Edition 24

Tech tensions as the AI hype cycle continues. Plus: hyperabundance, why change management is broken, the Woozle effect, and more.

Apple’s movements into Consumer centric AI.

The last few Apple announcements all seem to have contained about three elements; a tranche of gimmicky superficial stuff ( like new stickers, avatars, “Genmojis” ) that makes you wonder if you’re becoming old and boring, a barrage of things that seem a bit unremarkable, predictable, and are sometimes merely copying Android, and then a 3rd wave of things that, on the face of it, seem rather huge.

Somehow hidden scattered within presentations about privacy, little features and neats tricks, there seemed to be this absolutely astonishing hint at the future, take a look at the video below.

The idea here that apps start to work around you, seems like the obvious future of all software, but something that few people have worked towards.

It combines a few things.

1. Seemlessly shifting between apps, orienting around “what needs to be done”

2. Finding and bubbling up rather personal information from a variety of places

3. Understanding the context behind each piece of information,

4. Making predictions, proactively being aware of the implications of some changes

5. Being able to do something about it, i.e being connected with an action as a result of this.

Now I’m not a computer scientist, or a privacy expert, or a software architect, but this seems like something close to magic, but instructively just about possible.

For some reason , this 44 second clip, essentially announcing the future where machines work for us, where computing is personalized, anticipatory, integrated, consumer centric, intent based, content rich, seems to have

a) Not been picked up by the press at all.

b) Never promoted by Apple on any of their cards, websites or outlets

c) Not been highlighted in the IOS 18 software development kit

So I’m a bit confused, my assumption is that this sneak peak is actually something Apple are rather scared to implement, partially because of how hard it is to do, because of the vast privacy concerns, because of the cost of mistakes, and because of the potential for misuse by Apps built on top of this.

But it seems fascinating to me, another step on the path towards us having a relations with devices where they do more and more for us, without us knowing, freeing time and cognitive capacity for us to do more than ever, or sit scrolling our lives away.

Every time I wonder what our ever more efficient future brings, or witness someone yet again struggling to train or make sense of it, I’m reminded of a quote from Ellen Ullman’s Close to the Machine. Discussing the early days of the internet, she describes a technology that: 

…“Represents the ultimate dumbing down. The users seem to believe that they are connected to some vast treasure trove — all the knowledge of our times, an endless digitized compendium, some electronic library of Alexandria — if only they could figure out how to use it. But they just sit and click, and look disconcertedly at the junk that comes back at them.”  

Related to this is this wonderful piece about the services that flourished before the smartphone and after the dumbphone

Big ones - Tech Tension

When you don’t understand your own AI

OpenAI doesn't seem to understand its own tech. Interpretability–the extent to which we can explain decisions made by AI–has yet to be “solved.” 

Schools banning smartphones around the world

Los Angeles , New York City , and many places around the world are starting to listen to Unesco’s views on how smartphones should be banned from schools. I always think we need to be far far far more mindful about not just how long we use our phones, but what we do with them and where.

Marketeers playing Doctor

This is what happens when people with no medical background but plenty of marketing skills go into a domain they should probably know more about.  

A new best friend called Ed?

Maybe we shouldn’t be banning phones in schools after all, AI is quickly becoming an omnipresent part of kids’ lives. How it’s being integrated into the education system–starting in California, in one of the largest public school districts in the US: read more here and here. 

Restriction on Social Media

Meanwhile, New York plans to prohibit social media companies from using algorithms to steer content to children without parental consent. 

Mindful Media

The U.S. Surgeon General calls for platforms to display warning labels–like those on tobacco and alcohol products–stating that the use of social media can harm teenagers’ mental health.

“The easiest way to mismanage a technology is to misunderstand it.”

- Jaron Lanier on why we need to stop mythologizing AI   

The word of the day: Hyperabundance

The US economic growth spurt

The US economy reaches superstar status. In four years, America’s GDP grew by 8.2 percent; that’s three times as fast as the EU’s and more than eight times as fast as the UK’s. 

Challenges persist with Commercial Real Estate

An interesting chart: How vacancy rates for commercial real estate are moving sideways or higher in a strong economy. 

The circular flow of consumption

Future consumption has never been cheaper. Capital produces consumption and it also produces more capital. 

Little ones & Curiosities’.

1 - A seemingly minor upgrade - the changing of a lightbulb–created a sea change in the look of cars. What’s next for headline design and why it’s exciting? 

2 - If your culture change or business transformation efforts aren’t working, perhaps this is why. A piece about the flawed framework that forms the basis for most change management today and the cognitive biases embedded in popular business thinking. Among them: the Semmelweis reflex – our tendency to reject new knowledge that contradicts established beliefs.  

3 - Fredkin’s paradox, the Woozle effect, and 28 other interesting concepts. 

4 - No, a remote Amazon tribe did not get addicted to porn. 

5 - What happened to New York’s dream airport?

6 - The rise, fall, and comeback of an EV company that once had a greater market cap than Ford. 

7 - Why do all companies die whereas almost all cities survive? The universal principle behind scale and the surprising math laws that govern the growth of organisms and corporations.

8 - A new discovery that could revolutionize energy harnessing. Also: how graphene is delivering on its promise as a “wonder” material, two decades after it was first isolated in a series of Nobel prize-winning experiments. Looking ahead: from smartphones to heat management systems, flexible fabrics, and medical diagnostic devices, these are some of its expected applications.

Photo by Accuray on Unsplash

9 - How a technique for recycling rare-earth permanent magnets is opening up new possibilities for aerospace, electronics, and more.

10 -  Is technology breaking our brains? We’ve always been distracted, or at least worried that we are. 

11 - There is no such thing as past or future because fundamentally, time does not exist. It’s mostly something that happens now, in our head, in the space between memory and anticipation. 

12 - Why we have an obligation to be optimistic. 

That’s it for now.
Thanks

Tom

Thanks for reading Nowism by Tom Goodwin, subscribe below.