Read the First AI Reality Check

Series will provide quick and useful insights to help you understand what's happening in the AI landscape.

Double exposure of creative artificial Intelligence

SMACNA’s AI Reality Check is a quick monthly update to help you understand what’s happening with AI. Each post will share simple, valuable insights—what’s helpful, what’s overhyped, and how to think about AI practically.

Earlier this month, OpenAI launched its “Tasks” feature, which allows users to create automated tasks that can run later. At first, this might sound like “reminders” that we’ve seen for years, but there are a few key differences: 

  1. You can ask in plain language for some complicated tasks, like “Let me know when Gold passes $1,500 an ounce,” which will include web search and other things, or “Every morning, send me an image of dolphins,” where it will create new images every morning. 
  2. You can ask it to look at the full range of ChatGPT filetypes, from Excel to sequel databases and more, so it’s very powerful
  3. Per above, it can do these tasks based on conditions, not just regular intervals

OpenAI has created a simple agent framework for consumers to get used to the idea of AI Agents without quite so much complexity. Here’s a quick video.

The Good: It is an easy way to offload some mental effort that people are often not great at, like remembering to do things or paying attention to whether something has happened.

The Bad: They’re still going to be narrow software, so they will miss things and send irrelevant things sometimes. Offloading mental effort is great, but we’re going to need to learn when not to fully rely on still-limited systems.


Jan 22, 2025 Member Update

Latest Articles


Congressman Don Bacon Announces Retirement

Jul 2, 2025 - A longtime friend of SMACNA Contractors and Co-Sponsor of the Infrastructure Act also passed important construction procurement reforms and defense base retrofit laws.


Updated Press Brake Safety Training Manual Now Available on SMACNA’s Website

Jul 2, 2025 - Critical safety resource has been recently updated and revised by SMACNA’s Safety and Health Committee to align with current best practices and regulatory standards.


SNIPS Covers Joint SMACNA/SMART Efforts to Safeguard 179D Tax Provisions

Jul 2, 2025 - Joint letter to Speaker Mike Johnson and Senate Majority Leader John Thune urged Congress to prioritize critical policy areas needed to maintain a robust construction industry and support American workers and businesses.