Digital Transformation

I have two slides at the end of most of my presentations. One is my investible theses for the upcoming year and the other is stuff that has my attention. As we head into 2023, I thought it might be fun to look at a deck from 2018 and see if I got any of it right five years ago. I'll let you be the judge. Continue Reading →

As 2022 winds down, I thought it would be fun to review the 10 most popular stories by page views on shellypalmer.com. Obviously, 2022 was a transitional year for crypto, the world of decentralized finance, Web3 and the metaverse. It was also "the" year of AI. These stories reflect those trends, although some of the topics may surprise you. Continue Reading →

If you haven't already uploaded your 10-to-20 selfies to Lensa and let it turn you into a superhero, or a rock star, or an astronaut, you should give it a try. It's fun, but it's also instructive. You'll learn about the type and quality of inputs generative AI needs in order to obtain satisfactory results, and you'll experience the workflow and process of consumer-grade generative AI. But most importantly, when the model transforms you into a mystical creature in a cosmic setting, or an anime character, or a cyborg, you will find yourself asking one question: How far can this technology go? Continue Reading →

ChatGPT has been all over the news. Last week, I asked it to help me write a blog post about Facebook – it did a very good job. Yesterday, just for fun, my son Brent and I asked it for 250 word answers to questions about history and philosophy. ChatGPT returned college-level answers. What exactly is ChatGPT? I asked it. Here's its answer to the input "a five paragraph essay describing ChatGPT in your own words." Continue Reading →

Let's imagine the fan experience of the future. If there were no technological or financial restrictions, how would you want to attend a sporting event or a concert? What will "attending" evolve to mean? Continue Reading →

In the wake of the FTX implosion, everyone is talking about the pros and cons of cryptocurrency. This week, for clickbait reasons, it’s mostly the cons. Before you offer an opinion about cryptocurrency to your friends or consider formulating a cryptocurrency policy for yourself or your business, you should take a moment to understand that cryptocurrency “crypto” is a catchall phrase, and a lazy one at that. Continue Reading →

I've been joking that my blog has become the "Elon Channel," where it's "All Elon, All the Time." In case you missed it, the organization we knew as Twitter is gone. It took Elon less than a week to fire half the staff and demolish years of goodwill. All that remains is a tech stack and a skeleton crew. Oh, and the threat of thermonuclear name & shame. Continue Reading →

Elon Musk recently wrote, "Twitter obviously cannot become a free-for-all hellscape, where anything can be said with no consequences," he followed with, "Twitter aspires to be the most respected advertising platform in the world." Twitter cannot serve two masters. So, which will it be, "a free-for-all hellscape," or "the most respected advertising platform in the world." Continue Reading →

The most significant event in the short history of Web3 will most likely occur on September 15, 2022. That’s when Ethereum, the largest smart contract blockchain (with the second largest cryptocurrency by market cap), is now scheduled to enact an existential operational change. If it fails, “The Merge,” as it is colloquially called, is almost sure to take the crypto markets down with it. But even if The Merge is 100 percent successful, it will come with profound implications regarding censorship, regulation, and the future of money. Continue Reading →

Jason M. Allen's piece "Théâtre D'opéra Spatial" recently won first prize at the Colorado State Fair Fine Arts Competition in the category of "digital arts/digitally-manipulated photography." It was created using an AI image generator known as Midjourney and the human competitors are furious. Should they be? Continue Reading →