https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2023/oct/21/amazon-jeff-bezos-delivery-drones-expansion She’d drawn the curtains and sat down to read, the light from the screen keeping her awake. She’d finished the order. It wasn’t urgent but there was no choice. Fifteen minutes. She wished she could just go to bed. She listened and read… Once upon a midnight dreary, while I pondered, weak and weary, … [Read more…]
https://www.dorsetecho.co.uk/news/national/23837679.mps-join-campaign-groups-call-facial-recognition-ban/ My mates and I go looking for them. The best place is on the main streets of course. That’s convenient because it’s easier to go straight into the shops. My parents are outraged. They keep going on about privacy, freedom. You should see my dad’s attempts at hiding his face! I tell them that … [Read more…]
https://adage.com/article/opinion/artificial-intelligence-how-brands-will-face-unprecedented-scrutiny-consumers-using-same-tools/2518756 I remember my gran doing it in some street market somewhere. I was little but I remember the guy’s face as he tried in vain to hold the line. He stood no chance as my gran examined whatever she was considering buying, put it down, explained some fact about the stitching or the action … [Read more…]
https://www.moreaboutadvertising.com/2023/08/maa-ad-of-the-week-ikeas-rescue-bid-for-oxford-circus My grandad was a miner. Thatcher’s enemy within. Years after the strike he took me around a theme park that had opened at his old pit. He pointed out the mistakes and told me stories. He laughed as he remembered but there was a melancholy, an anger there. I thought of that day as … [Read more…]
https://digiday.com/marketing/how-ralph-laurens-phygital-boot-sale-in-fortnite-shows-benefits-and-limits-of-virtual-commerce He thought of it as a family firm. It wasn’t, obviously. It was a global luxury business owned by a shadowy nested doll of holding companies with names that didn’t resonate like the one he always said he worked for. His dad had worked here. His aunt. Generations. Heh his dad had to come … [Read more…]
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/jul/29/well-just-keep-an-eye-on-her-inside-britains-retail-centres-where-facial-recognition-cameras-now-spy-on-shoplifters I’m not really needed TBH. I’m like those drivers on automatic trains. Maybe opening a door every now and then but more a sign of reassurance, human oversight. So I sit behind a window looking at the monitors. “Watching the watchers,” I say. The hard work is all done by the System, of course. … [Read more…]
https://www.adweek.com/brand-marketing/zero10-debuts-ar-store-for-standalone-retail-experiences/ They called it the “mall” in all those American teen movies where the mean girls hang out, moving from shop to shop or just sitting. We sometimes hung out in the “shopping centre”,if the private security guards let us. But my mates and I just met on the corner (until we were moved on) … [Read more…]
https://www.theverge.com/2023/5/15/23724357/amazon-ai-powered-conversational-experience-search It’s more than the fact he knows everything there is to know about the genre. It’s the whole experience of the shop. It feels dusty, a little cramped, maybe a little darker than you’d like. A secret place just for those of us in the know. And then there’s him. Yeh, he knows everything … [Read more…]
https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/virtual-reality-system-lets-you-stop-and-smell-the-roses/ The shop began to open out. The sky stretched over her head and, as the walls dissolved, the fields spread out below her bare feet. She heard a brook behind her and the sound of her favourite Swallows on her right. She recognised the spot from her feed last spring. It wasn’t a direct … [Read more…]
https://www.adweek.com/creativity/tommy-hilfiger-try-on-clothes-with-zero10/ The security guard looked at her. He probably recognised her but there was nothing he could do. It was a free country. Well he could of course and the feeds were full of tales of people being turned away. But the community would always help you find another shop, another screen. She already knew … [Read more…]