123: This story is actually about people changing
[During - AI for Artists and Entrepreneurs] Leadership, AI, Education, Time on Target, Change Management
The title of this post is a recent quote from Doug McMillon, CEO of Walmart, talking with Ben Thompson about omnichannel retail. But in a way, he’s also talking about the world of AI we’re all encountering.
DM: I think it is, and if I were to restate it in my own experience here, I would say this story is actually about people changing, and if you looked at what had to happen inside the company to enable what you just said, we had to learn about design, product management, working in an agile fashion, working across our silos in a different way.
There’s so much our organizations have yet to learn about AI, never mind retail. I’m almost done reading Ethan Mollick’s Co-Intelligence. Throughout, he returns to a theme, summed up in two quotes:
“The systems we use to structure and coordinate work in our organizations…are historical artifacts, shaped by the technological and social conditions of their times.” Therefore…
“All the usual ways in which organizations try to respond to new technologies don't work well for AI.”
Mostly because AI behaves less like other technologies and much more like people. So our rituals and habits surrounding how we use technology must evolve when it comes to leveraging AI.
I’ll be hosting a book club discussion for Co-Intelligence in early May. Let me know if you want to participate. We’ve got a handful of smart people already signed up. Should be fun.
Our penultimate session
We’re getting close to the end of the AI for Artists and Entrepreneurs class. We spent most of last night we consumed with final project revisions and presentation coaching.
1️⃣ But we also spent time comparing notes on prompt writing habits—so, what sticks after 14 weeks working with various AI?
“When utilizing Chat-GPT I found it the most effective when you’re really specific, breaking down the background and building a scene with sufficient information. Compared to the structure of Runway, being really broad and less specific gets the best results.”
“It’s all about roleplaying. When ChatGPT knows what it’s acting as, it creates far better results.”
[Role/Persona] [Context/Problem] [Desired outcome] And always end with “What do you need to know to help me?”
2️⃣ And there’s always more AI industry video to watch. In this clip responding to a question from teenagers, Emad Mostaque, ex-CEO of Stability suggests young people should be using AI tools every single day. Then Ray Kurzweil, channeling Marlon Brando’s Godfather, suggests teenagers should use AI to ask how they can relieve the world of the risks we face. “It’s not like you need to be of a certain age to ask these questions,” concludes Kurzweil.
And it’s always amusing to watch a stage filled with tech bros—when the best quote gets credited to a woman who wasn’t even on stage (Taryn Southern). In essence, Southern is credited as saying her artistic effort used to be, “90% process, 10% creativity,” but now because of AI, it’s flipped to “90% creativity and 10% process.” People change.
3️⃣ And we discussed style tuning in Midjourney—a similar method to using “structure” in Firefly. You upload an image (i.e. a 3D drawing of a table), which Midjourney uses to provide 16 or 32 options for an image’s orientation and architecture; then you use one or several of those options to guide image creation. The image generation tools are getting richer, and more nuanced. The key to getting the most from them? Time on target. And speaking of Midjourney, did you know they publish a monthly print magazine? Kudos for putting some investment back into tangible experiences.
4️⃣ And we enjoyed Demon Flying Fox’s 1950s AI homage to The Simpsons.
AI+Creativity Update
🤖💊 The legal team at Moderna has fully embraced ChatGPT. Interesting video here on the drug maker’s approach to custom GPTs to enhance productivity and speed access to insights across the range of enterprise functions—from dosage analysis to contract summaries, to “health agency questions.” Reminds me of a conversation I had with a freelance writer recently who builds a custom (private) GPT for each client engagement—the GPT serving as a lore keeper, operational strategist and creative sparing partner. Makes a lot of sense.
🤖📆 You knew this, of course. Friday, April 19 was the first-ever National Day of AI Literacy sponsored by the EdSafe AI Alliance, AI for Education, the AI Education Project, Common Sense Media, and The Tech Interactive center. 60+ events occurred across the U.S. incorporating the U.S. Dept. of Education, the National Parents Union, lots of district superintendents and even Ohio’s Lt. Governor. Good to see so much activism across the education spectrum.
🤖🎶 What if Generation Alpha makes AI music their music of choice? Taylor Lorenz has an insightful chat on her podcast (Apple/YouTube) with New York Times pop music critic Jon Caramanica. But they start with the recent Drake v. Kendrick Lamar “Is it AI?” kerfuffle. And it boils down to good old fashioned media literacy. Caramanica says, “As someone who encounters ‘unsteady data’ all the time…it’s probably the right thing that the first question you’re asking is ‘where is this coming from? Is it authentic? Is it true? Is it finished? Did it come from the artist or someone else?’ I think those are some of the questions a smart listener should be asking in virtual spaces.” This Insta post sums up the earlier point.
🤖👯♂️ Digital twins. They’re super useful for prototyping products, experiences, and even cities. Did you know there’s a DT of the entire city of Shanghai? H/T to Faris at Stolen Genius for hosting Mike Kasprow who pointed me to this lengthy scientific paper on the late 2022 state in digital twins.
🤖🎨 Adobe released Firefly Image 3 (experience it online) and updated its Photoshop beta (hype video here) within the last week. If you’d discounted Firefly, it’s time to jump back in. As we discussed recently in the AI class visit with evangelist Kris Kashtanova, Adobe is expanding the notions of Structure and Style—giving users more granular control. I appreciate how Adobe recognizes and is attempting to handle the appeal of AI magic as it transitions into specific frustrations. We’re all learning a new language together, and the interface we use is a huge part of the conversation. Adobe also released new research demonstrating an ability to upscale video 8x (solid coverage via The Verge).
🤖📘 Google just released a 43-page prompting guide for download. Nice to see this on the heels of Dove’s Real Beauty Prompting Playbook. I applaud, because I’m a fan of software firms authoring manuals for their software. Now when will OpenAI, Anthropic and Microsoft follow suit?
