Author Archives: Rusty Rueff

About Rusty Rueff

Rusty Rueff, author of purposed worKING. Rusty Rueff is the former Chairman Emeritus of The GRAMMY Foundation in Los Angeles. He most recently completed the successful 16 month leadership role as Coordinating National Co-Chair for Technology for Obama (T4O) for the reelection of President Obama and ten-years of Board service and President of the Board of Trustees of the American Conservatory Theater in San Francisco. Corporately, most recently Rueff was the Chief Executive Officer at SNOCAP, Inc. until the acquisition of the company by imeem, Inc. in April 2008. Before joining SNOCAP in 2005, he was Executive Vice President of Human Resources at Electronic Arts (EA) from 1998 until 2005. He was also with the PepsiCo companies for more than ten years, with the Pratt & Whitney division of United Technologies for two years, and in commercial radio as an on-air personality for six years. Rusty holds an M.S. in counseling and a B.A. in radio and television from Purdue University. In 2003 he was named a distinguished Purdue alumnus, and he and his wife, Patti, are the named benefactors of Purdue’s Patti and Rusty Rueff School of Visual and Performing Arts. He is a corporate director of Glassdoor.com and runcoach. He is the co-founder and Executive Committee Member of T4A.org, serves on the Founding Circle of The Centrist Project and a founding Board Member of The GRAMMY Music Education Coalition. He is also the co-author of the book Talent Force: A New Manifesto for the Human Side of Business. Rusty and his wife, Patti, reside in Hillsborough, CA and Charlestown, R.I.

day 2290: It’s All About AI

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“Praise the Lord, everything he has created, everything in all his kingdom. Let all that I am praise the Lord.”

It’s hard to open any tech newsletter or periodical and not be confronted with the debate about Artificial Intelligence (AI).  Will it expand our ability to grow our businesses in new ways that we can’t even imagine, causing us to hire more people? Or, will it eliminate so many jobs while bringing about expansion that we will plunge into a global unemployment crisis?  It’s a legitimate debate.  The same one that I am sure occurred with the invention of the steam engine, and then again with the combustible engine, and then again with the car, and then again with the personal computer (I remember this last one – all administrative and clerical jobs would disappear).  There is without doubt that AI will, like automation machinery changed our work, change what we do and how we do it in the future, but we have to make a decision now.  That decision is to embrace or to resist in fear? I was asked last week what someone should do to keep up with the coming changes?  I told her, to stay ahead – read, inquire and try as many new technologies as she can – and then do her best  to be the one to bring new technologies to her work as a leader, instead of a follower.

It bums me out when I see a Believer fear and resist new technologies. We worship the great creator and to think that He is stopping creation so we (in our lifetimes) don’t feel uncomfortable and have to grow and learn, is to try and limit what God can (and will) do. I am sure every generation has thought that time should stand still for them, but that’s not the way God has worked so far.  He continues to write the creation story through us and if we choose, we can take our relevancy of the current and the future to keep front and center His love, His grace and His redemption.  We are instructed to praise everything He has created!

Reference: Psalm 103:22 (New Living Translation)