speculations

https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2024/jan/20/dpd-ai-chatbot-swears-calls-itself-useless-and-criticises-firm I’m not the only one feeling the pressure. You can see it in people’s faces. Stress. There’s the workload of course but also job security. We’re all scared that some new algorithm will make us redundant… literally. It’s no wonder some of us… well snap. It’s no surprise really.… Read the rest

https://adage.com/article/digital-marketing-ad-tech-news/gen-alpha-influencer-marketing-how-brands-can-work-young-creators/2537591 I’m a grumpy old bugger. I admit it. I’ve been in advertising man and boy since the time you could say “man and boy”. I remember working with stars who I at least recognised. I’ve worked with “celebrities” whose name I don’t even know but this is something else!… Read the rest

https://thenextweb.com/news/vr-brain-training-football-cognitive-skills Somewhere between a Sergeant from a Vietnam war movie and the PE teacher in Kes. You know the sort. His voice has one volume and his sentences always have the same number of words. I guess you have to respect him. He’s taken the team to where it is… Read the rest

https://arstechnica.com/?p=1996934 It wasn’t just the kids that were excited. Real world school visits were hard work but now so rare, the teachers were happy to do them if the health and safety AI signed them off. The class were just glad to be seeing each other. Older teachers muttered about… Read the rest

https://techcrunch.com/2024/01/17/reencle-teases-a-hungrier-quieter-home-composter-for-a-price/ We’ve had one for a while. No idea for how much longer though. It was a talking point at first, particularly at dinner parties or kids’ birthday parties. It was a statement of what we believed as much as a functional thing. We got it when everyone we knew… Read the rest

https://www.moreaboutadvertising.com/2024/01/78-of-adland-demand-better-mental-health-support/ She was used to the alerts. The company didn’t call them “alerts” of course, far too triggering. No they were “notes”, accompanied by musical notes specially composed for their consonant feel. She knew she was being cynical and why, the note told her. As had the system at her… Read the rest

https://www.wired.com/story/how-to-launch-custom-chatbot-openai-gpt-store/ It’s a bit like when you were a kid and had a secret language your parents couldn’t understand. My brother and I would talk. Really annoyed my dad. That was part of the point. I’m not a kid now but a “secret” language is even more important. Certain authorities… Read the rest

https://adage.com/article/digital-marketing-ad-tech-news/taylor-swift-deepfake-ads-what-brands-need-know-about-generative-ai- The company didn’t call it surveillance. It never had. Even in The Before when it was just a manager touring the floors, it was… well management. Key stroke logging was just for getting productivity data. “Nothing to see here”, they said with no sense of irony. When the workforce… Read the rest

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2024/jan/13/ai-girlfriend-chatbots I’m one of the few people who like the company parties. The virtual ones. They began during The Shift obviously and those early ones were a bit clunky but then when we got The Verse they got interesting. I remember when Chris was a superhero for the afternoon. And… Read the rest

https://admin.thedrum.com/news/2024/01/12/marketers-ces-2024- predict-ai-evolution-ad-renaissance-more-come-the-new-vear Words: 100 It wasn’t his favourite bit of the job. He much preferred his spreadsheets or the meetings with agencies where he could feel creative for a few hours. When you got to his level it was a mixture of numbers and ideas. But it was also his… Read the rest