Wednesday, February 28, 2024
The $800 Million Pause: Tyler Perry Reacts to OpenAI's Sora
When asked about his feelings on the rapid advancements in AI technology,Perry shared his concerns about the impact it will have on the entertainment industry. He discussed how AI could potentially eliminate the need for costly location shoots and elaborate set designs, which could have a significant impact on the jobs of many industry professionals. A lot of jobs are going to be lost. I really, really feel that very strongly. Entrepreneurs, professionals, brands learn more about AI, ChatGPT and latest tools here👉🏾 https://normbondmarkets.com/ai-resources/
Saturday, November 18, 2023
Using AI to Revolutionize Sales: How to Generate a Powerful Sales Letter for Your Business
If you're a business owner understanding the power of artificial intelligence (AI) has become crucial for staying competitive. All businesses need sales. One area where AI is revolutionizing the sales process is in generating powerful sales letters.
The impact of direct mail proven through decades of marketing. Crafting a compelling sales letter is essential for capturing the attention of potential customers and persuading them to take action. We can modernize this tactic with the help of AI. Brands can now automate and optimize the lead generation process to maximize their sales potential.
By leveraging AI technology like ChatGPT, businesses can analyze vast amounts of data. Then using these same tools we can extract valuable insights about our target audience. This allows businesses like yours to create more personalized and targeted sales letters. These customized marketing messages hit customers on an individual level.
You see AI algorithms can identify patterns and trends within customer data. This enables smart brands to address specific pain points and interests of our audience.
Plus, AI enables businesses to streamline the writing process. Chatbots use natural language processing capabilities to sound very human. This allows for the generation of sales letters that are not only persuasive but also grammatically correct and coherent. AI-powered writing assistants can suggest improvements and provide real-time feedback. By interacting with the AI the final sales letter is of the highest quality. This tactic can also reduce your costs of outsourcing to copywriters, content creators and other writing professionals.
But wait there's more.
In addition to enhancing the content creation process, AI can also assist with automating the distribution and tracking of sales letters. By integrating AI-powered chatbots and email automation tools, businesses can engage with potential customers in a timely and personalized manner. Do you want to know what is another huge advantage? AI can analyze customer responses and interactions, allowing for real-time adaptation and optimization of sales strategies.
It really is a no-brainer. Utilizing AI to revolutionize sales by generating powerful sales letters is a game-changer for businesses.
By leveraging AI's data analysis capabilities, streamlining the writing process, and automating distribution, businesses can create more personalized and persuasive sales letters. In turn this action drives conversions. You've now learned why embracing AI technology in the sales process is not only a competitive advantage but also an opportunity to optimize sales efforts. At the end of the day this strategic approach can increase your sales revenue.
Need help with implementing these strategies and tactics in your company? Be sure to reach out today.
Sunday, August 27, 2023
The battery business is booming and Zeekr kicks off it IPO roadshow
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The Station is a weekly newsletter dedicated to all things transportation. Sign up here — just click The Station — to receive the newsletter every weekend in your inbox. Subscribe for free.
Welcome back to The Station, your central hub for all past, present and future means of moving people and packages from Point A to Point B.
We have a lot to cover so let’s jump in. But wait! One note to share: These days, I’m a semi-regular guest on TechCrunch’s Equity Podcast, including an episode that aired Friday that covers robotaxis, Nvidia’s earning, plus Better.com and startups that are full of shit (you’ll get the joke if you listen).
Vamos.
Want to reach out with a tip, comment or complaint? Email Kirsten at kirsten.korosec@techcrunch.com.
Reminder that you can drop us a note at tips@techcrunch.com. If you prefer to remain anonymous, click here to contact us, which includes SecureDrop (instructions here) and various encrypted messaging apps.
Deal of the week
The battery business keeps attracting capital.
Just take a look at Swedish lithium-ion battery producer Northvolt. The company raised around $1.2 billion in a convertible notes from BlackRock and various Canadian pension plans. Participants in the round included Goldman Sachs, Volkswagen, Baillie Gifford, Swedbank Robur, Singapore’s GIC and Hong Kong-based Chow Tai Fook Enterprises.
That cash will be used to build new factories in North America and Europe.
Northvolt has been on a bit of tear the past few years — even before the big battery boom really took off. The company has raised $9 billion in debt and equity since 2017, including $1.1 billion in convertible notes last year. The company has also secured more than $55 billion in orders from customers like BMW, Fluence, Scania, Volvo and Volkswagen.
The Northvolt deal gives me another chance to plug a collection of articles we put together earlier this month on the one-year anniversary of the Inflation Reduction Act, including a look at how startups have benefited and a map that tracks all the battery factories in North America. Once Northvolt picks a location for this next factory, we’ll update the map.
Other deals that caught my attention …
Accure, a startup that uses AI to predict lithium-ion battery failures, raised $7.8 million in a Series A2 round led by Blue Bear Capital and HSBC Asset Management with participation from Riverstone Holdings and Capnamic Ventures.
Channel19, a startup that developed software for refrigerated trucking companies, raised $2.7 million in pre-seed and seed funding round led by Augment Ventures with participation by Accion Venture Lab, TMV, Overton Venture Capital and Refashiond Ventures. Several Silicon Valley and freight tech industry angels also participated, according to the company.
Electric Era, a startup founded by former SpaceX engineers that developed software and hardware to make EV charging stations faster and more reliable, raised $11.5 million in a Series A round led by HSBC’s asset management arm. Climate-tech fund Blackhorn, lithium-mining giant SQM and mobility-focused investor Proeza also participated.
NaaS Technology Inc., an EV charging service company in China, said it plans to acquire Charge Amps AB in a deal valued at $66.4 million.
Nickelytics, an advertising tech startup focused on rideshare, has been acquired by Texas-based venture capital group T72 Club Inc. Terms were not disclosed.
Zeekr, the Chinese EV maker under Geely Holdings, is kicking off its roadshow with investors ahead of its initial public offering, Reuters reported citing unnamed sources. Zeekr’s aim is a share sale that will push its valuation over $13 billion. Zeekr filed confidentially for an IPO back in December and raised $750 million in February. If Zeekr is successful and actually lists, this could be one of the largest Chinese IPOs in the past two years.
Chinese companies listing on U.S. exchanges haven’t had the smoothest of rides. Didi, which raised $4.4 billion in its June 2021 IPO, ran up against Chinese regulators. The company delisted later that year. A few other Chinese companies, including Hesai are dipping their toes back in the U.S. IPO waters now that there is more regulatory clarity in both countries. Last year, the U.S. and China struck a deal that allows American officials to review audit documents of Chinese businesses that trade in the United States, an agreement expected to lower the likelihood of Chinese companies on U.S. exchanges delisting.
Notable reads and other tidbits
ADAS
Polestar plans to make Mobileye’s hands-off, eyes-off automated driving technology (called Chauffeur) available to owners of the upcoming Polestar 4 electric SUV coupe. The vehicle, which launched in China and will hit global markets in 2024, comes standard with Mobileye’s SuperVision advanced driver assistance system. Polestar plans to add Chauffeur at a later date, but did not specify when.
Tesla shareholders who sued the company for financial losses stemming from Elon Musk’s “funding secured” tweet in 2018 are set to receive compensation now that the case has been settled. The SEC said 3,350 eligible claimants will share in the $42.3 million payout.
Speaking of Tesla, CEO Elon Musk livestreamed a test drive of FSD Beta v12 — a yet-to-be-released version of its automated driving software (the video has since been posted on YouTube by a number of people). To be clear, this is not a self-driving car; it is ADAS that requires a human to be ready to intervene at any time. The 40-minute video showed the vehicle handling roundabouts and intersections and even some construction. At about the 19-minute mark Musk had to intervene and take control of the vehicle when it misread the traffic signal and tried to go through a busy intersection at the wrong time.
Autonomous vehicles
Baidu expanded its Apollo Go driverless ride-hailing service to cover trips to and from Wuhan Tianhe International Airport. The company now operates Apollo Go robotaxis in five cities in China.
Beep has partnered with self-driving software company Oxa (previously known as Oxbotica) to deploy autonomous vehicles in the United States.
Electric vehicles, charging & batteries
Jaguar Land Rover has found a use for its second-life Jaguar I-Pace batteries.
The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration is investigating whether Ford‘s 2022 recall of nearly 49,000 Mustang Mach-E electric vehicles sufficiently addressed issues and whether more vehicles should be included in the recall.
Gig economy
Uber is blaming high insurance rates for its decision to raise the minimum age requirement for new drivers in California to 25 years old. There are some caveats though.
People
General Motors’ Ultium Cells, the joint venture with LG Energy Solutions, reached an agreement with the United Auto Workers to increase pay for workers at its Ohio battery factory by an average of 25%.
Wu Xinzhou, the former vice president of autonomous driving at Chinese electric vehicle maker Xpeng, posted on social media site Weibo that he’s taken a job at Nvidia.
Disrupt!
Vroom vroom! TechCrunch Disrupt 2023, taking place in San Francisco on September 19–21, is where you’ll get the inside scoop on the future of mobility. Come and hear from today’s leading mobility entrepreneurs on what it takes to build and innovate for a more sustainable future. Save up to $400 when you buy your pass now through September 18, and save 15% on top of that with promo code STATION. Learn more.
source https://techcrunch.com/?p=2590887
Friday, August 25, 2023
The mugshot that launched a thousand memes
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Memes can happen in the blink of an eye, like a Jeopardy! contestant who accidentally makes a sexual innuendo under the pressure of stage lights, or a kid who randomly gets interviewed on a playground and professes his undying love for America’s most plentiful crop, corn.
But as soon as we knew former President Donald Trump would be processed at Fulton County Jail for his fourth indictment, we knew that the resulting mugshot would be all over the place for years to come, from novelty t-shirt stands to our hypothetical future childrens’ history textbooks. We waited for it, knowing that as soon as the image was released to the public, it would become unavoidable.
“This will break Etsy,” Jesse Case wrote in a now-viral tweet (or X post, whatever). And sure enough, less than 24 four hours after Trump’s mugshot was released, Etsy already turns up 5,290 results to the search “trump mugshot.”
Even the former president himself has already set up an extensive merch store with t-shirts, posters, mugs and stickers featuring the photo, which is accompanied by text declaring “NEVER SURRENDER!” It’s unclear if Trump chose this wording since he literally surrendered to Fulton County Jail, or if this somehow went over his team’s head. But nonetheless, Trump supporters can now buy their very own mugshot beer koozie, and yes, this sentence took a year off of my life to type.
Naturally, fake mugshots circulated social media before the real thing was even released — and perhaps due to their less rigorous fact-checking standards, pop culture news accounts like Pop Base beat legacy news outlets to the punch, circulating the now ubiquitous mugshot.
It didn’t matter what Trump’s mugshot would look like. No matter what, this image was going to be both a viral meme and an historically monumental artifact. But even without any editing, Trump looks yassified: his bright blonde hair shows no trace of gray, draped in a swoop across his forehead. Prison lighting is unforgiving, but combined with the over exposure of the flash, Trump almost looks younger, as the shadows smooth out the wrinkles on his left cheek. The wave of his hair is perfectly positioned in the center of his forehead, accentuating his angry countenance. At first glance, it looks as though his eyebrows and hair are one, making his scowl even more sinister, more jarring.
Image Credits: Anonymous internet user, with permission to TechCrunch
As TikToker Kirby Alice pointed out, there’s an irony to these historic mugshots, which aren’t very high-quality images, since, well, they’re mugshots from a county jail.
“I can pretty well guarantee that whatever camera they have to take mugshots was probably purchased at like, a Radio Shack circa 2007,” she said, days before Trump turned himself in. “It might be in the back of a closet suffering heat damage in Georgia right now, and it is about to take one of the most important images in American history.”
I’m reminded of a recent episode of “The Kardashians,” when Kim brought an entire hair and makeup team with her to the DMV to get her license renewed, cheating us out of the idea that awkward driver license photos are the one great equalizer of mankind. While Trump’s team surely thought long and hard about everything from his tie color to his facial expression, he wasn’t going to get any special treatment while getting processed in jail, even as some probably underpaid municipal employee pressed the shutter button to take an undoubtedly iconic photo of our lifetime.
“LizaMinnelliOutlives was how I saw Trump’s mugshot,” a friend wrote to me on Discord. After all, it wasn’t that long ago that we found out that the Queen of England died due to the pronouncement that Liza Minnelli had outlived Queen Elizabeth II.
After Trump’s presidency, the American right and left are so far divided that perhaps only the Donald himself could unite us once more: Everyone, regardless of their political affiliation, is making memes of Trump’s mugshot. It is, quite literally, memetic, as used in the Richard Dawkins sense. It will be circulated, remixed, repurposed and mutated until it perhaps outlives even the LizaMinnelliOutlives meme, surviving the brutal natural selection that is the attention span of digitally-addled brains.
In liberal internet circles, the mugshot is a cause for celebration, an “I told you so” to relatives who were naively lured by Trump’s emboldening rhetoric almost eight years ago. And yet on Truth Social, the somewhat dormant social app that Trump himself founded, the image is a rallying cry — it’s literally being used to solicit campaign donations — yet Trump supporters still find the image funny.
One Truth Social meme account edited Trump’s mugshot to replace the Mona Lisa, as crowds swarm to get a closer look. Another user advertised t-shirts with the mugshot that declare “my pronouns are Trump/won,” which also conveys a serious misunderstanding of how grammar works.
You would think that nothing could be more political than a mugshot of a former president who is indicted for interfering with the democratic process. But some memes just aren’t political at all, reminding us of the absurdity of the moment.
“who cares,” wrote @roastmalone_ on X (Twitter). “trump isn’t even the first actor from home alone 2 to have his mugshot released.”
source https://techcrunch.com/?p=2590682
Friday, August 18, 2023
Zepotha is huge on TikTok, but it’s no Goncharov
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The seminal 1987 horror film “Zepotha” is back on TikTok.
Reaction videos to the film’s gory forest scenes dominate user feeds. TikTok users are digging through their parents’ wardrobes to recreate the vintage outfits from the movie. Fanart of the characters and convoluted theories about the movie’s ambiguous ending keep going viral. The tag #Zepotha has nearly 160 million views, and the movie’s theme song — an ethereal, synth-heavy pop beat — is trending.
If you don’t remember Zepotha, you’re not alone. Zepotha never existed.
It’s all part of a clever marketing campaign to promote a new song by the musical artist Emily Jeffri. The 18-year-old singer posted a video about making a fake movie go viral on TikTok by dropping casual mentions of it without any context. She encouraged followers to tell other creators that they “look EXACTLY like the girl from Zepotha” to stir up confusion. Her original video has 7.6 million views. In another video, she recommended bringing up Zepotha “every time a film bro mocks you” to gaslight them into believing that the movie is real.
Zepotha is a massive inside joke on TikTok — if you know, you know.
“Together we will witness new lore develop, main characters will emerge, etc,” Jeffri said in a TikTok posted over the weekend. “We can convince thousands of people that this weirdly titled 80s horror film actually exists.”
The trend is working. Within days, the sound featuring Jeffri’s new song was used in over 12,000 videos. Other users leaned into the joke, claiming that they wrote extensive, smutty fanfiction about the film’s tragic protagonists. Fans posted “trailers” of Zepotha, and spread rumors about a 2024 reboot. They posted fake eBay listings for “rare” Zepotha VHS tapes and mint condition posters. When other users expressed doubt or confusion about the movie, Zepotha truthers insisted that their parents had shown them the movie as children.
“I did NOT watch Zepotha and become traumatized for them to just say we made it up,” a user commented on a TikTok about the movie.
“old person here (30) i definitely saw a glimpse of zepotha at blockbuster back in the 90s,” another said. “so I CAN CONFIRM IT’S REAL.”
Going viral on TikTok was once a perk that fast-tracked artists to making it in the music industry. Now, it’s an expectation. Artists tease previews of their new singles for weeks before actually releasing them, in hopes of manufacturing a trend to accompany their music. Last year, Halsey complained that her label wouldn’t let her release a new song without a “fake” viral moment. Organic virality is possible, but makes TikTok users suspicious. The platform is so saturated with new music that up-and-coming artists are written off as industry plants before they even have the chance to prove otherwise. TikTok users are wary of anyone who claims to have written “the song of the summer” or “the post-breakup song,” especially if the music they wrote conforms to the “TikTok music formula” — pop music made to go viral.
Sharing any kind of art is an act of vulnerability, but especially so for independent musicians on TikTok. Sharing too earnestly is cringe, and sharing too proudly is artificial. One of the few strategies that actually works is for artists to market to niche internet communities, like fan edits of tragic gay anime pairings.
Jeffri’s campaign is particularly clever because it builds a trend that happens to feature her song, instead of forcing her song into a trend. Zepotha is bigger than her song, at this point, and the more it spreads, the more removed it is from Jeffri herself. Zepotha is an inside joke, but few TikTok users know how the joke started. Knowing who Jeffri is doesn’t matter, though; as long as the videos use Jeffri’s song, her campaign is working.
While the strategy works to draw in new listeners, Jeffri’s claim over the trend also limits Zepotha from achieving its potential as a collaborative bit.
Collectively gaslighting the internet into remembering a fake movie isn’t new. Last year, Tumblr “brought back” the 1973 Martin Scorsese drama “Goncharov,” an Italian mafia film that revolved around crime, power and a forbidden love triangle. Like Zepotha, Goncharov never existed. But Tumblr users committed to the bit, and created a detailed Google doc about the film’s characters, their relationships and their backstories. The collaborative effort also included a scene-by-scene breakdown of the movie, which users coordinated through a Goncharov Discord server.
Scorsese himself joined in, and in a text to his daughter posted on TikTok, said, “I made that film years ago.”
While Zepotha is popular, it hasn’t reached the commitment to detail or collaboration that Goncharov did. Tumblr users have criticized Zepotha as a disorganized popularity contest, rather than a collective effort. Multiple creators started Google docs to write Zepotha’s lore together, but failed to agree on a singular story. There is no definitive list of characters featured in the film, and the names that TikTok creators do reference in their Zepotha posts vary in spelling.
“Zepotha will never succeed because tiktok users don’t have the attentions spans to pull off a goncharov,” Tumblr user sbibble said. “Meanwhile we have nothing better to do and decades of fan fiction experience.”
Zepotha’s greatest flaw isn’t the lack of centralized lore — it’s that, unlike Goncharov, a single creator is claiming ownership of the joke. This week, Jeffri announced a short film competition that would award the winner £500. The winning film would also become “canon” in the Zepotha universe.
“as the creator of zepotha i feel it is important that we restore order & organise our lore,” Jeffri said in the video announcing the short film competition. “time for you, the REAL creative geniuses behind all of this, to bring zepotha to life in your own short movies.”
Goncharov worked so well because countless users worked on it together. Fans discussed plot points for hours at a time on Discord before writing them into the shared Google doc, which canonized the lore. Tumblr users wrote detailed analyses of the film’s themes and clock motifs, based on other users’ additions to the Google doc. Goncharov writers went as far as agreeing that scenes in the film had to be compliant with the period-appropriate Hays Code, the industry guidelines that prohibited nudity, profanity and realistic violence. Tumblr users created a definitive story from thousands of ideas.
Zepotha, on the other hand, is an idea with a single origin point that has branched off into countless deviating storylines. Choosing a single winning short film to decide the film’s plot encourages fans to compete with each other, instead of build on each others’ creativity. It isn’t inherently better or worse than how Goncharov creators worked, but does limit Zepotha’s impact on internet culture. Zepotha is so popular because it’s fun to be in on the joke, not necessarily because of the creative potential.
The Goncharov hype lasted for weeks, and although it’s slowed down in the past year, the Discord server is still active. Jeffri posted about Zepotha less than a week ago, but users are already tiring of the trend.
Whether Zepotha lasts doesn’t matter as much for Jeffri. It doesn’t need to be the next Goncharov for her to make an impact. She already managed to make her song viral, and for an independent artist on TikTok, that’s enough of a win.
source https://techcrunch.com/?p=2585013
Saturday, August 12, 2023
Researchers jailbreak a Tesla, the FCC fines robocallers and WeWork finds itself in trouble (again)
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Welcome, friends, to TechCrunch’s Week in Review (WiR), the newsletter where we recap the week that was in tech. For those new to WiR, think of it as a digest of stories and pieces that topped the charts over the past five days or so.
In this week’s edition of WiR, we cover researchers figuring out a way to “jailbreak” Teslas, the AI.com domain name switching hands and the FCC fining robocallers. Also featured are stories about WeWork’s perennial struggles, Google’s Messages app fully embracing RCS, and spyware maker LetMeSpy shutting down after a massive data breach.
If you haven’t already, sign up here to get WiR in your inbox every Saturday. Now, on with the recap.
Most read
Jailbreak your Tesla: A group of researchers say that they’ve found a way to hack the hardware underpinning Tesla’s infotainment system, allowing them to get what normally would be paid upgrades — such as heated rear seats — for free. Lorenzo has the story.
AI.com switches hands: A few months back, OpenAI seemingly purchased the domain AI.com in order to redirect it to the web app for its AI-powered chatbot, ChatGPT. But now AI.com redirects to X.ai, Elon Musk’s machine learning research outfit — suggesting that the CEO of X (formerly known as Twitter) has come into possession of the domain.
FCC fines robocallers: The FCC has fined a robocaller a record $300 million after blocking billions of their scam calls. But as Devin writes, whether and when the money will be paid is, as always, something of an open question.
WeWork in trouble . . . again: WeWork this week announced a net loss of $397 million for the second quarter on revenue of $877 million. The 13-year-old flexible space provider — which faces both increased competition and declining post-pandemic demand — didn’t mince words, admitting that “substantial doubt exists about [its] ability to continue.”
Google Messages embraces RCS: Google said this week that it’s making its Messages by Google app more secure with improvements to RCS, or Rich Communication Services — a protocol aimed at replacing SMS. The company says it’ll now make RCS the default for both new and existing Messages app users, and end-to-end encryption for group chats is now fully rolled out to all RCS users.
Google launches Project IDX: In more Google news, the tech giant this week launched Project IDX, an AI-enabled, browser-based development environment for building full-stack web and multiplatform apps.
ChatGPT custom instructions expand: OpenAI this week announced that it’s expanding custom instructions — a way to give users more control over how ChatGPT responds — to all users, including those on the free tier of the service. The feature, which was first unveiled in July as a beta for ChatGPT Plus subscribers, allows users to add various preferences and requirements that they want the AI chatbot to consider when responding.
Spyware maker shuts down: Poland-based spyware LetMeSpy is no longer operational and said it will shut down after a June data breach wiped out its servers, including its huge trove of data stolen from thousands of victims’ phones.
Audio
This reporter would venture to say that TechCrunch’s roster of podcasts has something for every interest. This week, as every week, there’s intriguing new material for your listening enjoyment.
On Equity, the crew talked about a lawsuit targeting a grant program providing small checks to Black women small-business owners and how some countries are taking a different track, including the U.K.
Meanwhile, this week’s episode of Found focused on Anurupa Ganguly, the founder and CEO at Prisms, a startup designing VR math curriculum for middle and high school students. Ganguly talked about how her time as a teacher in the Boston and New York City public school systems provided early inspiration for the company, and what it’s been like selling to schools, as well as her take on company culture in relation to remote and hybrid work.
And Chain Reaction hosted Robbie Ferguson, the co-founder and president of Immutable. Immutable is a web3 company consisting of two entities: Immutable Platform, a developer platform for building and scaling Ethereum-based web3 games, and Immutable Games, a web3 game developer and publisher.
TechCrunch+
TC+ subscribers get access to in-depth commentary, analysis and surveys — which you know if you’re already a subscriber. If you’re not, consider signing up. Here are a few highlights from this week:
Room-temp superconductor? Not so fast: The internet — and more than a few scientists — got their hopes up a couple weeks ago when a team of physicists from South Korea announced that they had created a room-temperature superconductor from a slew of common yet unlikely materials. But, as Tim writes, it’s probably, disappointingly bunk.
Taking another look at venture debt: Silicon Valley Bank’s nosedive has soured many on venture debt, and for early-stage companies, it bears being cautious. As an option for growth-stage companies with more predictable cash flow, however, things may be a little different. Haje investigates.
Taking a page from mobile gaming: Retaining mobile app subscribers is harder than it was last year, but paywall optimization and gamified UX can help. Anna explores the ins and outs of the turbulent market, and how apps are following examples from mobile gaming.
Get your TechCrunch fix IRL. Join us at Disrupt 2023 in San Francisco this September to immerse yourself in all things startup. From headline interviews to intimate roundtables to a jam-packed startup expo floor, there’s something for everyone at Disrupt. Save up to $400 when you buy your pass now through September 18, and save 15% on top of that with promo code WIR. Learn more.
source https://techcrunch.com/?p=2581511
Saturday, August 05, 2023
4 ways generative AI makes founders more interesting to journalists
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The advent of generative AI will lead to a tectonic shift in how startups do PR over the next few years. In July, the Associated Press became the first major news company to sign a deal with OpenAI, while media job cuts have reached record highs.
Gutted newsrooms could stymie one of the greatest engines of startup growth. While generative AI will enhance the capabilities of many publications, they’re also creeping onto news sites in ways we can’t foresee while journalists are laid off. Inevitably, some startups will choose to use AI to churn out thought leadership and PR content.
The problem with that is, if anyone and everyone can do something, then it becomes devoid of value. If any founder can ask ChatGPT to create a listicle on “5 reasons e-commerce will grow in 2023,” then the internet will become even more saturated with that kind of content. And that content is professional-sounding, yes, but impersonal, starved of real-life narratives, and flair-less.
Startups that want to be seen amid the flurry as AI enters the media will need to remember that what most people really want is a human story.
The good news is, this will actually push startup PR to evolve. In-house PR teams will want to elevate their content above the tedious noise. PR agencies will strive to show startups why they shouldn’t be using ChatGPT to do their job. Editors will scream out for original articles over rehashed content. PR and human-written thought leadership will have to sharply differentiate itself from the unoriginal content of overused AI.
Seeing a strong voice of reason or controversy, a provocative response to current events and rapidly unfolding topics — that’s something people are always hungry for. It’s alive, shaped by the world around us, and helps us make sense of it.
Ironically, AI could make PR more responsive, human, relevant. So, where do AI’s limits lie — and where will successful PR strategies shine in the age of ChatGPT?
Embed yourself in current (and future events)
AI does not exist in the present. It’s trained on past datasets, but it can’t follow today’s news, much less if that news hasn’t been published online.
I know from my PR work that journalists take a heightened interest in a business leader when they can speak knowledgeably (and quickly) on unfolding events. As do readers: 62% of professionals want to see thought leadership on current trends.
But how will generative AI change this scenario? It’s likely that the role of journalists will move away from what’s generally achievable by AI — generic advice articles, listicles, etc. — and they’ll have more time to write articles on current events and hard-hitting trends, imbued with relevant commentary.
So, that’s what they’ll want to see more of from founders — commentary on the Senate just passing a new immigration bill and how that will affect tech talent; a thought piece on how startups can leverage a new TikTok trend for growth.
An effective PR strategy will involve a shift in behavior:
- Monitoring daily media for current events.
- Inserting yourself and your company into breaking news.
- Being a founder who can provide punchy opinions on select themes.
- Assessing which topics you can speak to beyond your niche: for example, a fintech founder can seek to become an expert in emerging regulation.
- Linking this kind of outreach back to your core mission and messaging.
Other than being timely, the difference between you and ChatGPT is that you have friends. You have your finger on the pulse of specific “offline” circles in a way that’s not possible for an AI bot. Journalists will value you being able to bring insights on the word on the street — what the sentiment is over X news story among your peers, the conversations you have with colleagues over the state of the industry.
Finally, you can also peer into the future. A true industry expert can read what’s happening on the ground — not just online — ask for peers’ opinion on a matter of interest, and offer predictions on where a trend is going. Be careful only to do so when your margin of error is small.
source https://techcrunch.com/?p=2579381
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