Advertising & Marketing

I've spent the better part of the past four days putting OpenAI's o1 models through their paces. For those who aren't following the foundational AI model wars, last week, OpenAI released a new series of AI models called o1, which the company says is the first in a “new series of reasoning models for solving hard problems.” I wrote about it the day after it debuted. As far as I can tell, this is the first iteration of the rumored project "Strawberry." In a word, "Wow!" o1 is absolutely next level. What it does, it does better than anything else I've tried. But it's not for everyone. In fact, there's a very good chance it's not for you. Here's why. Continue Reading →

Believe it or not, it's time to start thinking about CES® 2025 (January 7-10). I am super excited to be back in Las Vegas leading our Executive Briefing & Floor Tours team. CES is one of the world's largest and most important technology-focused trade events. There will be upwards of 140,000 people, more than 3,250 exhibitors and over 2.3 million square feet of exhibit space. With so much to see and do, it can be overwhelming. Continue Reading →

I've known Linda Yaccarino, CEO of X, for a long time. She is a dear friend. Yesterday, she posted an open letter to advertisers on X. I've appended it (unedited) below. In support of Linda's post, Elon posted, "We tried peace for 2 years, now it is war." As declarations of war go, this one is clear. Continue Reading →

Have you seen Google’s “Dear Sydney” Olympic ad featuring a father using Gemini AI to help his young daughter write a fan letter to Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone? It is one of the most disturbing commercials I’ve ever seen. Continue Reading →

No one born today will ever live in a world where they are smarter than AI. But what does that really mean? Is there a way for human beings to understand how smart AI is? Is IQ a fair test? Is it even reasonable to apply ideas about human intelligence to machines? If IQ tests aren't right, how will we know when an AI model is smarter than we are? Continue Reading →

Can an army of C-3PO-inspired humanoid robots reduce global labor shortages? Tesla, Amazon, Microsoft, and Nvidia all think that's how the future will unfold. Continue Reading →

Paramount has made a sweeping move to redirect users from its cable network websites to Paramount+. Comedy Central, CMT, Paramount Network, TV Land, and MTV sites now point visitors to the streaming platform, effectively removing vast archives of content from public access. This follows the unexpected shutdown of the MTV News website earlier this week, which erased two decades of content. Continue Reading →

I forgot to mention a super fun moment from Cannes last week. Zombie brand Toys"R"Us and OpenAI flexed a bit as they showed the "first-ever brand film" (aka commercial) using Sora, OpenAI's new (yet unreleased) text-to-video tool. Continue Reading →

I'm in Cannes this week for the Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity. It's a week-long celebration of excellence in branded communications and advertising. So, as you can imagine, the event is filled with people who create, buy, and sell advertising. As you can also imagine, every conversation ultimately gets to the subject of AI. Among the pressing concerns, one of the biggest is the threat that web-connected large language models (LLMs) pose to web publishers. Let's review. Continue Reading →

Apple unveiled a suite of AI features aimed at transforming its entire ecosystem. The Apple Intelligence initiative introduces a conversational Siri, custom AI-generated “Genmoji,” and GPT-4o integration. Coming this fall, the new macOS Sequoia and iOS 18 will feature advanced AI functionalities and customizable home screens. Unsurprisingly, these features will only work on late model iPhones (15 Pro and 15 Pro Max) and Macs and iPads with M1 chips and above. Here's a quick summary. Continue Reading →