A.I, SCTV & Me

This is not intended to be an A.I. newsletter, but it’s starting to feel like one. I cover topics and links that are (a) in the news and (b) interest me, and A.I. just happens to be in the middle of that Venn diagram right now. This edition is inspired by Ethan Mollick’s appearance on the Ezra Klein podcast yesterday. He discusses how we should be experimenting with A.I. in our day-to-day work. I’m committed to trying this as a way to find efficiencies in my personal workflows, and to gain a better understanding of the technology. The areas I’m exploring, as well as the tools I’m using are listed below. If you have any suggestions, please share and I’ll include them in my next newsletter. (Note: the examples shown were inspired by the passing of SCTV legend Joe Flaherty).

Researching Stuff

Google is still the tool I use most for day-to-day research, despite the fact that search traffic is predicted to fall 25% by 2026 due to A.I. tools. I use ChatGPT-4 to supplement this research, especially when I’m familiar with the subject and can verify results. I’ve signed up for Liner which has a useful feature for summarizing webpages and PDFs (maybe I can use it for this newsletter?) Phind is another research tool with a more chat-like interface.

Summarizing Stuff

It is basically impossible to keep up with all of the podcasts, newsletters, and Substacks I’ve subscribed to. My current workflow entails scrolling and skimming across 40+ open Chrome tabs while listening to podcasts and videos at 1.5X. Not great. I’ve seen a few tools that summarize YouTube videos (Eightify), and convert articles you never get around to reading into audio summaries (Recast). I’ve downloaded a service called Tailor, which summarizes the news based on multiple sources.

Writing Stuff

I spoke with a senior marketing client yesterday and she mentioned that her in-house creative team has been hesitant to use A.I. to assist with copywriting. I get it, given that A.I. has led to a decrease in writing jobs. And as someone who writes regularly, it does feel a bit like cheating – like I’m not only outsourcing the writing, but also the thinking. Well, no more! I’m trying out QuillBot – an AI-powered paraphrasing tool. And by “trying out”, I mean that it has already smoothed out some rough edges in this newsletter.

Meeting & Notetaking

I’ve been part of many virtual meetings where an attendee pops up along with their virtual note-taker. At first it was a little disconcerting, so I do like the suggestion of providing attendees the option of a bot-free meeting. That being said, perhaps I can be more present and engaged in meetings if I am confident that an A.I. service is capturing all of the key points. While Zoom, Teams, and Google Meet have their own features, I’m going to give Otter.ai a try (Read and Fathom are a few other standalone apps). We’ll see how well it captures notes, including summaries and action items, and whether or not it bothers anyone (including me).

Making Presentations

I’ve come across a?few A.I. tools intended to help create presentations that are technically impressive but practically useless (for now). I have a Kickframe template / design system that I use for my presentations, but occasionally find myself wasting an embarrassing amount of time trying to find the perfect image for a background or transition slide. I’ve been using DALL·E2 to create images with some success, and as of this week you can start editing the images it produces. I plan to use Canva’s A.I. features to see if they can make designing my next presentation run more smoothly.

Business Admin

Ah, admin. Kickframe Inc is a simple operation but when it comes to admin – it’s repetitive, I’m terrible at it, and I don’t enjoy it at all…. which makes it a perfect candidate for A.I. automation. I am on the waiting list for Lutra, which looks promising. They promote a number of use cases that could potentially save me time, such as researching a person or company via LinkedIn and organizing my expenses. I’ll give it a shot.

Fresh Research

• 2024 Digital Media Trends (Deloitte): Great insights into how general media consumption is changing and how it differs across age groups. 60% of Gen Z watch UGC because they don’t have to spend time searching for something to watch vs. 15% for Boomers.
• Loud & Clear (Spotify): Annual music econometrics report from Spotify that shows how streaming revenue is being distributed and how listeners are using the platform.
• 2024 Edelman Trust Barometer (Tech Sector): Interesting focus on trust and the tech sector – how do will A.I. continue to advance if the level of trust that people have in A.I. companies is steadily declining?

Cool Beans

• Couldn’t make it to SXSW this year? No problem. Piers Fawkes used AI to summarize the key themes from over 150 presentations. Brilliant.
• Hume provides an “empathetic large language model” that can interpret how you feel from listening to your voice. I tried it, and am feeling a bit freaked out.