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:

• Watch The Skies – World’s First Ai Visual Dubbed Feature Film – Crazy Pictures – YouTube. “Watch The Skies is a successful 2022 Swedish sci-fi movie. To reach a wider audience, the producers partnered with a company called Flawless. The actors, who are bilingual, re-read their lines in English while having their faces recorded. Then the software edited the film, frame-by-frame, to sync lip movements with the original Swedish footage. The result is a re-release with English-speaking actors. Closed-captioning and regional productions (think Squid Game, Lupin, ano other foreign-language break-out hits). Just in time for US protectionism, Hollywood no longer has a monopoly on the most lucrative audiences.” (Alistair for Hugh).
• Back To A Website – homestarrunnerdotcom – YouTube. “‘Do you remember Homestar Runner‘ is an age check for people who were extremely online in the nineties. The Flash-based website was part blog, part video archive, and part game. It gave us classics like Lightswitch Raves and Trogdor. There were attempts at spinoffs, but when Adobe killed Flash it was no more. Well, if you’re not already feeling old enough, it’s a quarter of a century old. Here’s their 25-year anniversary video.” (Alistair for Mitch).
• Using AI In Writing Class: Student Voices – Michelle Kassorla – The Academic Platypus. “Teachers are rightfully worried about AI, and many are at a loss, students are submitting AI slop, the tech bros say teachers will be replaced by AI, and everything is scary. Teachers like Michelle Kassorla have leaned in, and are figuring out how AI can be a central part of accelerating student learning, even in a class like writing. Hear what her students have to say about her approach.” (Hugh for Alistair).
• Meet Slate – Slate Auto – YouTube. “Great ad, great marketing, and … a crazy, low-priced EV truck that’s kind of like Mr. Potatohead (you can configure it how you like, now or later). I kinda want one.” (Hugh for Mitch).
• Personality And Persuasion – Ethan Mollick – One Useful Thing. “What if AI doesn’t have cognitive bias, but rather knows what your – individual – cognitive bias is and tries to appease it? So… forget getting something wrong in world where AI knows exactly what you want it to tell you… yikes! Ethan Mollick’s recent exploration into AI’s persuasive capabilities reveals this future where machines don’t just inform… they influence. By crafting language and personalities that resonate with us (in a very personal way), AI models are becoming adept at tailoring arguments to your individual beliefs, sometimes surpassing human persuaders. This evolution isn’t merely about technological advancement… it’s about the subtle shaping of human decisions and opinions. As AI integrates more deeply into our lives, the line between assistance and manipulation is now blurring. So, it is time to re-evaluate how we interact with these digital entities and what about the ethical frameworks governing them?” (Mitch for Alistair).
• How Creativity Became The Reigning Value Of Our Time – Bryan Gardiner – MIT Technology Review. “This article states something I’ve been noodling on for years: The notion that creativity is uniquely the domain of humans and/or that creativity is – always – the most important human thing we do. Samuel Franklin’s new book, The Cult of Creativity, dismantles the myth that creativity is an innate, timeless human trait, revealing it instead as a post-WWII construct born from Cold War anxieties and corporate agendas. What we now revere as ‘creativity’ was engineered to humanize bureaucratic systems, soothe fears of conformity, and boost productivity in white-collar America. It was less about artistic expression and more about making workers feel like visionaries while keeping them firmly within the machine. This article (which is, mostly, a book review) exposes how brainstorming sessions and creativity tests weren’t liberating… they were tools of control, cloaked in the language of self-actualization. In today’s AI-saturated world, where machines can mimic ‘creative’ outputs, this history forces us to ask: was creativity ever about originality or just another lever in the productivity playbook? If creativity was a managerial invention, what does it mean when algorithms outperform us at it? Maybe it’s time to stop worshipping at the altar of ‘creative disruption’ and start redefining what human ingenuity really looks like… beyond the buzzwords. Which is a fascinating thought experiement in a world where AI is taking the hard work of ’thinking’ and making it easy… (nearly) free… fast… and much more.” (Mitch for Hugh).

Feel free to share these links and add your picks on X, Facebook, in the comments below or wherever you play.

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