Necessity is the mother of invention.

February 16, 2023

The Latest

Hey everyone! We’re back to our regularly scheduled programming and what a doozy we have for you today.

Innovation is on the menu. It isn’t easy but it sure is worth it. You already knew that, of course. Do you know how to do it – that’s the real question. We’re here to tell you that one of the the keys to innovation is a gate. Kind of paradoxical, we know.

What else, you ask? There’s a bite-sized recap of an event we had last week that plumbed AI’s early depths. Read through for what we found.

From the OS

How Gating Innovation Balances Control & Risk

Something as open-ended and lofty as innovation is typically thought to come from pure freedom and the ability to think outside the box. The truth is, within most organizations at least, innovation is born of the balance between giving your team the room to explore and setting some boundaries to ensure the organization’s best interests remain at heart. There isn’t a one-size-fits-all solution but there’re definitely some ways to try. Check out How Gating Innovation Balances Control & Risk to learn more.

P+S News

A Not So Artificially Intelligent Recap

We geeked out, we hung out, we loved it. Last week we partnered with Garbage Day on a rousing AI discussion that, in the spirit of learning in public, we want to share some highlights from alongside a few additional resources we made and collected along the way.

• Garbage Day’s Ryan Broderick (@broderick) started the night with AI 101, a primer on the 4 leading theories about AI’s impact on society. Btw – there’s: The Napster Argument, The Smartphone Argument, The Photoshop Argument, and The Crypto Argument.
• Artist & writer Morry (@morrysillusion) impressed the hell out of us by demonstrating a slew of fascinating AI applications. Take a stroll through his mind and don’t forget to try your luck with Are you the Asshole?
• Our superb speakers, OpenAI’s Adam Goldberg (@therealadamg) and re:collect’s Alice Albrecht (@recollect_AI), gave us their AI hot takes like:
  • The cat is out of the bag! Teams must embrace AI or risk being left behind.
  • AI’s best use case right now is unlocking human creativity by “getting started” for you. Writer’s block is a thing of the past when AI can get the ball rolling and make connections the mind can’t see on its own.
  • Advice dropped: follow Ethan Mollick (@emollick), a Wharton professor who is frequently thinking about AI’s uses in learning. And find (non-edible) recipes in this OpenAi cookbook.
• Last thing(s):
  • Esteemed event guest Mike Dalessio launched Shopify’s AI-Generated Product Descriptions last week – game changing.
  • And before you go, we put together tons of AI Research & Thoughts in the lead-up to the event and think you might find something you like in there. We learned there’s AI that translates baby cries!

Client News

#DropTheFilter

Brought to you by Brit+Co, #DropTheFilter: A Chat About Keeping It Real On Social Media—& IRL is a conversation designed to empower women to break down the barriers between their digital and physical selves. Brit+Co strategist & storyteller Sophie Meharenna is joined by Abbott Elementary’s Janelle James, beauty and culture journalist Darian Symoné Harvin, and women’s empowerment speaker & coach Alexa Rose Carlin. Tune in here on on February 22 at 4:15pm PT.

What We’re Reading