🤔 Wiser! #125 The Utility of VR | Wendy’s AI Drive-Thru | Edge Has The Edge | Facebook’s Kids Policy | AI, AI, AI
w/Wiser! #125–15th May 2023
Welcome to the free digest edition of the Wiser! newsletter. Paying subscribers got the full issue of this newsletter on Friday 12th May 2023. For only €12/year, you can get it early too!
In this week’s Wiser!:
- The utility of Virtual Reality and the metaverse: don’t write it off just yet!
- Wendy’s AI chatbot will take your order now
- Klarna launch AI-powered shopping feed
- The Utility Of Emerging Technologies: how consumer brands use emerging tech to build better customer engagement
- Warren Buffet compares AI to the Atomic Bomb
- Is Microsoft Edge slowly killing off Google Chrome?
- AI can now read minds
- Should Facebook be able to monetise the data of underage users?
- European Parliament votes to temporarily ban spyware
- Anthropic shows how its AI training differs from OpenAI’s
- Apple isn’t growing anymore, but that’s ok
- Spotify reportedly removed tens of thousands of AI-generated songs
- Amazon plans to increase investment in AWS and generative AI
- Amazon has a new home robot with ChatGPT-like features that understands its surroundings
- Star Wars limited edition ‘digital toy’ NFTs land on flow
PLUS: over a dozen links and stories in what else is going on in Tech
🔥 Paying subscribers got the main issue of this newsletter on Friday 12th May, 4 days ago, plus other member benefits, including a member’s chatroom and a free copy of my new booked called “The Utility of Emerging Technologies.” The book retails on Amazon for £4.99 or you can get it free with a Supporters membership at only €12/annum.
Brand Strategy Collection Updates
Consumer brands are using emerging technologies, like AI, NFTs, virtual reality and blockchain, to win new marketshare and engage with their customers. Over the past 6 months, I’ve tracked, analysed and documented over 250 consumer brands, organisations and personalities with are enhancing their brand using emerging tech.
🚀Access to the Brand Strategy Collection is limited to Premium members only.
This week’s updates include:
Wendy’s AI chatbot will take your order now
Wendy’s is partnering with Google to develop an AI chatbot that can take customers’ drive-thru orders, with the aim of reducing wait times and improving the customer experience. The chatbot, called “Wendy’s FreshAI,” will be tested for the first time at a Columbus, Ohio, restaurant in June. Google is customising Bard, its large language model, to understand Wendy’s-specific terminology, such as “Frosty” and “JBC.” Learn more…
Klarna launch AI-powered shopping feed
Buy Now, Pay Later provider, Klarna has updated its app to include new features such as a personalised shopping feed, a personal shopping service called Ask Klarna, and a resell feature. The AI-powered shopping feed is powered by Klarna’s proprietary AI product recommendation engine. Learn more…
The Utility Of Emerging Technologies: how consumer brands use emerging tech to build better customer engagement
Paying subscribers get to download my new eBook here. The book contains over 25 examples and case studies of how consumer brands are using emerging technologies to build better customer engagement and enter new markets.
The utility of Virtual Reality and the metaverse: don’t write it off just yet!
One of the defining characteristics of the metaverse is its technical complexity, with elements such as blockchain, crypto, NFTs, interoperability, and community creator economy as components. However, to avoid the need to understand this tech jargon, I prefer to think of the metaverse simply as a 3D version of the internet.
In this week’s Premium article, I take a look into the utility of virtual reality and give numerous real-life examples that demonstrate the utility of virtual reality.
w/AI
1. Warren Buffet compares AI to the Atomic Bomb
At Berkshire Hathaway’s annual meeting, Warren Buffett compared artificial intelligence to the creation of the atom bomb, expressing both concern and amazement over AI’s rapid advancement. Continue reading…
w/BigTech
2. Is Microsoft Edge slowly killing off Google Chrome?
Microsoft has just released significant new updates to Bing Chat. The new features include image and video answers, plugins (similar to ChatGPT), chat history, and better integration with the Edge browser. Continue reading…
Internal leaked doc suggests Google is screwed by AI
Bloomberg reported a leaked internal document from Google engineer Luke Sernau, that pretty much suggested that Google are screwed. The takeaway is that Google does not have a secret sauce, or what investors would call “a moat” when it comes to AI. Continue reading…
w/AI
3. AI can now read minds
Scientists have developed a new AI method called CEBRA that can translate brain signals into video with over 95% accuracy in frame prediction. Continue reading…
w/AI
4. Should Facebook be able to monetise the data of underage users?
The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has proposed changes to a privacy order applying to Facebook. The FTC allege that the company failed to protect children’s data and “misled parents” about the functions of the Messenger Kids app. Continue reading…
w/Surveillance
5. European Parliament votes to temporarily ban spyware
A European Parliament special committee has voted to temporarily ban the sale, acquisition and use of spyware. The committee found that both Hungary and Poland had illegally used software to monitor journalists and opposition figures. Continue reading…
w/AI
6. Anthropic shows how its AI training differs from OpenAI’s
Anthropic, a startup founded by former OpenAI executives, is trying to carve out its own well-defined spot in the fast-developing market for services powered by large language models, known as generative AI. In a blog post, the startup explained the methods it employed to train its ChatGPT-like chatbot called Claude to generate results that are less harmful and more accurate than other generative AI services. Continue reading…
w/BigTech
7. Apple isn’t growing anymore, but that’s ok
The last of the BigTech earnings calls came from Apple, and it came just after I’ve put last week’s Wiser! to bed. Once again Apple remains king of the smartphone, even in a shrinking market. IDC recently reported that worldwide smartphone shipments fell 14.6% in the last quarter. Continue reading…
w/AI
8. Spotify reportedly removed tens of thousands of AI-generated songs
Spotify has reportedly pulled tens of thousands of tracks from generative AI company Boomy. It’s said to have removed 7% of the songs created by the startup’s systems, which underscores the swift proliferation of AI-generated content on music streaming platforms. Continue reading…
w/BigTech
9. Amazon plans to increase investment in AWS and generative AI
Amazon plans to increase its investment in emerging technologies, such as cloud computing and AI, and reduce spending in their core fulfilment and transportation areas. Amazon are reported to be offering to pay customers $10 to come and pick up their own packages in some parts of the USA. Continue reading…
w/NFTs
10. Star Wars limited edition ‘digital toy’ NFTs land on flow
To celebrate “Star Wars Day, aka “May 4th,” the NFT startup Cryptotoys announced the launch of digital collectibles based on the popular sci-fi franchise. The beauty of the digital model for the NFT producers is that they will continue to know where every NFT is and, in perpetuity, claim a royalty every time the NFT exchanges hands, unlike other collectible. Continue reading…
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Tech Headlines
- AI identifies 3 new anti-ageing drugs.
- Sam Altman’s Worldcoin has released its first major consumer crypto product. (I wrote this about it 18 months ago.)
- Hollywood writers and studios battle over the future of AI.
- Kazakhstan collects $7 million in crypto taxes.
- Meta has announced a new open-source AI model.
- OpenAI reported $540 million in losses last year.
- PwC is to put $1 billion toward scaling its own AI capabilities.
- The US Gov has pledged a mere $140 million to “establish seven new National AI Research Institutes.
- Ally Robotics have designed a ”radically cheaper” and more user-friendly robot that can learn simply by watching humans perform a task.
- Bank of Canada asks for public feedback about a national digital currency.
Interesting Facts and Figures
- 5 to 20: That’s the number of years Geoffrey Hinton, “the godfather of AI,” thinks it will likely take for AI algorithms to “outstrip” their human creators, Wired reported.
- 30%: That’s the percentage of back-office roles at IBM that CEO Arvind Krishna told Bloomberg he “could easily see…getting replaced by AI”
- 24 million: that’s the number of lines of computer code needed to operate a modern fighter jet.
- 23%: that’s the percentage of Americans who said they’d never get a cellphone in 2000.
- $774 million: that’s how much in-game currency Roblox brought in to its users last quarter.
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