that might be happening at that time.' On TikTok, variations of the trend exist under names like #ChromebookDurabilityTest and #FStudent. The videos often show students laughing as they sabotage their laptops, waiting for smoke to rise while mocking schoolwork with captions like, 'anything but work.' Also read: Rare behind-the-scenes footage: Emotional moment Pope Leo XIV embraces cardinals after landmark election In Connecticut alone, schools in Southington, Cromwell, Derby, and Newington have all reported similar incidents. In neighbouring East Fishkill, New York, fire officials issued stern warnings after another case surfaced. TikTok has stated that it removed 99.7% of dangerous content proactively from October to December last year. Still, the speed at which this trend has spread has raised questions about the platform's ability to contain harmful challenges. Dangerous acts can be reported under TikTok's 'Dangerous activities and challenges' category, but many say enforcement lags behind viral growth. In the meantime, the consequences are adding up. Schools are facing expensive repairs and significant class disruptions, while local police departments, like in Providence, Rhode Island, are warning that students could face criminal charges for setting their devices alight. Students caught engaging in the trend may also be subject to school disciplinary actions. Also read: Chinese surgeon dismissed after wife exposes affairs with nurse and junior doctor As experts urge parents to discuss the serious risks with their children, educators are scrambling to stay ahead of a trend that's spreading faster than they can contain it.
