The Junction

Days after we discussed Google's new AI Overview (SGE) feature, there's been news that it can provide false and misleading information. Some examples we've seen of these hallucinations are pretty wild, such as recommending how many rocks a person should eat per day or how to help cheese stick to pizza using non-toxic glue. 

Now that you've lost your appetite (and maybe a little bit of your confidence in AI), have no fear. It's important to remember artificial intelligence is still fairly new to us—which gives us even more of a reason to learn what to be cautious of and how to leverage it for good. 

In this episode, we dive into some interesting stories and give our takes on them, such as:

• Airbnb's use of predictive AI to reduce disruptive parties during peak holidays
• Elon Musk's $6 billion funding round for his AI company X.ai and his claim of achieving AGI by 2025
• A predictive report stating that 50% of jobs could be replaced by AI by 2027

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🌐 Resources: 

• Article: Airbnb using AI to predict, block Memorial Day, July 4th parties in NJ
• Article: Google scrambles to manually remove weird AI answers in search
• Article: Top VC Kai-Fu Lee says his prediction that AI will displace 50% of jobs by 2027 is ‘uncannily accurate’
• Announcement: Elon Musk's xAI $6 billion funding round
• X: Google's AI Overview Oopsie #1
• X: Google's AI Overview Oopsie #2

📱Connect with us on LinkedIn:

Mel: https://www.linkedin.com/in/melissabell-b2bmarketer/

Chase: https://www.linkedin.com/in/chasefriedman/

📧 We want to hear your thoughts on the latest AI products coming to market. Reach out at [email protected]. As always, keep it automated!

The way you reach your perspective buyers is changing because of AI. People are searching for what they need differently, and search engines like Google have already shaken up the SEO game with its new Search Generative Experience (SGE) concept.

A recent study from Search Engine Land found that a number one ranked SERP could see a 20% drop in traffic (best case scenario) all the way up to a 64% drop (worst case scenario) due to Google's new AI search feature (SGE).

This episode features Mel and special guest, Jacob Schmeichel, Product Marketing Manager at Venn. Jacob is an SEO enthusiast who's been following the latest trends in AI search, and he believes every marketer and business leader should be paying close attention.

We dive into a ton of groundbreaking topics, including:

• Implications of AI on organic search traffic, content creation, and marketing strategies
• Ethical considerations around using AI in marketing and content production
• Shifting marketing strategies towards conversational, original content
• Concerns around AI security and OpenAI's recent disband of its safety team

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🌐 Resources: 

• Search Engine Land: How Google SGE will impact your traffic
• Harvard Business Review: Marketing Is Dead (2012)
• Futurism: CNET's Article-Writing AI Is Already Publishing Very Dumb Errors
• Big Think: Why great AI produces lazy humans

📱Connect with us on LinkedIn:

Mel: https://www.linkedin.com/in/melissabell-b2bmarketer/

Jacob: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jacob-schmeichel-ab01b2186/

📧 We want to hear your thoughts on the latest AI products coming to market. Reach out at [email protected]. As always, keep it automated!

OpenAI made some pretty big waves this week after announcing the launch of its app with the latest ChatGPT updates—now offering interactive voice/text/video features.

In this episode of The Junction, Mel and Chase break down how OpenAI's product release will democratize access to powerful AI tools while gathering valuable training data. It's clear that OpenAI has proven their position against rivals like Google.

We want to hear your thoughts on the latest AI products coming to market. Reach out at [email protected]. As always, keep it automated!

***

Connect with us on LinkedIn:
Mel: https://www.linkedin.com/in/melissabell-b2bmarketer/
Chase: https://www.linkedin.com/in/chasefriedman/

We're geeking out on this episode after an exciting week at Stripe Sessions 2024 🤩

Mel and Chase share a recap of their experience during Stripe's annual conference last week. There was a lot of discussion around payment innovations, fraud protection, AI for customer personalization, and cryptocurrency 💳💰

A big highlight of the week was getting to hear from guest speaker Jensen Huang, CEO of NVIDIA. He shared his vision for AGI (artificial general intelligence) and the possibilities of using a number of AI agents.

We dive into a lot more this episode, including:

• Rumors of ChatGPT-2's comeback
• OpenAI's quiet releases - upping the # of files to upload to AI assistants and the new JSON format for structured data outputs
• AI & automation strategies in the payments and eCommerce space

***

Connect with us on LinkedIn:
Mel: https://www.linkedin.com/in/melissabell-b2bmarketer/
Chase: https://www.linkedin.com/in/chasefriedman/

Have questions or comments? Reach out to us at [email protected] and as always, keep it automated!

This episode of “The Junction” hits a little closer to home than any of us white collar paper pushers would care to ponder.  Going back and forth between optimism and skepticism, Mel and Chase reflect on AI’s growing capabilities, the fear mongering in the tech journalism space and real life cases where AI is encroaching on jobs. 

What’s covered in this episode:

• A discussion on the complexities and nuances of taxes, both personal and corporate.
• An insightful conversation about the advances in AI and its distinctions from AGI (Artificial General Intelligence).
• Examination of the impact of automation on business efficiencies and the potential threats to jobs.
• Analysis of funds flow and the financial mechanics in different sectors like Uber, Stripe.
• Deliberation on the future of AI and automation and their implications on broader economics and individual careers.
• Overview of the experiences with automated systems and debates on their effectiveness and capabilities.

Resources:

• Realizing the potential: Transforming tax and finance operating models
• 3 Ways AI can elevate your tax workflows
• BEPS 2.0: Future of international tax and what it means for business

Connect with us on LinkedIn:

• Mel: https://www.linkedin.com/in/melissabell-b2bmarketer/
• Chase: https://www.linkedin.com/in/chasefriedman/

Have questions or comments? Reach out to us at [email protected] and as always, keep it automated!

Unfortunately, as AI becomes more accessible, it provides a new avenue for scammers to target people in ways we've never seen before.

In this episode of The Junction, Mel and Chase dive into the vulnerabilities associated with voice and image cloning, and how hackers can exploit these techniques.

You've likely heard of these scams before. A random phone number calls someone you know and when they answer, they hear the sound of YOUR voice. But it's not you—it's a someone who's stolen your voice using AI.

There's a potential for these scamming techniques to increase, so today's episode highlights a few tools and resources that can help individuals and businesses safeguard their data and assets.

Resources:

• How to use AI while protecting your privacy: https://www.wired.com/story/how-to-use-ai-tools-protect-privacy/
• How to keep AI from stealing your voice: https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/how-to-keep-ai-from-stealing-the-sound-of-your-voice/#:~:text=AntiFake%2C%20on%20the%20other%20hand,voices%20from%20piracy%20and%20counterfeiting
• Tools hackers are using: https://www.cisoplatform.com/profiles/blogs/dark-ai-top-7-ai-tools-assisting-hackers

Applications discussed:

• AntiFake: https://sites.google.com/view/yu2023antifake
• Glaze: https://glaze.cs.uchicago.edu/
• Snyk: https://snyk.io/

Connect with us on LinkedIn:

• Mel: https://www.linkedin.com/in/melissabell-b2bmarketer/
• Chase: https://www.linkedin.com/in/chasefriedman/

Have a question or topic on AI or automation that you want to learn more about? We’re all ears—literally 🎧

Shoot us an email and let us know what we should talk about next: [email protected]

Are AI tools making us lazy and complacent?

In this episode, Mel and Chase touch on the risks of over-reliance on AI assistance. Does our dependence on the technology outweigh the need for subject matter experts? This is a topic that comes up, especially when discussing the potential for job displacement.

Additionally, this episode explores:
• An update on Venn Technology's internal AI projects
• Benefits & concerns of using AI to self-solve issues
• Risks of AI voice replication being used for scams
• Potential for an uptick of AI-developed misinformation to occur around holidays & events (April Fool's Day and the upcoming solar eclipse)

Have a question or topic on AI or automation that you want to learn more about? We’re all ears—literally 🎧

Shoot us an email and let us know what we should talk about next: [email protected]

And we're back! We've got a lot of catching up to do—especially in this fast-paced world of AI & automation.

In this episode, Mel and Chase tackle the latest news & trends:

• Sam Altman’s return to OpenAI & his take on AI handling “95% of marketing work” 
• Personal & work use of Claude 3 and other AI chat models
• Implications of OpenAI's new video generation tool, Sora
• AI’s impact on jobs and access to knowledge

Have a question or topic you'd like to hear on the show? We’re all ears—literally 🎧

Shoot us an email and let us know what we should talk about next: [email protected]

Did you miss us? The Junction is back with a bonus episode for now, but stay tuned for Season 2 of the show in the coming weeks!

In this episode, Mel is joined by Venn Technology Founder & CEO, Scott Hollrah. Venn is an IT consulting firm that specializes in building integrations between systems, like cloud accounting platform Sage Intacct. 

A few weeks ago, the Venn Team sponsored Sage's annual Transform conference, where it was announced that an in-platform AI assistant called "Sage Copilot" is in development. Scott gives his take on what Sage customers can expect and the characteristics that make Sage Copilot so different from other AI chatbots.

Plus, we dive into the latest news happening in the world of AI, including:

• American Airlines' plan to implement an AI structure for its customer service
• TurboTax and H&R Block's new AI features and the potential for automation to streamline tax preparation
• Subscription fatigue—how AI-add ons and tool subscriptions could become overwhelming

Mel and Chase will be back very soon with a new season of The Junction. Until then, keep it automated 🚀

It’s hard to believe we’ve already wrapped up our first season of The Junction podcast with Mel & Chase! 2️⃣0️⃣ episodes & counting 🥳

In our final episode of the year, we look back at the major highlights from 2023 in the world of artificial intelligence & automation.

Additionally, we look ahead with our predictions for 2024, including topics like...

• AI companions and personal assistants
• Use of AI to diagnose & treat mental illnesses
• Advancements in healthcare technology & insights
• Generative AI for video editing, gaming, and more

Although it’s sometimes frightening, artificial intelligence is here to stay—which is even more reason to keep yourself up-to-speed. We hope you’ve enjoyed the show so far and continue to experiment with AI in and outside of the workplace. See you in the new year!

P.S. Are you or someone you know passionate about AI? We’re lining up guests for next season, and we want to hear from you! Send us a message via email at [email protected] to get a conversation started.