Roblox empowers creators; AI vs hate speech; Apple's 2030 update; and more...
Roblox empowers creators; AI vs hate speech; Apple's 2030 update; and more...
Insights into how today's innovations will create tomorrow's opportunities.
The common thread through this week’s stories is the one that runs through this entire newsletter – specifically the belief that you can see what will become normal in the future, by looking at the innovations which are raising people’s expectations today.
Beyond that – if you take a largely optimistic view of today’s innovations, then you’ll be inspired to think about the opportunities that the future normal will present to you, rather than slipping into a dystopian funk.
Before we get to this week’s links, a quick note:
For everyone who doesn’t read right to the bottom (that’s most of you ;) – as well as writing this newsletter I also deliver conference keynotes, and help management teams “get fresh perspectives on things we don’t even know we’re not seeing.” People say they are inspiring, provocative and actionable.
If you’re planning an event or internal session before the end of the year, then do check out the recent videos, current topics and client testimonials on my website.
Some upcoming gigs: 25 Sept – Future Hospitality Summit, UAE; 27 Sept – Innocent Internal Marketing event, London; 27 Sept – World Horse Welfare board meeting, London; 16-17 Oct, Flock leadership event, UK; 18-21 Oct, WPP Stream, Greece; 1-2 Nov, THIS conference, Aarhus, Denmark; 6 Nov, OPI Global Forum, Chicago; 7 Nov, Power of Print, London; 23 Nov Digital Copenhagen, Denmark.
Roblox’s new AI chatbot will help you build virtual worlds
💥 Future Now // Gaming platform Roblox announced its AI assistant at its Developers Conference last week. The tool will enable users to create in-game objects and environments simply by typing what they want to create. For example, you’ll be able to type in “I want to make a game set in ancient ruins,” and Roblox will create a landscape with moss-covered columns and broken architecture.
💡 Future Normal // In case you’ve been hiding under a rock (or just don’t have kids), Roblox is a gaming platform with over 65 million daily users, with nearly half of them under 13. The platform has over 3 million creators who have created over 5 million ‘experiences’ – typically micro games. It’s a very big deal in terms of shaping what will become normal (which is why we profiled it in the “Stealth Education” chapter of The Future Normal).
Which makes this announcement a very big deal too. For all the talk of AI at work, Roblox is about to empower tens of millions of young people to be able to express themselves and bring their creative impulses to life. That experience and desire won’t be confined to just gaming. It will change their expectations of how they can change the world. First virtually, but as always, these expectations won’t stop there either. Augmenting people’s creativity is the killer AI app (and yes, conveniently that’s another chapter in The Future Normal 😉). The next decade will see a new wave of AI-fuelled, crowd-powered creativity. I can’t wait.
Read more on Crowd-Powered Creativity
Over the summer I released VisuAIse Futures, an illustrated guide to 6 ‘not boring’ AI-driven marketing innovation opportunities, supported by 40+ data-driven insights and 30+ real world innovation case studies.
For B2C brand marketers or creatives in agencies, it’s is your next winning pitch, breakthrough campaign, or team meeting – all rolled into one and ready-to-go.
Call Of Duty to use AI to listen out for hate speech during online matches
💥 Future Now // More gaming, but from a less positive starting point. The abuse of female gamers is so widespread that cosmetics brand Maybelline launched a campaign around it earlier this year. Now, the smash hit game Call of Duty has a new solution, ToxMod, a tool which uses AI to monitor its voice chat channels for hate speech and bullying. The company already has a similar monitoring system for its in-game text chat messages.
💡 Future Normal // We read constantly about AI’s biases (and rightly so!). And the message has got through – 9 in 10 generative AI users are concerned about biased outputs. Yet the other side of the story is much less well reported – the potential for AI to help reduce human bias, hate and exclusion. What’s interesting here is that gamers won’t be able to disable ToxMod monitoring without completely opting out of voice chat. Call of Duty is one of the world’s most popular games. Once a popular game like this makes it ‘normal’ to have AI protections in place, then it will be increasingly hard for others not to.
Read more on AI for Inclusion
Apple’s 2030 Status Report to Mother Nature raises the sustainability bar
💥 Future Now // As I posted on LinkedIn, my feed this week was taken over by discussion about Apple's latest video. But surprisingly, the discussion wasn't about the new iPhone, but about the 5 minute video it aired at its latest event, on its 2030 sustainability pledge. If you haven’t seen it yet, then it’s well worth a watch.
💡 Future Normal // Three insights to take away from this campaign:
Sustainability doesn’t have to be dry. This is a video talking about its 2030 carbon commitments. But it's relatable. It's funny. It's self-deprecating. Great work.
Bring out the big guns. The finale sees Mother Nature challenging Tim Cook to deliver on Apple's carbon neutral pledge. He commits to it. And then commits again. How many CEOs have you seen do this?
Back it up. Let's end on the most important point. This light-hearted video is just the tip of the iceberg (if that's not an ironic metaphor). Head to Apple's site and you'll find a LOT more detail on its plans and progress. The sustainability community cares, and make no mistake about it this update is being heavily dissected. But I've also heard from people who’ve worked with Apple on these issues who speak of the team's genuine commitment and attempts to understand the complexity of the underlying issues.
Is Apple perfect? Of course not. Everything is positioned favourably, switching between percentages and absolute numbers depending on which sounds better. Its Airpods, which famously non-recyclable and often lost, don't get a mention. And yes, Apple's high prices – and margins! – give them the ability to do what few other brands can.
But as I said above, the big idea at the heart of this newsletter is that innovations create expectations.
Where the pioneers lead, everyone else ends up following, even if only partially. Get ready.
Not done? Half a dozen more quick insights & provocations…
Microsoft announces new Copilot Copyright Commitment for customers. I wrote a few months ago about Adobe doing the same. Yet another reminder: look at today and you’ll be able to see the future. This might be an obvious case, but it works across industries too.
Intuit Assist is a generative AI-powered financial assistant coming to Turbo Tax, Quickbooks and more. But what happens if it gets it wrong? I wouldn’t be surprised to see Intuit copy Microsoft and Adobe here and indemnify its users…
Open Letter: Artists Using Generative AI Demand Seat at Table from US Congress. Is AI good or bad for [insert profession]? Let’s just accept it’s ‘both’.
ChatGPT Diagnosed A Boy's Pain. 17 Doctors Over 3 Years Could Not. See above. AI will be both saint and sinner.
AI Detection Tools Falsely Accuse International Students of Cheating. This is deeply problematic. How many signals do we need that using AI is great, but blindly delegating important, life-changing decisions to AI is not?
UAE launches Arabic large language model in Gulf push into generative AI. The model has been trained to ensure it “does not step outside of reasonable bounds in terms of cultural and religious sensibilities”. As we enter a fragmented LLM landscape, I’d love to see someone build a meta-tool, which puts the same prompt into multiple models and highlights the differences between their answers, as a powerful way to highlight our implicit biases & blindspots.
What Is The Future Normal For Your Business?
The Future Normal: How We Will Live, Work & Thrive In The Next Decade, explores 30 trends, from continuous glucose monitoring to job sharing.
I also give inspiring, actionable presentations that help your team spot and seize emerging opportunities.
Get in touch if you'd like to discuss an upcoming event or project.
Or, sit back and enjoy the keynote that myself & Rohit Bhargava gave at SXSW to launch the book:
Thanks for reading,