speculations

https://arstechnica.com/?p=2029442 It was why I was brought on board. My expertise. My experience. And, I assumed, my willingness to speak up. I remember the first interviews, with avatars of course, which seemed designed to create a debate to see how I responded. The final interview with the CEO was also,… Read the rest

https://www.theguardian.com/technology/article/2024/jun/05/ai-researchers-build-future-self-chatbot-to-inspire-wise-life-choices We had a former student come in the other day. She was part of the first year to use AI in class, for their projects. She told us how radical that’d been at the time. Must have been weird. Obviously we’ve using Partners since we were in school: researching,… Read the rest

https://digiday.com/marketing/matalans-ai-search-ads-are-performing-better-than-ones-written-by-humans/ I wouldn’t call it ‘apartheid’ but there is definitely a division. It’s there in the office where there are two distinct camps, one team on the sixth floor and another down on the fourth. It’s also there in the internal comms. There’s a feature today on the intranet talking… Read the rest

https://techcrunch.com/2024/06/03/shopify-checkout-blocks-acquisition She always chose the queue. She didn’t have to of course. There were plenty of clickless options but she didn’t like thinking her way through a checkout. It wasn’t that she didn’t trust herself not to go on a buying spree by just imagining herself with those jeans or… Read the rest

https://www.theverge.com/2024/6/2/24169567/nvidias-g-assist-geforce-ai-assistant-chatbot Thursday night is games night. It’s a tradition we’ve had since we were students. It started as our break from revising (and work – which was why it was Thursday, not Friday when we were out delivering). Chris was always a bit crap. No-one wanted to be be on… Read the rest

https://www.geekwire.com/2024/high-schoolers-developing-accent-softening-tool-for-call-center-agents-win-teen-startup-competition My parents moved here during the Great Reset. They had become used to, what was called at the time ‘working from home’ and wanted the good life: my Dad going out for long cycle rides in the hills and my Mum in her garden. I was too young to… Read the rest

https://www.engadget.com/meta-says-the-future-of-facebook-is-young-adults-again-203500866.html They decided it would be a laugh, an adventure. They were restless. That site was so last year, that space so lame, that service so meh… They were always on the lookout for something new. Being first would be even better. They looked around and smiled. They wandered around,… Read the rest

https://www.theverge.com/2024/5/30/24167986/perplexity-ai-research-pages-school-report It was called the ‘Final Major Project’ Her teacher had stressed the importance of each word: “a Final chance to bring it all together”; “industry-relevant Project not a thesis” and “Major… it was big.” And it was. Her pile of doodles and mindmaps testified to the scale of the… Read the rest

https://www.theverge.com/2024/5/30/24167678/amazon-prime-grubhub-plus-free-food-delivery The delivery drivers had arrived on time. The food, the wine and the extras. It was all co-ordinated. She didn’t know much about wine so had just clicked auto-selection. She’d spent longer browsing the recommended extras. As she unpacked the candles she had to admit, the system had been… Read the rest

https://www.ft.com/content/e156d5a3-8f1c-4a3e-a7ec-a1e5b0183c28 The headteacher wasn’t looking forward to the meeting. It was hard enough trying to explain the latest edicts from the government to the governors, how would they get their heads around this decision, They were well-meaning but the headteacher often had to channel her inner teacher to get them… Read the rest