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The & Report #1

Updated: Jan 10

Prompt Engineering Accelerator available in January

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Happy New Year! I hope you enjoyed the holidays and the close out of 2025.

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Welcome to The And Report!

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Why And? How often do you find yourself in a conversation where people are stuck between one or more opinions? It's either 'this only', or 'this or that'! Well, sometimes it can be 'this and that'.

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"Or" is restrictive and limiting, while "and" opens up insights and understanding.

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I intent to focus primarily on broad tech, specifically AI and Robotics, with occasional updates on Space, Health and Workplace news.

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Welcome and let's dive in!

1. 2025 in Review

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2025 was a breakthrough year for Generative AI. ChapGPT, Claude, Gemini, MS Copilot, Grok, and others, exploded with unanticipated features and capabilities.

AI adoption has been significantly faster than internet adoption - 800M users in 2.5 years vs 13 years.

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Investments in AI Infrastructure is off the charts! "By year end Amazon, Apple, Google, Meta, Nvidia, OpenAI and Oracle announced a combined $1.4 trillion in spending on domestic data centers and manufacturing projects." (from The New York Times).

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Some are talking about a bubble. With China flooding the market with open-weigh models (Kimi, Qwen, and Deep-Seek), that are cheaper and use less energy, there maybe a shift in adoption.

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While Elon is in a field of his own -

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"Elon Musk's $600B net worth surge stems from SpaceX, Tesla, and xAI's explosive growth, redefining aerospace, EVs, and AI industries.

- SpaceX's $1.5T IPO potential validates the $1T space economy by 2040, but faces execution risks like regulatory hurdles and technical complexity.

- Tesla's $1T valuation relies on AI-driven robotaxi dominance, while xAI's AGI bets aim for 2027 profitability through enterprise integrations.

- Vertical integration creates network effects: Starlink connects xAI models, Tesla AI chips enhance xAI infrastructure, and space-based data centers reduce compute costs. (From ainvest.com).

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However in the EV market BYD is now selling more EVs. https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cj9rjwpvmpzo​



2. Some predictions for 2026

​ 1. Space race is on, not just with countries, and now with companies!

2. "Math is now solved" - Dr. Alex Wissner-Gross.

3. Quantum Computing is near.

4. Job losses will accelerate and opportunities exists for those with AI skills.

5. Robots in the home, Digital Twins on-line, Fake news everywhere.

6. More expected job losses - GDPVAL benchmark. Now's the time to upskill!

7. Excellent opportunities for entrepreneurs, anyone with an idea and a LLM.

8. Falloff in college enrollments. Certificates have a higher value.

9. Fully autonomous driving (cars, taxis and trucks) and factories.

10. "Escape velocity" is near - for every year you live and extra year is added.


(From Peter H. Diamandis's YouTube show Episode #217)

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Peter, and his Moonshot colleagues, are "Accelerationists". They track and invest in start-ups and have an optimist perspective on the pace and benefits of AI. We'll look at these predictions and others as the we go though the year together. I expected unpredicted events as well!



3. I'll be hosting the first Zoom session of 2026 on Friday, Jan. 9th at 12 noon, EST.

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This session will include -

  • AI and Tech News updates.

  • The launch of the Prompt Engineering Accelerator GPT, a 30-day learning program that covers how to effectively prompt Chat GPT and other LLMs. This follows the same model and structure as the AI Demystified GPT, released in November.

  • A review of how the GPT works.

  • An open discussion of what future learning courses you'd like to see.

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I'll be adding a guest speaker every other month, or so, and would love to hear what topics you'd be interesting in learning about.

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Note: A change I'd like to make with the release of the training GPTs.

I plan to keep launching a new GPT each month, and will add a brief quiz during each week's session to see how well the week's learning went. I hope this will also help keep you on track with the 30-day course material.

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4. Some interesting recent news.

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"Americas hate AI." According to a New Times story on Jan. 2, 2026 the backlash against AI is due to the potential loss of jobs, lack of trust in the LLMs, and impacts to agency - people are being forced to use it against their will.

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AI is entering the classroom. More governments are rolling out AI in schools. Reporting in The New York Times states that the UAE, Kazakhstan, and El Salvador are working with Microsoft, OpenAI and Grok respectively. Educators are worried.

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Lastly, 2026 will be a year of upskilling. According to Forbes, the following 10 skills will be in demand for the next 10 years -

  1. Digital Literacy

  2. Data Literacy

  3. Critical Thinking

  4. Emotional Intelligence

  5. Creativity

  6. Collaboration

  7. Flexibility

  8. Leadership Skills

  9. Time Management

  10. Curiosity and Continuous Learing.

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There're lots of free courses online, including more on YouTube than you can keep up with. The challenge is to know where to start, find which ones are good, and to have the time to watch them.

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I hope this weekly report, the Friday Zoom Sessions, and the Learning GPTs will help you in your upskilling journey. I'll regularly share some sites and videos that will be helpful.



5. And this....

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My sister reminded me over the holidays about how I always wanted to be a rock star. She recalled the challenges our parents had with getting me to study for school rather that just wanting to play guitar. Well, I did study and went on to have a good career in tech. and education,.... and.....

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Live at The Bitter End on Dec. 29th with a killer band!
Live at The Bitter End on Dec. 29th with a killer band!

I'm excited to do this work, and hope it will be helpful for you.

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As an old-techie, with years of building and managing IT projects, and teaching over 1,100 students at Columbia University, my experience in teaching, and explaining concepts has served me well.

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Hope you can join me at the first Friday Zoom Sessions of the year, on January 9th.

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All the best,

Pat

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