We were somewhere outside of Barstow, on the edge of the desert, when the idea of deep learning models and neural networks began to take hold. I'm not saying artificial intelligence and the AI tools companies like OpenAI, Google, and Microsoft are manufacturing in their little labs are drugs, but let's face it, they are.
That's how I began The Future of AI: A Gonzo Journey into Deep Learning blog post flipped into our WTE Ecosystem magazine. However, my friend and Vassar College and Choate alumnus Phil Eifert suggested today's Flipboard Friday title. Phil's LinkedIn note, "Fear and Loathing with Marty! Love it!" made my day. Phil may have been commenting about my suggestion drugs ingested in prep school and college finally kicked in, and that's why I could channel Hunter S. Thompson. Well, drugs and ChatGPT, so an AI drug.
Hunter S. would love AI even as he would be sure using it would create a world-ending singularity. Watch Hunter's prescience about world-ending singularities in Johnny Depp's great Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas movie. I read or ate with abandoned everything Thompson wrote and loved Gonzo as an idea. Gonzo journalism moves writers from objective reporters to active participants, and if that sounds like reality television, I'm sure Hunter would agree.
At some point, everything we imagine becomes real and begins an inevitable march toward entropy. I channeled Hunter S. Thompson because big bats are landing on all of our faces, as Apple's Vision Pro proves. Since the new and not yet released augmented reality (AR) and virtual reality (VR) device from Cupertino was one of my more popular and somewhat controversial flips, thanks to Kate Knibbs's post for Wired, I went looking for a great review. I watched that great review this morning, thanks to Cold Fusion on YouTube. Watch the Cold Fusion video below and channel our Sign-of-the-Times magazine for more Vision Pro.
Once those bats land, life as we know it changes as another post I flipped into our Sign of the Times magazine entitled The Next Consumer Evolution: AI-Powered Commerce makes clear. Since the next consumer evolution will get a substantial boost from how bad Google SEO has made search results, my last riff this week is about A Storefront for Robots, a post from TheVerge.com flipped into our Call-to-Action magazine.
Use the links below to watch the Cold Fusion video and learn more about big bats landing on our faces.
I don't know if the Apple Vision Pro will be the next iPhone, but I understood part of why that's a possibility after watching Cold Fusion's video. Discover why the Vision Pro may reach such lofty heights in the next section - Big Bats Landing on Consumers.
Discover the controversial Apple Vision Pro Is Not The Future Wired post and other Vision Pro flips in our Sign-of-the-Times magazine.
The Next Consumer Evolution: AI-Powered Commerce The Next Consumer Evolution: AI-Powered Commerce by Latif Sim for ReadWrite and flipped into our Sign of the Times magazine shares a convincing argument for why AR/VR becomes a logical extension of social commerce.
Social media has also had a big impact on e-commerce. Platforms such as TikTok, Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter have become powerful tools for businesses to connect with consumers and build relationships with them. Social media has also made it easier for businesses to promote their products and services to a wider audience. With video and live streaming capabilities, these platforms have allowed consumers to better engage with businesses and their products or services. In addition to this, live streaming also allows consumers to do this in real-time and ask questions directly to the merchants. One of the several key reasons why live commerce is adopted readily is its ability to convert viewership to sales. Some salient features of live commerce that make it so powerful and impactful for businesses include: Interactive Real-time Interaction Live Commerce allows businesses to interact with their audience in real time. This can help build trust and establish a relationship with potential customers. By answering questions and providing demonstrations, businesses can show their audience the value of their products or services. Urgency Live Commerce creates a sense of urgency that can encourage viewers to make a purchase. By creating a limited-time offer or discount code during the live stream, businesses can motivate viewers to take action and quickly make a purchase to ensure they get the best deal. Authenticity Live commerce is often seen as more authentic than pre-recorded video content. Viewers feel that they are getting a behind-the-scenes look at the business and products, which can help build trust and establish a relationship with the audience. Social Proof Live commerce allows businesses to showcase social proof by highlighting positive reviews, testimonials, and customer feedback. This can help build trust and establish credibility with potential customers.
Social media has also had a big impact on e-commerce. Platforms such as TikTok, Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter have become powerful tools for businesses to connect with consumers and build relationships with them. Social media has also made it easier for businesses to promote their products and services to a wider audience. With video and live streaming capabilities, these platforms have allowed consumers to better engage with businesses and their products or services. In addition to this, live streaming also allows consumers to do this in real-time and ask questions directly to the merchants.
One of the several key reasons why live commerce is adopted readily is its ability to convert viewership to sales. Some salient features of live commerce that make it so powerful and impactful for businesses include:
Interactive Real-time Interaction Live Commerce allows businesses to interact with their audience in real time. This can help build trust and establish a relationship with potential customers. By answering questions and providing demonstrations, businesses can show their audience the value of their products or services.
Urgency Live Commerce creates a sense of urgency that can encourage viewers to make a purchase. By creating a limited-time offer or discount code during the live stream, businesses can motivate viewers to take action and quickly make a purchase to ensure they get the best deal.
Authenticity Live commerce is often seen as more authentic than pre-recorded video content. Viewers feel that they are getting a behind-the-scenes look at the business and products, which can help build trust and establish a relationship with the audience.
Social Proof Live commerce allows businesses to showcase social proof by highlighting positive reviews, testimonials, and customer feedback. This can help build trust and establish credibility with potential customers.
Since social commerce will get a steroid-like boost from AR/VR, the Apple Vision Pro made more sense after reading Latif's cogent summary of where we are now, but wait, there's more. Latif's post projects how artificial intelligence(AI) creates "granular personalization." AI's ability to rapidly combine vast data sets such as website tracking, past purchases, and what's happening now means the Vision Pro may become the next iPhone.
Google search organic search results of the non-paid variety sucked as Mia Sato's A Storefront for Robots Verge and flipped into our Call To Action magazine post shares. AI is adding fuel to the SEO arms race, meaning we write for Google, at least as much as for our customers, as the post explains:
The original vision for Get Bullish was not an online store for keychains and pens. It was, first and foremost, a publication, and Dziura took her writing seriously — on both the blog and other outlets that she wrote for. She was writing about career and business topics through a feminist lens before Lean In had been published and before “girl boss” had entered the lexicon, first as aspiration and later as pejorative. “I was basically writing about what I wanted to write about, what I thought was important, and people responded to it,” she says. “It was a very human experience.” Around 2012, she was, for the first time, asked by an editor to insert celebrity names into the title of an article so it would be more easily findable on Google — the omnipresent search engine optimization strategy, or SEO. In the years following, tweaking her writing for Google would only become more relevant to Dziura, as it is for small business owners across the country and spanning industries. Google’s monopoly on how internet users find products, restaurants, bars, stores, and other information means that you cannot simply run your company — it must be discoverable, and Google’s search algorithm needs to be able to pick it up.
“I was basically writing about what I wanted to write about, what I thought was important, and people responded to it,” she says. “It was a very human experience.” Around 2012, she was, for the first time, asked by an editor to insert celebrity names into the title of an article so it would be more easily findable on Google — the omnipresent search engine optimization strategy, or SEO.
In the years following, tweaking her writing for Google would only become more relevant to Dziura, as it is for small business owners across the country and spanning industries. Google’s monopoly on how internet users find products, restaurants, bars, stores, and other information means that you cannot simply run your company — it must be discoverable, and Google’s search algorithm needs to be able to pick it up.
As a former Director of Ecommerce and now WTE's Content Marketing Director, I know all about tweaking writing for Google. The horrible Catch-22 every content marketer faces are writing and storytelling connect with customers, but SEO writing connects with Google, and it is hard to have one (customers) without the other (Google).
When Latif's The Next Consumer Evolution: AI-Powered Commerce comes to pass, will we get to share and create stories with customers who love us? Will AI, AR, and VR fix the Google search mess?
What do you think? Will the Apple Vision Pro, AI, AR, and VR create utopian gonzo solutions to parts of the Internet that feel closer to entropy than cool? Or have those prep school and college drugs finally kicked in? Reach me at Martin (at) wte.net and thanks for reading Fear and Loathign in the Martinverse.
e: martin (at) wte.net