Mid-week extra: AI, Slides & Cinema: The June 2 Dispatch
Some more links and stories.
Dear Reader,
This is an Antonym extra – some things I didn't have the bandwidth to share in Sunday's edition, including an update on the "What's the best alt-PPT app" comparison piece.
AI vs. PowerPoint: Has the slide finally slipped?
A breathtaking AI-crafted short film (and how it was made)
What on Earth is “hybrid reasoning”?
Signals from the AI world
A peek into our favourite meeting of the week: Show and Tell
In Sunday's latest newsletter, I explored how these tools shift the way we work with ideas.
AI agent Manus came in with the most interesting contribution after I'd published on Sunday.
This is a screen shot of the website it made (click on it see the full thing):
A nice deck and images (note the images of the cyberdog and cockapoo were generated and actually looked like the ones in the blurry photo).
Original image in the post:
And the slide Manus designed about this part of the story:
AI x FilmmakTest–Learn–Lead™: A Creative Frontier
Now for something really special – both the work and the way it was made.
This is a film-maker’s deck explaining their approach to using Imagen and Veo tools to create a short film that featured at Google I/O in June 2025. It’s a spectacular piece of work.
Even with the growing power of the generation tools, the effort in the film-maker’s process shows how much creativity and hard work goes into creating something like this. Individual “start images” were tweaked in image editing tools like PhotoShop before animation, and there were hundreds of alternate images generated that were never used. This a long way from simple, few-shot creative processes some might imagine video creation is now.
New processes and techniques are emerging with the AI-image and video revolution, but the best results still require a great deal of cognitive and emotional labour by a human.
What Is "Hybrid Reasoning"?
Still digesting "agentic AI"? Here's another phrase for your glossary: hybrid reasoning.
With the release of Anthropic’s Claude 4, we see AIs that can decide—on the fly—whether to give a fast answer based on search or go deeper with slow, structured reasoning. Soon, most base models will operate this way behind the scenes.
You won’t always notice. But if your chatbot starts narrating its thought process or engaging in internal dialogue—that’s hybrid reasoning at work.
Hybrid reasoning = letting the AI choose the best thinking path for your question.
Glossary
Agents: AI systems that can plan, use tools, and act autonomously. (e.g. Manus, Genspark)
Standard AI Chatbots: Generate answers from the model’s knowledge (e.g. ChatGPT-4o, Copilot)
Reasoning AI: Take longer, but talk through a response for complex prompts (e.g. Gemini 2.5, DeepSeek)
Signals and Stories
A few reads and links I wanted to make sure you hadn’t missed:
AI Beauty Advisors: Why some are trusting AI over friends for harsh appearance feedback. Washington Post
Google’s Flow: Create 8-second AI videos with text/image prompts. The Verge
Law Firms Offer £1M Bonus for AI Use: Serious cash to speed up adoption. FT
AI’s Impact on Writing Style: People write more (and differently) after exposure to AI-generated content. The Atlantic
The Power of Show and Tell
Every Tuesday, we host “AI Show and Tell”: 45 minutes, 5-minute slots, headlines only, followed by a snappy Q&A. As our colleague Katie put it: “It’s like intellectual interval training.”
Some recent examples:
Local Trade Business App: Job scheduling + pricing + CRM, no-code build with Bravo Studio
Notion + Claude Planner: Automated daily agendas pulled from your entire work universe
AI-Powered Market Research: ChatGPT-crafted insight briefings before big meetings
Personalised CRM Content: Claude + Notebook LM combo delivering targeted marketing across 12 markets
Multi-Agent Campaign Builder: A symphony of GPTs collaborating on briefs via Cursor
Chunking Enhancement: Better data retrieval tested on monster reports (Claude + vector databases)
Katie’s summary?
“I often need a little lie down after this meeting 🤯”
I hear that. Have a great week!
Antony