113: The advantage is people
[During] A busy two days talking about endless interns, meteorologists and soft skills
Thanks to Rick for turning me on to Re-TROS and their single “Three Body” (Spotify, YouTube) from the Amazon/Tencent film adaptation of Cixin Liu’s books. Great backstory here on Re-TROS and the Chinese rock scene.
Before we jump into this week’s coursework…
Mystery ➡️ Heuristic ➡️ Algorithm
The remarkable Roger Martin has written a very useful piece on AI applied to marketing. Given what I wrote Monday about processing power, this quote seems apt: “the best way to conceptualize LLM/AI is that it is a device for advancing knowledge domains through the Knowledge Funnel more quickly than would happen without it — which is a good thing.” It often took humans a career to transmogrify a mystery into a heuristic, then create an advantage. The future moves much faster. As Roger notes, “LLM/AI fully overcomes the two impediments to generalizing heuristics. Machines aren’t daunted by enormous tasks: they will work forever if called upon. And they don’t have moral hazard problems.” This one is worth your time.
[Monday - AI for Artists and Entrepreneurs]
Thank you, Julian Meyer
“How can you use AI’s limitations to your advantage?” asks this week’s guest to our AI for Artists and Entrepreneurs course, Julian Meyer (LinkedIn). Sometimes, the benefit of the tool lies in its inherent flaws. In Julian’s case, the robotic pacing born of generative audio and video—those qualities actually help convey an older aesthetic. Julian’s latest work (Instagram) serves as documentary of cryptid creatures, myths and legends.
Julian walked us through his background in fine art, illustration, and animation—and then his encounter, like all of us, with generative tools barely 14 months ago. Initially, he theorized generative AI would enable him to “keep up with the churn that the Internet wants.” More than a year into the journey, Julian uses generative tools including ChatGPT (for script exploration), ElevenLabs (for character development and voice over generation), HeyGen (for lip synch and asset generation) and Pika Labs and Midjourney (for character design and b-roll generation). But the bulk of his time is still spent in the Adobe suite, mostly After Effects and Audition. Julian estimates only 30-40% of his time is spent generating AI assets for each documentary. The generative tools serve as, “a bevy of ‘C’ level production assistants,” the equivalent of Ethan Mollick’s “endless interns” analogy.
What matters most is the idea, and the vision and skill to pull it off. Generative tools don’t initiate for Julian. They don’t lead the process. But they do enable an artist to produce at scale, and at a pace he couldn’t otherwise.
[Tuesday - Persuasion and Marketing]
Thank you, Enterprise Comms at Target
The Diane von Furstenberg collaboration with Target is really quite fun. Especially when you can walk amidst everything assembled in one room and muse about how something this complex comes together.
Persuasion is people.
And at this scale it’s rooted in vast troves of data. But really, the practice is about people. It’s about understanding them, seeking them out, being a detective to discern how someone thinks, speaks, behaves. How a team orients and excels. How a culture became so. Because if you aren’t curious, don’t comprehend—if you can’t acknowledge and grasp the nuances and complexity of individuals and culture—how can you persuade effectively?
Persuasion takes on so many forms inside a Fortune 40 organization. They employ meteorologists and color theorists, risk analysts and psychologists, never mind speech writers, strategic planners, PR specialists, media relations directors and lots of information science experts. (And never mind the 10x more people working inside Target Creative.) In the world of enterprise communications, soft skills take on so many different personas and practices. We were very fortunate to meet with Gemma Forbush, Brian Harper-Tibaldo, Michael Zittlow and our host Lauren Melcher for a lengthy and wide ranging conversation about the many facets and examples of persuasion their team encounters, instigates and works within.
This is persuasion at scale. It’s about the mystery of numerous specialized skills, the challenges of integrating them coherently, and the balance of data and gut. It’s about so much necessary corporate strategy which must inform and foment yet remain largely unseen.
AI+Creativity Update
👍🏽 “Assume That I Can” - brilliant ad for Global World Down Syndrome Day featuring actress and model Madison Tevlin. Love the attitude in this one.
🤖🎥 Gotta credit the OpenAI Sora team for seeking out creators, giving them access, and sharing perspectives on generative video. Some “first impressions” are out. Shy Kids’ “Air Head” is the standout example for me. And primarily because there’s a clear concept the AI could generate. The others feel like grab bag concepts, like mood board video.
😨 Do you find yourself “frightened of emptiness and imperfection?” Dave Trott has a wonderful story for you which applies to creativity and marketing.
📰 If we’ve learned anything, it’s that generative AI needs training data. Who has lots of writing about lots of different topics? The Financial Times and the BBC certainly do. The Verge reports on AskFT, and Reuters expands on an FT piece. Proprietary data is going to become a competitive advantage, but first we have to refine the tools, then the culture, so creators can take advantage. (See the Sora example above.)