Advertising & Marketing

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 →

In May 2023 there was a big verdict in the world of copyright law. The decision? Ed Sheeran's 2014 hit, "Thinking Out Loud," did not infringe on Marvin Gaye's and Ed Townsend's 1973 hit, "Let's Get It On." As I will explain in a moment, from a musical standpoint, this was the only possible outcome. The copyright laws were applied as expected, and human composers in the United States are free to compose as they have been doing for centuries. But what about AI? Is it free to compose? Let's explore. Continue Reading →

As you probably know, Google has started rolling out AI summaries called "AI Overviews" in search results. Now, they are about to start testing search and shopping ads within AI Overviews in the U.S. The ads will be displayed in a "sponsored" section and will be relevant to both the query and the information in the AI Overview. Continue Reading →

Google played catch-up yesterday as it opened I/O with a two-hour keynote you should watch at double-speed – at least until you get to a new search feature called "AI Overviews." Stop there. Rewind and watch it carefully. Continue Reading →

One of the best ways to create competitive advantage with generative AI platforms is to enable the AI to dynamically incorporate relevant external information (aka your data) into its response process. Continue Reading →

I'm having trouble processing what I just watched. It's an ad from Apple about its new iPad. It turned my stomach. Then, it made me incredibly angry. Then, I was just sad. Continue Reading →

We're starting to see a disturbing trend emerging as generative AI content starts to infiltrate Reddit. ReplyGuy is a blatant example, advertising itself as a tool that simulates human interaction to seamlessly insert product mentions into Reddit discussions. ReplyGuy is one of dozens of such services. Continue Reading →

What would it take to build your company's first synthetic employee? What AI models could you use? How much data will it require? What about compute power? Electricity? Technical resources? Security? Legal? Risk? Ethics? Is the idea simply too crazy to think about now? Should you just wait until someone invents artificial general intelligence (AGI)? Continue Reading →