Is there one link, story, picture or thought that you saw online this week that you think somebody you know must see?
My friends: Alistair Croll (Just Evil Enough, Solve for Interesting, Tilt the Windmill, Interesting Bits, HBS, chair of Strata, Startupfest, FWD50, and Scaletechconf; author of Lean Analytics and some other books), Hugh McGuire (Rebus Foundation, PressBooks, LibriVox) and I decided that every week the three of us are going to share one link for one another (for a total of six links) that each individual feels the other person “must see.”
Check out these six links that we’re recommending to one another:
- Which Of Scott Aaronson’s Five AI Worlds Will Come To Pass? – Metaculus. “Back in March of 2018, before pandemics and AI and verb-article-noun politics, I gave a talk in Montreal about the most important decision tree in the world. It was a thought experiment: Will superintelligent AI come to pass? Will we be able to harness it? Will it help or hurt humanity? It was an interesting discussion. Turns out Scott Aaronson made a similar decision tree a bit later – but with way better names, like AI-Fizzle, Futurama, and Paperclipalypse. And then people started voting on them.” (Alistair for Hugh).
- Fight Health Insurance. “At Strata, the Big Data Conference I used to chair, Holden Karau was an absolute hero. Amazing talks on stage, and a zero-bullshit attitude everywhere. Her latest project is an AI tool that helps Americans appeal health insurance denials. We worry about the asymmetrical power that AI, surveillance, and autocracy gives the few but, but projects like this one give me hope that maybe the many can fight back.” (Alistair for Mitch).
- The MICrONS Project – Nature. “The MICrONS project mapped 200,000 neurons and 523 million synapses in a mouse’s visual cortex, recording the activity of 75,000 neurons. The project, build of course with the help of AI to analyze and map the massive amounts of data, links brain structure to function on an unprecedented scale, giving hints about how neural circuits actually compute. The project also created a ‘digital twin’ of the brain for virtual experiments. I’ll leave it for my next coffee with Alistair to figure out what a pithy conclusion to this paragraph is, but this feels monumental.” (Hugh for Alistair).
- The West Is Bored To Death – Stuart Whatley – The New Statesman. “I’m not sure that boredom is exactly the feeling I am experiencing today (hard to be board when brain keeps hopping between existential threats), however there is something compelling about the idea that the West is suffering from a lack of spiritual richness. We have, maybe, filled that with a religion politics, left and right.” (Hugh for Mitch).
- Jordan Rudess Destroys AI Clone In EPIC Battle – Rick Beato – YouTube. “If you have been thinking that AI can never really be creative like humans – espcially when it comes to music: Watch this. Full stop. Jordan Rudess is the keyboardist for famed progressive rockers, Dream Theater, and he is – without question – a music prodigy (he recently took up guitar and his videos are… staggering. With that, he also loves technology – and pushing it futher. This is his latest project where he’s developed an AI to ‘jam’ with him. Understanding the notes, chords and structures and trained on Jordan’s style. If you close your eyes, can you honestly tell when Jordan or the AI is improvising… because I can’t… and I’m a fan/someone who knows his music. We are not prepared.” (Mitch for Hugh).
- Why Adults Are Spending Billions On Toys For Themselves – Big Business – Business Insider – YouTube. “I’m fascinated with nostalgia… especially as I get older. What makes me feel younger? What makes me think younger? What gives me a great feeling? And, most of the time, it comes from being a teenager… those initial discoveries of pop culture, music, literature and, yes, video games, comic books, toys, TV shows, cartoons, snacks and everything else in between. Things just taste better in your mind (how you remember them versus how they are today). I can spend hours watching grown adults dig through flea markets, meet-ups and local conventions trying to acquire their personal ‘holy grails’ from their childhoods, because in their adventure I am constantly reminded of my own journey and what gives me the feels. Now, of course, collectibles is a multi-billion dollar industry… and here’s a peek behind what’s going on…” (Mitch for Hugh).
Feel free to share these links and add your picks on X, Facebook, in the comments below or wherever you play.
Before you go… ThinkersOne is a new way for organizations to buy bite-sized and personalized thought leadership video content (live and recorded) from the best Thinkers in the world. If you’re looking to add excitement and big smarts to your meetings, corporate events, company off-sites, “lunch & learns” and beyond, check it out.
Mitch Joel Mitch Joel lives at the intersection of technology, business transformation and consumer culture. He is the Executive Director of Next Era Institute, a strategic intelligence platform helping leaders understand the forces reshaping business, technology, culture and society. The Institute identifies which shifts matter, explores their wider significance and translates them into strategic direction and momentum. Mitch is also a globally recognized keynote speaker. He has delivered thousands of presentations across both B2B and B2C industries to organizations including Google, Walmart, LEGO, Shopify, Microsoft, Procter & Gamble and Unilever. Strategy Magazine has called him “one of North America’s leading visionaries.” Mitch built his career by working directly inside the waves of change that reshaped modern business. He founded and built a digital marketing agency that worked with some of the world’s largest brands and was later acquired by WPP, where he served as President of a firm operating in 25 countries with almost 3,000 employees. Mitch is the bestselling author of Six Pixels of Separation and CTRL ALT Delete, and the host of Thinking With Mitch Joel, one of the longest-running business podcasts in the world. His writing and commentary appear in outlets including Harvard Business Review, Fast Company and Inc. Magazine. He is a member of Dr. Marshall Goldsmith’s 100 Coaches and was named to the Thinkers50 Radar. Mitch also hosts Groove – The No Treble Podcast, documenting the oral history of electric bass players. Mitch is also Co-Founder of ThinkersOne, a platform that enables companies to bring personalized thought leadership from world-class experts into meetings, events and off-sites in focused 15-minute bursts.