Wake me up when we get there
Anyone else want to fast forward to the AI utopia?
Ever had that feeling of wanting to ‘fast forward’ through something difficult? I remember moving to Singapore many years ago when my son, who was then six (how is he now 18??) made a comment which always stuck in my mind. He said “I wish we could get straight to a month from now because I know it will be better then, but it’s hard now”.
I feel like a bit like my six year old son with AI right now. 🤖
I wish we could just get to the bit where it's a tool we all use which enhances our lives and work, but in the background, not in our faces every day! Unfortunately, at that same point however, it is probably not going to be an AI utopia where we all are paid to do whatever it is we each find meaning from. Instead it’s likely to be a mess of unemployment and governments doing too little way too late to figure out how to manage that. (The New Zealand AI Strategy document released by the government yesterday has no mention of the latter).
⏩ But, despite the possibility of impending chaos, I kind of just want to get there now so we know what we are dealing with, versus what we have now which is constant noise of people trying to either project the future or tell you want you need to be doing right now to ensure you’re not ‘left behind.’ And I actually like AI and discovering new tools, so if I’m tired….
When I think of the transition through the ‘messy time’ for my son, he knew that if he just turned up each day and was nice, time would do most of the work and he'd get to where he wanted to be.
🤔 So, I’m wondering, what's our equivalent of "turning up each day" amidst what is feeling more and more out of our control? Can we have agency and influence over the path the world is on, rather than just waiting for the chaos to settle?.
When I started Look Up Tech, I wanted to provide a way for people to have an understanding of the tech world so as to be able to influence it and leverage if for financial benefit. Very rapidly however, ‘Tech’ has become AI all the way down (or up depending on how I feel on the day) and it is very hard to see anything else.
I can keep curating the rapid changes, but I'm not sure if I am contributing or just adding to the noise.
💭 I still think it's really important that we do what we can to keep showing up and being part of the conversation, but I am going to take a hiatus to figure out if I can play a role in this and what that is. I know for sure the answer is not leaving everyone to find their intel from LinkedIn, but it’s also not having to navigate highly specialised newsletters either. It might be I just need a break away from the overwhelm - we will see.
If anyone has feedback on what is useful to them, or what they think they need to know more of - that I could help provide - that would be great.
Then again, it may be equally valid for us to just keep our heads down, “being nice” and ‘arming ourselves with money’, ready to show up when some sort of clarity emerges?
In amongst the above feelings, there are a few tech tidbits for you below.
📰 Today's Tech News things I found interesting
🗣️Claude speaketh at last! Claude has been rolling out their voice mode in beta over the last month and most users should now have the ability to chat in real time as you can with ChatGPT, Perplexity etc. Being able to choose your voice is nice, but my first use was not great and not at the level of Chatgpt in terms of conversation flow. I’m sure it will improve though. At the moment I have to ‘click to send’ which makes it no use for say, having a ‘chat’ as you walk or drive.
⚡Top tip I just realised the last week - you can keep talking to your assistant across any tab, so great if you want to read an article and ‘discuss ideas’ at the same time, or you need tech support. Go into where you need help and you can be talked through the problem much more easily than having to go back and forward to the app to ask it questions.
🎵 AI created music took another turn this week as the band The Velvet Sundown admitted it was wholly AI created. Worth a read to see the twist and turns of the story as because there is no truth of provenance, various people came out to claim the work as their own. Part of this story is also about hacking the Spotify algorithm/business model to best advantage. If your music has cost you virtually nothing to create it is not a problem giving Spotify an extra 30% on ‘playing royalties’ to be on their Discovery model.
🎼 If you also want to be a music creator, check out Suno.com. It is now as easy as prompting an AI picture - and really quite remarkable. I still think human creation will be seen as ‘prestige/premium’ over this sort of music. I’ve quoted Rick Rubin on this before, that it is not just ‘words and music’ but the point of view that we connect to.
📖 As an aside, it turns out you don’t necessarily need AI to fabricate art. There is Milli Vanilli for those old enough to remember, and if you have read or seen The Salt Path it turns out the ‘inspiring true story’ was in fact an ‘inspiring way to fabricate a truth and make millions’. It was a highlight of my week as it’s about the only Book Club book I’ve ever said I disliked, and I even used the phrase ‘I didn’t buy a lot of it’ in my review — so feeling very validated!
Keep Looking Up,
Sally
Look Up is curated by Sally and Claude. Have feedback or suggestions? Reply to this email.
