041: It will boil down to personality

[After - Session 13] Why am I not surprised Cleopatra knows all about texting?

The students are cranking away on Assignment 2. I’ve been presenting the Generatively Better 60-minute AI-primer to curious people. And (trigger warning: mild political sarcasm ahead) the first deepfake of the 2024 presidential campaign is out, courtesy of the RNC. As AI-generative creative goes it’s…uhhh, I mean, what did you expect? Strategically, it makes zero sense. Which is totally on brand.

Semiconductors. Who knew? Ezra Klein’s podcast with historian Chris Miller is remarkably insightful. One of those “I stayed in the car until it was done” episodes. Who knew computer chips were so dramatic?

You can chat with AI Jesus now.

I’m convinced the killer appeal of any AI conversation tech will be its personality.

That’s what we want, right, what feels truly authentic? My beef with Snap’s AI chat was its lack of authentic personality, which is another way of saying brand. Anyway, Hello History is a new app offering AI-enabled chat with a wealth of historic characters.

I have no idea how Amelia Earhart speaks or would text, but it feels like she’s been coached by crisis comms to obfuscate. Sigh. So when does the team hire a historic expert on each character and maybe a playwright or linguist to improve authenticity?

This will be the future of teaching history in the classroom. You’ll engage with the avatar of an historic figure, predicated on biographies. Maybe Hamilton will “understand” he’s been remixed, and can be prompted to drop some lines. Imagine the science and art used to approximate the voice of Beethoven; never mind his personality. Maybe leave the personality-building to creatives?

Then extrapolate the same premise to anyone you work with. What if we could engage a long-ago retired coworker to explain some arcane bit of office lore, offer competitive insight or advice for dealing with a supplier or bureaucracy? If their personality rings true, it will make all the difference.