The other day I was asked to write my first blog postfor L.A. Inc. Inevitably my mind spoke out loud, “You have big shoes to fill.”Then I thought again, no, those shoes are taken, and I have my own shoes. So,I’ll call this blog post, the ramblings of a young CEO. With that theme, I amnot going to write about the state of Toronto real estate. There are far toomany articles about that daily, and our Twitter feed is a good place tolook.
Most who know me would expect me to write about cars,and I may get there in a roundabout way. This first rambling will be abouttechnology, especially AI. Now I know what you are thinking, that’s been donealready. But it will also tie into marketing, somehow.
This morning, I was reading an article about how an AIcompany is not releasing their revolutionary AI system that can write newsstories and works of fiction to the public, for our own good. Let’s think aboutthat. AI is, depending on who you listen to, either the greatest thing sincesliced bread or the worst thing for humanity’s survival. Here is an AI companythat doesn’t want to release its research publicly for fear of potential misuse.The system in question is a text generator. The code is so good at composingtext that it would be hard to tell a real from fake. We’ve all heard the fakenews stories over the last year, this system, however, takes it to the nextlevel, using real names, facts and figures, and writing the stories. Not onlythat, the company is a non-profit. So, in theory, they should be releasing itfor the greater good.
Now how does this tie into marketing? Well, it goesinto my ‘peak society theory’, where digital and analog have met and arefinally coexisting in pretty much harmony. In fact, more and more I read howpeople and even millennials are ditching social media and trying to reconnectwith the ‘real’ thing. Those Lincoln ads with Matthew McConaughey may be onto somethingafter all. Everyone, including millennials, require tactile experiences, yet atthe same time do not have patience, and need information, pronto. There is asaying, “The internet when it came out was used to escape the real world, nowthe real world is used to escape the internet.”
So, that brings me to the one truth that’s timetested. Give people the experience they want. Set a course. Have a vision.Refrain from rushing, it never leads to the best work. Above all, recognize that people are smart.
There you have it, my rambling on technology,marketing, and yes, cars.
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