- Cathie Wood calls AI the assembly line for knowledge workers
- Synthetic text is a much bigger business opportunity than synthetic images
- The AI landscape is already completely different compared to three months ago
- AutoCAD has saved us a lot of real estate space for lovely cubicles
- You can now make more money than a VP in a medium-sized company with just two years of experience
- Microsoft is showing the world what happens if we let a psychopathic AI interact with humans
- I had an incredible idea for an AI-powered dating app
P.s.: This week’s Splendid Edition of Synthetic Work is titled Burn the books, ban AI. Screwed teachers: Middle Ages are so sexy. and it’s about AI turning upside down the Education industry.
- how your peers are using AI in your industry (Education, Finance, Government, Health Care, Media & Entertainment, Tech, etc.)
- what are life-changing AI tools that can enhance your productivity at work (tested or used by me personally)
- why and when to use specific techniques (like prompting) to improve your interaction with the AI
- how you can use AI to perform tasks that matter in your profession
Finally. I’m back in control. Not just in control of my voice and my opinions, but also in control of how much of what I say you can see.
You know that every social media has algorithms that rearrange, suppress, or highlight certain content in our news feeds. For example, on LinkedIn, to have record-breaking views, you have to post:
- Tears-inducing stories about job changes
- Group pictures of people that normally hate each other in the office drunk-smiling happily as a big family when on a paid business trip to Vegas
- Humanitarian crisis
- Viral videos of technologies that either don’t exist (it’s just somebody that made a fake video) or it’s still in an experimental phase, it barely works, and most likely will never actually exist
- Inspiring quotes of past and present business leaders who, eventually, turn out to be racists, rapists, murderers, thieves, or scammers.
Don’t believe me? When I published that I was leaving Red Hat after 9 years so that I could finally focus on artificial intelligence, my post got 20,000 views. LinkedIn ranking algorithm decided to show that post to everybody and his uncle.
When I published a post about a revolutionary new AI technology that might change the very fabric of society and our economy for the next century, I got 34 views.
So, I think “OK. It’s my fault. The post about the revolutionary new technology was boring. Nobody wants to read that.” But then, I do a poll and ask people what kind of content they would like to see me publish more of, and everybody answers “AI”…
Now. Either people can’t make up their minds (not an implausible scenario…), or the algorithm is going against people’s will. The latter is something we’ll have to explore a lot with Synthetic Work because it can have a profound impact on those professional environments where AI is used.
Back to my original point:
You also know that whatever we write on these social media networks disappears in the blink of an eye. On Twitter, for example, the average “shelf life” of a tweet is, apparently, just 24 minutes. Like…you get distracted to do some real work at the office for just a tiny bit, and BAAM! You missed it. You’ll never be able to read again my pill of wisdom unless you go for a very frustrating and convoluted interaction with the Twitter search interface.
At least, with this newsletter, I’m in control of what you see, and you are in control of how long you want to see it. We can finally be treated like adults again.
And this is what I want you to see in Issue #1 of Synthetic Work.
Alessandro
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