Another Crazy Day in AI 27/104

Another Crazy Day in AI: Is It Just Pattern Matching or Real Intelligence?

Jun 19
4 min read

Hello, AI Enthusiasts.

Weekend’s almost here, but the future keeps talking.

A new podcast unpacks the rise of AI-generated media and what it means for professionals who still care about ethics, accuracy, and showing up responsibly online.

At the same time, tech giants are lobbying for a decade-long break from state-level AI rules. Progress or power play? Depends who you ask.

On another note, Midjourney just entered the AI video arena! Think surreal art in motion, with copyright drama not far behind.

Close your tabs, not your curiosity.

Here's another crazy day in AI:

Breaking the uncanny valley
Big tech wants AI policy locked for a decade
Midjourney enters the AI video race
Some AI tools to try out

TODAY'S FEATURED ITEM: The Reality of Lifelike AI

A robotic scientist in a classic white coat with 'AI Scientist' on its back stands beside a human scientist with 'Human Scientist' on their coat, looking towards the AI Scientist.

Image Credit: Wowza (created with Ideogram)

If an avatar can gesture like you, speak your language with nuance, and teach better than your favorite instructor—are we still the ones doing the learning, or just curating the experience?

In Episode 87 of Sidecar Sync, hosts Amith Nagarajan and Mallory Mejias walk through recent advances in AI-generated audio and video, and what these developments might mean for organizations trying to keep up with rapid changes in how we communicate, teach, and represent ourselves online.

They cover tools like ElevenLabs V3 and HeyGen Avatar 4—both of which are already being used to build educational content inside Sidecar’s own AI Learning Hub. Alongside these demos, the episode spends time unpacking Apple’s recent research paper, The Illusion of Thinking, which argues that current AI models don’t really reason but rather follow well-trained statistical patterns. The conversation moves back and forth between tech capabilities and practical considerations: what’s working well, what still needs scrutiny, and how associations and content creators are responding.

What the episode touches on:

ElevenLabs V3 introduces more expressive AI voice synthesis, including support for emotional tone, multilingual narration, and character dialogue.
HeyGen Avatar 4 enables realistic talking avatars with facial expressions and hand gestures, generated from a single still image.
These tools are now being used to produce scalable learning content through Sidecar’s AI Learning Hub, where each AI “instructor” is clearly labeled and designed with a distinct persona.
Member Junction, an open-source platform from Blue Cypress, allows non-technical users to build and deploy AI agents securely using their organization’s internal data.
Apple’s paper calls attention to the limitations of large language models, suggesting they rely on pattern recognition rather than true understanding—raising questions about what qualifies as “intelligence” in practice.
The hosts respond by distinguishing technical limits from practical usefulness, especially in cases where automation supports speed, consistency, or access.
Ethical concerns around likeness, attribution, and transparency are acknowledged throughout, with emphasis on clear communication and appropriate context.

The hosts navigate between excitement about these capabilities and healthy skepticism about their implications. Their conversation reveals organizations grappling with tools that can produce remarkably human-like results while operating through processes we're still working to understand. The technology offers clear benefits for creating engaging, personalized content, but it also raises questions about transparency, authenticity, and what learners actually need from their educational experiences.

This tension between capability and understanding runs throughout their discussion. We now have AI that can replicate the subtle aspects of human communication—the pauses, inflections, and gestures that make instruction engaging—yet research suggests these systems may not think the way we do at all. For organizations considering these tools, this creates a complex landscape where the most compelling applications might also be the most challenging to implement responsibly. The question isn't just whether AI can enhance learning or communication, but whether we can maintain the trust and genuine connection that make these activities meaningful in the first place. As these technologies become more sophisticated and accessible, the choices organizations make about their use will likely determine whether AI becomes a tool that amplifies human potential or one that gradually replaces the human elements we value most in education and professional interaction.

Watch the video on YouTube here.

Listen on Apple Podcasts here.

Listen on Spotify here.

OTHER INTERESTING AI HIGHLIGHTS:

Big Tech Wants AI Policy Locked for a Decade

/PYMNTS

America’s biggest tech companies, including Amazon and Google, are lobbying for a 10-year ban on state-level AI regulation—an effort that has sparked political division and raised industry-wide concerns. The proposal is part of a broader federal budget bill and could significantly impact how AI is governed in the U.S. Proponents argue the moratorium would support national competitiveness, while critics see it as a power grab by Big Tech. The debate has divided even Republicans and sparked resistance from advocacy groups and lawmakers.

Read more here.

Midjourney Enters the AI Video Race

/Maxwell Zeff, Senior AI Reporter, on TechCrunch

Midjourney has officially launched its first AI video generation model, V1, allowing users to create short videos from still images. Available only via Discord at launch, V1 enters a competitive space that includes OpenAI’s Sora and Google’s Veo. Unlike others focused on commercial utility, Midjourney emphasizes creativity and artistic expression—though the company is already facing legal heat from Disney and Universal over copyright concerns. With plans to evolve into real-time simulation tools, Midjourney’s ambitions go far beyond basic video clips.

Read more here.

SOME AI TOOLS TO TRY OUT:

Proactor – Real-time AI agent that listens, identifies needs, and acts before you ask.
HoverNotes – Turn videos into personalized, easy-to-review learning notes.
Tila AI – Visual workspace with specialized agents for different media types.

That’s a wrap on today’s Almost Daily craziness.

Catch us almost every day—almost! 😉

EXCITING NEWS:

The Another Crazy Day in AI newsletter is on LinkedIn!!!

Leveraging AI for Enhanced Content: As part of our commitment to exploring new technologies, we used AI to help curate and refine our newsletters. This enriches our content and keeps us at the forefront of digital innovation, ensuring you stay informed with the latest trends and developments.

Another Crazy Day in AI: Why Your Next Best Hire Might Look Unconventional

Jun 18
4 min read

Hello, AI Enthusiasts.

The week’s at full tilt—how’s your battery?

In HR Magazine, the co-founder of The Gen AI Academy has a question for every hiring manager: if AI’s handling the grunt work, why are we still hiring like it’s 2012?

Meanwhile, Klarna, a pioneer of the popular BNPL payment method is aiming for “super app” status, with AI-powered phone plans and crypto tools in the mix.

And over at Google, they want you talking to Search like it’s your smartest friend!

Here's another crazy day in AI:

Why your 5+ years job ads are obsolete
Klarna wants to be more than just payments
Google brings real time voice to AI search
Some AI tools to try out

TODAY'S FEATURED ITEM: When Wandering Careers Make Strategic Sense

Image Credit: Wowza (created with Ideogram)

Are you overlooking the most valuable people just because their resumes don’t look like a straight line?

Dave Birss, the co-founder of The Gen AI Academy, writes "When AI does the work, hire people who can think" for HR Magazine about the mismatch between how companies hire and the kind of thinking they’ll increasingly need. He reflects on his own unconventional path across music, broadcasting, education, advertising, and authorship—not as a detour, but as a foundation for creative problem-solving. As AI takes on more of the predictable tasks, Birss argues, organizations should start paying more attention to people with broad curiosity, flexible thinking, and a comfort with the unknown.

What this reveals about modern hiring:

Professional skills expire faster than most people realize – the half-life has dropped to around 2.5 years in many fields, making learning ability more valuable than existing knowledge
Research on personality traits contradicts common hiring practices – studies show that openness to experience and emotional stability predict success better than specific credentials or tenure
Popular frameworks like T-shaped professionals have blind spots – they assume people need to already know multiple areas rather than being able to develop understanding when circumstances require it
Workplace disruption affects nearly everyone – by 2027, roughly 44% of workers will see their current skills become less relevant, requiring adaptation rather than replacement
Some human capabilities remain consistently important – communication, judgment, empathy, and persuasion continue to be areas where people outperform automated systems
Adaptive expertise matters more than traditional expertise – the capacity to learn new approaches, abandon outdated methods, and apply knowledge in unfamiliar contexts becomes essential
Hiring algorithms may work against organizational needs – systems designed to find linear career progression often eliminate candidates whose diverse experience could be exactly what teams need

Birss raises questions that many hiring managers probably wrestle with but don't always articulate clearly. The tension between wanting someone who can "hit the ground running" and needing someone who can navigate uncertainty reflects a deeper challenge about how we evaluate professional potential. His own career path—which he describes as looking like "three freelancers in a trench coat"—illustrates how diverse experiences can create unexpected advantages when facing complex problems.

The practical implications go beyond individual hiring decisions to how organizations build resilience in an unpredictable environment. Companies that stick too rigidly to traditional qualifications might miss people whose varied backgrounds have taught them to think creatively, adapt quickly, and connect ideas across different fields. At the same time, organizations still need to get work done effectively today, which creates a natural tension between hiring for current needs and preparing for future challenges. The most thoughtful approach probably involves recognizing that these seemingly contradictory requirements aren't mutually exclusive—people with broad experience often bring both immediate problem-solving skills and long-term adaptability to their roles.

Read the article here.

OTHER INTERESTING AI HIGHLIGHTS:

Klarna Wants to Be More Than Just Payments

/Ryan Browne, Tech Correspondent, on CNBC

Klarna CEO Sebastian Siemiatkowski envisions transforming the fintech into a personalized “super app,” offering not just financial services but phone plans, crypto tools, and more—with AI as the engine driving user-specific experiences. The Swedish company is rolling out mobile phone plans in the U.S. as part of this shift. Siemiatkowski believes AI finally makes this vision viable, enabling Klarna to act like a true digital financial assistant that can adjust to user needs in real time. It’s a bold attempt to redefine Klarna's image beyond its roots in "buy now, pay later."

Read more here.

Google Brings Real Time Voice to AI Search

/Liza Ma, Director, Product Management, Search, on Google Blogs – The Keyword

Google’s newest experiment, Search Live in AI Mode, enables users to hold real-time voice conversations with Search—offering spoken answers, follow-up prompts, and clickable links without breaking the flow. Designed for multitasking and powered by a custom Gemini model, this update blends voice interaction with the breadth of the web. It’s part of Google’s larger push to make AI more natural, accessible, and embedded into everyday digital habits. More capabilities, including visual search with your camera, are on the way.

Read more here.

SOME AI TOOLS TO TRY OUT:

Pi – Use AI to create presentations and documents effortlessly.
UntitledPen – Generate ultra-human voiceovers for your content.
Nanobrowser – A free Chrome extension agent that completes tasks in the background.

That’s a wrap on today’s Almost Daily craziness.

Catch us almost every day—almost! 😉

EXCITING NEWS:

The Another Crazy Day in AI newsletter is on LinkedIn!!!

Another Crazy Day in AI: Beyond the Myth of Time Saving Tools

Jun 17
5 min read

Hello, AI Enthusiasts.

Quick check-in: still human? Great. Because a new conversation just reminded us why we still matter.

Turns out, automating everything doesn’t always equal freedom. One author says AI might be making us better… at doing more of what we didn’t want to do in the first place.

Amazon seems to agree—they're streamlining roles, betting big on agents. Also, a recent brain scan study says AI might be helping students write—but hurting how they actually think.

Maybe the real AI skill is knowing when to hit 'generate' and when to think it through yourself—using it when it genuinely helps, not just when it's convenient. What's your take?

Here's another crazy day in AI:

The reality behind productivity promises
Amazon’s AI bet could mean fewer desks to fill
Using ChatGPT might be hurting your brain, says MIT
Some AI tools to try out

TODAY'S FEATURED ITEM: Human Finitude in an Age of Infinite Tools

Image Credit: Wowza (created with Ideogram)

What if our obsession with productivity is actually making life less meaningful?

In a featured conversation from The Behavioral Design Podcast, behavioral scientists Aline Holzwarth and Samuel Salzer sit down with journalist and author Oliver Burkeman to discuss time, technology, and the idea that productivity—especially in the age of AI—may not be giving us what we think it is. Published on Behavioral Scientist, the episode invites reflection on how we use our time and what we lose when we focus too much on doing more.

Burkeman, known for Four Thousand Weeks and his latest Meditations for Mortals, doesn’t call for rejecting technology. Instead, he offers a more nuanced perspective: that many of the promises we hear about AI and efficiency tools—getting more done, making time for what matters—often end up pulling us deeper into tasks we didn’t actually choose. The conversation covers everything from AI-generated writing and medical documentation to the quiet consequences of always trying to stay on top of things.

Some ideas explored in the conversation:

Efficiency gains rarely create free time: When we get faster at tasks, we typically end up doing more of them rather than having extra hours—like doctors using AI scribes to see more patients instead of reducing their workload
Automation can strip away the enjoyable parts of work: Writers find themselves editing AI-generated content instead of writing, while programmers debug code rather than creating it, leaving them with the least satisfying aspects of their jobs
Human creativity has irreplaceable value: A novel matters because a conscious person wrote it, not because it meets certain technical standards that AI might eventually match
Better filters don't solve information overload: When AI perfectly curates content, we get overwhelmed by endless streams of highly relevant material instead of manageable amounts of mixed information
Living now matters as much as planning ahead: Treating the present as preparation for future "real life" means we miss what's actually happening around us
Predictions about AI often reflect our anxiety: Extremely positive or negative forecasts about technology's impact usually say more about our discomfort with uncertainty than about what will actually happen

Consider how this plays out in healthcare. AI documentation tools were designed to help burnt-out physicians by automating their paperwork. The hope was that doctors would go home earlier or spend more quality time with patients. Instead, many healthcare systems simply scheduled more appointments, absorbing the time savings into increased patient loads. This pattern repeats across industries—communication tools that promise efficiency often just increase the volume of messages we handle, and project management software enables us to juggle more projects simultaneously.

Burkeman's observations touch on something deeper about how we approach both work and leisure. When someone chooses to wash dishes by hand rather than use a dishwasher because they've learned to find meditation in the routine, or when a school administrator voluntarily returns to teaching because that's the work they actually care about, they're making decisions based on what the activity itself offers rather than how efficiently it can be completed. The conversation doesn't suggest we should avoid useful tools, but it does highlight the importance of being clear about what we're trying to achieve. Sometimes the supposedly inefficient approach—reading a full book, having a long conversation, writing something by hand—contains experiences that matter more than the time saved by alternatives. Recognizing this can help us make more intentional choices about which tools genuinely serve our goals and which ones simply accelerate activities we might be better off doing less of.

Read the article here.

Listen on Spotify here. Listen on Apple Podcasts here.

OTHER INTERESTING AI HIGHLIGHTS:

Amazon’s AI Bet Could Mean Fewer Desks to Fill

/Reuters

Amazon CEO Andy Jassy told employees that generative AI and autonomous agents will reduce the need for certain corporate roles in the coming years. While he emphasized that AI will shift work rather than eliminate it wholesale, he pointed to areas like software development where productivity gains are already slowing hiring. AI is being used across Amazon to enhance fulfillment, customer service, and product pages. Analysts say this messaging echoes a broader trend among major tech firms: automating routine work while hiring more selectively.

Read more here.

Using ChatGPT Might Be Hurting Your Brain, Says MIT

/Andrew Chow, Technology Correspondent, on TIME

A new study from MIT Media Lab suggests that writing with ChatGPT may hinder critical thinking, memory, and originality—especially in younger users. Brainwave scans showed lower engagement in participants who relied on ChatGPT versus those who used their own reasoning or even Google Search. Lead researcher Nataliya Kosmyna warns that early and uncritical use of AI tools in education could stunt mental development. While the study hasn’t been peer-reviewed yet, it raises urgent questions about how and when generative AI should be used in learning environments.

Read more here.

SOME AI TOOLS TO TRY OUT:

Speechly – Speak your idea, and AI writes a polished email in seconds.
Clay – Finds emails and company info, then runs outbound campaigns automatically.
SmolVLM2 – A small open-source AI that understands images, video, and text—runs on your device.

That’s a wrap on today’s Almost Daily craziness.

Catch us almost every day—almost! 😉

EXCITING NEWS:

The Another Crazy Day in AI newsletter is on LinkedIn!!!