Antonym: The AI-Two Step Edition
The future is here, there's just too much of it.
Dear Reader
Last week we talked about the contradiction in the Publicis Groupe AI strategy: this will enhance not replace workers, while it was paying for the €300mn investment from “restructuring efficiencies” (which is often a euphemism for firing people). This is so common that Bloomberg has coined the phrase “The AI two-step” to describe companies cutting jobs to show investors savings while telling workers they have nothing to fear from AI.
Experts believe that the number of jobs being eliminated due to AI is likely undercounted, as many companies prefer to keep these cuts under the radar. Despite the potential for job loss, companies often emphasise the augmentation of human workers' capabilities through AI rather than elimination.
UPS is among a growing number of companies facing an AI two-step of sorts: Showing investors how AI helps do more with less while simultaneously avoiding the fear-mongering that comes with directly linking technology with job cuts. A UPS spokesperson later said AI is not replacing workers, and that executives did not make an explicit connection between AI and the permanent layoffs on the company’s earnings call.
Google’s new ChatGPT competitor tested
Google Gemini is the company’s brand for its AI models, which come in three sizes: Nano (for phones), Pro (a ChatGPT free-version competitor) and Advanced (a ChatGPT 4). I’ve had a go the Advanced version which was released this week (but not in the UK, Switzerland or the EU).
Here are some notes on Gemini Advanced:
“Not available in your country is easy to get around with a VPN”: Users in the UK, Switzerland and EU are unable to use the model, because they have had the temerity to try and have laws to regulate AI. It’s the equivalent of Google stopping a game and taking the ball home because they don’t agree with the rules. NordVPN will get you round this roadblock for personal accounts, but I couldn’t connect my business account.
It can “see” really well: The multimodal element is a good (it can “see” better than ChatGPT in some tests). It could read a complicated set of post-it notes with less fuss than ChatGPT 4. I took the post-its from the community brainstorm and asked it to group them in a useful way. It did so, making it available as a Google Sheets file (a spreadsheet). It also helpfully suggested other ways of grouping them.
Integration with Google Worksuite is useful, if you work with Docs, Slides etc, just like Microsoft Co-Pilot is great with Office (Word, Excel etc.). Although I got some weird bugs a couple of times.
Ethan Mollick has been testing Google Advanced for a while and says it has a different “flavour” to ChatGPT. I know what he means. His verdict:
Suffice it to say that it is quite good, and you probably would be fine picking either GPT-4 or Gemini Advanced as your AI of choice to work with. Given their mixed strengths and weaknesses, however, I will continue to use both.
:: If you want technical detail on the Google AI models, Zapier has a useful blog post.
First they laugh at you…
Pioneering users of Apple Vision Pro have been amusing us all week by using the headsets in the real world. Here’s a nice montage.
Note: most of these people seem to be journalists or influencers reviewing the device.
Apple’s headset reviewed
”It has every characteristic of a first-generation product,” Joanna Stern, of the Wall Street Journal says. That means it’s expensive and limited (not a lot of apps), but a thrilling glimpse of the future of personal technology.
For a straightforward, thorough explanation of what it is like to use the Apple Vision Pro is like, for work and, er, skiing, Stern has made the best review for grown-ups.
It’s amazing for getting work done, because you can have as many screens as you like.
Good for watching video, but no Netflix or YouTube (sulking rival tech giant syndrome?).
Hands-free video recording works very well.
BN Edition
For more good readin’ visit BN Edition by Brilliant Noise. This week we cover copyright, search and leadership in the age of AI. We’ll share one particularly good recommendation here – listen to the TED podcast interview with Paul Hudson, CEO of pharma and healthcare giant Sanofi.
While some organisations hesitate, Hudson is committing Sanofi to transform to make the most of AI in the company.
I'm surprised at the number of CEOs or executives who – Their first response to an AI conversation is "Governance, controls, rules, principles." Of course, everything has its place, but I think we have to be honest with ourselves. If it is the fourth industrial revolution, which we believe it is, then hesitating, this fear can take over, can deprive you of so much opportunity. And you have to go for it. I find that when you talk to lots of CEOs, they really are very hesitant. Some would say even frightened.
Source: A 17 minute Listen or Watch, Ted Talks Daily
A dazzling, immersive experience about making art
Brighton-based digital art pioneers, Lighthouse brought out this 360 online version of one of their shows. It's called Make the Ting, by elijah, a top Grime producer and DJ.
Make The Ting 360º Online In a unique leap from live to digital, with support from The Space, we joined forces with The Old Market and commissioned an exclusive full-length recording of Elijah’s Make The Ting 360º live from the event at TOM back in December 2023. It’s now available to watch online in full and will be followed with an animated highlights edition. You can also check out an exclusive interactive 360º video; elevating access and interactivity for audiences.WATCH ONLINE HERE
This week I’ve been…
Watching…
True Detective: Night Country (NowTV/Sky). Jodie Foster’s amazing as ever, and Kali Reis as her partner is briliant and charismatic presence. While very watchable, the show is weird and not just in the ways it wants to be. The previous True Detective series flirted with the supernatural, but Night Country seems to dive right into a mass of ghosts and weirdness. Basically, I’m not sure what’s going on, but I’m enjoying the ride.
The Traitors (BBC iPlayer). Late to this, but I’m rarely an early adopter of reality TV. I need multiple testimonies and recommendations from trusted sources. The Traitors is the creation of Marc Pos, who directed the first series of Big Brother in the Netherlands, and was inspired by the strange story of the 1629 shipwreck of the Batavia, off Australia. Its creator, Jasper Hoogendoorn, intrigued by the ship's story of mutiny and betrayal, initially wanted contestants thrown into the sea upon elimination. Budget limitations led to filming in a castle, keeping the mutiny and betrayal theme intact.
Reading…
Prague Fatale, by Philip Kerr. The next instalment in the Bernie Gunther series I’ve been working through for a while now. It’s one of the best – combining a locked-room mystery with the horror of the Nazi occupation of Czechoslovakia.
If I Survive You, by Jonathan Escoffery. Shortlisted for the 2023 Booker Prize, it’s a series of linked short stories about Jamaican immigrants to the United States. Like A Brief History of Seven Killings there’s a delight in going with the flow of the Jamaican English in the hands of a brilliant writer.
Savour some sample sentences…
You say, Daddy, when you ever set foot in a tenement yard to know poor people’ business? And him kiss him teeth like him done with you.
That’s all for this week
I hope there was something useful here for you.
Antony