AI-generated content is often devoid of character and authenticity. By delegating communication and content generation to LLMs, you’re signalling a lack of care, conviction and connection to your audience and consumers. To stand out in a crowd of AI-slop, consider being militantly human.

By delegating our cognitive struggles to AI, we dull our intellect, atrophy our hard-earned skills, and settle for mediocre outcomes.

I undertook a short, generative AI detox. It helped me reinforce that while LLMs aren’t indispensable, I don’t mind using them for boring work. I am, however, going to militantly avoid generative AI in activities that I consider to be my superpowers.

To counter the addictive effect of LLMs, I’m embarking on a one-week generative AI detox.

Don’t trust the clammy scam artists who tell you AI is moving too fast for you to think straight about this technology. LLMs may well be cool, but most gains are coming from fine-tuning and post-training. Feel free to slow down and make well-considered moves for yourself and your business.

I’m a nature photographer who earns his living from tech. Sometimes I win. Often, I lose. Photography has taught be to be even-keeled in the face of disappointment.

If culture is the moving average of behaviour over time, then a change in corporate culture is inevitable. To retain their cultural distinctiveness, though, corporations must identify what truly makes them special – i.e. their immutable core.

Taste and discernment are more important than ever, in the age of AI.

The unpredictable nature of generative AI can often feel as addictive as gambling. Addictive services often get enshittified, and can also be candidates for a classic bait-and-switch.

As the circular funding economy of AI becomes more transparent, innovation slows and costs increase, it may help us all to temper our AI enthusiasm. There are many indications that the current state of generative AI is neither essential nor as transformative as the frontier AI companies will have us believe. If anything we could make the case that generative AI is a net negative for most stakeholders.

I’m “AI bipolar” - an enthusiast and a sceptic. Here are some of the reasons I blow hot and cold with AI.

No biggie here. We’ve spent some time diving into the details of asynchronous work in the context of agile practices. Now it’s time to explore the kind of management and leadership that supports and asynchronous-first culture. I expect the next few posts may not be in perfect sequence, so think of this post as an explanation for the unpredictability.