The AI Round-up: Year 3, Issue 36
The human race, being around as long as we have, never cease to amaze. From what we can do, where we can go and the things we invent…and of course, the words we use. They’re so important that we make it an annual rite to celebrate one word as the official one of the year.
Collins has announced its word of 2025. (Sky News)
No, it’s not glaze. Or aura farming. It’s not clanker. It is…
…vibe coding!
Not as cool as last year’s (brat) but it is rooted in AI. We kind of saw this one coming but still…hard to believe we are here, so quickly (we are officially in ChatGPT’s anniversary month). Personally? As someone fascinated by Gen Z lingo…I really wanted aura farming. I love it so much (the word, not the art of it…although I do like to farm aura too). I guess you could say I’m glazing aura farming. (Also, no ‘mogging’ on this list of considerations?)
What word will we be talking about next year? What will we be talking about period, next year? We truly don’t know. And the future can wait. Let’s just enjoy the moment we’re in!
Onto this week’s stories.
10 stories -- Let’s get to it.
Story 1: AI commercials. It’s a thing.
Can you believe those jerks at Coca-Cola made another holiday AI ad?
Don’t you just love those creative geniuses at Google for this holiday AI ad? (9to5Google)
Story 2: Mike Kaput has spoken. And he has bent my brain into a pretzel. (LinkedIn)
Tired of Paul Roetzer getting all the headlines? Thinking ‘we need more Mike!’? Well fine. You got it.
Story 3: Want to make your own custom GPT?
Andy Crestodina is here to make it very easy for you.
Story 4: When AI makes you question your identity. (Shelly Palmer)
Should we be concerned? Or energized? I guess the choice is ours.
Story 5: The great freeze? Oh no…we’ve named it. (HR Grapevine)
AI job loss is showing up in the form of zero job creation. No wonder the government doesn’t want to reopen. They’ll have to report on jobs.
Story 6: Microsoft’s superintelligence approach is one that keeps human in charge. (WSJ)
Or will try to at least.
Story 7: So is Claude self-aware? (Axios)
No. But it is showing signs of introspection. Ohhh! Phew.
Story 8: Google Gemini’s Deep Research can now look at your emails, drives and chats. (The Verge)
It’s a half-step towards what agentic AI will/can look like…
Story 9: Airbnb CEO warns against hiring AI over Gen Z… (MSN)
…because otherwise the robots will outnumber the humans.
I get the point he’s making. Even if it is a ‘go to the real cashier or else self-checkout will be all we have’ type of argument. And it’s interesting that I just heard on The Prof G pod that Airbnb is one of the companies they feel will be most negatively affected by AI. But this is an example of what I keep talking about. Less energy into how to avoid. More into how to live/move forward. What can be controlled v. what can’t. Focus on that.
Story 10: 4 Things your brand should do right now to optimize AI search. (Akhia Insights)
Want a simple, clean approach to getting started managing the AI impact on your search? Start here.
This week, I’m not talking about:
As a reminder, this is a round-up of the biggest stories, often hitting multiple newsletters I receive/review. The sources are many … which I’m happy to read on your behalf. Let me know if there’s one you’d like me to track or have questions about a topic you’re not seeing here.
Thanks for reading!
-Ben