Dan York

More and more people are experimenting with a growing collection of Artificial Intelligence-based graphics tools. Some of these tools produce stunning images in a variety of artistic styles, leading some to wonder if art directors will generate their own images rather than continue to pay for graphic design services. Neville and Shel discuss the possibilities in this short mid-week episode.

Some examples that Shel created, first from Midjourney, with a prompt that instructed the AI to produce an image of “a grey-bearded wizard using a wand to assemble a futuristic skyscraper in an ocean in outer space.”

And this, from the Dream app (on Android), with a prompt to produce an image of “a race car driver on a tricycle on the surface of Mars.”

The next monthly, long-form episode of FIR will drop on Monday, August 22. FIR “shorts” — episodes under 15 minutes — will appear once or twice weekly.

We host a Communicators Zoom Chat each Thursday at 1 p.m. ET. For credentials needed to participate, contact Shel or Neville directly, request the credentials in our Facebook group, or email fircomments@gmail.com.

Special thanks to Jay Moonah for the opening and closing music.

You can find the stories from which Shel’s FIR content is selected at Shel’s Link Blog. Shel has started a metaverse-focused Flipboard magazine. Neville’s “asides” blog, Outbox, is also available.

Links from this episode:

• How much should graphic designers worry about DALL-E 2?
• TikTok’s Amazing Text-to-Image AI Backgrounds
• AI Graphics Segment from August 14 episode of “Last Week Tonight with John Oliver”
• Midjourney
• DALL-E 2
• Craiyon
• Dream (for iOS and Android)

The post FIR #277: Do Graphic Designers Have A Future? appeared first on FIR Podcast Network.

Remember Microsoft Tay? The 2016 Twitter chatbot suffered from a concerted effort to teach it all manner of vile things, prompting Microsoft to withdraw the service and apologize. That experience is top of mind for pretty much everyone talking about Meta’s new chatbot, now available in public testing in the U.S. The developers behind BlenderBot 3 insist that they, too, had the Tay experiment in mind when they developed the process for teaching this new chatbot to behave. In fact, the beta is designed so people can report when it says something inappropriate that it may have learned from another user. That information is used to teach it what is not appropriate. Will it work?

The next monthly, long-form episode of FIR will drop on Monday, August 22. FIR “shorts” — episodes under 15 minutes — will appear once or twice weekly.

We host a Communicators Zoom Chat each Thursday at 1 p.m. ET. For credentials needed to participate, contact Shel or Neville directly, request the credentials in our Facebook group, or email fircomments@gmail.com.

Special thanks to Jay Moonah for the opening and closing music.

You can find the stories from which Shel’s FIR content is selected at Shel’s Link Blog. Shel has started a metaverse-focused Flipboard magazine. Neville’s “asides” blog, Outbox, is also available.

Links from this episode:

• Meta is putting its latest AI chatbot on the web for the public to talk to
• Meta unleashes BlenderBot 3 upon the internet, its most competent chat AI to date
• Blender Bot 2.0: An open source chatbot that builds long-term memory and searches the internet
• ‘Overrepresented among America’s super rich’: Facebook’s new Blender Bot 3 chatbot makes antisemitic comments
• Facebook’s new AI can tell lies and insult you – so don’t trust it, firm warns
• Meta’s AI chatbot has some election-denying, antisemitic bugs to work out after the company asked users to help train it
• The human error of Tay (from Neville Hobson’s blog in 2016)
• Midjourney (AI image generation service)

The post FIR #276: Should I Tay Or Should I Go? appeared first on FIR Podcast Network.

Brands have been tripping over themselves to jump on the Web3/metaverse/NFT bandwagon, but few have articulated a strategic and comprehensive approach at the level Starbucks has. In this short mid-week FIR episode, Neville and Shel look at how Starbucks plans to build loyalty and community using these emerging tools, along with some other organizations that are starting to give Web3 similarly serious looks.

The next monthly, long-form episode of FIR will drop on Monday, August 15. FIR “shorts” — episodes under 15 minutes — will appear once or twice weekly.

We host a Communicators Zoom Chat each Thursday at 1 p.m. ET. For credentials needed to participate, contact Shel or Neville directly, request the credentials in our Facebook group, or email fircomments@gmail.com.

Special thanks to Jay Moonah for the opening and closing music.

You can find the stories from which Shel’s FIR content is selected at Shel’s Link Blog. Shel has started a metaverse-focused Flipboard magazine. Neville’s “asides” blog, Outbox, is also available.

Links from this episode:

• Starbucks: We’re creating the digital Third Place
• Starbucks goes in on cryptobucks
• Starbucks to unveil its web3-based rewards program next month
• Russell Crowe Film Partially Funded by NFTs Makes Its Debut
• web3 Project: City of Miami x TIME, Mastercard & Salesforce
• Time Magazine looks to turn all future subscriptions into NFTs

The post FIR #275: Will You Have An NFT With Your Coffee? appeared first on FIR Podcast Network.

According to one definition, unbranded content “isn’t specifically about your company but is relevant to your industry or product in some way.” There are unbranded videos like this one from WREN, an online clothing retailer. Released in 2014, it’s a film in which the filmmakers asked 20 couples who had never met to kiss. The only reference to WREN is at the very beginning of the video, “WREN Presents.” There isn’t even a link to the retailer in the film or on its YouTube page.

And there are entire unbranded websites. We even interviewed Ike Pigott from Alabama Power about Alabama News Center, where Alabama Power’s involvement is barely noticeable.

There are sound reasons for brands to produce unbranded content. From the perspective of the audience reading or viewing the content, is it underhanded? A failure to disclose? Does it matter? Neville and Shel have differing points of view in this short mid-week episode of For Immediate Release.

The next monthly, long-form episode of FIR will drop on Monday, August 15. FIR “shorts” — episodes under 15 minutes — will appear once or twice weekly.

We host a Communicators Zoom Chat each Thursday at 1 p.m. ET. For credentials needed to participate, contact Shel or Neville directly, request the credentials in our Facebook group, or email fircomments@gmail.com.

Special thanks to Jay Moonah for the opening and closing music.

You can find the stories from which Shel’s FIR content is selected at Shel’s Link Blog. Shel has started a metaverse-focused Flipboard magazine. Neville’s “asides” blog, Outbox, is also available.

Links from this episode:

• Is an Unbranded Content Site Worth It? All Signs Point to Yes at SAP
• The Future of Customer Engagement and Experience (SAP’s unbranded content site)
• Alabama News Center (from Alabama Power)
• Is unbranded content ever worthwhile?
• Branded vs. Unbranded Content

The post FIR #274: Is Unbranded Unethical? appeared first on FIR Podcast Network.

If you peruse search results for “the metaverse,” it will seem like half the content you find focuses on defining it. At Nvidia, executive Richard Kerris thinks it’s pretty easy to define. “The metaverse is not a place,” he says. “It’s the network for the next version of the Web.” Neville and Shel explore that definition and related developments in this short midweek FIR episode.

The next monthly, long-form episode of FIR will drop on Monday, August 15. FIR “shorts” — episodes under 15 minutes — will appear once or twice weekly.

We host a Communicators Zoom Chat each Thursday at 1 p.m. ET. For credentials needed to participate, contact Shel or Neville directly, request the credentials in our Facebook group, or email fircomments@gmail.com.

Special thanks to Jay Moonah for the opening and closing music.

You can find the stories from which Shel’s FIR content is selected at Shel’s Link Blog. Shel has started a metaverse-focused Flipboard magazine. Neville’s “asides” blog, Outbox, is also available.

Links from this episode:

• Nvidia’s Omniverse: The metaverse is a network not a destination
• Web3 platforms launch the Open Metaverse Alliance
• NFTs Don’t Work the Way You Might Think They Do
• “The Metaverse” by Matthew Ball (Amazon)

The post FIR #273: What Is The Metaverse? It’s A Network appeared first on FIR Podcast Network.

Research conducted by Google found that nearly 40 percent of Gen Z are using Tik Tok and Instagram for search instead of Google. It’s a real-world example of significant shifts exhibited by this group of 10-to-22-year-olds. By 2025, they will represent 30 percent of the workforce and be a considerable presence in the consumer marketplace.

The next monthly, long-form episode of FIR will drop on Monday, August 15. FIR “shorts” — episodes under 15 minutes — will appear once or twice weekly.

We host a Communicators Zoom Chat each Thursday at 1 p.m. ET. For credentials needed to participate, contact Shel or Neville directly, request the credentials in our Facebook group, or email fircomments@gmail.com.

Special thanks to Jay Moonah for the opening and closing music.

You can find the stories from which Shel’s FIR content is selected at Shel’s Link Blog. Shel has started a metaverse-focused Flipboard magazine. Neville’s “asides” blog, Outbox, is also available.

Links from this episode:

• Nearly 40% of Gen Z Use TikTok and Instagram Instead of Google
• Gen Z shapes new social media era
• For creators, community is the new follower count
• Generation Z in the Workforce (infographic)

The post FIR #272: Tick Tick Tick Tick Search appeared first on FIR Podcast Network.

A lot is fueling the debate over whether workers should be able to continue working remotely, at least some of the time, or get themselves back to the office. The debate pits workers against leaders, and the assumption is that it’s just a matter of how each side perceives what’s best. But anthropologists see another factor at play: most leaders come from a different generation than those employees who want remote or hybrid work to become the new normal.

The next monthly, long-form episode of FIR will drop on Monday, August 15. FIR “shorts” — episodes under 15 minutes — will appear once or twice weekly.

We host a Communicators Zoom Chat each Thursday at 1 p.m. ET. For credentials needed to participate, contact Shel or Neville directly, request the credentials in our Facebook group, or email fircomments@gmail.com.

Special thanks to Jay Moonah for the opening and closing music.

You can find the stories from which Shel’s FIR content is selected at Shel’s Link Blog. Shel has started a metaverse-focused Flipboard magazine. Neville’s “asides” blog, Outbox, is also available.

Links from this episode:

• Why CEOs are so WTF about WFH (Financial Times; subscription required)

The post FIR #271: Work-From-Home and the Generational Divide appeared first on FIR Podcast Network.