Hello Everyone; I have given the writing team the next three days off, which means you are stuck with me for the newsletter.  We will dig into some of my favorite topics, a few original thought pieces, and news you will find interesting.  I am grateful for everyone who gives us a few minutes out of their day.  Today we are talking about A.I. and its various forms; we go from intelligence to inspiration, and I talk about several things that inspired me this week. 

Johnny Christian

Publisher

This week, there is much news about ChatGPT, a new AI chat app that does a good job answering questions.  In a news story from Axios, one of the suggestions for using this Chat application was as a supplement, if not a replacement to a Google Search.  How interesting is that?  Would it replace Google?  No, if you already know what you are looking for, Google will suffice, but if you are using it to search for information, explore or answer questions, it will be interesting to see how AI chat works. 

AI is growing, and even the definition of AI will need some work.  For example, we use several writing tools that use AI for the first level of our proofreading.  We use Grammarly, allowing a small staff to write faster and get more out.  What about spell check? I wonder where the cutoff is?  Tools we use to improve communication while at the same time not changing the intent or purpose of the writing are welcome in our digital newsrooms. 

Most of us have started a chat with a bot, and we have all figured out how to “type yell” at the bot to go find us a human.  There was a commercial a few years back, a guy on a support phone call was trying to answer a bot question on the phone, and the bot couldn’t understand him.  His password was Big Boy, and the commercial was hilarious (Watch it here). 

The trouble begins when someone first reads or even experiments with AI that seems to act like something else.  Spend too much time with the chat AI, and your frustration and suspicion will grow.  However, use ChatGPT, and it helps with research or online searches, and you may not.  AI tools will also write blog posts and other content for you.  There are AI tools that will create graphics based on text inputs.  These next-level tools take advantage of the enormous amount of online information and the unbelievable amount of computing power to search the web for millions of results, then combine those results into a finished product.  These tools could save people hours in draft time and pre-post.

The speed of all this technology has plenty of downsides; too much content, significantly below-average material, fake news, or stories pushed by people without shame.  How can you protect yourself from the downside of technology and shamelessness?  The same way we always have; keep learning, keep reading, and have more conversations with smart people you trust.  Listen to all sides, ask more questions, seek more answers, and never think you know it all.  Yes, all the answers are out there, but if you stop asking the questions, if you stay in a silo or echo chamber, some of the information you have will be wrong.  Sometimes it’s better to hear than be heard. 

I am new to Kara Swisher and now can’t get enough of her.  Between Pivot, the podcast she does twice a week with Scott Galloway, and On With Kara Swisher, I listen to 4 pods weekly from her.  She is a seasoned journalist with a focus on technology.  What I like most about Kara Swisher:

Kara is Kara and will be as in your face as she needs to be.  She is usually respectful but courageous, and most of her guests know and respect that about her.  Links to her podcasts are below; yesterday, Kara blew my mind again when telling a brave and enduring story about one of her kids.  Telling the story got her a little choked up, and to slow the emotion, she started saying, “dead kittens, dead kittens, dead kittens.”  Kara does not endorse or support dead kittens; she uses the visual to help her get over something she gets choked up about so she can get through it.  I laughed for ten minutes after this episode.  Kara did it again; she did what I want this newsletter to be about, something heart-warming that makes you think and, in that same breath, can make you bust out laughing! Remember, scratch your brain and tickle your belly.

My next punk rock cover band will be called Kara’s Dead Kittens.  😉

On Vox:

Podcast: On With Kara Swisher                   

Podcast: Pivot

Let’s keep up with the inspirational vibes; brothers Joel and Luke Smallbone, AKA For King & Country, did a version of Little Drummer Boy that gave me goosebumps.  I love drums, percussions, rhythms, beats, and anything that pumps you up.  This version of the classic Christmas tune will move you.  Like Kara, the brothers Smallbone are authentic; a Christian Rock band; they play with so much joy that it is hard not to be affected by them.

Any cinematographer will enjoy how the camera is used in this video; the way it’s shot is music to my eyes.

Michael Easter is the author of The Comfort Crisis, a book about finding your path to discomfort and how it can improve your life.  In a clip from one of Joe Rogan’s podcasts, he talks about something similar.  He was addressing a question about his rise to fame and if it would have been different if he had grown up now versus before the age of social media.  Joe explained that one of the things he has to do frequently is high-intensity training, hot saunas, and sometimes cold therapy.  In Joe’s experience, this intensity from working out or extreme temperatures keeps him fresh and gives him the strength to kill it daily.  Easter would call that living by discomfort.

Conformity can be too comfortable, and another reason people with a punk rock spirit avoid it like a disease.  Easter and Rogin talk extensively about how comfort and life without challenge can lead to poor health and increased illness.  We are about to finish up the first week in December 2022; there are three weeks left in 2022, a great time to look back on the year that was and start thinking about a year of discomfort. 

[Music Notes]

Words | Music | Art | Unknown

Bittersweet remix.

Click on the Apple Music image to listen to the song on Apple Music or on the Spotify Image to listen to Spotify.

Thank you for spending a few minutes with us!

With A Shout Team Johnny Christian