Issue #12 - ChatGPT Sucks at Making Signs

May 12, 2023
Free Edition
In This Issue

  • Ford’s CEO doesn’t think he can upskill his entire workforce quick enough: I don’t think they are going to make it. Ford employees, if you are reading this: surpriseeeeee!!!
  • DeepMind’s co-founder thinks there will be a serious number of losers among white-collar workers because of AI. Like when you don’t scratch the right lottery ticket, but with a lot more effort and a huge debt.
  • The American science fiction writer Ted Chiang provokes: AI researchers are increasing the concentration of wealth to such extreme levels that the only way to avoid societal collapse is for the government to step in.
  • New research uses AI to rephrase human written communication in a more empathetic way and improve interactions. No more fights for logo placement on the Nascar slide inside big corporations?
  • Stephen Marche is the nth writer using ChatGPT to compose his masterpiece. Surely, it will be remembered 100 years from now.
  • The Writers Guild of America feels like this AI thing is a bit threatening and goes on strike. The BBC shows them they are right.
  • A project to create an unstoppable fashion blogger shows how we’ll have infinite garbage as long as somebody consumes it.

P.s.: This week’s Splendid Edition of Synthetic Work is titled And You Thought That Horoscopes Couldn’t Be Any Worse.

It covers what MakeMyTrip, Wendy’s, Citadel Securities, Takeda Pharmaceutical, and Ingenio are using AI for.
It also reviews the amazing MacGPT and shows you how much you can achieve with a good prompt and when that is not good enough anymore.

The Splendid Edition of Synthetic Work is a weekly report written by a former Fortune 1000 tech executive and Gartner analyst on:

  • how your peers are using AI in your industry (Education, Finance, Government, Health Care, Media & Entertainment, Tech, etc.)
  • what are life-changing AI tools that can enhance your productivity at work (tested or used by me personally)
  • why and when to use specific techniques (like prompting) to improve your interaction with the AI
  • how you can use AI to perform tasks that matter in your profession
If it sounds interesting, consider a paid membership (or upgrading your existing membership): https://synthetic.work/subscribe
Intro

As you know, Synthetic Work uses Memberful to manage your memberships and gate online access to various sections of the website.

Memberful has been a great partner during these first three months (plus one to set up the whole infrastructure that serves the website).

A couple of weeks ago, they decided to write a profile about me and why I decided to start this newsletter:
Launching a newsletter about artificial intelligence for the people: Synthetic Work

This week, they decided to publish a second part, where I shared more about the challenges of writing a newsletter and building a brand that lasts: People don’t read for content.

As if you didn’t have enough to read already.
Alessandro

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