FOMO, FOBO and AIO: Another Week of Generative AI

Every Saturday and on U.S. holidays, I feel a lightness when I wake up.

Not because it's the weekend or a day off work. But because I know I'll have a respite, however brief, from the onslaught of AI news and announcements.

When my newsletter subscriptions and media feeds will be quieter for a day or so.

And I'll have a chance to sit back and catch my thoughts.

Maybe even reflect on what's transpired in recent months, as I try to make sense of what it means and what the implications might be.

And I realized we go through three stages when it comes to our approach to Generative AI: FOMO, FOBO and AIO.

Here's how they work—at least for me.

1. FOMO: Fear of Missing Out

FOMO's been around for a while. It was fine-tuned by social media and is now being perfected—so to speak—by the tech companies building Generative AI. With the proliferation of new multimodal apps and especially text to video—I'm looking at you Sora—and text to audio, testing and assessing them is starting to feel like a full-time role. In addition to your day jobs, that is.

2. FOBO: Fear of Becoming Obsolete

This one's newer and seems to be custom designed for the age of AI. FOBO is something many of us are experiencing right now, in part because of we don't want to miss anything (FOMO), but mainly due to fears about what our jobs will become and, to a certain extent, whether we'll be needed at all. It's that constant state of flux and feeling everything's beyond your control. And when you don't know what's around the corner but sense a looming shadow, you wonder if it might be a monster-bot and your anxiety level goes even higher. This makes the situation worse than it probably is.

3. AIO - Artificial Intelligence Overload

I've said this before, but I spend 90 minutes a day or more trying to read and absorb the latest and greatest about generative AI. And one thing I've been noticing more and more is the stories are often conflicting. For instance, some media predict AI may be heading into the 'trough of disillusionment' since the tools aren't quite living up to their productivity promises. And yet, valuations of tech companies continues to rise. Large language models require vast amounts of data for training. Yet, AI companies take a blind eye to the rights of the owners and creators of said data. And worse, may soon run out of that and need to have machines generate their own synthetic training data. Which could lead to amplification of bias, hallucinations and safety concerns. And that's just today. Stay tuned for tomorrow. No wonder you feel like you're chasing the proverbial AI bus.

So How Do You Manage the Strain?

I realize this sounds cliche, but breathing's good. So is exercise. And just doing something completely unrelated to your job or AI. That's tough if you're on a smartphone 24/7 (cue the FOMO). So maybe, you'd better ditch that for a small part of your day, too.

You might also want to move from always-on System 1 thinking, the quick decision-making that has you flitting from one item to another, to the more deliberate System 2. That's when you dig deeper and try to piece together disparate pieces of the AI puzzle to form a picture of where we may be heading and what the consequences might be.

And most important, when you use AI, don't simply settle for the generic and often overwritten output. Always add your personal creative stamp to whatever you do. That way, when a person comes across your content they don't think 'oh, anyone could have done that'. They think: YOU!

Then There's CES 2024

That glimmer of originality is something startup founders know very well. And each year, they come to parade their uniqueness at CES, the annual gathering in Las Vegas.

The best (or quirkiest) CES 2024 products are what I cover in this week's Digital Marketing Trends video. I talk about the Rabbit R1, a device that incorporates apps and AI and helps integrate them so you can perform more complex tasks, all at your voice command. And I look at a magic mirror that doesn't say you're beautiful, but knows if you're stressed by your facial expressions and tells you ow to relax.

Check it out and let me know what you think.

Follow Me on LinkedIn

And now it's time for you to take a break from issue #99.

Be sure to follow me on LinkedIn. This newsletter comes out every two weeks. But between issues, I share shorter daily posts with my take on digital marketing and the latest on generative AI. It's another way to stay on top of the trends.

And while you're at it, follow the Future of Marketing Institute, too. Every day we share content and perspectives on where we may be heading and what the shift might mean.

Let me know if you have questions about any of the videos in Digital Marketing Trends, or my other LinkedIn Learning courses. You can also visit my website and send a message or a question.

Are you feeling as overwhelmed and anxious as me? How do you manage FOMO, FOBO and AIO? Please share your stories in the comments below.

Before I go, I just want thank you to the more than 450,000 of you who subscribe, read, comment and share the newsletter! It's great having all of you along for the ride.

And now, it's time for me to take a few deep breaths and go out for a non-tech stroll. See you next time!

Note: All the content in this post was written by a human—me and not Martin the bot. The image was created by ChatGPT/DALL-E 3.