Essays

How is it that nobody at Microsoft has seen a movie in which AI super brains turn out to be a bad idea? Read the essay at A Cross of Silicon

Is monetizing the data, er, scraped from the rear ends of little pre-consumers really a must-have tech innovation? Read the essay at A Cross of Silicon

I want to believe that all of us will be itinerant, wandering poets in a future where all the work gets done by obedient robots…but there’s every reason to believe it’ll be [...]

Humans are imperfect and emotionally unstable. So should we trust one another because of those shortcomings vs. the presumed perfection of technology? Read the essay at A Cross of Silicon

After reading the fact sheet on a client’s new product for the third time earlier this morning, I threw my hands in the air. I had no idea what they were talking about. The document was full of [...]

A recent study of UK consumers found that “only 11% state that they enjoy advertising.” I’m surprised the number was so high. Advertising was never supposed to be entertaining; it was conceived [...]

BofA reports its use of algorithms that study language in earnings calls to inform buy and sell decisions yielded a 6+% improvement in performance. According to the Financial Times, “…unclear [...]

The average industrial brand presence on social media is a highly crafted and tightly managed thing. There’s compelling theology that dictates what should and shouldn’t be shared, as well as how [...]

I just got back from Hannover Messe, and I’m evermore convinced that it’s the best trade show in the world. It’s not the sexiest — entire rooms were dedicated to valves and switches — and the [...]

The declared mission of Stanford’s Institute for Human-Centered Artificial Intelligence is “to advance AI research, education, policy, and practice to improve the human condition.” It makes me [...]