Keynote Predictions, Total Recall & Insta Ads
5 in 5 - Brave & Heart HeartBeat #206 ❤️
This week we’re asking, What Will Apple Do?, debating the safety of the Microsoft Recall, and meeting our future AI avatars.
Plus, Instagram enforce ad breaks, and why bragging about stress at work is a bad idea.
Let’s get into it.
Were you forwarded this? Not a subscriber? 👉 Sign up here
#1 - Apple Keynote Predictions
Our newsletter goes out on Mondays, and our Podcast goes out on Thursdays. What is happening between those two dates?
The Apple Keynote.
More important than The Oscars in some households, mine included, we’re waiting with bated breath to see what move they’re going to play in the game of 3D chess that is AI.
They’ve avoided the word AI like the plague so far, in comparison to Google who literally won’t stop saying it. Apple need to get it on the action, however, or risk falling behind. Rumours suggest that they’ll be rebranding their generative AI updates as Apple Intelligence.
Visionary, to be honest – don’t invent something, then steal the name for yourself. Chef’s kiss, Apple all over.
They apparently don’t have an AI chatbot of their own that’s up to the mark, but sources say they may have reached a deal with OpenAI to integrate ChatGPT into iOS 18, although a Siri upgrade may also be on the cards, but probably not until 2025.
Their approach to Gen AI is tipped to be “practical” focusing on how they can help people in their everyday lives – i.e. suggested email and message replies (don’t we already have those?), text summaries, voice memo transcriptions and improved photo editing tools.
As far as iOS18, some of the rumoured highlights are custom emoji generation based on whatever you’re typing, changing app icon colours, an OpenAI backed auto-generated playlist feature on Apple Music that Spotify already use, updates to Apple Maps (which is rubbish compared to Google Maps) and a voice-recording tool in the Notes App.
By Thursday, we’ll know, and we’ll be comparing our notes to what actually happened in the Podcast.
#2 – Total Recall
Microsoft’s AI “recall” system is already getting a pretty bad rep for privacy.
The “Recall” feature, described by the CEO as a “photographic memory” for your PC, is a tool which takes a screenshot of your desktop every five seconds, using AI capabilities to then answer any question you ask it.
It has been described by the cybersecurity community however, as a hackers dream come true, the worst product idea in recent memory, and a “security dumpster fire”.
The only thing between a hacker and the history of a victims entire online life was the need to have administrator privileges on the users machine. Malware without the higher-level privilege would trigger a permission pop-up and the user could stop it.
However a researcher on Google’s Project Zero vulnerability research team published that he had found out not one, but two ways to access Recall data without those privileges.
One quite complicated, and another easy peasy. If you’re a hacker, that is. Basically confirming suspicious that this tech can just be used as already-installed spyware that any hacker can tap into to steal your entire life via your laptop.
Microsoft CEO Nadella claims that they’ve made privacy a priority at every step, but critics are now thinking it’s been rushed through. Sounds like a lot of AI products at the moment…
After getting a bad reputation during lockdown for giving us all “zoom fatigue” from too many virtual meetings, Zoom may have had an idea to combat meeting fatigue in general. AI, of course.
Chief exec Eric Yuan envisages a future (in “five or six years”) where instead of attending meetings with each other, we can all send a “digital version” to talk to each other. The avatars would each use a large language model trained on a user’s data – speech and behaviour patterns – to be able to answer and behave as they would in a work meeting.
He sees this as a way of freeing up more time for not working, maybe even working only “three days” and spending “more time with your family”.
Sound like sci-fi so far?
Yeah, AI experts think so too. One expert dismissed the idea as nonsense, stating that just because an LLM can almost pretend to be a person, doesn’t mean they can actually perform any useful “work” as that person on their behalf.
Because, again, as we keep saying, LLMs cannot actually think.
He stated that outsourcing any kind of decision making to an “opaque random number generator” is a recipe for disaster.
#4 - Instagram Ad Breaks
Instagram are currently testing un-skippable ads in users feed – like TV ad breaks but for Instagram, as social media morphs even more into our primary form of entertainment.
Until now, we’ve always been able to swipe or scroll past the ads that appear in Stories, Reels and the main feed, but they’re trying out forced ad breaks which show a timer count down before you can get back to business.
Meta have issued a statement saying they’re always looking for new ways to “deliver value” to ad revenue customers, i.e. make that ad money.
YouTube already add ads that you can’t skip, but YouTube is seen and marketed more as an entertainment option than a social network, which is what Instagram used to be, lest we forget.
However, forcing users to watch more ads might not actually help the companies advertising make more money, as a study carried out by TikTok suggested that forcing users to watch ads might actually lead to less engagement, as over 70% of participants said they were more likely to enage with an ad experience if there was an option to skip it.
The bottom line, remains, however, that being forced to see a brand name IS going to do something, even if the viewer isn’t “engaging” with it necessarily…
#5 - Stress Bragging
Bragging about your workload is bad for you and your colleagues, and not just because of how annoying it makes you.
Stress bragging is the act of deliberately boasting about how stressed you are about work, at work. Often used as a tactic, consciously or unconsciously, to make oneself appear more competent and more of an asset to the team. Basically, better than everyone else.
A new study officially shows that it can have a negative effect on how your coworkers see you, proving that they will see you as less likeable, less competent, and be less likely to help you out in times of need. Kind of a colleague-who-cried-overworked situation.
Not only that, but it can have a negative effect on those colleagues themselves.
The people around the stress bragger often report feeling more stressed themselves, as the person bragging normalizes stress and it can be contagious, leading to a spiraling stress situation.
There’s a difference between stress bragging as an ingrained workplace behaviour to highlight how much work you’re doing, and confiding in a co-worker about real struggles with stress.
One is not cool, the other is sometimes necessary.
Brave & Heart over and out.
Bonus
OpenAI vs. ScarJo Continued
Can AI Speak Dog?
Maybe, soon.
Scientists have enlisted AI to try and figure out what a dogs barking means.
And apparently, it works, kind of..
Well, it can figure out if they’re mad, hungry, sad, etc. But so can we?
To find out more on how you can retain your top talent, or how we can help you with digital solutions to your business and marketing challenges, check out our case studies.