Mitch Joel's Blog: Six Pixels of Separation, page 62

Real Cars, Virtual Worlds – The Future Of Car Shopping Moves To The Metaverse (With A Dash Of ChatGPT)

In the tech industry, the evolution of shopping from traditional e-commerce experiences (think Amazon and Shopify) to immersive 3D virtual showrooms (hello, virtual worlds and the metaverse!) has long been anticipated.

Mitch Joel · Real Cars, Virtual Worlds – The Future Of Shopping – TechTuesday – 95.9 Star FM

The question now is:
Are customers eager and ready to embrace this new way of buying?

Fiat and Kia are taking the lead in answering that question with their introduction of metaverse car dealerships, powered in part by ChatGPT and AI-generated video technology.
Fiat’s collaboration with Microsoft and Touchcast has resulted in the development of a Metaverse store that allows customers to interact with a virtual or human “Fiat Genius” who can answer questions about Fiat’s cars in real-time with the help of ChatGPT.
Customers can even complete their purchase from home.
Kia Germany has also entered the metaverse game with its own Metaverse store, running on Engage, a metaverse platform for business.
This store allows customers to access the virtual showroom on any mobile device, computer, or with a VR headset.
While some customers may still prefer to see (and test-drive) their new ride in person, the fusion of physical and digital worlds was the promise of digital commerce.

Is revolutionizing the car-buying experience the place to start?

With ChatGPT and other advanced AI technologies, customers can (supposedly) experience a seamless and interactive buying journey in the metaverse.
As more retailers embrace this trend, the future of shopping and buying is set to become increasingly immersive and exciting and… different.

Here are five big questions to think about what’s next:

How might the use of ChatGPT in immersive digital showrooms change the way customers buy cars?Will virtual showrooms like these become the norm for car shopping, or will they remain a niche experience for certain customers?Could immersive digital showrooms powered by ChatGPT be used to sell other products besides cars (think everything else we buy online, including services like insurance, etc.)?What are the potential drawbacks of relying on virtual product specialists to answer customers’ questions about cars, and how can these be addressed (like when the product is “not as advertised”)?What might be the wider implications of fusing the physical and digital worlds for the future of retail and customer experiences?

Are consumers going to get the future shopping experience that we want and deserve?

This is what Heather Backman and I discussed over on 95.9 Star FM for a couple of minutes today.

What is Tech Tuesday?

Every Tuesday – for just a few minutes – I join Heather Backman (my old buddy from her days on CHOM FM and Jack 103) on the air at 95.9 Star FM to give a quick blast about the current state of technology, media and Internet culture.
We call it Tech Tuesday (and we do it in just a few minutes).

Once the segment goes live on 95.9 Star FM, I will post it here for you to listen in, learn, share and engage.

Before you go… ThinkersOne  is a new way for organizations to buy bite-sized and personalized thought leadership video content (live and recorded) from the best Thinkers in the world. If you’re looking to add excitement  and big smarts to your meetings, corporate events, company off-sites, “lunch & learns” and beyond, check it out.

Chris Bailey On Finding Calm In The Productivity Chaos – This Week’s Six Pixels of Separation Podcast

Episode #870 of Six Pixels of Separation – The ThinkersOne Podcast is now live and ready for you to listen to

Meet Chris Bailey (who was also featured on Six Pixels of Separation – The ThinkersOne Podcast back in 2018), a writer, productivity expert, and author of the bestselling books, Hyperfocus and The Productivity Project. TED called him, “the most productive man you’d ever hope to meet” and by Fast Company said he’s a “productivity mastermind.” Chris brings a unique approach to productivity that is very different from the hustle culture that we are all exposed to. His latest (and most personal) book is, How to Calm Your Mind – Finding Presence and Productivity in Anxious Times. While this may seem opposite to the tenets of productivity, it is not. In fact, the birth of this book happened after Chris suffered from an on-stage panic attack. It was in the healing process that he recognized how critical it is to invest in calm at the same time that we invest in becoming more productive. He has spent the past decade experimenting with every productivity tactic under the sun and separating what works from what doesn’t. His experimentation has included meditating for 35 hours in a week, using his smartphone for only an hour a day, and working 90-hour weeks, among other things. His TEDx Talk, How to Get Your Brain to Focus, has been viewed over 14 million times. In addition to his books, Chris is the author of the Audible Original, How to Train Your Mind. He has his own newsletter on the topic as well as the podcast, Time & Attention. Enjoy the conversation…

You can grab the latest episode of Six Pixels of Separation here (or feel free to subscribe via Apple Podcast or whatever platform you may choose):  #870 of Six Pixels of Separation – The ThinkersOne Podcast.

Before you go… ThinkersOne  is a new way for organizations to buy bite-sized and personalized thought leadership video content (live and recorded) from the best Thinkers in the world. If you’re looking to add excitement  and big smarts to your meetings, corporate events, company off-sites, “lunch & learns” and beyond, check it out.

SPOS #870 – Chris Bailey On Finding Calm In The Productivity Chaos

Welcome to episode #870 of Six Pixels of Separation – The ThinkersOne Podcast.

Here it is: Six Pixels of Separation – The ThinkersOne Podcast – Episode #870. Meet Chris Bailey (who was also featured on Six Pixels of Separation – The ThinkersOne Podcast back in 2018), a writer, productivity expert, and author of the bestselling books, Hyperfocus and The Productivity Project. TED called him, “the most productive man you’d ever hope to meet” and by Fast Company said he’s a “productivity mastermind.” Chris brings a unique approach to productivity that is very different from the hustle culture that we are all exposed to. His latest (and most personal) book is, How to Calm Your Mind – Finding Presence and Productivity in Anxious Times. While this may seem opposite to the tenets of productivity, it is not. In fact, the birth of this book happened after Chris suffered from an on-stage panic attack. It was in the healing process that he recognized how critical it is to invest in calm at the same time that we invest in becoming more productive. He has spent the past decade experimenting with every productivity tactic under the sun and separating what works from what doesn’t. His experimentation has included meditating for 35 hours in a week, using his smartphone for only an hour a day, and working 90-hour weeks, among other things. His TEDx Talk, How to Get Your Brain to Focus, has been viewed over 14 million times. In addition to his books, Chris is the author of the Audible Original, How to Train Your Mind. He has his own newsletter on the topic as well as the podcast, Time & Attention. Enjoy the conversation…

Running time: 51:27.Hello from beautiful Montreal.Subscribe over at Apple Podcasts.Please visit and leave comments on the blog – Six Pixels of Separation.Feel free to connect to me directly on Facebook here: Mitch Joel on Facebook.Check out ThinkersOne.or you can connect on LinkedIn.…or on Twitter.Here is my conversation with Chris Bailey.How to Calm Your Mind – Finding Presence and Productivity in Anxious Times.Hyperfocus.The Productivity Project.How to Train Your Mind.How to Get Your Brain to Focus.Chris’ newsletter.Chris’ podcast, Time & Attention.Follow Chris on LinkedIn.Follow Chris on Twitter.This week’s music: David Usher ‘St. Lawrence River’.

Download the Podcast here: Six Pixels of Separation – The ThinkersOne Podcast – Episode #870.

Before you go… ThinkersOne  is a new way for organizations to buy bite-sized and personalized thought leadership video content (live and recorded) from the best Thinkers in the world. If you’re looking to add excitement  and big smarts to your meetings, corporate events, company off-sites, “lunch & learns” and beyond, check it out.

Six Links Worthy of Your Attention #663

Is there one link, story, picture or thought that you saw online this week that you think somebody you know must see?

My friends: Alistair Croll (Solve for Interesting, Tilt the Windmill, Interesting Bits, HBS, chair of Strata, Startupfest, FWD50, and Scaletechconf; author of Lean Analytics and some other books), Hugh McGuire (Rebus Foundation, PressBooks, LibriVox) and I decided that every week the three of us are going to share one link for one another (for a total of six links) that each individual feels the other person “must see.”

Check out these six links that we’re recommending to one another: 

ControlNet: Another step-change in AI image generation – Red Shark. “Since we’re always on the subject of AI (and given how fast the field is advancing, I think it’s time we fed all the Six Links Worthy of Your Attention into a model and created a Six Links Generator, TBH) here’s another one to add to the list of tools like ChatGPT and Dall-E and the underlying tech like Large Language Models and Generative Adversarial Networks: ControlNet. This add-on to image generators gives humans control over aspects of the image. For example, you can adjust where the lighting is coming from (and it’ll fix the shadows!) It’s pretty astonishing, albeit early.” (Alistair for Hugh). What Are Word and Sentence Embeddings? – co:here . “Mitch, I know you’re spending a ton of time explaining AI to people. Many of the questions I’ve been getting boil down to, ‘can you explain how this works to a mortal please?’ I have some analogies, and I’ve figured out how to demonstrate the ideas using some big sheets of paper, rulers, and post-it notes. But this post by Luis Serrano of cohere.ai is one of the best things I’ve found. Highly recommended as a way of understanding the basic concepts, then ‘scaling up’ to impossibly large dimensions.” (Alistair for Mitch). The discovery of giant superclusters of galaxies is challenging our very understanding of the Universe – BBC Future . “I was listening to an interview with an organic chemist who specializes in the synthesis of single-molecule nanomachines, who said something along the lines of: The more we learn about cell biology, the less we understand. Put another way: It seems that every scientific discovery we make explains many things, but also often opens up new mysteries and complexity that expands the unknown. New discoveries of mega galaxies are upending the standard model of cosmology.” (Hugh for Alistair). US got a record-breaking 40% of its energy from carbon-free sources in 2022, report reveals – EuroNews Green . “I need to dig into this more, but if true, it’s pretty extraordinary.” (Hugh for Mitch). Over $30M worth of Funkos are being dumped – NPR Business . “I have been following the success of Funko and their Funko Pop! line of business, in particular. I’m not just a customer, but I have a deep appreciation for the collectible world (it runs deep). A few years back, I decided that I would collect every Pop! that was either a bass player or a writer. My current collection is well over 100 of these cute, cartoon-ized characters from pop culture. Still, as a collector and fan, it’s easy to see how a company like this can get ahead of its skis. Lots of selection and lots of demand will always provide a gap/glut possibility. So, what’s the company to do? If they liquidate their inventory, the value of the collectibles to their customers will implode. If they give the leftovers away to kids in need, the value of the collectibles erodes into a commonplace toy. So, the company has decided to dump their overstock into landfills. This is not a good look and could still signal to collectors that what they own may not be as collectible as once suspected. It’s a real problem that has moral and commercial implications. With that, I’ve always admired this brand, because they’ve made it easy (and very fun) for anyone to get into the collectible space without breaking the bank. I’m just hopeful that they can figure out a better plan for the business, their customers, and – more importantly – the environment.” (Mitch for Alistair). Love Poem Medley – Rudy Francisco – Button Poetry – YouTube . “This week, I will run in the opposite direction of creativity and art created by artificial intelligence. This was passed over to me by Ron Tite, and it will (and should) take your breath away. I am not going to get into the content or the context of this, but please… just stop everything and spend a few minutes inside of this thing of beauty…” (Mitch for Hugh).

Feel free to share these links and add your picks on Twitter, Facebook, in the comments below or wherever you play.

Beyond The “You Will Never Be Able to Fully Replace” Mindset

A caution to the business brain of the future:

If you ever read an article and the incumbent industry leaders react to a new technology with a line akin to, “you’ll never be able to fully replace that,” be careful.
This is especially true when we allude to the idea that technology can never replace how a human is currently doing any/most kinds of work.
We are in a new era of creativity, work and the commercialization of very complex technologies (that have exponential growth attached to them).

Take a beat before nodding along in agreement.

Brain task: Open a notebook (or a blank document) and (in bullet-point form) start listing off answers to this question:

What would need to be true for it to work?

It is a great question that Michael Bungay Stanier often encourages me to reflect on.
It forces you to remove yourself from your current thinking, and absolves you of all inherent biases that you are clinging on to.
When you can’t think of any more reasons, open up a tool like ChatGPT and ask it to reflect on the question.

We are seeing this problem everywhere.

“You will never be able to replace a human voice with an AI-generated one.”
“You will never be able to replace in-person meetings with virtual ones.”
“You will never be able to replace fiat currency with cryptocurrency.”
“You will never be able to replace [insert any form of art] created by a human with a computer.”

Think about how many of these past ideologies were proven wrong…

“You will never be able to use an app to find someone to love.”
“You will never be able to get someone to put their credit card information into a website.”
“You will never be able to sell physical goods on a website.”
“You will never need a computer that you can walk around with.”
“You will never be able to replace newspapers and magazines with a website.”
“You will never get people to buy virtual clothes (or any kind of virtual good) for an avatar.”

The list is long and goes much further back in time (look into the history of the printing press, libraries… and keep going further back).

We’re seeing new innovations come out all the time that people never could have imagined, with AI currently being the tip of the iceberg (and concern).

And, we should be concerned.

When we have this many technologies being developed at an exponential pace (think digital commerce, blockchain, cloud, cryptocurrency, artificial intelligence, etc.), it calls for a different kind of work (and, how we think as workers).

Take a look at this data point:

“One in 16 workers may have to switch occupations by 2030. That’s more than 100 million workers across the eight economies studied.”

This was highlighted in the McKinsey Global Institute‘s recent study: Jobs lost, jobs gained: What the future of work will mean for jobs, skills, and wages.

For all of the potential disruption that this causes the workplace, always remember that we are also – at the exact same time – the consumers who push the adoption of these new technologies forward.

Another truth:

Some technologies are trends and fads, while some of them will change the very fabric of our society.

How can we tell the difference?
How do we know when there is something bigger happening here?

There is one simple metric that removes the early adopters, “look, a squirrel!” thinking to every shiny new object, while avoiding being the laggard, fighting to get back into a now-competitive landscape.

Think: Has this technology changed how consumers actually buy?

When this happens, the foundations are re-setting.
Worry less about how quickly things change, and focus more on if this tech has changed how people live – day to day – moment by moment.
Smartphones were ridiculous when they were introduced.
Now, it’s almost unheard of to not have a smartphone.
Now, it’s almost a detriment to your work if you do not have one.

Look for the essential.

If we dismiss everything with a snide, “you’ll never be able to fully replace that,” we may be face to face with the exact technology that will replace the work that we care about.
Who knows what kind of amazing innovations are waiting for us in the future?
I don’t.
You don’t.
We don’t.
So, instead of dismissing it… tinker with it.

If it changes you/how you think about work, just imagine what it might do for the rest of us?

Before you go… ThinkersOne is a new way for organizations to buy bite-sized and personalized thought leadership video content (live and recorded) from the best Thinkers in the world. If you’re looking to add excitement  and big smarts to your meetings, corporate events, company off-sites, “lunch & learns” and beyond, check it out.

Morag Barrett On Why We All Need A Friend At Work – This Week’s Six Pixels of Separation Podcast

Episode #869 of Six Pixels of Separation – The ThinkersOne Podcast is now live and ready for you to listen to

Meet Morag Barrett, the magical unicorn who helps leaders achieve amazing results by tapping into the power of their professional relationships. With her pragmatic approach, she excels at identifying the gaps in an organization’s development and helping them move forward by finding unique solutions to problems. Her three books, including Cultivate: The Power of Winning Relationships, The Future-Proof Workplace, and here latest, You, Me, We: Why we all need a friend at work (and how to show up as one!), offer valuable insights into how leaders can become their best authentic selves by building true and valuable networks. The book You, Me, We speaks to me. It offers valuable insights into building deep, meaningful relationships at work that lead to success for everyone involved. According to Morag, having an “Ally Mindset” is a critical factor in achieving individual, team, and organizational success. Best friends at work, who support and help us through good and bad times, are a vital component of an Ally Mindset. On the other hand, lacking such relationships can lead to failure and disappointment. You, Me, We delves into the five essential aspects of an Ally Mindset, providing us all with practical lessons on how to become a better friend at work and enjoy greater happiness, collaboration, and business outcomes. And, if you’re wondering about her love for unicorns, let’s just say she has more than 100 unicorn-themed items at home (none of which she bought for herself!). Enjoy the conversation…

You can grab the latest episode of Six Pixels of Separation here (or feel free to subscribe via Apple Podcast or whatever platform you may choose):  #869 of Six Pixels of Separation – The ThinkersOne Podcast.

Before you go… ThinkersOne  is a new way for organizations to buy bite-sized and personalized thought leadership video content (live and recorded) from the best Thinkers in the world. If you’re looking to add excitement  and big smarts to your meetings, corporate events, company off-sites, “lunch & learns” and beyond, check it out.

SPOS #869 – Morag Barrett On Why We All Need A Friend At Work

Welcome to episode #868 of Six Pixels of Separation – The ThinkersOne Podcast.

Here it is: Six Pixels of Separation – The ThinkersOne Podcast – Episode #868. Meet Morag Barrett, the magical unicorn who helps leaders achieve amazing results by tapping into the power of their professional relationships. With her pragmatic approach, she excels at identifying the gaps in an organization’s development and helping them move forward by finding unique solutions to problems. Her three books, including Cultivate: The Power of Winning Relationships, The Future-Proof Workplace, and here latest, You, Me, We: Why we all need a friend at work (and how to show up as one!), offer valuable insights into how leaders can become their best authentic selves by building true and valuable networks. The book You, Me, We speaks to me. It offers valuable insights into building deep, meaningful relationships at work that lead to success for everyone involved. According to Morag, having an “Ally Mindset” is a critical factor in achieving individual, team, and organizational success. Best friends at work, who support and help us through good and bad times, are a vital component of an Ally Mindset. On the other hand, lacking such relationships can lead to failure and disappointment. You, Me, We delves into the five essential aspects of an Ally Mindset, providing us all with practical lessons on how to become a better friend at work and enjoy greater happiness, collaboration, and business outcomes. And, if you’re wondering about her love for unicorns, let’s just say she has more than 100 unicorn-themed items at home (none of which she bought for herself!). Enjoy the conversation…

Running time: 54:22.Hello from beautiful Montreal.Subscribe over at Apple Podcasts.Please visit and leave comments on the blog – Six Pixels of Separation.Feel free to connect to me directly on Facebook here: Mitch Joel on Facebook.Check out ThinkersOne.or you can connect on LinkedIn.…or on Twitter.Here is my conversation with Morag Barrett.You, Me, We: Why we all need a friend at work (and how to show up as one!).The Future-Proof Workplace.Cultivate: The Power of Winning Relationships.Follow Morag on LinkedIn.Follow Morag on Twitter.This week’s music: David Usher ‘St. Lawrence River’.

Download the Podcast here: Six Pixels of Separation – The ThinkersOne Podcast – Episode #868.

Before you go… ThinkersOne  is a new way for organizations to buy bite-sized and personalized thought leadership video content (live and recorded) from the best Thinkers in the world. If you’re looking to add excitement  and big smarts to your meetings, corporate events, company off-sites, “lunch & learns” and beyond, check it out.

Six Links Worthy of Your Attention #662

Is there one link, story, picture or thought that you saw online this week that you think somebody you know must see?

My friends: Alistair Croll (Solve for Interesting, Tilt the Windmill, Interesting Bits, HBS, chair of Strata, Startupfest, FWD50, and Scaletechconf; author of Lean Analytics and some other books), Hugh McGuire (Rebus Foundation, PressBooks, LibriVox) and I decided that every week the three of us are going to share one link for one another (for a total of six links) that each individual feels the other person “must see.”

Check out these six links that we’re recommending to one another: 

A Short History of My Last Six Years – Wait But Why. “The divide between red and blue towns along our journey through the US has been striking (more on that journey in the next link below). We’ve been splitting the time between playlists, true crime podcasts, and Tim Urban‘s new audiobook, What’s Our Problem. If you’re paying any attention at all, whatever your political stripes, you know that something is off. We’ve turned politics into entertainment, and entertainment into politics, and we’re so lathered up with justice and freedom we’ve forgotten to actually work on big things. Tim’s an amazing explainer, and he devoted six years (as this post details) into a nonpartisan—or rather, controversially bipartisan—deep-dive into how society is organized, its dysfunctions, and what to do about it. Driving past abject poverty, Ivy League campuses, past ‘not my president’ signs, fields of rusted cars, Civil Rights monuments, and more, this has been an incredible, mind-expanding soundtrack. I will be talking about it insufferably for months, maybe years, to come (and like our road trip, I’m only halfway done.) So here’s the story of how it came to be.” (Alistair for Hugh). Unusual Wikipedia . “Over the pandemic, my now-12-year-old met plenty of friends online. They’ve been collaborating on an animated film. They’re from all over the US. So, when it came time to plan Spring Break, with airfare sky-high, we decided to road trip to Kentucky. It’s been a fun few days: The world’s largest ball of paint; a collapsed train bridge you can walk out on; silos that look like Minions; Angry Mom Records in Ithaca; a ginormous underground cavern full of animatronic dinosaurs and ziplines and motorboats. We narrowly missed the Mothman Museum thanks to some detours and backroads in Philadelphia, and a fire tower was closed for repairs. But mostly, this new reality of pointing Google Maps at your destination and then just typing in ‘attractions’ along the way and rolling the dice changes road trips entirely. In that spirit, here’s Unusual Wikipedia—a curated, random page generator of the strangest stuff on Wikipedia. Seemed apropos.” (Alistair for Mitch). If You Thought Quantum Mechanics Was Weird, Check Out Entangled Time – Science Alert . “Quantum entanglement, where a change in the property of a particle next door can influence the properties an entangled particle millions of light years away is the ‘spooky’ part of quantum physics. Turns out the those properties can be even spookier, a particle now influencing a particle nine billion years ago.” (Hugh for Alistair). Dots Out of Line: On Neuroatypical Curiosity – The MIT Press Reader . “How do each of us go about being curious? What if school was tailored to that special form of curiosity we each have?” (Hugh for Mitch).  Where Did Water Come From? – PBS Eons – YouTube . “When I saw the title for this YouTube video, it made me laugh out loud (for real)… and then I asked myself: Do I know where water comes from? I do not. So.. now I do… and so do you! Oh, and a reminder: I love science!” (Mitch for Alistair). Inside the Secret Shady World of Corporate Concerts – Vice . “I’ve been in the music business since the late eighties. I know many artists, managers, record company executives and beyond. Before the publicness of the Internet, the ability for a famous artist to get paid a ridiculous amount of money to play a private event for a company… or someone with the means to pay their fees was commonplace. Artists didn’t want the public to know that they were getting six, seven or eight figures to play some wealthy family’s Sweet Sixteen (or do a meet & greet for a ridiculous amount of money). Now with social media, it’s hard to hide. Now with billionaires being minted daily, the demand intensifies. So, what’s it like to play these private events, and what else goes on behind these doors? Take a read…” (Mitch for Hugh).

Feel free to share these links and add your picks on Twitter, Facebook, in the comments below or wherever you play.

Ryan Gullen Of The Sheepdogs On This Month’s Groove – The No Treble Podcast

Ryan Gullen is this month’s conversation on Groove – The No Treble Podcast.

Groove – Episode #99: Ryan Gullen by No Treble

You can listen the new episode right here: Groove – The No Treble Podcast – Episode #99 – Ryan Gullen.

Who is Ryan Gullen ?

The Sheepdogs built their name on hard work and determination. Having funded their first three albums and early years of touring on their own, this rock and roll band’s momentum began to build exponentially with the release of the 2010 album, Learn & Burn. The band would go on to win three 2012 JUNO Awards (the Canadian equivalent of a Grammy). Hailing from the small Canadian town of Saskatoon, The Sheepdogs won an international competition in 2011 securing them the cover of Rolling Stone, making the group the first unsigned band to appear on its front page. The win, decided by 1.5 million public votes, also scored them a record deal with Atlantic. Ryan Gullen (now living in Toronto) is their bass player. From an early age, Ryan was exposed to a wide range of genres. He picked up the bass guitar at the age of 14 and soon became obsessed with mastering the instrument. In 2006, he formed The Sheepdogs with his childhood friend Ewan Currie and since then, the band has gone on to become one of Canada’s most beloved acts. Ryan knows how to lock in with drummer Sam Corbett to create a driving, dynamic groove that is the foundation of The Sheepdogs’ music. He is also willing to experiment with different tones and styles, which has helped the band push their sound in new directions. The Sheepdogs have been touring steadily since 2006 and on the road with bands like Kings of Leon, John Fogerty, and Robert Randolph & the Family Band. Ryan’s commitment to his craft and his willingness to push the boundaries of what is possible with the bass guitar have helped The Sheepdogs evolve their sound over the years and stay fresh and exciting. His passion for music is evident in every note he plays, and his contributions to the band’s success cannot be overstated. Ryan’s talent and passion are an essential part of the band’s signature sound, a sound that continues to captivate audiences and establish The Sheepdogs as one of Canada’s most beloved acts.

What is Groove – The No Treble Podcast?

This is an ambitious effort. This will be a fascinating conversation. Our goal at Groove is to build the largest oral history of bass players. Why Groove? Most of the content about the bass revolves around gear, playing techniques, and more technical chatter. For us, bassists are creative artists with stories to tell. They are a force to be reckon with. These are the stories and conversation that we will capture. To create this oral history of why these artists chose the bass, what their creative lives are like, and where inspiration can be found.

Listen in:  Groove – The No Treble Podcast – Episode #99 – Ryan Gullen.

Are you interested in what’s next? How to decode the future? I publish between 2-3 times per week and then the Six Pixels of Separation Podcast comes out every Sunday. Feel free to subscribe (and tell your friends). 

AI Killed The Radio Star? – Radio DJs vs. AI-Generated Voices

Will the next great DJ be an AI-generated voice?

Mitch Joel · AI Killed The Radio Star? – Radio DJs vs. AI-Generated Voices

Spotify just launched a new AI-powered feature called “DJ” that provides users with personalized music selections.
The new feature combines Spotify’s existing personalization tools with AI-generated speech, including a DJ that speaks to users through an AI-generated voice.
This new feature aims to give listeners a mix of songs they are currently listening to, old favorites, and new tracks that fit their preferences.
The DJ feature is available in beta for premium subscribers in the US and Canada.
Spotify isn’t the only one.
Check out RadioGPT (and listen to the samples).

So… are radio DJs and podcasters doomed?

Here are the questions I am grappling with:

Is this another threat to terrestrial radio and the art of being a DJ?Can AI curate and choose music better than a human music director for radio?Might listeners start to prefer the AI-generated DJ recommendation and the voice (especially if they can choose their favorite style of voice or even a celebrity as the tech evolves)?Might this type of tech inspire people to check out radio more – giving a renaissance to DJs or inspire radio stations to introduce new tools and features for a more personalized listening experience?If Spotify’s DJ works, might it create a shift in how radio stations select and present music?What about collabs? Imagine traditional broadcasters and tech companies working together or teaming up – AI and humans together!

This is what Heather Backman and I discussed over on 95.9 Star FM for a couple of minutes today.

What is Tech Tuesday?

Every Tuesday – for just a few minutes – I join Heather Backman (my old buddy from her days on CHOM FM and Jack 103) on the air at 95.9 Star FM to give a quick blast about the current state of technology, media and Internet culture.
We call it Tech Tuesday (and we do it in just a few minutes).

Once the segment goes live on 95.9 Star FM, I will post it here for you to listen in, learn, share and engage.