Big Four accounting firm KPMG has committed $30 million to the metaverse in order to establish an "innovation hub" and train employees so they will be prepared to work with clients as the metaverse becomes a more common interface. Like many organizations, KPMG is citing breathtaking figures as it predicts the metaverse's eventual value. Neville and Shel discuss KPMG's move, various metaverse valuations, and other metaverse-related news and information in this FIR short.Continue Reading →
The post FIR #266: How Many Trillions Will The Metaverse Be Worth? appeared first on FIR Podcast Network.

FIR #266: How Many Trillions Will The Metaverse Be Worth?

Neville Hobson and Shel Holtz analyze the month’s news in digital and social media for communications professionals.

Tech News

Technology

Business

Investing

Careers

Management & Marketing

Business News

Shopping

News

Marketing

PRovoke Media broke a story about at least 11 fake profiles of people who listed a PR recruitment firm as their employers. LinkedIn removed them as fakes—an action with which the business-centric social network is all too familiar. So far, no other media outlets seem interested in the story. Still, Neville and Shel wonder about the motivation behind the profiles — under other circumstances, fake profiles can easily be used for illicit purposes — and the amount of effort organizations will need to take to ensure profiles listing them as employers are legitimate.
Links from this episode:

LinkedIn Removes Fake Employee Profiles Tied To PR Recruitment Firm


The next monthly, long-form episode of FIR will drop on Monday, June 17.
We host a Communicators Zoom Chat most Thursdays at 1 p.m. ET. For credentials needed to participate, contact Shel or Neville directly, request the credentials in our Facebook group, or email fircomments@gmail.com.
Special thanks to Jay Moonah for the opening and closing music.
You can find the stories from which Shel’s FIR content is selected at Shel’s Link Blog. Shel has started a metaverse-focused Flipboard magazine. You can catch up with both co-hosts on Neville’s blog and Shel’s blog.
Disclaimer: The opinions expressed in this podcast are Shel’s and Neville’s and do not reflect the views of their employers and/or clients.
The post FIR #410: Who’s Behind All Those Fake LinkedIn Profiles? appeared first on FIR Podcast Network.

FIR #410: Who’s Behind All Those Fake LinkedIn Profiles?

Despite the excitement over the possibilities generative AI provides, it was easy to predict that doubters would insist it’s just a fad — the same naysaying we heard about email, the web, social media, podcasting, live streaming, and a host of other digital technologies. In this case, the reports conflict with other research showing rapid adoption, even if we’re not anywhere close to widespread consumer use of gen AI tools, which nobody expects after only 18 months since ChatGPT 3.5 was unveiled. In this short midweek episode,  Neville and Shel compare the reports and look at the potential for communicators to fall behind with yet another important technology.
Links from this episode:

Is AI all a fad? A new report suggests very few people are using tools like ChatGPT and the hype is being misconstrued for actual public interest
What does the public in six countries think of generative AI in news?
New AI tools much hyped but not much used, study says
Forward Thinking on the brave new world of generative AI with Ethan Mollick
A.I. Promised to Upend the 2024 Campaign. It Hasn’t Yet.
How Tech Journalists Are Fueling the AI Hype Machine
TikTok: AI fakes, abuse and misinformation pushed to young voters
Workers are secretly using AI on important tasks over fears it makes them look replaceable, new Microsoft and LinkedIn research finds


The next monthly, long-form episode of FIR will drop on Monday, June 17.
We host a Communicators Zoom Chat most Thursdays at 1 p.m. ET. For credentials needed to participate, contact Shel or Neville directly, request the credentials in our Facebook group, or email fircomments@gmail.com.
Special thanks to Jay Moonah for the opening and closing music.
You can find the stories from which Shel’s FIR content is selected at Shel’s Link Blog. Shel has started a metaverse-focused Flipboard magazine. You can catch up with both co-hosts on Neville’s blog and Shel’s blog.
Disclaimer: The opinions expressed in this podcast are Shel’s and Neville’s and do not reflect the views of their employers and/or clients.
The post FIR #409: Just Another Fad appeared first on FIR Podcast Network.

FIR #409: Just Another Fad

PwC has released a detailed report analyzing over half a billion job ads from 15 countries representing over 30 percent of global GDP. The goal: unearth empirical evidence of AI’s impact on jobs. The results are remarkable, if unsurprising. For example, the analysis found 4.8 times higher growth in labor productivity in AI-exposed sectors and 25 percent higher skills change in AI-exposed occupations. Jobs that require specialist AI skills are growing 3.5 times faster than all jobs. Neville and Shel report on highlights and discuss the multi-dimensional impact on communicators in this short midweek episode.
Links from this episode:

AI Jobs Barometer
Ethan Mollick’s LinkedIn post on Google’s research on AI and worker productivity


The next monthly, long-form episode of FIR will drop on Monday, June 17.
We host a Communicators Zoom Chat most Thursdays at 1 p.m. ET. For credentials needed to participate, contact Shel or Neville directly, request the credentials in our Facebook group, or email fircomments@gmail.com.
Special thanks to Jay Moonah for the opening and closing music.
You can find the stories from which Shel’s FIR content is selected at Shel’s Link Blog. Shel has started a metaverse-focused Flipboard magazine. You can catch up with both co-hosts on Neville’s blog and Shel’s blog.
Disclaimer: The opinions expressed in this podcast are Shel’s and Neville’s and do not reflect the views of their employers and/or clients.
The post FIR #108: AI’s Impact on Jobs, Quantified appeared first on FIR Podcast Network.

FIR #108: AI’s Impact on Jobs, Quantified

White-collar employees everywhere are embracing AI, even if they’re using their own accounts and not telling their colleagues or bosses. This widespread adoption of AI among workers is already creating challenges for managers, who traditionally evaluate their team members based on outputs that may now be coming in whole or in part from an AI. In this short midweek episode, Neville and Shel explore what this means for managers and the internal communicators who recognize them as a discrete audience.
Links from this episode:

AI is already changing management — companies must decide how
How AI is supercharging work right now
Thirst for AI knowledge drives growth in executive courses


The next monthly, long-form episode of FIR will drop on Monday, June 17.
We host a Communicators Zoom Chat most Thursdays at 1 p.m. ET. For credentials needed to participate, contact Shel or Neville directly, request the credentials in our Facebook group, or email fircomments@gmail.com.
Special thanks to Jay Moonah for the opening and closing music.
You can find the stories from which Shel’s FIR content is selected at Shel’s Link Blog. Shel has started a metaverse-focused Flipboard magazine. You can catch up with both co-hosts on Neville’s blog and Shel’s blog.
Disclaimer: The opinions expressed in this podcast are Shel’s and Neville’s and do not reflect the views of their employers and/or clients.
The post FIR #407: AI Is Changing How Managers Manage appeared first on FIR Podcast Network.

FIR #407: AI Is Changing How Managers Manage

Among a flood of AI announcements in the last week — including remarkable advances in ChatGPT — Google’s move to produce narrative results called “overviews” instead of web links caused the most consternation. Neville and Shel break down all the news and focus in on Google’s overviews in this long-form episode for May. Also in this episode, a Baidu executive wound up in hot water after remarks that offended employees and customers; Australian media manipulated a photo of a member of parliament, launching conversations about ethical use of AI when it comes to photos; Apple misfired on both an advertisement and its apology, but Bumble’s apology is a prime example of how to apologize for a miscalculation; and a lot of venture capital money is going to companies offering apps that provide people with AI companions. In his Tech Report, Dan York, looks at evolutions among social media alternatives, a renewed interest in online communities, and Google’s new AI-generated answers.
Links from this episode:

Introducing GPT-4o (YouTube video)
Hello GPT-4o (OpenAI announcement)
Introducing GPT-4o and more tools to ChatGPT free users
OpenAI debuts GPT-4o ‘omni’ model now powering ChatGPT
OpenAI’s latest chatbot jokes and pretends to blush
OpenAI debuts GPT-4o ‘omni’ model now powering ChatGPT
ChatGPT’s new voice welcomes interruptions
With OpenAI’s Release of GPT-4o, Is ChatGPT Plus Still Worth It?
Claude is now available in Europe
Amazon-backed Anthropic launches its Claude AI chatbot across Europe
Google IO
Google’s broken link to the web
Everything Goole Announced at IO 2024
Google rolls out AI Overviews in US with more countries coming soon
Google Takes the Next Step in Its A.I. Evolution
Google rolls out AI-generated, summarized search results in US
It’s the End of Google Search As We Know It
Google unleashes AI in search, raising hopes for better results and fears about less web traffic
Google is redesigning its search engine — and it’s AI all the way down
Google’s New Search Engine Is Bad News for the Web Economy
Google is “reimagining” search in “the Gemini era” with AI Overviews
OpenAI’s Long-Term AI Risk Team Has Disbanded
Baidu executive tells staff: ‘I’m not your mum’
Chinese PR boss says sorry after glorifying work-till-you-drop culture
PR executive reportedly departs China’s Baidu after comments glorifying overwork draw backlash
PR executive at Chinese tech firm Baidu apologizes for comments seen as glorifying overwork
Meet the woman taking on AI, its ‘fake’ models and alarming beauty standards
Monique Zytnik’s LinkedIn post on AI manipulation of images
Apple’s ‘crush’ advert annoys people across the generations – that’s why it misfired
A rare misstep by Apple – “we missed the mark”
Why Apple’s ‘Crush’ ad is so misguided
Apple apologizes for iPad “Crush” ad that “missed the mark”
Apple’s Crush ad (YouTube)
Bumble apologizes for its anti-celibacy ad fiasco
Artificial Intelligence ‘Friends’

Links from Dan York’s Tech Report

Threads tests Tweetdeck-like interface
Bluesky to add DMs, video support, and in-app custom feed curation
Bluesky product roadmap
Trunk Tidbits from the Mastodon Blog
X Pushes More Users to Communities
Reddit Reintroduces Its Awards System
Maven Is a New Social Network That Eliminates Followers—and Hopefully Stress
Google’s broken link to the web
Google’s new “Web” search gives text-only results


The next monthly, long-form episode of FIR will drop on Monday, June 17.
We host a Communicators Zoom Chat most Thursdays at 1 p.m. ET. For credentials needed to participate, contact Shel or Neville directly, request the credentials in our Facebook group, or email fircomments@gmail.com.
Special thanks to Jay Moonah for the opening and closing music.
You can find the stories from which Shel’s FIR content is selected at Shel’s Link Blog. Shel has started a metaverse-focused Flipboard magazine. You can catch up with both co-hosts on Neville’s blog and Shel’s blog.
Disclaimer: The opinions expressed in this podcast are Shel’s and Neville’s and do not reflect the views of their employers and/or clients.
The post FIR #406: Alas, SEO, We Knew You Well appeared first on FIR Podcast Network.

FIR #266: How Many Trillions Will The Metaverse Be Worth?

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