As I got older, people I knew would talk about the game. Occasionally, I would be asked to play, but it would stir great fear in me, and I would default to saying I was busy. Sometimes I would see an interesting business event, a golf day, and though the audience seemed like my type of people, I would hesitate and then not join or sign up.

Then I moved to Abu Dhabi, a place that has always held a special place in my heart, and I am honoured that now I can call it home. About a year ago, I was asked to go to the driving range and hesitantly, I agreed. Eighteen months of travel and now expat living had conditioned me to say yes when asked to do most things. The guys I was playing with played off 4 (those who know golf are pulling this face now 😬). Let's just say, over the next few hours, I managed to do the unknown and consistently hit the ball backwards off the tee when trying to drive it forward. At one point, I did this ten times in a row, a true party trick.

As you can imagine, this event set me back slightly. About seven months later, golf reappeared in conversation with a different friend and this time it was better; the ball went forward. This started the catalyst of going to the range each week to hit some balls. The driving range, being between my house and my kids' school, made this convenient. After a few months, I started to find my way and get consistently bad shots (though still going forward), but 1 out of 50 balls would be beautiful and lead me to believe I could be a pro (golfers are nodding in agreement now). So, I would go again. Then Christmas came around and, you know what that mean’t - golf clubs. Ordered from the UK, as they were half the price, and brought over when family next visited.

Another month of hitting the range a few times a week and I started to get more consistency, but I couldn’t get any better or further with my shots.

There are 6 amazing golf courses within about 35 minutes of where I live now in Abu Dhabi, 2 of these are championship courses. So, after a few months on the range, I thought maybe it was time for some lessons. There is a group in Abu Dhabi called Viva Golf who manage the courses; they also offer a 'getting into golf' course, £120 (500 AED) for 5 group lessons a week for 4 weeks (20 lessons total) an absolute bargain.

The lessons were great and I would highly recommend Ian at Yas Acres as a teacher. After the first week, I was hitting about 25% further than before and my 1 in 50 nice-feeling shots by the end of the 4th week was up to 10 out of 50. The best bit about this class was that you met other people just starting out, which also meant other people at your level to play with.

At the end of the 4 weeks, there was a beginners' tournament at the par-3 training course at Yas Links. I was teamed up with 2 guys from another course, and though our team came second, it was through no help of mine; they were super supportive with every shot I hit the top of and watched it roll 3 meters in front of me, or when I ended up in the weeds.

The range and the course were two completely different games, and it was only when teeing off that first hole with 2 staff and 3 players watching me did I realise how much of this game was also mental.

I have since played a few 9-hole games and am enjoying it, though I have noticed something very fascinating about golf:

1. It is an expensive game to play and, until you become good at it, has a lot of luck involved, so I find myself hating the game more and more the better I get, yet the complexity of it makes you want to play more. It is ingeniously designed in that respect.

2. It is very true that how you play and interact with other players shows your character. I have played a few games and had another player join us, and you get to know a person well in a 2-hour game, and everyone is in the same boat, if you're not a pro, any shot could be a disaster.

3. There is still an elite vibe to golf, like taking your golf bag to be put on the cart or at the pickup area 10 meters from where you are standing, which I still find uncomfortable.

4. Each time I have played, there have been drinks afterwards where the relationship-building happens. This has been a real eye-opener, and when you live as an expat, it opens up a new world to make friends.

5. Golfers will sell their firstborn to get out on the course. I would regularly message a friend to go for a drink and get a “not tonight” or “busy with work.” Ask someone to play golf, and they are faking a cough and booking the tee time before the end of the call.

6. We are still sitting at the 30°C mark at midday in Abu Dhabi, so that gives a lot of time ranges to play a game, and whether it’s a walk or a buggy course, the views and the greenery are beautiful each time, and it is a nice break away from the computer screen, some even class it as exercise.

Is there a reason for this post? Not really; this is the annoying thing about golf, it gets in your head and makes it all you want to do. I want to say give it a try, but don’t, you won’t be able to give it up.

That being said, if you're ever in Abu Dhabi and want a game, give me a shout 😉

Why DKR (Dynamic Knowledge Rendering)? In a world rapidly transforming through AI, understanding the essence of knowledge, information, and wisdom becomes paramount. DKR delves into these core questions, presenting a future where AI tailors our digital experiences to our individual preferences.

1. What is Information and Knowledge in a world of AI?
2. How do we navigate this hyper-personalised world safely and ethically?
3. How do we ensure that AI serves our best interests?
4. What is the global impact of all of this?

Get Your Copy: DKR is available on Amazon, Kindle, and for those keen on diving in immediately, a digital complimentary copy can be accessed here.

An extract from DKR

It is a warm summer's day, the clock reads 2:43pm, and I am sitting in a hotel lobby in Dubai, UAE.

The scene before me is a microcosm of society; I currently see 37 adults, nine teenagers, three children, and a baby. Among the 46 adults and teens, 31 are women, and 14 are men (I can’t tell the baby’s gender). The crowd is a mixture: families checking in for a weekend getaway, couples embarking on their summer holiday, and business professionals adorned in suits, dresses and traditional Middle Eastern attire. Six of these 46 individuals are either asleep or dozing on sofas. Among the remaining 40, one cradles a baby while three are at the check-in counters. That leaves 37 individuals, 32 engrossed in their mobile phones. I would make it 33 people on their phones if I were not jotting these observations down on pen and paper.

There are two men wearing IT conference swag t-shirts and holding their IBM Thinkpad laptops. I can just make out the GitHub and Databricks stickers on the outside cover of their laptops. One of the three people standing at the check-in counters is a lady in her 30s entering her credit card pin code into the reader; I unintentionally can make out 3 of the four digits. A bellboy is pushing a trolley of suitcases out of the lobby towards the car park; one bag is slightly leaning out of the trolley, and if he doesn’t make this corner, will it fall? He makes it, but only just, phew.

Whenever I venture out for dinner, I make it a point to sit facing the entrance. Rather than reading books, I prefer to listen to them. Indeed, much of this book has been dictated rather than written, as the writing process is significantly slower for me - nearly ten times as long - and I quickly lose interest.

So why share this story and information? The way I see the world is unique to me; I can imagine many people reading this are thinking, how do you record all those people in the hotel lobby, whilst others will have a pencil in the book margins making sure the numbers of people I described add up.

The habit of facing the entrance could stem from a deep-seated need for awareness of my surroundings. This trait influences my preference for auditory over visual learning methods. Dictating this book instead of writing it manually speaks to a broader theme of adapting processes to suit one's strengths and weaknesses. My tendency to get distracted, even by the most minor triggers, highlights the challenges of maintaining focus in an ever-connected and bustling world. Writing this paragraph has taken me eight attempts due to interruptions from notifications, distant voices outside, or even fleeting thoughts, such as pondering why oranges are both orange in colour and named 'oranges'. Didn’t Eminem say orange is an annoying word that doesn't rhyme?

I share this story because it provides a powerful reminder of the critical importance of recognising and adapting to our distinct cognitive landscapes, mainly how we absorb and process information. Our individuality means we each have a unique approach to learning, with what might be a swift route for one person potentially representing a more time-consuming and effort-intensive path for another. For instance, I might need help to thoroughly digest a 40-page report, retaining only about 20% of its content after a slow and laborious reading. However, if that same information was transformed into a movie or a series of slides accompanied by a voiceover - preferably one that mirrors the captivating tone of Morgan Freeman - my ability to absorb and recall the information dramatically improves. Suddenly, I can retain 80% of the content with 10 minutes of focused attention. Still, considerable effort is required to create this Morgan Freeman voiceover slide presentation movie. That effort previously would have outweighed the hyper-personalised benefit.

I am describing nothing new; many disciplines delve into learning styles and cognitive processes, ranging from psychology to pedagogy. Educational theorists have identified various learning styles, such as visual, auditory, kinesthetic-tactile and reading/writing. Though even with all these disciplines of learning and cognitive processes, we have for generations embraced a one-size-fits-all approach to education and knowledge transfer, primarily due to logistical constraints and established traditions, but that has bled out into the systems and services we use daily and created a rigid experience for interaction that aims for the median.

We are now at a tipping point, courtesy of advancements in technology and, more specifically, artificial intelligence, because knowledge absorption can now be hyper-personalised to you; I call this "Dynamic Knowledge Rendering".

Get Your Copy: DKR is available on Amazon, Kindle, and for those keen on diving in immediately, a digital complimentary copy can be accessed here.

Where to start…

For those reading that don’t know, a little background, my family (my self, my wife and 2 children) left the UK in August 2021 to travel around the world for a year, we ended up travelling for 535 days, visited 14 countries, took 26 flights, stayed in 65 hotels and assisted in the birth of 4 kittens (2 of which we now have as pets but more to come about that).

So the question I normally get asked is, Why did you stop travelling?

However amazing the travelling experience was there are only so many temples you can see before they start to all look the same. Near the end of the trip we found ourselves not engaging with the trips we did or things to see and realised we were just a bit travelled out, when you think of it as 75 x 1 week holidays back to back you start to understand the level of input that generates.

The typical next question is, Why the UAE and why Abu Dhabi?

We have visited the UAE for holidays over the last 15 years so it is familiar and during that time we have seen the evolution of the country. So when we decided to stop travelling and not being ready to return back to the UK, a few countries came to mind but the UAE was very much at the top of the list.

The UAE is very much known globally because of Dubai, with the famous “Habibi Come to Dubai” marketing slogan it seems everyone decided too and the city is on fire but with that growth and explosion in population it really has become a bustling city with lots of people and that wasn't what we were after.

We wanted somewhere a bit more chilled, welcome to Abu Dhabi.

Now before I start talking about Abu Dhabi, I want to be clear that I have fully drunk the koolaid, it is an amazing city and in the next five years it will be hard to beat globally as somewhere to live or visit.

Abu Dhabi is the capital city of the UAE, though larger in geographic area than Dubai, it has a much smaller population at around 1.5 million people. The emirate (the UAE is made up of 7 emirates) of Abu Dhabi is made up of around 200 islands of varying sizes. The majority of the emirate is desert with the city covering the coastal area, you can drive from one side of the city to the other in less than 45 minutes.

When we arrived in Abu Dhabi we did so with just four suitcases, for the first month we lived in an apartment hotel whilst we worked out where we would live in the city. There are many options depending on the lifestyle you want for example; the hustle and bustle of downtown, the sea views of the Corniche, theme parks on your doorstep on Yas island or the white sandy beaches of Saadiyat.

Schooling

We had been educating our children for the 18 months we travelled and before that they had to undergo the inconsistency of covid schooling. Though as children always do, they adapted. They settled into a new school environment and made some great friends very quickly. I am not a big fan of traditional education but the one thing schools do give children is an environment for children to be with other children.

They started school in classes of roughly 24 children and that 24 was made up of 16 different nationalities. This has been maybe one of the most amazing parts of being in Abu Dhabi, the cultural lens my children are getting to see is priceless. I remember one day early in our move here, my daughter had come back from school and said;

“dad, I was speaking with X today and we were talking about why we are in UAE, I explained our travels and then she explained how she was here because her family had to flee their home country in the middle of the night”.

This put not being able to get the right type of chocolate into perspective.

Community

We found a lovely home with a great community vibe, I can only compare to what it was like growing up in the 80s and 90s where you could go out and play and it is safe to do so. For me that is a massively important part of why the UAE is appealing, apart from the amazing weather, it is very safe place. I am not going to be like those on social media who don’t lock their doors or leave their wallet in a cafe for the day to see if it gets stolen, I am still British after all. But the sentiment is true, in the last year here I have never once felt unsafe for myself, my wife or my children. If anything did happen I have no concern that when I call the police they would turn up, something I wouldn't say for the UK.

Now to the thing you're really here for, the cats

During our travels we stayed in Abu Dhabi for some time with friends and some how assisted a stray cat. It turned out the boy stray cat wasn’t in fact a boy but was a pregnant girl and was due to give birth in two weeks. Boomerang as she became known (for always coming back for food) gave birth to four beautiful kittens which we as a family got to witness.

We managed to get Boomerang and the kittens adopted before we carried on our travels. Though when we returned to live here, two of the four kittens were being looked after at a stables and we were asked if we want to adopt them back. So I give you Sam and Elephant Butt (we go with EB for short).

There is one big problem with Abu Dhabi

There really is too much awesome stuff to do. I really mean it, there is all the stuff that is here all the time; theme parks, water parks, arenas, F1 track (which you can run or cycle for free and provided a bike, helmet and water 4 times a week), beaches, golf courses, world class hotels and food, star gazing, camping or quad biking in the desert (I didn’t realise how much I would fall in love with the desert), cultural locations such as the Sheikh Zayed Grand Mosque, Abrahamic Family House, The Louvre, Qasr Al Watan, The Children's Library. This will become even more amazing with the opening of The Guggenheim, Zayed National Museum, The Natural History Museum and the Museum of Curiosity by Teamlab in the coming years.

Then there are the events and experience that come here from UFC to Hamilton (a week to go 🥳), countless concerts (foo fighters was the true highlight of the year) or getting the opportunity to talk with Emirati astronaut Sultan Al Neyadi live from the International Space Station.

I really do wonder what amazing things we will get to do in 2024.

And now to the airport, the new terminal is 🤯, the old airport terminal was great compared to European standards but the new terminal is on par (if not better) than Doha and Singapore.

This place is really something else and I could go on for another thousand words on all the activities and experiences you can do but you are best to visit and see for yourself.

Now we move on to technology and AI

It is very rare to find a place to live that provides this quality of living and great work opportunities. There must be a catch, you get nice personal time but you hate your job. I am sorry to disappoint, the UAE and particularly Abu Dhabi have made AI and advanced technology a core principle for their growth. Abu Dhabi’s own TII (Technology Innovation Institute) released the first open source, commercial usage LLM model (Falcon) to rival OpenAI and chatGPT and the work ADGM are doing to make regulation cutting edge and accessible is unbelievable and I look forward to sharing some of the things I have been working on with them this year.

To slightly zoom out for second, the wider GCC region with Saudi Arabia 2030 vision is gearing forward towards more diverse economies and technology/AI are at the core. So as economic pressures are felt around the world, the Middle East feels like there is no slowing down and the need for technology talent in the region.

As we begin year two of this adventure I look forward to more amazing experiences and working on more interesting AI projects and if you are visiting the capital give me a shout, I would love to be your mini tour guide.

In our everyday lives, we encounter various situations that we quickly label as 'problems.' These challenges, no matter their scale, seem to be a fundamental part of being human. However, the concept of a problem is not as black and white as we might think.

Have you ever considered that what we perceive as a problem is the desired situation for someone else?

Take, for example, a rainy day. For many, it might ruin plans for an outdoor picnic, but for a farmer in need of water for their crops, it's a blessing. Similarly, an individual struggling with debt might view it as a hurdle, but for the credit card company and its investors, it's their objective. This variation in perspectives extends to all corners of life. A shop assistant facing verbal abuse from a stressed customer sees it as a problem, leading the store owner to hire a security guard. This decision to hire the guard increases operational costs - another problem but now for the shop owner. Yet, the presence of the guard reduces shoplifting therefore offsetting these costs.

This phenomenon highlights our innate ability for creative thinking, especially in how we define problems. Often, these so-called problems are constructs of our expectations, desires, and societal norms.

When we set out to solve or address ‘problems’, we're simply choosing which perspective in someone to shift. In doing so, we might sometimes address the 'wrong' problem. But is it really wrong or right? By changing the perspective of a situation, we're affecting change for a person or group, regardless of the original intent.

So, instead of pondering which problem to solve, maybe we should consider whose perspective we wish to alter.

However, the real lesson might be found in Buddhist teachings. Rather than trying to solve problems, perhaps we should focus on dissolving the very illusion of problems. By shifting our focus from problem-solving to perspective-altering, we might find a path to greater happiness and understanding in our own lives and be as contented as a buddhist monk.

AI is incredibly proficient in specific tasks but lacks the wide-reaching, autonomous capabilities that would seamlessly integrate it into our daily lives. At present, AI is like a knife without serrated edges; it can cut, but not as efficiently as we would like.

Take ChatGPT plugins as an example. These plugins can connect with different APIs to carry out tasks such as retrieving live weather or searching for flights. But herein lies the crux: much of the web isn't just a series of APIs awaiting a command, most APIs are hidden away through layers of authentication and bot detectors waiting to show you 4 photos of buses or traffic lights to click.

Most websites today aren't static information; they are dynamic, interactive platforms that require nuanced interactions. When you book a flight, for instance, you don't just send a single command to an API. You choose dates, compare options, fill in personal information, and more. These steps require 'clicks' and 'taps,' something that current AI cannot perform autonomously.

An AI equipped to handle such intricate tasks could navigate the labyrinthine spaces of the internet to perform a multitude of functions without needing your direct input at every step. This would mean that the AI could handle complex chores like shopping for groceries, comparing insurance plans, or even completing governmental paperwork online and do some without having to reinvent the internet we have today.

The technology is not far off. Recent advancements in machine learning and computational power I think gives us enough language understanding through LLMs for this to work. It is now just a matter of time before a developer or team create a library for layering on top of a click-and-tap interface.

Once AI learns to 'click and tap,' it may finally live up to the monumental hype that has surrounded it for years. And 2024 might just be the year where all these elements come together, turning the promise of AI into an integral part of our daily lives.

Last week, I found myself in a somewhat surreal situation, contemplating the prospect of eternal life. No, I haven't turned into a vampire nor do I possess a magical potion. Instead, this thought emerged from a synthesis of my past work and some awe-inspiring technological developments I have been working on and have also recently encountered in other organisations.

The Background: voiceOK and It's Legacy

Between 2018 and 2022, I devoted my energy to a project called voiceOK. The crux of this endeavour was twofold: to allow individuals to preserve their voice for posterity, and to archive precious life stories from loved ones. Although the app managed to clock nearly 10,000 downloads, its commercial success was rather limited. I couldn't sell an app to someone who has five days to live, it was just not going to happen.

The product illuminated the complicated relationship people have with the notion of mortality. Traditionally, death is a subject most shy away from discussing. It's perhaps the most certain aspect of human existence (for now), and yet one of the least engaged with. In that sense, voiceOK forced a conversation many were reluctant to have. Through the lens of technology, it offered a glimpse into what could be possible if we chose to face the inevitable head-on.

In the course of my work on voiceOK, it became painfully obvious that death acts more as a painkiller than a vitamin in the collective psyche. People would reach out from across the globe, fervently wishing they had heard about voiceOK earlier—before a parent, sibling, or friend had passed away.

A Technological Renaissance

When we think of a 'Renaissance', our minds often wander back to the period between the 14th and 17th centuries, a pivotal era that reshaped art, science, and philosophy. Today, in 2023, we stand at the cusp of a different sort of renaissance, one powered not by artists like Leonardo da Vinci or reformers like Martin Luther, but by leaps and bounds in technology itself.

Consider the advancement in voice synthesis as an example. A decade ago, the idea of creating lifelike synthetic voices from mere snippets of audio would have seemed like something straight out of a science fiction novel. Fast forward to today, and we have technology that can almost perfectly mimic human speech in all its nuanced intonations and emotional inflexions, never mind the visual deepfakes. We saw warnings from the likes of Mr Beast and Tom Hanks last week that viral internet ads featuring them were very well-created deepfakes.

Alongside this, the rapid evolution of Language Learning Models (LLMs), marks another milestone in this technological renaissance. These aren't just algorithms capable of understanding and generating text; they're getting increasingly adept at understanding the context, sentiment, and even the cultural nuances within the language. A handful of personal preferences or statements might soon be enough to offer a truly personalised, human-like interaction in a variety of settings, from customer service to healthcare and beyond through the concept of 'Dynamic Knowledge Rendering'.

These technologies are blurring the lines between the 'real' and the 'virtual,' challenging our very notions of what it means to be 'human.' When a robot can converse, act, and even 'think' in ways indistinguishable from a human, it raises serious ethical considerations that go beyond the realm of technology.

The technological renaissance we find ourselves in is not just an incremental shift. It's a sweeping transformation that is broadening our perception of what's possible. It's both exhilarating and daunting, simultaneously a brave new world and a continuation of a deeply human trait—the relentless drive to push boundaries. What we're experiencing now is not merely an evolution of technology; it could very well redefine how we understand and define life itself.

The 'Aha' Moment

The 'Aha' moment arrived rather unexpectedly, crystallised by two seemingly unrelated experiences that converged to radically reshape my outlook on life and the concept of mortality.

Firstly, there was "The Creator Movie," an eye-opening cinematic experience (I highly recommend viewing in IMAX). The film was a revelation not just in its storytelling but in how it evoked empathy and connection with its artificial intelligence characters. I was cheering for the AI, wholly immersed in their struggles and triumphs. This wasn't borne out of any antipathy towards humans; rather, it was the sudden realisation that if an entity looks, sounds, and acts in a manner that we associate with humanity when we see it for all intents and purposes, as 'human'?

This is why so many of us cry our eyes out at key moments of an animated Disney movie (Toy Story 3 - the furnace scene).

This led me to a poignant question: what truly constitutes our 'humanity'? Is it merely our biological form, or is it also the sum of our experiences, emotions, and the data we generate throughout our lifetime?

The second experience this week was the Tesla robot demonstration. Now, this wasn't just any ordinary robotics display; The Boston Dynamics demos were cool but they felt like robots when you watched them. This was unsettlingly and demonstrated a convincing manifestation of human-like movement and dexterity. This was a robot that couldn't even stand up a year ago! Witnessing this leap in technology felt like observing a significant milestone in our collective journey towards creating artificial beings that not only resemble us but also interact in fundamentally human ways.

With any luck, I've got a good 40 to 50 years ahead of me, and during this time, language understanding and robotics will only improve. As I continue to build a digital chronicle of my life through photos, articles, and videos, I envision a future where robots will not only look increasingly human but will also interact in a convincingly human manner and therefore our digital doppelgangers can take on a more interesting physical form factor.

The New Paradigm of Existence

While there's a slight chance that my biological form—my memories and consciousness—might not endure, I'm increasingly persuaded that we're on the cusp of transcending to a new 'form factor' of existence. It’s as if the past century of human life has merely been the startup phase, a boot-up sequence for our digital selves, which may continue to exist indefinitely. The very thought sends a tingling sensation down my spine, even making it difficult to breathe as I write this.

So, do I believe that I'll die? In the conventional sense, perhaps. But when it comes to the persistence of 'me' as a confluence of data and experiences, well, I might just stick around for eternity. And that is quite a statement.

In the past, we've sent some cool stuff into space hoping someone out there might find it. The Tesla car is probably the most famous followed by the golden records (a mixtape of sounds and pictures from earth) on the Voyager probes. But the golden records were just a snapshot of our time, if you think of the changes that have happened since 1977 and will continue at a rapid speed.

Now with SpaceX and others making space exploration an order of magnitude cheaper than previous generations and the advancements in technology, I start to think what if we sent an LLM into deep space?

Imagine another space civilisation receiving our LLM (Let's call it earthGPT) millions of years from now, we maybe a distant memory of our solar system by then or are close behind the rocket with our new propulsion system.

They might not understand a word of our languages at first, but with time, they could teach our LLM their own language, adding much more value than static information. It's like having a cosmic language exchange programme, where our digital doppelganger learns to chat in alien tongues, helping bridge the communication gap between Earth and our potential extraterrestrial beings.

The same way we try to understand the static information held in hieroglyphs and the pyramids, imagine if we could converse with an LLM of that time.

Through this unique exchange, another civilisation could get a taste of our culture, our kindness, our artistic expressions, and the leaps and bounds we've made in technology and understanding our world. They could listen to our poems, read our stories, and maybe even appreciate a good meme or pixel art, seeing the brighter sides of our human nature.

But, as they conversate through the depths of our digital knowledge, they'd also stumble upon the darker chapters of our story. They'd learn about our knack for warfare, our greed, and the many destructive tools we've crafted. This could paint a scary picture, making us appear as potential threats. They might start to wonder if giving us a cosmic call is a good idea or a recipe for disaster or if we need to be removed from the chessboard altogether.

In discussing this idea with a friend he suggested what if we are on the receiving end of another civilisation’s AI enhancements and the pyramids were ChatGPT 0.001, it’s all very crazy to think about.

The fact that all this knowledge, the good, the bad, and the ugly, can be packed into a tiny memory card and sent sailing through the stars for a few millions of dollars is mind-boggling.

It's a game-changer in how we think about storing and sharing our existence. It's not just about books or museums anymore; it's about dynamic knowledge rendering, providing a way for our interactive digital minds to share experiences across the cosmos.

And here's another wild thought: what if we could store this digital treasure trove not just on some faraway planet, but on our own moon or a satellite? It could serve as an extra safeguard, a backup of our earthly existence. If anything goes haywire down here, we'd have a slice of our civilisation, our digital essence, safely tucked away in the cosmic cloud. It's like creating a time capsule, only it's floating in space, whispering the tales of Earth to the endless expanse, waiting for someone, or something to come and say hi.

At the reception, a pleasant lady welcomed us and, due to a minor room hiccup, graciously offered drinks while we waited. So far, so good.

The Human Variable

Then, an unexpected ripple disturbed the smooth surface of my experience. The waitress who took our drink orders wore an expression devoid of emotion. Glancing around, I noticed that this wasn't an isolated incident; all the lounge staff moved mechanically, their faces lacking any semblance of emotion.

That made me ponder between the bellboy and the restaurant what had changed. The same hotel, the same training, the same environment. Was it a shift in management, a difficult day, or simply a collective low mood?

Being human comes with its pros and cons. Our capacity for joy, creativity, and enthusiasm is mirrored by our potential for sadness, frustration, and negativity.

This duality leads us to an intriguing question: Do we always prefer human interaction in specific scenarios?

I would have said yes, I would have said that you want humans to handle emotional responses but I am starting to question if humans are the right answer for this depending on the context.

The Human Factor

There's been a lot of talk about how AI is making waves in the service industry. Sure, the convenience of chatbots and automated systems is undeniable, offering quick and consistent customer service. AI never has a bad day. It's always ready to help, never fatigued or emotionally drained, offering a consistent customer experience that isn't swayed by human moods but it was also missing something. A human feel.

Roll in 2023 and LLMs have provided a major step change in natural language understanding and language generation and all those FAQ chatbots are starting to be jazzed up with ChatGPT vibes and it is getting harder to know what is human and what is bot. AI can now compose music, write articles, and even manage some complex tasks that previously required human ingenuity and they can do this without having a 'bad day'.

So when you're already frustrated about a complicated or emotional issue, the last thing you need is a disgruntled human on the other end making things worse. A recent personal experience highlights this point perfectly. I had booked flights for my family to come see me in the UAE. Due to an unforeseen medical situation, they could no longer make the trip. I was assured by a human customer service agent that presenting a medical certificate would suffice for a full refund. I went through the entire tedious process, only to find out later that this information was incorrect and a medical certificate wasn't a valid reason for a full refund. A 30% charge would still apply (cough emirates airways cough). Human error isn't exclusive to machines.

At a minimum why didn't the customer service representative put their email response through an LLM and reword to be more understanding or offer an alternative solution for me rather than the standard line of "our fees were clear at the time of booking the flights" which just reflects badly on the brand.

But it isn't just the humans on the frontline of customer services, it is also the human-built software of today. Despite the significant resources spent on improving customer service, many companies are still tied to antiquated approaches for gathering feedback and handling complaints. You fill out endless surveys and answer all the questions, yet find yourself staring at a never-ending progress bar. It's like a Shakespearean tragedy of wasted time.

And the climax? When you attempt to reply to the feedback email, you're greeted by that soul-crushing "noreply@" email address. It's the epitome of a one-sided conversation.

The Human Reality

Some people are in jobs that do not suit their skills or their desires. Whether it's the bad customer service representative giving incorrect information or the detached healthcare worker offering perfunctory care.

Such scenarios don't just lead to customer dissatisfaction they impact lives, shape experiences, and alter perceptions. Unfortunately, this misalignment doesn't just reflect poorly on the individuals involved; it casts a shadow over the entire human workforce, giving credence to the idea that machines could do it better.

Being Human

Even as technology gallops forward, there are aspects of human existence that simply can't be bottled, coded, or outsourced to AI. Whether it's sharing a laugh that only makes sense within the context of your personal history or holding space for someone going through a tough time, the nuances of human interaction are profoundly rooted in our shared experiences of being alive.

Imagine, if you will, an AI capable of penning a poem or composing a piece of music that moves people to tears. Impressive, certainly. But the AI doesn't "feel" the weight of the words it arranges or the emotive pull of the notes it sequences. It doesn't share in the collective human journey, with all its ups and downs, that gives such art its soul-stirring resonance.

So, what's the takeaway here? It's that as AI continues to evolve, so too should our appreciation of what it means to be human. The increasing capabilities of AI don't diminish us; rather, they spotlight what makes us irreplaceable. In the grand scheme of things, we shouldn't just aim to be better at what machines can't do; we should aim to be better at what we, as humans, do best. It’s not merely about competition but about unlocking the potential for deeper, more meaningful connections and experiences.

And in a world that's increasingly digital and automated, the value of genuine human connection is likely to rise, not diminish. Professions and roles that hinge on emotional intelligence, ethical decision-making, and nuanced understanding will become even more indispensable. As you rightly said, AI can take over repetitive tasks and complex calculations, but it can't take over the role of being genuinely human.

Let’s consider it an ally in the quest for a richer, more empathetic society.

While guests may have high expectations, hotels often contribute to this dilemma through carefully curated websites, social media, photos, and taglines that paint themselves as the pinnacle of luxury—even when the experience might be rather more modest.

The allure of hotels and travel destinations has never been higher. My travels in 2021 and 2022 brought me face-to-face with breathtaking views of Thailand, Bali, and the Maldives, frequently depicted as idyllic in travel imagery. Yet, the lack of tourists can change the reality dramatically, with plastic pollution marring otherwise unspoilt landscapes.

Carefully framed photographs can hide less glamorous realities, such as queues beside a picturesque waterfall, crafting an illusion of serenity and exclusivity that is often far from the truth.

In this era of technological advancement, AI has emerged as a fascinating tool for crafting artificial realities. Some may say that we already dwell in a world of fabrication, particularly in travel imagery. The line between authentic and artificial is increasingly thin, raising important questions about our consumption of travel experiences.

If we are already navigating a landscape shaped by manipulated images and marketing, the integration of AI might not seem like a drastic change and maybe it could improve things instead.

This artificial environment fosters a more interactive conversation with potential destinations, encouraging travellers to delve into the core of the experience and find what truly resonates with them.

Being informed of the details, like the nuanced operations of a hotel's restaurants, or the specific rules of a family pool, can make a significant difference in satisfaction. A seemingly absurd rule such as kids can't jump a children's pool can lead to a disappointing stay if not discovered beforehand but it is not something hotels want to shout about.

The contemporary travel environment unfortunately calls for a more discerning and proactive approach from travellers. It's about meaningful engagement with potential hosts, asking the right questions, and seeking genuine insights from those who share similar expectations.

By taking the time to grasp the true character of a destination, travellers can navigate the increasingly complex world of travel with confidence.

So how can AI help with this 🧠

Imagine planning a family holiday where the fun of jumping in the pool is non-negotiable. Through AI, a search engine could filter options based on this specific requirement: 'Will the lifeguard let the kids jump in the pool?'

AI-driven algorithms can analyse and interpret vast amounts of data to identify locations and brands that cater to your unique needs. The meticulous filtering goes beyond the generic aspects like price range or location. It delves into the very fabric of what makes your holiday enjoyable, finding places that truly resonate with what you value. From understanding your culinary preferences to matching you with pet-friendly accommodations or wellness-focused retreats, AI ensures that your travel choices are in harmony with your lifestyle.

In addition to aligning you with suitable locations and brands, AI can also connect you with other travellers who share your preferences. Social media platforms and review websites are great in theory but do they give you real feedback? How do you know if they are real and even if they are, is 'Bob from Utah moaning about the quality of the buffet someone who wants the same things as you do?

Imagine receiving first-hand feedback from someone who also prioritised that lively pool experience for their children. AI could facilitate this connection, allowing you to gain insights from their experiences, ask questions, and even forge new friendships.

This community-driven approach helps in not only making informed decisions but also in enriching the travel experience by building connections with people who understand and appreciate the same nuances of travel as you do.

The advancements in AI don't stop at planning and connecting; they extend to real-time interactions during your stay as well. Envision a virtual hotel model that allows you to see or ask if the restaurant is busy at 6 pm. This isn't just a speculative or generic answer; the model would be using real-time data to provide accurate information.

This form of interaction could revolutionise the way we engage with our chosen destinations. Whether you're planning a romantic dinner and wish to find the quietest time or need to know the availability of the gym, real-time AI interactions provide a new level of convenience and customisation.

Connecting to the hotel's systems, AI could offer information on waiting times, occupancy levels, and even specific details such as the evening's menu or special events. It's as if you have a personal concierge in your pocket, ready to assist you with precise, real-time information.

Here comes the digital doppelganger 🚀

In the rapidly advancing technological landscape, the concept of AI digital doppelgangers or digital twins is emerging as a revolutionary way to enhance the travel experience. These intelligent virtual counterparts can engage with various stakeholders on behalf of the traveller, making the process of planning, booking, and experiencing a destination more efficient and personalised. Here's how:

Imagine a scenario where you're planning a trip, and instead of browsing through countless websites, reading reviews, and sending emails, your digital twin takes over the task. This AI-driven entity can communicate directly with hotels, asking specific questions, negotiating rates, and even making reservations tailored to your preferences.

Your digital doppelganger can probe into details that might usually be overlooked, such as room views, meal preferences, or accessibility features. It can negotiate packages, confirm availability, and even check in online, all while keeping your needs and desires at the forefront.

Connecting with locals in a new destination can provide authentic insights that are often missed in standard travel guides. A digital twin can bridge this gap by engaging with local communities, shopkeepers, or tour guides. By initiating conversations, and asking about hidden gems, local customs, or culinary delights, your digital doppelganger can compile a unique and personalised travel itinerary.

This interaction transcends language barriers, as AI can translate and interpret different languages, ensuring that the connection with locals is meaningful and informative. It's like having a local friend who's always there to guide you, except this friend is a digital extension of yourself, aligned with your interests.

Reviews and feedback from recent guests are invaluable for understanding the real experience of a place. However, reading through numerous reviews can be time-consuming and often confusing. A digital twin can sift through thousands of reviews, interact with recent guests, and gather firsthand feedback within minutes.

These engagements can be focused on areas that matter most to you. Whether you want to know about the friendliness of the staff, the quality of the spa, or the atmosphere in the dining area during breakfast, your digital twin can find someone who has experienced it and get their insights all via natural language.

Once at the destination, your digital doppelganger continues to assist. Need to know if the restaurant is crowded? Want to book a last-minute excursion? Your digital twin can engage with hotel staff, local vendors, or other guests to provide real-time information and assistance, all with minimal human interaction on your part.

This seamless fusion of technology with human-like interaction offers a new level of convenience, personalisation, and efficiency. It empowers travellers to explore and engage with destinations in a manner that is in tune with their unique needs and desires, all while minimising the often time-consuming and cumbersome aspects of trip management.

In essence, digital doppelgangers are not just a futuristic concept but a present-day tool that enhances travel by fostering connections, gathering insights, and personalising experiences, making travel not just a destination but a journey shaped by intelligent and thoughtful engagement.

AI in travel has a truly exacting time ahead.

The acceleration of digital transformation over the past few decades has presented myriad lessons, particularly the inadequacy of top-down, consultancy-led initiatives. These approaches have consistently proven inefficient, habitually late, and rarely meet their intended targets. Now, as we enter the age of Artificial Intelligence (AI), we must embark on a new era of digital transformation – Digital Transformation 2.0.

Unlike its predecessor, Digital Transformation 2.0 is not merely about updating systems and processes. Instead, it's about empowering people with AI, educating them on its capabilities, and demonstrating how it can amplify their skills. To achieve this, organisations must let go of the antiquated mindset of blocking AI services like ChatGPT and embrace a different route - the path of AI evangelists.

Digital Transformation 1.0, despite its potential, was somewhat of a flawed model. It was predicated on the idea that to modernise an organisation, one merely needed to update systems and processes. This technological-focused approach didn't adequately address the human element - the people using these technologies. As we move forward, we should learn from these mistakes and ensure that our digital transformations are people-focused.

With the advent of AI, we have an unprecedented opportunity to revolutionise how we approach digital transformation. AI has the potential to greatly enhance the abilities of individuals, teams, and organisations. But to fully harness this potential, people need to understand what AI can do and how to utilise it effectively. This is where the role of AI Evangelists (AIEs) becomes critical.

Forward-thinking enterprises worldwide are already beginning to invest in AI education, running courses and programs on topics like prompt engineering and modelling. However, this approach misses the mark. Rather than focusing on the technical aspects of AI, enterprises should concentrate on cultivating AI Evangelists (AIE’s) - individuals who combine technical expertise with the knack for human knowledge transfer. The role of an AIE goes beyond traditional technical training. It involves showing individuals how to use AI to improve their day-to-day tasks, thus humanising this otherwise complex technology.

Take, for example, Carl in Marketing, who's struggling to source an image for a landing page. In traditional settings, Carl would either have to depend on the design team, hire a freelancer, or grab something from the internet. All these routes can be time-consuming and expensive. Instead, an AIE could show Carl how to use AI to solve his problem. This hands-on, problem-solving approach to AI education not only empowers Carl but also adds to the organisational knowledge base.

AIEs can build a scalable approach to AI education, gone are the days when learning was limited to multiple-choice questions or lengthy, monotonous videos on specific topics like "Procurement Process for Information Exchange in a Sustainable Method." With AI, learning is transforming into an immersive experience. Training courses will guide learners through technology or tooling, enabling them to progress at their own pace and, crucially, in their language/best way of consumption and processing. The objective is not just to instruct, but to empower and inspire, cultivating a workforce ready to meet the challenges of the future with confidence. Over time, this approach fosters a culture of self-reliance and continuous learning, where employees are not just passive consumers of technology but active participants in leveraging it to improve their work.

The introduction of AI in the workplace does not come without its challenges. One common stumbling block is the fear or resistance to change. AI and machine learning are often seen as complex technologies, which can be intimidating to non-technical individuals. This fear, if not addressed, could hinder the successful adoption of AI within an organisation. Hence, AI Evangelists are integral in allaying these concerns, promoting the benefits of AI, and simplifying its usage for all employees, regardless of their technical proficiency. Demonstrating what AI can do rather than lecturing on its capabilities is the number one way.

As we stand on the cusp of Digital Transformation 2.0, we must reflect on our past missteps and chart a new course. This course should prioritise enabling people with AI, demonstrating its capabilities, and illustrating how it can augment their abilities. It involves embracing the concept of AI Evangelists, who can bridge the gap between technology and its users, fostering a culture of knowledge sharing and continuous learning. It's time we shift our focus from technology-driven transformation to people-centred transformation, and in doing so, truly unlock the potential of AI.

This lack of understanding isn't unique to ChatGPT but is common with most new technologies. An interaction I had at a local coffee shop illustrates the potential confusion as AI evolves from being a hyped-up concept to an integral part of our everyday lives.

Just the other night, I overheard a gentleman behind me on a FaceTime call mentioning "ChatGPT". Once he ended his call, I asked him what he knew about it. "My friend was telling me all about it," he replied, "Before that call, I had no idea what it was. Is it any good?"

Interestingly, this man was a business mentor and he had only just heard about ChatGPT in May 2023, six months post its release. As the famed writer, William Gibson, once noted, "The future is already here – it's just not evenly distributed."

When he asked, "Is it any good?" I replied, "It's going to change humanity." His initial shock quickly turned into scepticism.

My statement was indeed bold, but I genuinely believe in the transformative potential of AI. AI isn't new, having been around in some form since the 1950s. However, 2022 marked a pivotal moment in its evolution, driven by technological breakthroughs (LLMs became cool), economic uncertainty (people searched how to accomplish more, businesses wanted to do more with less), and the web3 hype cycle ended (lots of well funded technical teams needed to point in a new non-NFT direction).

I continued conversing with this gentleman for another 15 minutes, my ice cream melting away. I shared some use-cases for ChatGPT and discussed the broader implications of AI. He wondered, "Could it tell me which flights are available between two cities?"

I say “no”, he looks defeated.

"but you could simply tell it you want to go on holiday. It would then inquire about your preferred time of year, weather, and budget, much like a 1990s travel agent but with real-time access to the knowledge of the internet."

His eyes widened as I elaborated, "It could even understand your preferences, your favoured hotel brands, your loyalty schemes, and the type of room you prefer. And if the hotel isn't on a service like Booking.com, it could call the hotel directly, possibly in your voice, ask questions, and make reservations for activities."

The man remained silent as I continued, "Imagine having seen a beautiful vista on Instagram. You could take a screenshot, show it to ChatGPT and ask it to find a similar place for you to visit in India when you're next there."

Despite sounding futuristic, all the elements needed for this are already available today. The key challenge lies in access, particularly to data such as flight prices and hotel availability. As AI continues to progress, we're on the cusp of witnessing daily groundbreaking innovations that have the potential to transform countless jobs worldwide.

However, it's important to remember that, for now, only a small fraction of the population are even aware of these possibilities.

This is another iPhone moment...

I am not sure yet if this is a good or bad thing.

In the early days of online businesses, call centres were the go-to method for providing customer service. This birthed the IVR, and we all had the joy and pain of hold music as well as getting randomly disconnected. This poor customer service was largely because the majority of companies saw call centres as cost centres. Companies like Zappos used this to their advantage and turned their call centres into brand loyalty hubs. There is a story of a customer call that went on for sixteen hours, but this approach to exceptional customer experiences worked, and Zappos was sold to Amazon for $1.2 billion in 2009.

However, most companies treated their call centres as cost centres, often outsourcing queries to other countries where people were following a script of common questions. This approach had its limitations, as it didn't address the real problem – improving the user experience. It was a reaction to the explosion of a new channel known as online. Some businesses started to realise that instead of outsourcing customer service, they should focus on fixing their user interfaces and creating a more seamless customer experience.

Enter the Chatbots

As chatbot technology emerged, businesses began to experiment with incorporating these AI-powered virtual assistants into their customer service strategy. The promise and what was delivered however didn't match, chatbots were FAQs that had been converted into conversational, WhatsApp-style interactions, providing customers with a more engaging and interactive way to get their questions answered but still following a scripted approach.

However, this approach wasn't perfect either, because when customers saw a button that said "chat," they expected to chat with a person, as they typically had an issue and didn't want to be brushed off.

Chatbots weren't great at actually solving problems.

This led to chatbots becoming a triage for FAQs and complaints. Companies used humans for complaints and escalation, while chatbots handled simpler queries (if only businesses had just better presented their faqs). In hindsight, businesses should have had humans front and centre, directing customers to specialised bots that could handle their specific needs more efficiently. The problem is that this approach wasn't cost-effective, so it never had a chance when customer service was viewed as a cost centre.

The LLM Revolution

The introduction of large language models (LLMs) like GPT-4 changed the game again. Now, businesses are starting to put LLMs at the forefront of customer service. LLMs can answer complex questions and direct users to appropriate resources more effectively.

I think we are about to see customer service become human-less. I don't think this is a good idea, but it's going to happen. Let me explain why and how.

LLMs provide businesses with an easy way to offer human-like customer service, arguably 5-10x better than what we have had for the last decade. LLMs already have human-like language of sympathy and kindness and with other advancements in the broader arena of AI, text can now be turned into an actual audio voice or even video, allowing you to call and speak to "someone."

You then have humans supervise/fine-tune the model to ensure that customer interactions stay within the company's brand guidelines.

The problem with LLMs is that their biggest strength is also their biggest weakness: they can be unpredictable with their output. To solve a specific task, you can have a vertically focused bot experience that handles refunds or item changes, for example. This bot has done this process thousands of times before and is continuously perfecting its approach towards the desired outcome of solving the problem at hand.

Now, what happens when there is no bot to handle a problem?

This is where humans come in. Instead of the customer interaction being a live agent or a call to a supervisor, a human will supervise an LLM while it tackles the unknown problem, tweaking responses as needed. These tweaks and supervision will then form the basis of a new, vertically focused bot "exported" from the LLM and continuously fine-tuned over time.

So now we have an LLM model acting as a triage for an unlimited number of bots, with humans fine-tuning the interactions and responses. A call centre of 300 people is now replaced by three domain experts based anywhere in the world. Complaints, issues, or unknown experiences requiring human involvement are significantly reduced, and for the first time, machines may be the better solution (that companies are willing to use) to humans.

Technically, it is a fascinating development, but you have to ask if all customer service becomes non-human, then what do humans do in customer service?

The answer is simple: they make the product better.

They reach out to customers and ask how the product is, without seeking a 5-star review. Human customer service will become outbound and, most importantly, will need to be operated by those who know the product. The question then is which companies will care enough to do this instead of just making customer service humanless and less of a cost.

AI Summary

OpenAI's GPT-4 is an incredibly powerful language model that has the potential to revolutionize how we interact with and create content. In this blog post, we'll delve into the exciting world of GPT-4, demonstrating its capabilities through various examples and discussing its potential for future applications.

Creating a Bar Chart with D3.js:

Using GPT-4, we were able to generate code for a bar chart utilizing the D3.js library. Although there were some issues with token limits, by adjusting the query and parameters, we successfully produced an HTML page with a functioning bar chart of city temperatures.

Planning a Treasure Hunt:

GPT-4's potential isn't limited to coding; it can help you plan creative activities, such as a treasure hunt for children under 10 with a superhero theme. With just a simple query, GPT-4 can generate a treasure hunt plan tailored to your needs.

Origami Instructions:

Though GPT-4 doesn't produce images, it can still provide detailed instructions for tasks like creating an origami paper plane. These instructions could potentially be translated into visual guides using AI-powered image generation tools in the future.

Writing a Story:

GPT-4 can also help you write stories by remembering characters and their traits. In our example, we created a story outline about two bears, Paul and Carlos, going on holiday in Italy. GPT-4's ability to remember character details and produce an engaging story outline showcases its impressive capabilities.

Conclusion:

OpenAI's GPT-4 is a truly remarkable AI language model that can transform the way we think, create content, and interact with technology. By exploring its applications in various fields, we can unlock its full potential and revolutionize our lives and organizations. So, don't be afraid to play with it and ask it crazy questions, as it might just surprise you with its capabilities. Stay tuned for our next episode, where we'll explore OpenAI's DALL-E image generation tool.

AI summary

As artificial intelligence (AI) continues to evolve, businesses are looking for ways to harness its potential. We recently sat down with Ross, an expert in design sprints and AI applications, to discuss the future of business and how AI can revolutionize the way we work.

Key takeaways from the interview:

1. The shift towards AI-generated content has the potential to democratize creation, empowering more people to bring their ideas to life.

2. AI can help predict success in various industries by analyzing patterns and providing insights on project efficiency, resource allocation, and marketing strategies.

3. Integrating AI into project management tools like Notion could allow businesses to better understand team dynamics and optimize resource allocation.

4. The future of design sprints and prototyping could involve AI-generated content, streamlining the process and improving efficiency.

5. No-code and low-code solutions are becoming increasingly important as technology evolves, enabling rapid adaptation to new tools and methods.

6. The rise of AI-generated content could lead to a more customized internet experience, potentially changing the way we interact with websites and digital content.

7. Despite concerns about AI's impact on traditional industries, Ross believes that people should find the rapid evolution of technology exciting and embrace the potential for innovation.

In conclusion, the future of business is rapidly changing as AI becomes more integrated into everyday processes. While there are concerns about the implications of AI-generated content, embracing these advancements can lead to greater efficiency, innovation, and accessibility.

Polls and surveys don’t mean much on a small scale but I asked a random sample of thirty people I know outside of tech if they were aware of AI and how many are using it in their day job. The results were of thirty people asked, five people were aware (mainly ChatGPT) and two had used it. Of the two that used ChatGPT, one had used it to write a resignation letter for a family member and the other had used it for blog ideas for her marketing job.

We are truly in the hype cycle of AI but over the next nine months things are going to settle down and this technology shift will become accepted (we are running at that pace). This will come in small steps like AI-powered features being added to our everyday tools. We see this already in modern tooling such as Notion, Canva, Slack, and Webflow but the titans of enterprise Microsoft, SalesForce, Google, and AWS are all rapidly adding AI to their platforms. This is an unusual step in that enterprise is running at the same pace as silicon valley unicorns showing they understand what is at stake here.

Though like with all technology shifts, AI is no different there will be slow and fast pace switches, slow paces are the extra features we are seeing now:

• Canva adds an AI background image remover.

• Notion will summarise your meeting notes.

• Webflow enables to you change text into a softer tone.

The fast pace switches are things that change our default behaviours:

• Calling someone instead of using postal mail.

• Buying a car via a website and entering your card details rather than meeting a guy in a car park with a bag of cash.

• Or change how you have searched for information for the last 10 years via Google to now using ChatGPT which on the face of it “makes up its answers”.

These fast pace switches create leaps forward for humanity, the computer, the internet, the phone, 3g connectivity. The age of AI is the next leap but this time traditional enterprises have to act much faster than they did to previous technological shifts because…

You may roll your eyes at this next statement but I believe:

Within the next three years, a single individual equipped with AI will outperform a twenty person department inside of an enterprise.

The question enterprises need to ask themselves is "Do you have these AI-powered individuals inside your organisation and if not you need to get them or create them".

I am a firm believer that AI is going to change over 50% of jobs in the coming decade, it was always on the cards that AI would create this shift but the recent convergence of the following has accelerated this shift dramatically:

1. Web3 tech VC investments

2. The global recession and mass layoffs

3. Consumer-friendly AI tools

VCs from around the globe pumped into Web3 tech that hasn’t found mainstream consumer fit and those startups need to do something that returns and AI is it. So there has been a big shift in Web3/blockchain/crypto startups now becoming AI startups.

The global recession triggered largely by the recent pandemic has forced many companies to change from a growth hiring strategy to a "keep the share price up" hiring freeze and layoffs. As this settles down companies are still going to need to do more but with fewer people.

The AI tools of today are for the first time mainstream accessible, the over 100 million people globally using ChatGPT aren’t developers running command lines and adding Python libraries. These tools are giving domain experts the ability to do things they couldn’t dream of a year ago and all via an accessible UI and the programming code of natural language.

So what do you do if you are an enterprise?

Step 1 - Let people play

We don’t know what we don’t know and most of those in enterprises don’t know what AI tools can do to drive their output or remove mundane tasks. Identify tools with AI at their heart like ChatGPT and MidJourney and let people play.

Step 2 - Work with IT

There is a lot of fear in letting employees use products like ChatGPT, the concern is that corporate secrets may get shared and there is a lack of trust with big tech on what will happen with that data.

Bringing IT into the conversation and taking a “how can we embrace this” rather than a “what are our risks” approach means data privacy and security can still be at the forefront but doesn’t mean Tom in marketing or Sally in accountants can’t ask ChatGPT to summarise a report they are reading that is publicly accessible on the internet.

Step 3 - Share and Showcase

Showcase the interesting and amazing outputs your early adopters are doing with this technology. This process should already be in place in most enterprises as a part of the digital transformation programme.

However, you have to be accepting that the results may be uneasy, digital transformation has been the process mainly to upgrade and improve digital systems and the people have been brought along for the ride.

The shift to AI is going to show how much a single person can output with the assistance of AI technology compared to not just another person in the same role but a single person vs a whole department. You need to be open to this.

Step 4 - Incentives

The recent global layoffs of knowledge workers have created whispers that AI will just be brought in to replace these roles. Companies are already replacing customer service agents with automated AI systems so expanding this to other areas isn't that crazy and as the output of LLMs gets more trusting so will their use on the frontline.

Those that can captivate these technologies and tools are going to be in high demand, this may mean a move away from hourly remuneration is needed. How do you price one person utilising ten AI agents, do you give the “you should be glad you still have a job” line? This isn’t going to work this time, if you have a single person who can output what your whole marketing team could last year then that person, if not incentivised on output, isn’t going to be staying they are going to be set up on their own.

Step 5 - Acceptance

I have now accepted that business is an AI-based one, from simple things such as generating meeting notes to the complexities of drug discovery. The same way that only ten years ago we were advocating that everyone was a tech company, they just didn’t know it. Today every business is now an AI model and you better hope it is you and not your competitor.

And for those who read this and are sitting back thinking their regulated industry or supply chain is your defence, well it is but not for as long as it has been before because a guy called Amir in Egypt or Rosey in Denver who has twenty years of logistics knowledge is going to build an AI-powered shipping platform in three years on their own with hundred AI-based assistants and is going to become your supply chain partner.

So I ask you,

is your digital transformation programme ready for AI.

If you don't want to watch the 80-minute conversation here are the AI-generated highlights from the transcript.

AI Summary

As AI continues to evolve at an unprecedented pace, we delved into the possible implications for various roles, the need for adaptation, and the potential for a future where technology takes over human tasks.

Key points from the conversation:

1. AI is already influencing digital agencies by automating mundane tasks such as creating resignation letters, meeting notes, and last-minute presentations.

2. While AI's current focus is on automating routine tasks, there is potential for it to replace more creative roles in the future, challenging the job security of those in the industry.

3. The idea of a world where nobody needs to work is both intriguing and concerning, as it could lead to a society where people can focus on being more human, spending time interacting and enjoying leisure activities.

4. The rapid pace of technological advancements means that AI's impact on the industry could be felt sooner than expected, making it crucial for agencies and individuals to adapt and embrace change.

5. Despite the potential for AI to replace many jobs, the human desire for interaction and connection is likely to remain strong, ensuring that people continue to value human experiences and connections.

Conclusion
The integration of AI into the digital agency landscape presents both challenges and opportunities. As technology continues to advance, individuals and agencies need to adapt and prepare for the potential impacts on their roles and the industry as a whole. However, as the human need for interaction and connection endures, it is important to remember that technology should be used to enhance our lives, rather than completely replace the human touch.

"AI Chat" is a series hopefully 🤞 engaging and insightful conversations with professionals from various industries who share their experiences and knowledge about the current state of AI. I aim to create a series that avoids overly technical language while focusing on the real-life implications and applications of AI in different sectors with some light-hearted British humour and lots of tangents and urms/arghs/hummms.

Guests won't be solely AI experts, but rather individuals from diverse backgrounds, who either use AI to propel their businesses forward or are keen to learn how AI can help them and their industries thrive in this AI-driven era.

In the first episode of "AI Chat" I am delighted to have a long-time friend, Gavin Jones, from Elixel digital agency in the UK, join me for a conversation. Gavin and I will discuss the changing role of digital agencies in the face of AI advancements and how AI technology is assisting his team in their day-to-day tasks, such as research and assumption testing.

As the AI revolution gains momentum, it is crucial to understand its impact across various sectors and its potential to reshape businesses, industries, and jobs. "AI Chat" is here to bridge that gap, offering accessible, engaging discussions that provide valuable insights and real-world examples of AI's growing influence. Join us on this journey as we explore the fascinating world of AI and its far-reaching implications.

See the series under AI Chat Podcast.

Watch episode 1 with Gavin Jones about AI in digital agencies.

I give you generative APIs

I love drinking the kool-aid of this new AI age but in the hype cycle we are currently in there is a lot of noise and tools like chatGPT are being overlooked for more simple yet powerful tasks such as acting as an API to the internet.

In this video, I walk through how I iterate on a series of prompts to create an API that itself was written with chatGPT and returns chatGPT generated data in a format (JSON) that can be understood by other systems or to go in a crazy inception loop may be read by chatGPT. It’s all very inception!

You can read through the slides or watch the video below.

Video: https://youtu.be/UdwP1OZxNU0

Slides

https://promptapidemo.kidventuresai.com/api/promptapi

The final prompt:

Create a JSON object containing a list of the 10 most populated cities in the world, sorted alphabetically by city name. For each city, include the following properties:

• id: an incremental number from 1 to 10

• city_names: a list of dictionaries, where each dictionary has the keys language and name, and contains the name of the city in English, French, and German

• country_name: the name of the country the city is located in

• city_population: the population of the city

• description: a one-line sentence describing the city

• createdOn: a random date and time in March 2023

• imageUrl: a URL pointing to an image of the corresponding country

• hash: a MD5 hash of the country_name

The JSON object should have a top-level property called createdOn, which is a string representing the date and time when the JSON object was created.

The api to see the magic:

https://promptapidemo.kidventuresai.com/api/promptapi

Contact

I would love to hear any feedback/comments on this concept of creating generative AI APIs.

Or if you need any support with your AI strategy please get in touch at www.leemallon.com.

Preference Prompts are gathered over time and fed into a personal Digital Doppelgänger language model. This model is a digital twin that represents the user and stores their preferences. For example, a music fan can explain different tracks they love and why, as well as share the context of why and when they listen to specific music types. This information can then be communicated with by music providers to create more personalised playlists and recommendations based on context. The Digital Doppelgänger acts as a protector of user data, only sharing what is required and operating on behalf of the human user.

Preference Exchange Protocol (PEP) is a protocol that enables the exchange of preference information between different digital twins. PEP provides a standardised way to represent and share user preferences, making it easier for different applications and services to work together to provide a seamless personalised experience.

PEP provides benefits for both users and companies. For users, PEP enables a more personalised and seamless experience across different applications and services, without the need for manual input of preferences into each application whilst providing natural language-based interactions for security and permission. This saves time and reduces the risk of errors.

For companies, PEP provides valuable insights into user preferences that can be used to create a more targeted user experience. By providing a more personalised experience, companies can build stronger relationships with their users and increase customer loyalty.

This is an outline video and presentation of Preference Prompts and the Preference Exchange Protocol to gather feedback and comments.

The video

https://youtu.be/Q_aLu-mHFa8

The slides

The slides are here for reference but you really need to watch the video to get the context.

A few weeks ago, my daughter and I created a completely fabricated hotel brand called MRLEE Hotels. We made a golf course on an asteroid, a restaurant in a volcano, and an eco-retreat that had breathing walls. We accomplished this and created a 27-page hotel brochure in less than 7 hours with the assistance of AI.

This project was fun and exciting to create. We enjoyed imagining, dreaming, and working on this project together. You can view it here.

Today, I want to share my next creation,

KidventuresAI

which goes in a slightly different direction. It's a fully functioning travel site (an alternative to TripAdvisor) focused on activities for families in 237 cities across the world.

That's 237 different cities, 10 activities per city, making 2,370 activities. Each activity has a 1,000-word article describing the activity, making 237,000 words in total across the site. Plus, each activity and each city has a photo, making 2,607 images. There are also over 300 customer reviews that give positive experiences of the activities.

All 237,000 words, 400+ reviews, and 2,607 photos are generated by AI and cost me $53 to produce.

You can try it out here: www.kidventuresai.com

You can also watch the video of how I created kidventuresAI and the prompts to generate the AI content below.

https://youtu.be/XXHldyDQm1A

Is this the future of content?

The background

Let me break down how I got here and how content sites need to adapt to what is coming in the next few years.

When my family and I travelled, we would use different services to find things to do. We would search sites such as TripAdvisor or Google Local. The problem was that these sites were mainly used by tourists from western countries. As we were travelling near the end of the global pandemic, these sites had no reviews. We would go to hotels in Thailand or Sri Lanka, and the hotels would beg us to leave reviews on TripAdvisor after our stay, even if we had not had the best time. They just wanted the world to know that tourists were visiting.

So, if being listed on TripAdvisor or Google Local was so important to these hotels and restaurants, why didn’t they just create fake reviews and list them? The simple answer was that many people thought, "that's wrong," while others said, "if we get caught doing that, we disappear off the internet (being on TripAdvisor is the internet to a restaurant in Kandy, Sri Lanka), and then nobody can find us."

If TripAdvisor and similar sites had no reviews during this time, this opened a gap in the market. But what to create?

My first thought was around things to do in cities as a family, as we could never find great family activity lists on these review websites. I thought this was a gap in the market and maybe a new business venture, but how do you collate the 10 top activities for each city in the world? How do you know those activities are interesting to children? We had visited 20 cities, so that was a start but with thousands of cities across the world what do you do. We could use ads to drive revenue, and then we could share revenue with families who write articles when they visit different cities and write about what activities are available for kids. After thinking about it for a few hours, I put the idea to bed as my solution wasn't that much better than what was there already and not feasible since it was too human-intensive.

November 2022

And this little service called ChatGPT launched when we were heading to Seoul, South Korea. I checked TripAdvisor for things we could do in Seoul. The first few pages returned nothing interesting, so I asked ChatGPT, "what are 10 things you can do with children in Seoul?" Number one was the Children's Museum of Seoul (surprisingly, this wasn't listed on TripAdvisor). This was probably the best thing we did in Seoul after building a snowman in the car park of the DMZ.

Fast forward to March 2023, and for $53 (and my time, of course), I have created a global information site with over 2,370 pages of activities for families wanting to travel with their kids and do interesting things in 237 cities around the world.

The simple question here is:

does that mean it's over for information/review sites if something like this can be generated without human writers?

Now that I have this setup, I could create websites for the top 10 hotels, restaurants, museums, parks, coffee shops, conferences, business centres, etc., for each city in the world. It's 2pm right now, in the next 24 hours, I could have 10 websites, each with over 2,370 pages of SEO content on these topics, and all for less than $600. Make that $6,000, and I could have each site in nine other languages too.

$6,000 for 23.7 million words of pretty good multilingual content 🤯

I appreciate that I have a skillset that means I can create this/use the API of the internet known as ChatGPT. But it won’t be long before John or Sara from the social media department for Visit [insert country] can write in natural language a series of prompts to create the same output I have shown here.

Survival in the AI age

It may not be a surprise to hear, but the internet is not full of high-value content. There is apprehension about this technology currently labelled AI. Some fear it and believe it to be nearly sentient, while others believe the majority of the output is predictable and low quality.

I sit somewhere in the middle. I think we have mislabeled the technology as AI, which creates visuals of Hollywood films and the Terminator. A more fitting branding could be machine learning or data science, though they don’t sound as sexy to the public.

The one thing I do know is that with each day, AI-generated content is getting better. The models are getting better, and more importantly, we humans are getting better at prompt-ing them.

But I don't think the game is over for content-based businesses and here are four Areas Where content sites can grow in an age of AI:

1. Factual Relevance

2. Personalisation

3. Audience

4. Creativity

Factual Relevance
LLMs have a known issue around factual relevance, also known as hallucinations. These models have no intelligence per se. This will likely improve as the technology develops with the inclusion of citations. But the generative AI space is exactly that. It is generating the content, not summarising what is already there based on knowledge of the truth.

A win for content sites is human-written content or human editorial content becomes attached to the individual writer and their credibility. Combine this with an immutable ledger (i.e., blockchain), and you can hold writers accountable for what they publish. They can also benefit from a decentralised system of validation for their work.

I can see in the near term where an article you read has a badge/stamp that reads "human-written," "human-edited," or "human-fact-checked" with a digital fingerprint of who and when that was done.

Personalisation
Personalisation, to me, is the cherry on the cake. Imagine being able to create a space where individuals can come and share their preferences, much more than a browser cookie can hold, and where content is generated following your brand's data model to generate relevant and personalised content. Why, when I visit a news website, is it filled with doom and gloom about things happening on the other side of the world? Why can't I default to dark mode when I visit any website? Imagine visiting KidventuresAI, and instead of showing you 237 cities with 10 activities for families, it shows you three cities: one that you have visited before and enjoyed, one that you have said you would like to explore, and another that matches your other preferences. Speaking more broadly, websites in general are going to shift from displaying generic content to generating personalised content and information, but again, that is for another article.

Audience
Content sites have an audience, and as content becomes more generic or easily generated, you will no longer need to go to the BBC website to find out what happened in X city on Y date. Instead, you can ask your AI. What your content site currently has is an audience of people who share a common passion. I see this with a podcast called Beautiful Anonymous, where the host Chris Gethard talks to a random individual for an hour every week. It has been going on for seven years, and I have listened to every episode. I have also attended two of the live shows in London, and if I was in the USA in May, I would be attending the Beautiful Anonymous conference in Brooklyn. How can you capture your audience to bring them together in new and interesting ways?

Creativity
AI hasn't taken over the world, and Skynet isn't around the corner yet, so there are plenty of ways content sites can be more creative. Using AI-based technology is, of course, the first step. Expanding to different mediums is another option. Why not turn your written news site about the legal field into a podcast or video stream? Having more time to focus on what your audience wants, why not create courses, training, or templates? Or build products to solve the problems of your audience? Many tech companies, once they hit their stride, create media entities as a way to get more customers. Why not do it the other way around and ask your audience what problems they need to solve?

There are many areas content sites can embrace in this AI age. They just have to want to and not become Blockbuster.

Are you thinking about how your business can embrace this technology? Contact me at www.leemallon.com to see how I can help your strategy in the age of AI.

Lessons from Using DALLE and ChatGPT

I want to finish off this article by sharing a few interesting things that occurred during the development of KidventuresAI using DALLE and ChatGPT.

Firstly, the API would error a lot. If the API had been continuous, I could have generated all this content in less than 5 hours with some parallel processing. But I kept hitting the "API is overwhelmed" error as global demand continues to climb.

Secondly, I got to see what's under the hood of OpenAI and how it blocks requests through its trust and safety layer.

For text, I was able to generate all the activity content, run some secondary manual checks, and so far removed one sentence from one activity article that wasn't appropriate. But there could be more, which I will discover or be made aware of over time.

Images via DALLE were more interesting. I was unable to generate images for the following prompts:

• Juba, South Sudan

• Khartoum, Sudan

• Cockburn Town, Turks and Caicos Islands

• Kyiv, Ukraine

• Road Town, Virgin Islands, British

• Charlotte Amalie, Virgin Islands, U.S.

Prompts 3, 5, and 6 are understandable why they were blocked. Kyiv and Sudan you can make some assumptions as to why they have been added. But we can see that OpenAI is being on the side of caution with image generation, understandably. Some of the images, mainly those around people, weren't great. There is even one where a hand has six fingers.

So now I ask myself, do I add a site map, point to Google Webmaster Tools, and wait for SEO to do its thing? Could my $53 investment become a competitor to the likes of TripAdvisor or Google Local? If I did decide to monetize it, am I cheating?

What do you think/feel about AI-generated content? please let me know.

I am trying something new for the age of AI and outlining how I am using AI to assist my content creation.

This article went as follows:

• Human written

• GPT3.5 gramma checked

• Grammerly checked

• Human read-through and human alteration