I get asked a lot about how we use AI in Adrenaline, but I get asked even more about how we use AI to MAKE Adrenaline. Good question.

We have many tools at Adrenaline that are common to most software shops like Jira & GitHub and to some degree they use AI but its mostly transparent from my perspective. However when it comes to writing the Adrenaline code, that's a different story, AI is much more involved. We're on a long journey with this codebase & AI is in the car all the time. The question is what seat do we put it in?

The trunk

Over time, I have personally seen first hand the destructive power our machines can unleash, even without AI. Even when software is developed with the best of intentions, its misuse can be devestating when it is put in the wrong hands. Not just evil hands but incompetent hands too, and those are the hands we're discussing today. Not the bad guys, the dumb guys. Chainsaws never had AI (please don't), they were created with good intention, generally can handle cutting wood with aplumb and given to the right leathery individual can become a powerful tool for death and entertainment. Lets not let him have one. Problem solved right? No it isn't. Well-intentioned idiots buy them all the time. And it's those folks you need worry about most. Chainsaw accidents (probably) kill over ten thousand children every week.

AI has never been given a chainsaw (please don't) but if it had you can be sure every tree and everything that looked vaguely similar to a tree would have been cut down with expediency. Try not to look like a tree I guess.

Its this cautious realism that makes up the foundation of the relationship Adrenaline has with AI. It's this perspective that we've developed as a consumer, that defines the way we employ AI in the product. We keep it at an arms length. If Adrenaline had an AI bill of rights it would be pretty short:

• You do not have the right to make a change without a human manually approving it
• You do not have the right to access to sensitive data
• You do not have the right to run direct commands on our console
• You do not have the right to disseminate information on our behalf
• You do not have the right to drop the bomb

Zero Dazzle

So how could it possibly be helpful at all? Before truly finding ways to make AI useful, you have to understand that it is dangerous because it is so capable and when used with guardrails it has some potential. But making it useful is nearly impossible when you don't trust it. It becomes a delicate dance of not relying on it too much and relying on it so little it provides no value. Numerous software companies have scratched their heads for years trying to wedge AI into their existing suite with little to no success. In most cases what they come up with amounts to just AI dazzle. This type of behavior is leading us as AI consumers deep into the trough of disillusionment.

Our company must align itself with the idea that if it isn't actually helping, its just dazzle. Forget dazzle. Every employee at Adrenaline is willing to take risks, "braking late in the corners" is part of our set of core values, part of that risk is the possibility of making a feature that gets the chop. Its a heartbreaking possibility but we continue try new ideas and paradigms anyway because its our responsibility as a tech company to explore boldly but to not enshitify at all costs. Adrenaline distinguishes itself in many ways, but what should truly define us is our role as an AI vanguard taking computer vision out of the fringes and into the mainstream. This is underpinned by a brazen mindset that we can leverage highly futuristic technologies in ways most companies wont even try. Right now adrenaline is preparing to release software that will give fledgling track builders and promoters tools that were once only available to folks who put on major league events. This grassroots empowerment alone could bring revival to the racing industry as a whole and it is all possible by leveraging well known racing techniques that are enhanced with AI, not replaced by it.

We never set out to build a replacement for the official or take the stopwatch from their hand. We set out to improve the stopwatch, make it ligher, smarter, cheaper... but never to make it click itself. If Terminator II taught us anything 30 years ago it would be - #1 Never let AI drop a bomb. Thats why we believe the stopwatch belongs in the hand of the official and that's where its gonna stay.

Chris King
Founder, Chief Executive
Adrenaline Analytics