Explaining the hype with a hands-on example

Well, well, well... it appears DeepSeek has rather cheekily wandered into the AI playground and started showing up the bigger kids! Let me paint you a picture of why this is causing such a delightful kerfuffle in the AI world.

There’s no substitute for experience, and to that end, I’m going to show you how you can install and try DeepSeek on your own Mac or PC in just a few minutes, even if you struggle with getting the toaster working.

The secret sauce here is something called Chain of Thought (CoT) reasoning - imagine if, instead of just blurting out an answer like a contestant on a game show, the AI shows its work, rather like that one meticulous friend who insists on explaining exactly how they solved the Sunday crossword. This has been something of a crown jewel for OpenAI's premium models ($200/mo), notably their o1 series.

But here's where it gets interesting: DeepSeek R1 has managed to replicate this capability, and in some cases, they're doing it better.

Read on to learn what makes this particularly spicy.

Read More. . .

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Meshing About with Meshtastic

How this affordable hobbyist radio could keep you connected in an emergency, and help your AI explore the world.

Have you ever had a casual family chat about AI-powered fish counting spiral into discovering a revolutionary communication platform? 🌲🐟🧮 That's precisely what happened when I tumbled down the fascinating rabbit hole of Meshtastic - an open-source mesh networking solution that's quietly revolutionizing how we think about staying connected in the great outdoors.

In this video, I unpack how a simple conversation about counting salmon in remote wilderness areas led me to explore a technology that's equally inspiring and practical.

Think of it as WhatsApp meets ham radio, but with a dash of cyberpunk and a sprinkle of wilderness survival.

I'll share:

- How mesh networks are democratizing long-range communication

- Why outdoor enthusiasts, emergency responders, and tech tinkerers are falling in love with this platform

- The surprising intersection of conservation tech and off-grid communication

Whether you're a tech enthusiast, outdoor adventurer, or simply curious about how unexpected conversations can lead to fascinating discoveries, this deep dive into Meshtastic might just inspire your next tech exploration.

Read More. . .

AI Powered Visual Fashion Search

Text to Virtual Reality in Seconds

Well, well, well... it appears DeepSeek has rather cheekily wandered into the AI playground and started showing up the bigger kids! Let me paint you a picture of why this is causing such a delightful kerfuffle in the AI world.

There’s no substitute for experience and to that end, I’m going to show you how you can install and try DeepSeek on your own Mac or PC in just a few minutes, even if you struggle with getting the toaster working.

The secret sauce here is something called Chain of Thought (CoT) reasoning - imagine if, instead of just blurting out an answer like a contestant on a game show, the AI actually shows its work, rather like that one meticulous friend who insists on explaining exactly how they solved the Sunday crossword. This has been something of a crown jewel for OpenAI's premium models ($200/mo), particularly their o1 series.

But here's where it gets interesting (and why some executives might be choking on their morning coffee): DeepSeek R1 has managed to replicate this capability, and in some cases, they're doing it better.

What makes this particularly spicy:

1. The Performance Metrics DeepSeek R1 is beating o1 on some rather impressive benchmarks:

   • AIME (American Invitational Mathematics Examination)

   • MATH-500 (think workplace word problems on steroids)

   • SWE-bench Verified (programming tasks that would make a senior developer reach for the paracetamol)

2. The Cost Factor Here's the real kicker (and hence the panic in the markets) - they've done this with a fraction of the computing resources. It's like someone showing up to an F1 race in a souped-up family car and keeping pace with the pros.

3. The Open Source Angle They've released this under an MIT license, which in corporate terms is a bit like publishing your secret recipe book. Anyone can use it, modify it, or build upon it - commercially!

The Chain of Thought aspect is particularly fascinating. While o1 tends to be rather concise (think Sherlock Holmes delivering his conclusions), DeepSeek R1 is more like Dr. Watson - it walks you through every step of its reasoning process. Sometimes, this means it can be a bit verbose, but it's incredibly useful for:

• Complex mathematical problems

• Multi-step logical reasoning

• Programming tasks

• Step-by-step analysis

The worry for big AI companies isn't just that DeepSeek has matched their capability - it's that they've done it in a way that's:

1. More transparent

2. More cost-effective

3. More accessible

4. Potentially more scalable

So enough with the preamble, why don’t you try it for yourself? Remember - this is running locally on your PC, offline if you so choose.

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What You'll Need

• A reasonably modern computer (if it can handle Chrome with multiple tabs, you're probably good)

• 16GB of RAM (8GB might work, but it'll be like running a marathon in wellies)

• About 50GB of free space

• 2-5 minutes of your time

The Two-Step Setup

Step 1: Install Ollama

1. Head to ollama.ai/download

2. Download and install:

   • Mac: Drag to Applications folder

   • Windows: Run the installer

Step 2: Install Chatbox

1. Visit Chatbox Releases

2. Download the latest version:

   • Mac: .dmg file

   • Windows: .exe installer

3. Install like any other app

Getting DeepSeek Running

1. Open Terminal (Mac) or PowerShell (Windows) and type the text below followed by return.

ollama run deepseek-r1:8b

1. Wait for the download (perfect tea-brewing time)

Note: The “DeepSeek-R1:8b” as the result of a rather clever bit of AI gastronomy - it's essentially a reduction sauce (Distillation) of the full DeepSeek model, but one that's managed to retain most of the flavor while being far more practical to serve up. Larger models require beefier hardware that’s beyond the scope of this quick example. So temper your expectations appropriately.

1. Open Chatbox

1. Click 'Settings' (⚙️)

2. Add Ollama:

   • Click 'Add New API Endpoint'

   • Select 'OLLAMA API'

   • API Host:

     http://localhost:11434

   • Save

Let's Test Drive Your New AI

Try these prompts to get a feel for what your new assistant can do:

For Writers and Creators

Can you help me outline a blog post about sustainable gardening?

Include 5 main points and some interesting statistics.

For Writers and Creators

I need to write a professional email declining a vendor's proposal

while keeping the door open for future collaboration. Can you help?

For Problem Solving

I'm planning a week of healthy meals for a family of four.

Can you create a shopping list and simple meal plan?

For Learning

Explain quantum computing like you're talking to someone who just wants

to understand why it's exciting, not the complex physics behind it.

What you’ll see is the ‘Chain of Thought” musings of the AI as it breaks down the problem.

Pro Tips for Happy AI-ing

• Start with clear, specific requests

• Use the chat history feature in Chatbox to keep track of good conversations

• If responses get weird, hit the "New Chat" button

• Save particularly useful conversations using Chatbox's export feature

When Things Go Wobbly

• If Chatbox can't connect: Make sure Ollama is running (check Terminal/PowerShell)

• If responses are slow: Close some memory-hungry apps

• If it crashes: Just restart both Ollama and Chatbox

• If answers get odd: Start a fresh chat

Why This Setup is Brilliant

• Works offline - perfect for planes, trains, and confidential automobiles

• No subscription fees - your wallet will thank you

• Keeps your data private - what happens on your computer stays on your computer

• Surprisingly capable - from creative writing to coding help

What's Next?

The DeepSeek story is rather fascinating when you step back and look at the whole picture. It's sparked what might be the tech industry's most expensive game of musical chairs, with NVIDIA shareholders briefly losing their seats (and $600B) at the mere suggestion that AI might not need quite so much silicon muscle after all.

But here's the thing - while DeepSeek has demonstrated that you can build a remarkably capable AI model for the cost of a luxury car rather than a small island, it hasn't quite triggered the AI apocalypse that some headlines might suggest. Instead, it's done something far more interesting: it's shown us a glimpse of AI's middle class future.

The market's initial panic about NVIDIA's future rather missed the point. Yes, DeepSeek managed to train their model for a relatively modest $5.6M in GPU rental costs, but they still needed those GPUs. What's changing isn't the need for specialized hardware - it's the democratization of access to AI capabilities. NVIDIA themselves pointed this out, noting that DeepSeek's success actually suggests a future where more organizations, not fewer, will be running their own AI models.

Meanwhile, the big commercial AI players like OpenAI aren't exactly quaking in their boots. Their $200 monthly subscription for o1 isn't just about raw computational power - it's about reliability, support, and an entire ecosystem of features. DeepSeek isn't so much threatening their business model as it is expanding the market, creating a new tier of AI accessibility for those who need powerful reasoning capabilities but can't justify enterprise-level spending.

This broader transformation hasn't gone unnoticed in Washington. The recent announcement of $500B in private-sector AI infrastructure investment through The Stargate Project, along with $140M for new AI research institutes, suggests that the U.S. sees this not as a threat but as an opportunity to accelerate AI development across the board.

What we're really watching isn't a zero-sum game between DeepSeek and established players, but rather the beginning of AI's maturation into a more diverse, accessible ecosystem. The future of AI isn't just about the penthouse suite of capabilities offered by OpenAI or the basement bargains of simple chatbots - it's about filling in all the floors in between. DeepSeek has simply shown us that the elevator can indeed stop at more levels than we thought.

And perhaps that's the real story here: not that DeepSeek is upending the AI industry, but that it's helping to fill out the missing middle - creating a future where powerful AI capabilities aren't just for those with enterprise budgets or deep technical expertise, but for anyone with a decent computer and a problem to solve. The market may have momentarily panicked, but it's starting to realize that this expansion of the AI ecosystem might just lift all boats, even if some of them need to adjust their sails.

In this video, I unpack how a simple conversation about counting salmon in remote wilderness areas led me to explore a technology that's equally inspiring and practical.

Think of it as WhatsApp meets ham radio, but with a dash of cyberpunk and a sprinkle of wilderness survival.

I'll share:

- How mesh networks are democratizing long-range communication

- Why outdoor enthusiasts, emergency responders, and tech tinkerers are falling in love with this platform

- The surprising intersection of conservation tech and off-grid communication

Whether you're a tech enthusiast, outdoor adventurer, or simply curious about how unexpected conversations can lead to fascinating discoveries, this deep dive into Meshtastic might just inspire your next tech exploration.

We've all heard AI assistants talk a good game. They'll analyze your code, discuss your business data, or reference your documentation. But when it comes to actually accessing those systems and taking meaningful action? That's where the conversation hits a wall.

Until now.

But before I get into the details, here’s a little context of my current primary AI toolset.

Given the pace of innovation in the LLM space, I tend to alternate between different AI services, with most of my text-based interactions either being through Anthropic Claude Pro, OpenAI’s ChatGPT Plus, or Google’s One AI Premium (Gemini). All premium services at about $20/mo (generally, I tend to jump around between them each month)

I would say about 80% of my use is using these premium web user interfaces, but then I use more specialized tools that utilize these same foundational model backends for specific tasks:

1. Perplexity - Web Search

2. Cursor / Windsurf - Coding

3. TypingMind - Specialized, cross-service agents and prompts.

4. NotebookLM - Research

I suspect I’m in the minority of people using tools in this way, and I’m sure that over time, there’ll be more consolidation of capabilities into the Foundational models, as we’re already seeing with ChatGPT Search and Claude adding Google Docs integration.

What's New with Claude: From Style to Substance

Anthropic has been particularly busy of late, and I thought I’d discuss two features that I think are unique differentiators (at least for now) showing how AI interaction is evolving - from how these assistants communicate to how they actually get things done.

First, let's talk style. The recent addition of customizable writing styles in Claude is a subtle but meaningful shift away from the one-size-fits-all AI responses we've grown used to. Whether you want explanatory deep-dives or concise updates (or even your own personalized writing style), Claude can now match your preferred way of communicating.

But the real game-changer comes in what Claude can actually do, not just how it talks about doing it...

Creating a Custom Style with Claude

The styling capability is pretty straightforward. From https://claude.ai/ Select from Normal, Consise or Explanatory defaults OR more daringly, provide it with some example prose of your own and create a personalized style.

I’ve found the results to be pretty good, although capturing the subtlety of your personal writing style is interesting to reflect on. Much like the uncanny valley phenomenon, the brain is good at identifying when something is “a little off”. I must admit I had to pull a McConaughey and ask Claude to turn down the humor setting to 75% :)

Overall, I think this is at least a step in the right direction of reducing homogenous responses and allowing for more creativity and personalization in interactions.

On to the more exciting stuff!

Why Anthropic’s Model Context Protocol is a big deal.

Stay with me, even if you’re not a tech nerd as there’s some important application to businesses of all kinds here.

When I first saw the headline that Anthropic was launching something called MCP, I was somewhat hopeful this was an opportunity to upload myself into the Master Control Program of the TRON universe.

Unfortunately I think that’s a FY25 Q2 feature, but regardless, this is equally exciting.

Imagine trying to have a conversation with someone, but every time you need to share information, you have to translate it into a different language. That's similar to the challenge AI systems face today when accessing different data sources. Each integration requires its own special "translation," making it complex and time-consuming for developers. This is where Anthropic's recently announced Model Context Protocol (MCP) comes in, and it's generating quite a buzz in the tech community.

What Is the Model Context Protocol?

The Model Context Protocol is an open standard that creates a universal language for AI systems to communicate with various data sources and tools. Think of it as a USB port for AI – just as USB allows any compatible device to plug into your computer, MCP allows any AI system to connect to any compatible data source using a single, standardized approach.

Let's look at some practical examples that demonstrate why people are excited about MCP:

1. Recipe to Shopping Integration:

Imagine you're using an AI assistant to help with meal planning. Without MCP, the AI might just list ingredients.

Before MCP:

You: "I want to make spaghetti carbonara tonight."

AI: "Here's a recipe with ingredients. You'll need to manually copy these to your shopping list and then go to your preferred store's website to order them."

After MCP:

You: "I want to make spaghetti carbonara tonight."

AI: "I've found a great recipe and created a shopping list. Here's a direct link to order all the ingredients from Amazon Fresh. I've adjusted the quantities for four servings and included options for dietary preferences. Would you like me to also add these ingredients to your weekly meal planning app?"

With MCP, it can directly connect to shopping services like Amazon Fresh. When you share a recipe, the AI can:

- Understand the ingredients needed

- Convert them into a shopping list

- Create a direct link to purchase everything you need

- Account for quantities and substitutions

All of this happens seamlessly because MCP provides a standard way for the AI to communicate with the shopping service.

This is actually one of the first MCP servers I setup for myself after viewing Alex Veliknov’s post.

2. Calendar Management:

When you ask an AI to schedule a meeting, MCP allows it to:

- Check your calendar for free slots

- Verify attendee availability

- Create calendar invites

- Even book meeting rooms

Instead of building separate connections for each calendar system (Google, Outlook, etc.), developers can use MCP as a universal connector.

3. Document Search:

When you ask an AI about company policies or documentation, MCP enables it to:

- Search through your organization's documents

- Pull relevant information

- Provide accurate, sourced answers

All while maintaining the context of your conversation.

Why Are People Excited About It?

The tech community is particularly enthusiastic about MCP for several key reasons:

1. Simplification: Instead of building custom integrations for every data source, developers can use a single protocol. Essentially a single universal adapter instead of dozens of different ones.

2. Better AI Responses: By standardizing how AI systems access information, they can more reliably find and use relevant data when answering questions. For example, when asking an AI about your company's sales data, it can directly access your database using MCP rather than requiring complex custom integration.

3. Open Standard: Because it's open-source, anyone can implement and improve upon it. This encourages widespread adoption and continuous improvement by the developer community.

Major companies and platforms are already putting MCP to use:

- Development platforms like Replit and Codeium are using it to help AI better understand and assist with coding projects

- Block (formerly Square) is implementing it for smarter financial insights

- Various calendar and productivity tools are adopting it for better AI integration

Looking Forward

While the Model Context Protocol is still in its early days, its potential impact on the AI landscape is significant. By simplifying how AI systems access data, it could accelerate the development of more capable and practical AI applications across industries.

For everyday users, this means AI assistants that can actually help with complete tasks – not just provide information. Whether it's meal planning, scheduling, shopping, or managing documents, MCP enables AI to move from simply suggesting actions to helping you complete them.

The social media buzz around MCP isn't just tech enthusiasm – it's recognition that this could be the breakthrough needed to make AI truly practical in our daily lives. As one developer noted on Reddit, "This could do for AI what REST APIs did for web services – create a universal way for systems to talk to each other."

How to use it?

If you’re tinkering inclined, it’s relatively straightforward to get up and running.

I initially followed this short video from David Ondrej and made quick progress. It illustrates a great example of a simple website being created and pushed to Github all from a single prompt!

However, while it’s good to see how easy it is to implement the manual process, it’s significantly easier to use a command line install tool called mcp-get.

It’s worth browsing this curated, and growing list of MCP servers or reaching out to the discord with any questions.

I hope that’s helpful. Expect more buzz around MCP and likely more “agentic workflows” being cobbled together as I’ve written about previously.

Do you have 2 minutes for me to make you smile from ear to ear? Want to hear two silver-tongued AI-generated, professional broadcasters hype you up more than your Mother at her knitting circle? Follow along and take a glimpse at the future:

1. Go to https://notebooklm.google.com/ and click on “New Notebook”

   

2. Click on “Website” and paste the URL of your LinkedIn Profile, it’ll look something like this: https://www.linkedin.com/in/sheppardadam/ . Click the blue “Insert” button.

   

3. Your LinkedIn profile will be examined by GoogleLM. Click on “Notebook Guide” at the bottom right and then “Generate” in the Audio Overview section.

   

   After a couple of minutes of processing, what you’ll end up with is kind of mind blowing. A 3-5 minute broadcast quality discussion between two media-savvy podcast hosts ALL ABOUT YOU.

   You can check out a sample of my own below (fascinating. . .I know. . .)

   Adam Sheppard LinkedIn - HYPE!

   Tell me more

   So what did we just do? NotebookLM is an AI-powered research and note-taking tool powered by Google Gemini that aims to revolutionize how users interact with and process information. It's designed to be a virtual research assistant capable of analyzing, summarizing, and connecting information from various sources. Here’s the topline on what it can do and how you might think of it versus say ChatGPT or Claude.

   Key Features and Capabilities

• Source Integration: Users can upload up to 20 different files, including Google Docs, Google Slides, PDFs, and website URLs. Each file can contain up to 200,000 words, allowing for a substantial 4 million words of source material.

• AI-Powered Analysis: NotebookLM creates overviews of uploaded documents, summaries, key topics, and suggested questions to explore.

• Intelligent Q&A: Users can ask questions about their sources, and NotebookLM provides answers with inline citations, linking directly to relevant sections of the original documents.

• Note-Taking and Organization: The tool allows users to create, save, and organize notes. It can transform selected notes into outlines, table of contents, study guides, or summaries.

• Audio Overviews: NotebookLM can generate short, engaging "podcast style" audio from sources, simulating a conversation between two AI hosts.

• Collaboration Features: Notebooks can be shared with others, enabling collaborative research and learning.

• Large Context Window: NotebookLM can process up to 1 million tokens in a single interaction, enabling deep and comprehensive analysis.

Whether it’s a work research project, planning a trip, storing knowledge on a hobby you’re learning or more this is an elegant tool that goes beyond a simple chat interaction and starts to push into some novel user experience paradigms.

Some important notes. It bases its responses solely on the documents you provide, greatly reducing the risk of hallucinations or outdated information. The variety of modalities it can accept from text, to image and audio means you can throw pretty much anything at it. And your personal data is never used to train NotebookLM, ensuring confidentiality.

So beyond feeding your ego how might you use it in a business context?

📊 Financial Analysis and Reporting:

Upload earnings call transcripts, financial reports, and market research documents. Quickly summarize key points, identify trends, and generate audio overviews that simulate a conversation between financial experts discussing the findings.

🔍 Market Research and Competitive Analysis:

Aggregate information from various sources about competitors, industry trends, and customer feedback. Synthesize this information, providing insights and summaries that help in strategic decision-making.

💼 Sales and Customer Insights:

Upload interview transcripts, customer feedback, and sales data. NotebookLM can identify sales trends, common customer pain points, and help develop targeted coaching programs or sales strategies.

📝 Content Creation and Marketing:

Create your next local radio ad selling your product! Analyze industry reports, customer data, and competitor content. The tool can also help generate content ideas and outlines for blog posts or whitepapers.

⚖️ Legal Document Analysis:

Lawyers can use NotebookLM to analyze large volumes of legal documents, contracts, and case law. The tool can help identify critical clauses, summarize complex legal arguments, and provide quick overviews of lengthy papers.

🎓 Employee Training and Onboarding:

HR departments can create comprehensive training materials by uploading company policies, best practices, and industry standards. NotebookLM can generate summaries, FAQs, and even audio overviews to enhance the onboarding experience for new employees.

💡 Product Development and Innovation:

R&D teams can use NotebookLM to analyze patent documents, research papers, and customer feedback. The tool can help identify emerging trends, potential innovation opportunities, and synthesize complex technical information.

📈 Business Intelligence and Data Analysis:

Analysts can upload various data sources, reports, and industry analyses. Connecting dots between different data points, generating insights, and creating summaries that can inform strategic decisions.

🤝 Grant Writing and Non-Profit Management:

Non-profit organizations can use NotebookLM to streamline the grant proposal process by organizing information from various sources and identifying needs within underserved communities.

🎯 Executive Briefings and Board Presentations:

C-suite executives can use NotebookLM to quickly digest large amounts of information from various departments, creating concise summaries and key talking points for board meetings or investor presentations.

I’m excited to see how this evolves. If you get value from it, drop me a line. I’d love to hear how you’re using it.

Other Fun Stuff

Having grown up in England and living in Seattle you’d think the last thing I’d want is more rain. . . WRONG! I love our Summers here in the Pacific NW but I’m ready for the coziness of Fall drizzle. Of course there’s a subreddit for that https://www.reddit.com/r/raining/ where likeminded lunatics post some wonderful scenes of rain around the world.

This particular scene from Tokyo struck me as being especially serene, and given I don’t have much window access in my office I decided to make it my virtual Windows background.

You can grab the video using a Chrome Extension like “Live Stream Downloader”

And then use the free tool, “Lively Wallpaper” (minimal effect to your computers performance) to upload the video and set it to play with many settings like audio muting, playlist creation, etc. Obviously you can include any other videos you like from around the world. There’s also a version for MacOS at https://livelywallpaperdl.com/versions/mac/

Hopefully it’ll scratch your itch as we ease into the Fall / Autumn wherever you might be.

Thanks as always for subscribing. Please share if you know anyone who might find my musings helpful. If you’re looking for fractional help with your AI or Emerging Technology Strategy, or you have an exciting leadership role you’re looking to fill, I’d love to hear from you.

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TLDR:

Buckle up, tech enthusiasts! I've been on a wild ride through the AI-powered app development jungle, and boy, do I have some tales to tell. If you’re not an engineer, don’t adjust your set. I have some options for you, too. Here's the scoop:

Claude Artifacts: Building apps on your phone? The future is knocking, and it brought snacks! Pros: Instant app creation, zero coding required. Cons: Still in early stages, limited customization.

Cosmic App Forge: The dark horse that surprised us all. From idea to MVP faster than you can say "AI revolution." Pros: Rapid prototyping, wide range of app types. Cons: Mysterious developer, potential security concerns.

Bubble.io: No-code platform with a dash of AI. Like LEGO for web apps, but you might need to phone a friend (or ChatGPT) for instructions. Pros: Visual development, extensive integrations. Cons: Learning curve, limited customization options.

Cursor: The coder's AI sidekick that sometimes forgets its own name. Powerful, but prone to "Dory syndrome." Pros: Advanced AI coding assistance, VS Code compatibility. Cons: Context retention issues and potential for refactoring rabbit holes.

Get ready, folks. The app-ocalypse is coming. Whether you're a coding wizard or a tech newbie, these tools are reshaping how we build the digital world.

Read On

I'll preface this Shep Report by saying I'm not an engineer. I just play one on TV. That is to say, I was an engineer very early in my career, and I even wrote code at Microsoft that shipped with Windows 25 years ago. But I quickly decided it wasn't my calling and hastily retreated to the much safer, less treacherous backwaters of Product and Program Management. Having said that, I code and tinker for fun, so not a complete neophyte.

I'm guessing the vast majority of readers probably aren't engineers either. . . but you may work with engineers, you may have had an idea bouncing around in your head for that next billion dollar company, or a side hustle that you know would be simple if you could get a couple of engineers, a designer, and some frothy AI angel investors to throw in some money.

As an entrepreneur and software guy who's worn most hats over the years and shipped and delivered hundreds of apps, experiences, and significant initiatives, I know what it takes to ship a product. It's damn hard work.

You need a founder or product manager who truly understands the customer and crystallizes that vision for the execution team to deliver the right product. You need a Program Manager or Scrum Master to beat the drum, pick up the myriad of random tasks, and ensure the engineers have all they need to code. You need a User Experience Designer who breathes life into the vision and crafts the perfect, frictionless magical experience, whether it's an accounting app or a 3D Digital Twin of a rocket. Then you simply, you know...wait for the engineers to do whatever they do. . . I kid, I kid. All of this pre-work is in service of helping the engineers manifest modern-day magic as they mutter their incantations and turn ideas into a working product.

It's expensive, dirty, dangerous work, and I love it. But. . . as an entrepreneur, the hardest part of the whole gambit is getting your first 1000 users, typically through a Minimum Viable Product or MVP, as it's commonly referred to. If you hit that milestone, you know there's a there, and raising money becomes infinitely easier. Once you've got that signal, you raise the confidence bar and can afford to hire that incredible talent described above without having to remortgage your home or raid your retirement fund.

And that's been the goal of some of my recent explorations.

As a technically savvy solo entrepreneur, can I build and test an MVP using AI?

I first wrote about this journey nearly a year ago (who knows how long ago that is in AI years) with my article, AI Solopreneurship - Experiments in using multiple coordinating AI agents to conceive, design, build, test and market a new business venture

Interestingly, my idea (generating images based on the paragraphs of a book) was implemented by Google Research last month with Infinite Wonderland. Even using the same example of Alice in Wonderland! I'm not saying they copied my idea. . . but maybe that sneaky AI did?

Adam’s (No-Such-Thing-As-An-Original-Idea App)

Google’s (Totally-Not-Related-App). . . probably

Pivot Time

So, with that, I shifted to a somewhat related idea: a productivity app that would assist busy individuals in visualizing their hectic day. I'm an enthusiast of Personal Knowledge Management Systems (PKMS) and productivity, and I use various apps like Notion, Obsidian, and Todoist to manage both my business and personal life. Much of it is interconnected with AI and routines that automate tasks as much as possible, providing me with a sense of organization (most days, except when I'm tweaking the system itself).

What I do know is that even when I look at a full calendar for the day, it's often quite challenging to visualize all the tasks, transitions, and the full scope of the things I need to accomplish to get through my work for the day.

What if an AI could analyze my to-do list and combine it with information about me, my life, my friends, family, and colleagues, and then visualize me doing those tasks in a vivid, linear, narrative style? It could help me make smarter decisions about how I organize my day and what tasks I can realistically tackle.

For example, realizing that fixing the sink involves multiple steps such as going to Home Depot (twice), getting tools from the garage, watching a tutorial, and explaining it all to a toddler, would provide a more accurate assessment of the time needed for the task.

Here’s some sample images I created manually to try and imagine the app using Flux trained on a handful of pictures of me.

Picking the kids up from school

Cooking Spaghetti Bolognese

Fixing a washing machine

So, I've decided to try and create a web app called "MindsEye" for this project. I've experimented with four popular AI-enhanced coding tools and I've gained a lot of insight into the current state of the art. While the pace of AI innovation is rapid—by the time you read this, some aspects may be outdated—but the issues I faced and some of the solutions will likely still be relevant.

The tools I tried are :

1) Cursor - The current darling of the Software Engineers AI toolbox

2) Bubble.io - A well-established "No / Low Code" tool with a big following for SAAS Web Applications.

3) Cosmic App Forge - So simple your grandmother could make an app and my current leading contender with some caveats. . .

4) Claude Artifacts - I just scratched the surface with this, but it is very promising as a simple app builder with zero engineering knowledge required.

I'll give a little synopsis of each tool below and try to avoid too much technical jargon, as there are plenty of resources online.

The starting point for most of these tools is to describe what you’re trying to achieve for the LLM in plain English. You can see the general prompt and response describing the application to be built here.

Cursor

What is it?

Cursor is a modified version of the popular Visual Studio Integrated Development Environment (IDE) that has been heavily customized to focus on AI-assisted programming. It maintains the familiar text editing experience of VS Code while adding advanced AI capabilities

Key Features

• AI Integration: Cursor is built around the concept of AI-assisted coding, offering features like next action prediction, natural language edits, and chatting with your codebase.

• LLM Support: It works with various large language models, including Claude 3.5 Sonnet and GPT-4.

• VS Code Compatibility: Cursor supports the full VS Code plugin ecosystem, allowing users to install and use their favorite extensions

My Experience

I was initially impressed with Cursor. I primarily used Anthropic’s Claude Sonnet 3.5 within Cursor, as this was the top coding LLM at the time of writing. It's a powerful tool for more capable engineers. I especially liked that, instead of sharing code snippets in the chat with the LLM, I could have it analyze and review the entire code base it had generated.

BUT. . . this was also a major issue. Because I was doing so much back and forth in describing what I wanted the app to do, it very quickly could no longer hold the breadth of the code, my descriptions of the app, and previous decisions we had made together in its context window. Essentially, it was like coding with Dory.

The AI and I would go down a rabbit hole of trying to tweak or fix some minor issue, and then it would try and refactor and rebuild the entire code base, inevitably breaking something. This quickly became an exercise in frustration. I also hit a limit of usage for the day with Claude, so I decided to switch to ChatGPT 4o. This started producing better code and overall results for me, but I found that I had to try and summarize the whole multiple-hour-long conversation with Claude to ChatGPT and ended up in the same issue of refactoring the entire code base. Who knew you couldn't just hot-swap out an AI engineer for another without issue?

I don't wholly blame Cursor / Claude / ChatGPT for this. It was a mismatch of expectations, and some mitigating strategies can be employed to improve the experience

However, for my limited use case, I decided that Cursor may not be the solution I needed for a quick and simple MVP.

Bubble.io

What is it?

Bubble.io is a powerful low/no-code platform that enables users to create web applications without writing traditional code. It offers a visual programming interface that combines design, logic building, and database management in one comprehensive tool.

Key Features

• Visual Development Interface: Bubble.io provides a drag-and-drop editor for designing user interfaces and building application logic visually.

• Database Management: The platform includes built-in database functionality, allowing users to create and manage data structures without setting up separate database systems.

• Workflow Engine: Bubble.io features a powerful workflow editor that lets users define complex logic and actions using a visual, sentence-based approach.

• Responsive Design: The platform supports creating fully responsive web applications that adapt to different screen sizes.

• API Integration: Bubble.io allows seamless integration with external APIs and services, expanding the capabilities of applications built on the platform.

• Scalable Hosting: Applications built with Bubble.io can be deployed and scaled easily, with hosting handled by the platform itself.

My Experience

With some searching on Reddit, I found that Bubble.io was very well-established and, even before the AI Era, had been a popular choice for Web Apps and SAAS experiences such as:

- Custom marketplaces (similar to Uber or Airbnb)

- Social networks

- Booking applications

- Internal management tools

- Job boards and directories

I quickly pulled together a basic Todoist clone to allow me to create tasks. I felt more in control of the user interface and environment when developing the app through its drag-and-drop editor.

In this case, there's only some rudimentary AI integration, and for the most part, it was me cobbling things together. However, I did use ChatGPT 4o pretty extensively to help troubleshoot and debug as I hit the limits of my knowledge with Bubble.io.

I discovered that the most effective way to help ChatGPT understand my goals was to take screenshots of the user interface and database schema and then ask for detailed, step-by-step instructions on what to do next. While this method was somewhat effective, I faced some challenges as its knowledge base was outdated due to changes in Bubble.io since the language model was trained. Additionally, the responses tended to be too high-level when what I needed was simple, step-by-step instructions on what actions to take within the application.

In summary, with some more effort, Bubble.io could be a good MVP testing tool for me, but it’s still somewhat laborious and doesn't have the level of AI integration I'd like.

Cosmic App Forge

Finally, I was browsing some subreddits and found a post for something called Cosmic App Forge from a Finnish developer. I clicked the link, was a little put off by the URL being https://aidark.net, but proceeded anyway (do so at your own risk...I believe it's legit) and started describing my app.

What is it?

Cosmic App Forge is an innovative AI-powered application development platform that aims to revolutionize the way apps are created. It leverages advanced AI technology, specifically Google's Gemini AI or ChatGPT4o, to enable users to build complex applications with minimal coding knowledge.

Key Features

• AI-Assisted Development: Users can describe their app ideas in natural language, and the AI generates functional code based on those descriptions.

• Wide Range of App Types: Cosmic App Forge can create various applications, from simple portfolio websites to complex full-stack social media platforms.

• Integration with Popular Technologies: The platform can work with technologies like Google Maps, Firebase, and various mobile platforms.

• Rapid Prototyping: Users can quickly create and iterate on app ideas, significantly reducing development time.

• Cross-Platform Development: The tool supports creating apps for different platforms, including web and mobile.

• Advanced Capabilities: It can handle complex tasks like creating augmented reality apps or multi-user collaborative tools.

My Experience

I have to say I was impressed. With an elementary description, I had a functional MVP up and running in about an hour. The images are generated by OpenAI's Dall-E, and all I had to do was give it an API key. While I would likely use Flux.ai to create images trained on my likeness in the future, this was a great proof of concept that took me significantly less time to build than the other tools.

I will say I'm a little hesitant to thoroughly recommend it for serious development, mainly because the developer's identity is somewhat obfuscated, and I don't feel 100% secure providing things like personal info and API keys to an unknown 3rd party.

However, the risks/rewards in my particular case were worth some limited risk-taking to get results that I was happy with. Your results may vary, and again, you may do so at your own risk. It's the Wild West of AI right now and so if you're going to explore the cutting edge, expect to get 'cut' now and again.

Conclusion

I'm happy to have ramped up on some of the more popular and new tools and techniques for app development in AI. While I haven't finalized and deployed something to real customers quite yet, I'm optimistic that with a bit more work, I can get to an MVP that I can test with real people.

One of the folks who’s probably at the forefront of solopreneurship is @levelsio, who has created many MVPs and is very generous with his knowledge and experiences online. Well worth a follow if you’re looking for further inspiration.

To me, despite these tools being clunky, rudimentary, flawed, and, let’s face it, complex, it's a sign of things to come. I don't believe engineers are going to go the way of the Dodo, but I do think how they work and what they work on is going to change dramatically. I also believe in the same way the web empowered billions of people to become content creators, the same will happen with applications. Everyone will have custom apps, services, and agents that will be highly tailored to their individual needs and preferences, as I discussed in "The Beginning of the end of applications as we know them."

I'm excited to be a part of shaping this new future. Putting in the hours to roll up your sleeves and figuring out what works and what doesn't work is part of the voyage of discovery and helps to separate the hype from reality.

Thanks for taking the time to read. If you’re looking for help with your AI or Emerging Tech Strategy or have an exciting leadership role you’re looking to fill, I’d love to hear from you. You can contact me directly here.

As a child I was obsessed with Monty Python, Vic Reeves, and a host of British sketch comedians who brought their surrealism and quirky low-budget concepts to our four channels ’ worth of TV screens. I’ve always harbored a secret desire to do something similar, and as someone who's fascinated by the intersection of technology and creativity, I recently challenged myself to create a comedy viral-worthy video using nothing but AI tools - and to do it all in less than a day, on a shoestring budget.

The result? Below. A parody of Olympic coverage featuring athletes running barefoot over LEGO bricks. Something as a father of two young children resonated viscerally.

Click here for TikTok Link

The lesser known Barefoot Over Lego 100m Dash, Live from Paris 2024 Olympics. (Created using Midjourney, Runway and Eleven Labs) - A Deep Flake Production.
#midjourney #runway #genai #deepflake #funnyvideo

Here's how I did it, step by step, using some of the most cutting-edge Gen AI tools available.

This project wasn't just about creating something funny (though it certainly was that). It was about testing the limits of what's possible with AI-assisted content creation and understanding how these tools could revolutionize industries from marketing to product design and beyond.

In this article, I'm going to take you through my entire process - from the initial spark of an idea to the final edited video. I'll share the exact prompts I used, the challenges I faced, and the solutions I found. Whether you're a marketer looking to create engaging content on a budget, a product designer wanting to rapidly prototype ideas, or a business leader curious about the potential of AI, I hope my experience will inspire you to explore these powerful tools for yourself.

So, let's dive in and see how I went from a vague notion to a fully realized video in just 24 hours, spending less than $30 along the way.

Conception and Ideation with Claude AI

My journey began with a simple desire: to create something that would make people laugh while showcasing the capabilities of AI. But where to start? That's where Anthtropic’s Claude AI came in.

I opened up my conversation with Claude and typed: "I want to create a funny video using AI tools. It should be something unexpected that plays on common experiences or pain points. Any ideas?"

Claude came back with several suggestions, but one caught my eye: a parody of Olympic events. This got me thinking about the intersection of the grand and the mundane, as well as the Silly Olympics of the aforementioned Pythons. Inspired by this, I pushed further:

"What if we combined the Olympics with a common household annoyance? Something everyone can relate to but seems absurd in an Olympic context."

Claude's response included several ideas, but one stood out: "How about a 'Barefoot LEGO Walking Race'? Athletes must traverse a track covered in LEGO bricks, mimicking the universal pain of stepping on LEGOs left on the floor."

I knew immediately this was the winner. It was absurd, relatable, and had great visual potential. To develop the details, I asked Claude: "Let's develop this 'Barefoot LEGO Walking Race' idea. How would it be presented as an Olympic event? What would the track look like? How would athletes prepare?"

Claude provided a wealth of details:

• The track would be a standard 400m oval but covered in a rainbow of LEGO bricks.

• Athletes would wear typical track uniforms but no shoes.

• There would be "LEGO pits" instead of water jumps in steeplechase.

• Coaches might be seen giving last-minute advice on LEGO avoidance techniques.

To add authenticity to the concept, I asked Claude to help me brainstorm commentary: "Generate some lines a British sports commentator might say during the Barefoot LEGO Walking Race."

Claude came up with gems like:

• "And they're off! Look at Johnson hop-scotching through that minefield of 2x4 bricks!"

• "Oh! Silva's hit a particularly pointy piece there. You can see the agony on his face as he limps towards the 200m mark."

• "Incredible technique from Zhang, using the side of her foot to slide over those smooth 1x8 plates!"

Finally, I asked Claude about the practical aspects of creating this video: "What elements would I need to create to make this LEGO race video feel like authentic Olympic coverage?"

Claude suggested several key components:

• A realistic starting line shot with athletes in starting blocks

• Close-ups of grimacing faces and pained feet

• Wide shots of the entire LEGO-covered track

• Slow-motion replays of particularly dramatic LEGO encounters

• On-screen graphics showing athlete names, times, and LEGO-related statistics

Throughout this ideation process, I was constantly amazed by Claude's ability to understand the concept and build upon it in creative ways. The AI didn't just regurgitate information - it genuinely helped me develop and refine my ideas, saving me hours of solo brainstorming.

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Visual Creation with Midjourney

With my concept solidified thanks to Claude AI, it was time to bring the Barefoot LEGO Walking Race to life visually. For this, I turned to Midjourney, an AI image generation tool known for its ability to create highly detailed and often surreal images.

My first attempt at a Midjourney prompt was admittedly a bit of a mess. I tried to include every detail I could think of:

"/imagine a Photorealistic Olympic TV broadcast of a group of distance runners at the starting line of a race in an Olympic stadium. The runners are barefoot and waiting to start on a red running track, which is unexpectedly strewn with colorful small LEGO bricks, as if a toddler has dumped a giant bin of LEGO blocks across the lanes. The runners are in starting positions, wearing national uniforms with various bright colors. The background includes a grassy area, Olympic banners, and a cheering crowd. On-screen graphics with athlete names and countries, golden hour lighting, realistic sports photography, no illustrations, --q 2 --ar 16:9"

The result was... not quite what I was hoping for. The image was cluttered, the athletes looked more like LEGO figures than humans, and the track didn't really resemble a LEGO-strewn surface.

Realizing I needed help, I turned to the Midjourney Discord community. An experienced user named InfoGuru provided some invaluable advice:

1. Upload and use an initial source image to help provide a baseline of what you’re imagining.

2. Be more literal in descriptions (e.g., "legs and feet of athletes running toward viewer" instead of conceptual descriptions).

3. Use promptlets separated by double colons (::) to organize positive and negative elements.

4. Use negative weights to remove unwanted elements (e.g., "shoes, sneakers::-0.6" to avoid generating footwear).

5. Utilize image weights (--iw) and aspect ratios (--ar) for more control.

Armed with this knowledge, I uploaded a picture of a starting line grabbed from YouTube refined my prompt:

"/imagine a photograph of full-length barefoot grimacing male Olympic athletes wearing their national color jerseys and shorts, running on a track covered in thousands of tiny multi-color Lego blocks with the white track lines still visible::1 shoes, sneakers::-0.6 --iw 0.8 --ar 11:9"

This produced much better results, but the athletes still looked a bit LEGO-like themselves. I spent the next couple of hours tweaking and refining my prompt. Some key learnings:

1. Removing the word "LEGO" from parts of the prompt helped create more realistic human figures.

2. Using the Vary Region tool allowed me to redraw specific parts of the image, like faces, to make them more human-like.

3. Adding specific fabric descriptions (e.g., "satin tracksuits") helped steer the AI away from creating LEGO-like figures.

My final prompt looked something like this:

"/imagine a photograph of full-length barefoot grimacing male and female Olympic athletes wearing satin national color jerseys and shorts, running on a red track covered in thousands of tiny multi-color plastic building blocks, white track lines visible::1 shoes, sneakers, cartoons::-0.6 --iw 0.8 --ar 11:9"

With a working prompt, I generated several images to use in my video:

1. A starting line shot with athletes in starting blocks

2. A mid-race shot showing athletes grimacing as they run

3. A finish line shot with an athlete crossing in apparent pain and relief

For each of these, I had to slightly modify my base prompt to capture the specific scene. To make the images look more like freeze-frames from a broadcast, I added elements like on-screen graphics, a slight motion blur to imply movement, and the hint of a camera operator or boom mic at the edge of the frame.

Animating with RunwayML

With my collection of Midjourney-generated images in hand, it was time to add motion to the Barefoot LEGO Walking Race. For this, I turned to RunwayML, an AI-powered video generation tool.

First, I uploaded my Midjourney images to Runway. I had three key scenes: the starting line tension, mid-race grimacing and pain, and the triumphant (yet agonizing) finish.

My first attempt at a Runway prompt was quite detailed:

"A dynamic motion, slow-motion, full-length shot of barefoot, shoe-less, grimacing athletes running towards the camera. Running on a standard Olympic track covered in thousands of tiny multi-color Lego blocks, with white lane lines clearly visible through the Legos."

The result was interesting but not quite right. The athletes moved, but their feet kept materializing shoes, and the LEGO blocks on the track disappeared as the animation progressed. Clearly, I needed to refine my approach.

I reached out to the RunwayML community for advice and received a crucial tip: keep it simple. One user, Erik, suggested using a much shorter prompt:

"Five guys running towards the camera"

Surprisingly, this produced better results. The motion was smoother, and while it didn't capture all the details, it gave me a base to work with.

Building on this simpler approach, I experimented with various short prompts, each focusing on a specific aspect of the scene:

1. "Athletes running barefoot on a track"

2. "Grimacing runners moving towards the camera"

3. "Olympic race on a LEGO-covered track"

I found that running these simpler prompts multiple times and then combining the best parts of each output in the video editor yielded the best results.

One persistent issue was the AI's tendency to add shoes to the barefoot runners. To counter this, I added a specific instruction: "Maintain bare feet throughout the animation". This helped, although it wasn't perfect. I made a note to pay extra attention to the feet during the editing phase.

To really sell the illusion of an Olympic broadcast, I created separate animations for different stages of the race, different camera shots and a somewhat linear (although abbreviated) narrative leading to a punchline of a foot massage at the end.

Adding Voice with ElevenLabs

To bring my Barefoot LEGO Walking Race to life, I needed the perfect British sports commentator voice. Enter ElevenLabs, an AI voice generation tool.

After experimenting with various options, I settled on the "Brian" voice in ElevenLabs. It had just the right mix of authority and excitement that I was looking for in a sports commentator.

Using the commentary ideas generated earlier with Claude AI, I wrote a short script for the video. It included lines like:

"Welcome to the inaugural Barefoot LEGO Walking Race! The athletes are at the starting line, each hoping their feet are calloused enough for this grueling event."

"Oh! Johnson from the USA has hit a particularly pointy brick! You can see the agony on his face as he hops towards the 200-meter mark."

I input my script into ElevenLabs, adjusting the settings for tone and pacing to match the excitement of a sports broadcast. The result was surprisingly realistic, capturing the cadence and energy of a real commentator.

Some words, particularly athlete names and "LEGO," needed a bit of tweaking in their pronunciation. I experimented with different spellings (like "Laygo" for LEGO) to get the AI to say them correctly.

Editing and Final Assembly

With all my elements created, it was time to bring everything together. I used RunwayML's built-in video editor for this final phase.

I started by arranging my animated clips in order: starting line, mid-race, and finish line. I trimmed and adjusted each clip to create a smooth flow.

I imported the ElevenLabs-generated commentary and carefully synced it with the video, ensuring that the comments matched the on-screen action.

After a final review and a few minor tweaks, I exported the video. The entire editing process took about 2-3 hours.

The Result

What started as a crazy idea had become a reality: a minute-long video clip that looked remarkably like authentic Olympic coverage of the world's most painful race. From the starting pistol to the grimacing athletes to the excited commentary, every element came together to create a somewhat amusing yet believably realistic piece of content. As of today, I’ve had over 2000 views from a single post on TikTok. My career in influencing has clearly taken off :)

Total time spent: Approximately 15-20 hours (including learning time)
Total cost: Less than $30 in subscription fees to various AI tools

Why should I care?

This project was more than just a fun exercise in content creation. It demonstrated the incredible potential of AI tools in creative processes. In less than a day, and with a budget that wouldn't even cover a professional camera rental, I was able to produce a video that would have previously required a full production team, actors, and expensive equipment.

The implications for businesses are enormous. Here are just a few potential applications:

1. Rapid Prototyping: Product designers could use these tools to quickly visualize and iterate on ideas, saving time and resources in the early stages of development.

2. Personalized Marketing: Companies could create customized content for different audience segments at scale without the need for multiple expensive video shoots.

3. Training and Education: Businesses could produce high-quality instructional videos or simulations quickly and cost-effectively.

4. Event Promotion: Event organizers could create enticing previews or recaps of their events without the need for on-site video crews.

5. Real Estate and Tourism: Virtual tours and property showcases could be created or enhanced using these AI tools.

6. Concept Testing: Marketers could rapidly produce different versions of an ad or campaign to test with focus groups before committing to full production.

Of course, there are considerations. These tools are powerful but not perfect. They require human creativity, problem-solving, and oversight to produce truly compelling results. As these technologies evolve, we'll need to grapple with questions of originality, copyright, and the changing nature of creative work. The state of the art is impressive but not (yet) perfect. Even in the week since I made the video, there have been some incredible improvements in clarity and realism with new tools like “Flux” and Kling from China. We all still eagerly await to see how these compare to the much anticipated SORA from OpenAI, as I’ve previously written about.

But one thing is clear: AI-assisted content creation is not a future possibility - it's a present reality. And for businesses willing to embrace and experiment with these tools, the potential for innovation, efficiency, and engaging content creation is boundless.

So why not give it a try? Your next viral marketing campaign, product visualization, or creative breakthrough might be just a prompt away. And who knows? Maybe you'll create the next great Olympic event to rival Break Dancing. . . assuming that wasn’t AI. . .

Hi Folks, As I continue to work with clients on strategy and execution of AI use cases my knowledge and excitement for possibilities continues to grow. In this edition, I thought I’d share a small omnibus of some of the personal projects I’ve been working on, as well as AI tools that I find invaluable in my everyday life. Big Tech will likely win the AI wars in the long run, but you can benefit from using some of these powerful tools while they're figuring things out.

Note that if you’re doom scrolling while eating your lunch there’s a couple of 60 second shorts that will have you up to speed on the latest and greatest before you finish your sandwich.

Building a Low-Cost, AI-Powered Personal Assistant with ChatGPT and Raspberry Pi (4:37)

In this video, we'll explore my journey in creating a low-cost personal assistant using ChatGPT, Claude Opus, or any other Language Learning Model (LLM) as an alternative to popular smart home devices like Alexa or Google Home. We'll dive into the hardware components, software setup, and potential applications of this project, both in the home and in retail environments.

Hardware Components:

The core components of this project include a Raspberry Pi 4B, a mini speaker, a 128 GB MicroSD card, and a USB 2.0 mini microphone. Optional additions include a 128x32 OLED display, standoff spacer columns, screw kits, a Raspberry Pi UPS power supply with battery, and a cool case for the Raspberry Pi 4B. The total cost of the project came in at just over $150, which is a bit pricey for a home assistant but offers great value for hobbyists looking to use the components for other projects and experiments.

Software Setup:

On the software side, you'll need an OpenAI API Key and the code from judahpaul16's GitHub repository. The code translates audio to text on device, sends questions over the web to ChatGPT, which formulates a response and reads it back via the mini speaker. While there were some challenges along the way, the developer and other builders in the community were helpful in troubleshooting and fixing bugs. In addition to running ChatGPT, the project can also play music from Spotify and control lights, with plans for further improvements and additional features.

Operation:

To use the assistant, simply say the wake word "computer" and ask a question that is picked up by the USB mic and sent to ChatGPT. The response is then displayed on the OLED display and played through the mini speaker. Although the current voice library is a bit robotic, it can be replaced with more human-like options such as OpenAI's Whisper model in the future. There is a slight delay in the response, but this may improve with faster models like ChatGPT 4 and more optimized code.

Potential Applications:

This proof-of-concept demonstrates the potential for AI integration in the home and various aspects of life. Imagine AI-powered washing machines, vehicles, TVs, power tools, kitchen counters, gardening tools, or even clothes. The interactions with these objects and the data they collect could be fed to your intelligent agent to assist you in your daily life. In retail environments like Home Depot, having a trained AI expert built into the shelf who can see, hear, and recommend products and solutions could greatly benefit both customers and businesses.

Challenges and Limitations:

While this project is a great starting point, there are some challenges and limitations to consider. The current setup is a bit slow, robotic, and more expensive than desired. However, these issues can be addressed in future iterations through faster models, more optimized code, and cost-effective component selections. Additionally, as AI becomes more integrated into everyday objects, it's crucial to consider the ethical implications and the importance of data privacy and security.

The Future of AI - A Whole New Stack

OpenAI and other companies are discussing the development of an entirely new computing stack, from power and silicon to the operating system and applications (See Making Sense of Sam Altman’s $7 Trillion AI Chips Gambit). We are entering a new era where AI is ubiquitous and can observe, inform, and act on our behalf. By prototyping with projects like GPT-Home, we can explore what these interactions might look like and what data would be helpful to supplement or improve the experience.

Scaniverse, Claude Opus 3, and On Screen (60 sec)

Recently, these three technologies caught my eye. Each offers unique and exciting capabilities that have the potential to transform various industries. Let's dive in and explore Scaniverse, Anthropic’s Claude Opus 3, and On Screen.

Scaniverse - Photorealistic 3D Capture

First up is Scaniverse, an iOS application that leverages a technique with a name that I just love, ‘Gaussian Splatting,’ to capture photorealistic images of the world and create stunning 3D objects. What sets Scaniverse apart is its ability to generate high-quality, detailed 3D models using nothing more than your iPhone's camera. This space holds a special part in my heart from my work years ago on Microsoft’s Photosynth.

With Scaniverse, you can easily scan real-world objects, environments, and even people, creating digital replicas that can be viewed in VR, on your desktop, or across a range of different applications. This technology has countless potential use cases, from product design and architectural visualization to gaming and virtual tourism.

Claude Opus 3: Anthropic's Powerful Language Model

Next, I've been experimenting with Anthropic's Claude Opus 3, a state-of-the-art language model that's currently outperforming many of its competitors across various metrics. Anthropic, the company behind Claude, has raised an impressive $7.6 billion to develop their large language model (LLM), and the results are truly remarkable.

One of the standout features of Claude Opus 3 is its ability to handle large context windows, meaning it can process and understand substantial bodies of text. Additionally, the model can take images as input, opening up a world of possibilities for multimodal AI applications. As you evaluate different LLMs for your projects, Claude Opus 3 is definitely worth considering especially for prose and essays.

On Screen: AI-Generated Space Operas

Finally, there's On Screen, a fascinating tool created by Ben Gney that allows users to generate entire space operas using pure AI. On Screen leverages advanced AI techniques to create visuals, audio, and scripts, enabling users to craft captivating stories with minimal effort.

What's particularly exciting about On Screen is that it is a precursor to OpenAI’s SORA, an upcoming platform that promises to revolutionize how we create and consume content. By familiarizing yourself with tools like On Screen, you can gain a deeper understanding of the capabilities of AI-generated content and be better prepared for the launch of the more photorealistic and sophisticated SORA.

Perplexity AI: The Conversational Search Engine That's Replacing Google (60 sec)

In recent months I've found myself increasingly turning to Perplexity AI, a conversational search engine that's quickly become my go-to resource for finding information online. In fact, Perplexity AI has replaced a staggering 90% of my Google searches. Here's why.

Conversational Answers and Curated Sources

One of the standout features of Perplexity is its ability to provide succinct, conversational answers to your queries. Powered by the latest language learning models (LLMs).

Perplexity delivers information in a format that's easy to digest and understand. But what sets it apart is the inclusion of curated sources, which are just a click away. This means you can quickly verify the information provided and dive deeper into the topic if needed.

Perplexity AI also has a unique feature that allows it to remember you and your content. This means you can return to a search later and pick up where you left off, without starting from scratch. This is particularly useful for complex topics requiring multiple sessions to explore fully.

Real-Time Information

While ChatGPT is excellent for tackling open-ended, complex questions, its knowledge base is limited to information available up until it’s last release. In contrast, Perplexity continuously crawls the web, indexing and analyzing real-time information. This means you can access the most current information available.

Customization Options

Another compelling reason to give Perplexity a try is its customization options. The base capability is free, making it accessible to everyone. However, the paid model offers even more powerful features, including a co-pilot that asks clarifying questions to understand your needs better and deliver more accurate results.

In addition, Perplexity allows you to select from various popular LLMs, including ChatGPT and Claude. I often use this capability to select the current leading model (frequently changing) in different categories. I might use Anthropic’s Claude Opus for a large corpus of text where prose and writing are my focus, vs. ChatGPT 4o for a coding problem.

The Future of Search

As AI advances, tools like Perplexity are poised to reshape how we search for and consume information online. By combining the power of conversational AI, real-time indexing, and customization options, Perplexity offers a glimpse into the future of search.

While Google remains the dominant player in the search engine market, the rise of AI-powered alternatives like Perplexity, Bing, and others suggests that change is on the horizon. As more users discover the benefits of conversational search and real-time information, we may see a shift in how we navigate the vast expanse of the internet.

So in summary, Perplexity has quickly become an indispensable tool in my digital toolkit, replacing most of my Google searches. Its conversational answers, curated sources, real-time information, and customization options make it a compelling alternative to traditional search engines.

I highly recommend it if you're looking for a more efficient, personalized, and up-to-date way to find information online.

Suno - Simple Text to Song creation using Generative AI. Here's how to create your own. (4:00)

What is Suno?

I recently stumbled upon a new platform called Suno that has completely captivated me. Suno is a web-based tool that uses artificial intelligence to generate original songs from simple text descriptions, much like how Midjourney and DALL-E create images from text.

At its core, Suno is a platform that democratizes music creation. Users can input a description of the desired genre, theme, and style of the song they want to create. Suno's AI system, powered by a proprietary language learning model (LLM), then generates the audio and song structure, while ChatGPT creates the accompanying lyrics. The entire process takes a mere 10-15 seconds, and the results are often astounding. Users can create songs in any genre, from Britpop to country, without needing any musical expertise.

Why Suno Matters

Tools like Snno are revolutionizing how we create and consume media, making the process more accessible and democratic. Content creators like podcasters, YouTubers, and marketers can use Suno to generate unique, royalty-free music for their projects without breaking the bank. Moreover, the ability to create high-quality songs from simple text descriptions opens up new possibilities for individuals with limited musical skills to express their creativity.

As AI-generated media becomes more sophisticated, platforms like Suno could potentially disrupt the music industry and change how we think about music production and ownership. While there are still questions to be answered about AI's long-term impact on the music industry, it's clear that Suno and other similar tools are pushing the boundaries of what's possible and inspiring new forms of creativity.

My Experience

Eager to test Suno's capabilities, I decided to create a theme tune for the Shep Report. I described it as "a Britpop song about a Seattle-based technologist from the UK who loves technology, new companies, and gadgets." To my delight, the AI-generated two 45-second clips that perfectly captured the essence of my description. The music was catchy, the lyrics were relevant, and the overall vibe was exactly what I had envisioned.

Feeling inspired, I decided to experiment with different genres, like country. Once again, Suno's AI system demonstrated its versatility and adaptability, creating a twangy, Nashville-inspired tune that fit the description to a tee. It was clear that Suno's AI was capable of understanding and interpreting user input and generating high-quality music across a wide range of genres.

The Future of AI-Generated Music

As AI technology continues to advance, platforms like Suno could become even more sophisticated, allowing for greater customization and control over the music generation process. We may see the integration of AI-generated music with other forms of media, such as videos, games, and virtual reality experiences, creating immersive and personalized content.

The increasing accessibility of AI-generated music could also lead to new forms of collaboration and remixing, blurring the lines between human and machine creativity. Obviously, this capability also raises questions about the role of human musicians and the potential impact on the music industry as a whole. Personally, I think there’s room for both, as is the case with any creative expression.

If you're as intrigued by Suno as I am, I highly recommend heading over to https://suno.com/ and giving it a try.

Thanks for taking the time to read. If you’re looking for help with your emerging technology or AI strategy. Do get in touch and let’s explore together.

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Welcome to the Shep Report, where I help Business Leaders like yourself stay on top of the emerging technology landscape and how it will impact your business.

Today I'm looking at Open AI's SORA. A text-to-video generation tool that could have as big an impact as the introduction of ChatGPT itself.

For your viewing pleasure, I’ve put together a short 5 min video (Please Like & Subscribe to my new Shep Report YouTube Channel) or you can enjoy the article below.

What is it?

SORA was announced just over a month ago along with a set of example videos that showed a serious leap beyond anything else we've seen in the current generation of text-to-video tools like RunwayML, Fliki and Pika.

In essence, SORA turns written prompts into detailed, high-quality videos.

These videos can be up to a minute long and maintain visual quality with relatively little hallucination. Existing images or videos can also be provided that SORA can modify based on the prompts, potentially breathing new life into product catalogs and advertising assets.

Complex, photorealistic, creative scenes with multiple characters, specific types of motion, and accurate details of the subject and background can be generated in minutes.

PROMPT: "The camera directly faces colorful buildings in Burano Italy. An adorable dalmatian looks through a window on a building on the ground floor. Many people are walking and cycling along the canal streets in front of the buildings."

What's truly amazing about SORA is that the model understands not only WHAT the user has asked for in the prompt. But also HOW those things exist in the physical world.

This means that when a user inputs a description, SORA can identify the key elements and themes within that prompt. For instance, if a user describes a "sunset over a bustling cityscape," SORA recognizes the primary subjects—the sunset and the cityscape—as well as the implied atmosphere of activity and transition from day to night. This level of content comprehension is achieved through SORA's training on a vast dataset of videos and associated textual descriptions.

Examples of improvements in fidelity that scale as training compute increases.

By analyzing these pairs, SORA learns to correlate specific words and phrases with visual patterns, enabling it to generate relevant and detailed scenes based on textual prompts.

Prompt: The camera follows behind a white vintage SUV with a black roof rack as it speeds up a steep dirt road surrounded by pine trees on a steep mountain slope, dust kicks up from it’s tires, the sunlight shines on the SUV as it speeds along the dirt road, casting a warm glow over the scene. The dirt road curves gently into the distance, with no other cars or vehicles in sight. The trees on either side of the road are redwoods, with patches of greenery scattered throughout. The car is seen from the rear following the curve with ease, making it seem as if it is on a rugged drive through the rugged terrain. The dirt road itself is surrounded by steep hills and mountains, with a clear blue sky above with wispy clouds.

More impressively, SORA's understanding of HOW those elements exist in the physical world adds a layer of realism. This involves not just recognizing objects and settings, but understanding their interactions, physical properties, and behaviors in real-world contexts.

For example, SORA knows that buildings in a cityscape are static, while cars and pedestrians move; it understands the natural progression of colors in a sunset, transitioning from bright yellows to deep purples. This deep understanding is rooted in SORA's diffusion model architecture and its training process, which includes not only static images but also dynamic video content. This exposure to motion and change over time allows SORA to simulate realistic physics and cause-and-effect relationships within its generated videos, even if it occasionally struggles with complex physics simulations.

Prompt: A stylish woman walks down a Tokyo street filled with warm glowing neon and animated city signage. She wears a black leather jacket, a long red dress, and black boots, and carries a black purse. She wears sunglasses and red lipstick. She walks confidently and casually. The street is damp and reflective, creating a mirror effect of the colorful lights. Many pedestrians walk about.

SORA can not only take textual descriptions as input but given an existing image or video, SORA can extrapolate forward and backwards in time and create multiple camera angles all while maintaining consistency of the characters and environment.

How does it work?

Without diving too deep into the technical jargon:

Imagine you're telling a story to an artist, describing a scene with as much detail as possible. In the case of SORA, you're providing a text prompt instead of speaking out loud. This text could describe anything from a bustling cityscape at sunset to a serene beach scene.

Once SORA receives your text prompt, it begins to interpret and understand the content, similar to how a filmmaker reads a script before shooting a movie. It doesn't just look at the words individually but tries to grasp the overall narrative and the specifics—what's happening, who's involved, and where it's taking place. This understanding is crucial for generating a video that matches your description

Think of SORA as a director breaking down a script into shots and scenes. It uses something called a diffusion model, which starts with a sort of digital "static" or noise. Imagine a blank canvas that's not entirely blank but filled with random colors and shapes. Over time, SORA refines this chaos into a coherent scene, much like an artist painting over a rough sketch, gradually adding details until the picture comes to life.

The process of turning the initial "static" image into a video involves a series of steps where SORA adds and refines details. It's akin to sketching, outlining, and then painting, but for each frame in a video. This is where SORA's understanding of the physical world comes into play. It knows how objects and people should move and interact, ensuring that the resulting video feels realistic. For instance, if your prompt includes a person walking down the street, SORA ensures they move naturally and that their surroundings change appropriately.

After going through the refining process, SORA produces a video that matches your description. This video isn't just a series of disconnected images; it's a smooth, coherent sequence that tells a story or depicts a scene as you envisioned. The technology ensures that characters, objects, and backgrounds are consistent throughout the video, maintaining the illusion of reality

Before SORA's videos reach the viewer, they undergo a series of safety checks. This is similar to a film going through a review process to ensure it meets certain standards and doesn't contain harmful content. OpenAI has implemented measures to detect and prevent the generation of misleading or inappropriate videos, ensuring that SORA's capabilities are used responsibly. This is the stage that SORA currently finds itself. It is still being refined, with plans to launch publicly later this year at a cost that would be in line with OpenAI's other offerings.

How will SORA change how you do business?

In the world of Entertainment and Media, SORA is shaping up to be quite the tool for creatives, making it easier to whip up visual concepts, animations, and special effects. This could mean more room for creativity and trying out new ideas with massive reductions in time and budget constraints.

Thinking about Marketing and Advertising, SORA is setting the stage for ads that really speak to you. Imagine video campaigns that feel like they were made just for you, thanks to the magic of AI. This could mean advertisers can quickly see what works and what doesn't, making sure messages are on point. And slipping a product into any video scene? That's becoming surprisingly straightforward.

Heading over to Training, Education, and Human Resources, SORA has the potential to change how we learn and onboard. Picture interactive training materials and e-learning modules that can be whipped up in no time, all tailored to the specifics of your role. HR could use SORA to create videos that truly show off what makes their company a great place to work.

Corporate Communications could also get a makeover, turning internal updates into engaging video stories. At a minimum it would make company news a bit more interesting.

For those in Product Development, imagine being able to visualize prototypes with stakeholders and get immediate feedback, making it quicker to refine and improve.

In Customer Service, SORA could help create clear, engaging instructional videos. This means better help for customers and a smoother experience when they need support.

And it's not just about business. SORA will be landing in the hands of everyday folks, too. We could be looking at a new wave of content creation, where making everything from fun memes to movie-quality videos is easier for everyone. Just yesterday the first set of videos created by a handful of lucky creatives hit the internet. Be sure to check out the lovely, whimsical short, “Air Head” by shy kids.

This technology will be in the hands of billions of consumers. We might be on the cusp of a whole new revolution in terms of content creation and engagement at a scale that could eclipse YouTube, Netflix, or Hollywood.

I hope you found this helpful and informative. If you are a business leader who wants to stay on top of what will be an ongoing period of great change and disruption, I would welcome being your guide.

Yesterday I tried the Apple Vision Pro (AVP) at my local Apple Store. If you are at all curious, or just want to experience something magical, treat yourself to a free, half-hour experience and ‘book a demo’ at your local Apple Store. I don’t care how cynical you are, it will blow your mind and first-hand experience is the only way you can understand that.

In some ways, it was a cathartic experience, after literally waiting for 10 years for Apple to get into the game.

Unboxing the Oculus Rift DK1 back in 2013!

There are many different reviews out there. I won’t give an in-depth one as I’m not sure I have much to add beyond what’s already been said. But I’ll give my quick impressions below based upon having spent hundreds of hours “immersed,” building experiences and apps across many different headsets since 2014.

What I will focus on is why this technology invigorates and inspires me, and how I think you’ll use it today and tomorrow both in a personal and business context.

To lay down some basics: there are currently only two players in this space operating at scale. The “Meta Quest 3” (~$500) is the most popular and affordable solution. The "Apple Vision Pro” (~$4000) offers the highest priced and highest spec solution.

If you’re wondering which one to buy, the answer is easy. Both. Of course, you have to decide which kidney to sell, but surely that’s a small price to pay for what is essentially the cost of entry to experience what is a profound shift in human/computer interaction and media consumption.

The Quest 3 is hard to beat for anything truly interactive or gaming-oriented. The hand-held controllers have a level of control and interaction that is very difficult to replicate with optical hand-tracking alone (hand and pupil-tracking is AVP’s primary input method). That evaluation might change as new peripherals emerge on the AVP. The Quest is more open from an ecosystem point of view both for developers and consumers. There are a lot more apps and experiences and more flexibility with the Quest, especially if you’re not 100% bought into the Apple Ecosystem.

The AVP is the most premium and elegant experience. It has the Apple simplicity straight out of the box that you could hand it to your grandmother and she’d be able to use it with little instruction. It integrates beautifully with your iPhone, Macbook, iPad, etc. Essentially just another tool in the Apple Ecosystem. For media viewing and productivity, the AVP is your device. You can get close on the Quest 3, but it’s cobbled together and doesn’t have the seamless, premium feel of the AVP.

Both the Quest 3 and the AVP are the results of billions of dollars of research over decades. The premise is simple. Fool your wetware (eyes and ears) into believing that you’re seeing something that you’re not. Interact with these virtual hallucinations in similar ways to how you’d interact with physical objects in the real world.

Why should I care?

Both of these devices offer an exclusive experience that you just can’t find anywhere else. The devices are not *currently* replacements for your phone, laptop, TV or Xbox. They’re enhancements.

They offer much of the same utility, but at a cost: both financially and with design trade-offs. They are tools for being more immersively entertained, educated, and engaged with your work, especially when working with 3D products or places.

I will briefly describe some ways in which you could use these capabilities today in a business context. I’ve designed and created solutions for clients in the past in many of these areas, but now the hardware is 10x better.

• Virtual Meetings where you and your colleagues have a greater sense of connectedness than traditional video chat, especially when working collaboratively on 3D design/space /product/presentations, etc.

• Infinite Screen Real Estate. Being immersed and focused on the tasks at hand without being constrained by a tiny screen or tethered to a monitor. Take your office on the go.

• Working with physical objects and spaces. . .virtually. Going to a physical space or moving physical items around in a space is expensive and unwieldy. Doing that virtually is cheap and easy.

  See 8ninths Enterprise Demo Suite.

  

• Evoking an emotional response. Basic marketing 101. There is no other medium that I’ve seen evoke such a visceral emotional response in people. Over the years, I’ve seen so many people cry from a VR experience that I’ve lost count. This is pure gold for marketers. Spatial Video memories on the AVP to me felt as though I was literally witnessing Blade Runner 2049’s Memory Facility scene.

• Being Entertained and Informed.

  It’s like having a 100” 4K 3D projector screen in your pocket. Paired with the spatial audio, when you watch sports and concerts it makes you feel that you are right there with the players or artists . . . There are experiences available today and this technology is about to change the media landscape. People will demand and pay a premium for these experiences. (If you do the AVP Demo ask for the Alicia Keys and Immersive Video Sports Experience.)

I have presented only a smattering of use cases. For any given industry vertical I could go on Ad Infinitum on where the capability can add value. Custom, fit-for-purpose applications are really where companies should focus.

Just like with AI, this is the time to be experimenting, innovating, and exploring how these new technologies will shape your business and personal lives in the future. As Clay Christenson extolls in, “The Innovators Dilemma” it is better to disrupt yourself than wait for your competition to foist it upon you.

These headsets allow us to have a greater number of experiences that feel real to the senses. Before I shed my mortal coil, I want to see, experience (and create) ALL OF THE THINGS. It just adds to life’s rich pageant and with these new tools we can shape the future together.

Bonus - Adam’s Hot Take on the AVP Demo

Pros

Disclaimer - I only spent 30 mins with the device so your results may vary.

+ Incredible pass-through quality / resolution. I’d say about 25-40% perceived improvement from the Quest 3 (which is also impressive).

+ Eye tracking and pinch-to-select interaction feels magical. You look at an icon and make a small thumb-to-finger gesture with your hand resting naturally by the side to select. It just worked and I was surprised how accurate and polished it felt.

+ Spatial Photos and Video - Felt like I was in a sci-fi movie. I want to see all my family pictures in this format. You can view these on the Quest 3 but requires more jumping through hoops.

+ 3D Video / TV / Movies - Arguably better viewing experience than a theater itself. Comfort and multi-viewer experiences aside, I think the Quest 3 is about 80% as good as the AVP for this but again, it is not as polished.

+ Closed Ecosystem - Apple has been seeding Mobile AR for years and so many developers apps will port easily to the headset. All your existing apps should work just fine in the AVP, which is a huge advantage.

Cons

- Comfort. WTF Apple? If you’re wearing a computer on your face you better make the damn thing comfortable. There are A LOT of variables in getting this right and obviously, everybody has different shaped heads and faces but I had to take the headset off after 20 minutes due to pain on my forehead. Now before you freak out, I believe this is a solvable problem, and frankly, it’s a universal issue across headsets. There are already a myriad of fixes and hacks and I wasn’t using the top head strap that’s included with purchase. Maybe that will improve things. I just expected Apple to nail this. With the Quest 3 I use the Bobo VR headstrap and it made a night and day improvement for my experience.

- Corrective Vision. I had expected to have optical inserts for my prescription glasses available for the in store demo but they said that their app either said I didn’t need them or they didn’t have them. Not sure which. Either way, I know I need them and I felt the demo would have been even better with them. Again, this would be solved if I made the purchase and ordered prescription inserts along with it.

- Closed Ecosystem. Up until getting the Samsung Galaxy Fold 5 I was the most die-hard Apple fanboy. But now I’m running Windows as my work machine and Android on my phone. To truly get the benefits of all the admittedly great integrations with the Apple Ecosystem I’d need to think about moving back to an iPhone and Macbook. So all of a sudden a $4K purchase might be looking closer to a $8K purchase. The closed vs. open approach is part of how Zuckerburg is repositioning Meta against Apple and Microsoft in both AI and Spatial. There are advantages and disadvantages to both models.

Thanks for reading. If you’re curious to talk about where Spatial Computing might fit into your business please do get in touch (adam@adamsheppard.org).

For some of my recent past thoughts on the Quest 3 check out.

Ideas for Future Shep Reports?

TL;DR

Happy New Year! A few things have already got me truly excited as we kick off 2024 and I’m excited to share them with you. I appreciate there’s a bit of a read here, so my advice is: if you do one thing, watch the Rabbit R1 Keynote and maybe ponder my musings. I’d originally written it off as “another dumb AI device,” but after watching the keynote, I’m sold. Spoiler Alert - it’s the software stupid.

If you’re craving more, want to understand how 10 million people decided to buy a previously unheard of video game this week, and why it might be a sign of things to come in entertainment, then check out my thoughts on Palworld.

My dance card is open for consulting on Emerging Tech Vision, Strategy, and Execution, especially in AI & Spatial Computing. You can get in touch here.

Bridging the Gap - How the Rabbit R1 Could Change the Internet

There have been a number of new AI-centric devices emerging in recent months. Examples include the Humane Ai Pin ($699 - Mostly greeted with a “meh” and “why?”), and the Ray-Ban Meta Smart Glasses ($329 - The ultimate new parent device for capturing moments—we love it).

A couple of months ago, I wrote about, “The beginning of the end of applications as we know them.”

For some years, I’ve strongly held the belief that the future of human-computer interaction is very different from the dominant paradigm of fumbling around a touch screen with our monkey fingers in an attempt to recite the right incantation to get the result you desire.

The future is what I call Intent-Based Computing. I express intent through whatever modality is most convenient for the context I’m in. This could be natural speech, a subtle gesture to a camera, or through some non-intrusive Brain-Computer Interface (BCI). From that input, an intelligent, hyper-personalized agent manifests the optimum outcome and expresses it back to me in the most optimum modality. Again, this could be visual on my smart glasses, a whisper in my earbud, or a notification on my desktop. What will be certain is that I won’t have to wade through a myriad of disparate Apps, Websites, and User Interfaces to get stuff done.

The problem is that getting to this new techno-utopia is going to require new infrastructure, business models, attribution, and security. Ultimately, I think a lot of this will be what Web3 evolves into. But it’s not something that will happen overnight and, in many ways, will likely be driven by Big Tech, who will be the Big Winners in this game. They will offer both the Personalized Intelligent Agent that will be your trusted proxy (for a subscription fee) on the consumer side as well as be the provider of cloud services such as massive compute and storage. No one else has the resources to own this space.

In hops the Rabbit. . .

What is it?

The Rabbit R1 is a standalone gadget about half the size of an iPhone, featuring a 2.88-inch touchscreen, a rotating camera, a scroll wheel/button for navigation, and a built-in ultra-fast AI assistant. All housed in a gorgeous, rounded body designed in collaboration with the incredibly talented industrial design firm Teenage Engineering.

This intent-based, minimalist interface is a significant departure from the app-centric approach of most current devices. You click a button like a walkie-talkie, tell or show it what you want to do, and, “like magic,” the Rabbit goes off to interact with a number of common service providers to achieve the outcome you asked for.

How they’ve achieved this is a BRILLIANT cheat.

They agree that the mobile / web-centric application model is going the way of the Dodo. And they have a solution that will provide much of the value of Intent-Based Computing today.

The Rabbit R1 is not just a device; it's a new way of interacting with our digital world. In some ways, I actually think the device is the least interesting thing about Rabbit (even though I love the form factor).

Powered by ChatGPT for speech input connected to their proprietary Large Action Model (LAM), the device mimics the click streams of a user navigating through apps and websites to complete tasks. Essentially, it spawns a “headless browser” in the background and performs your interactions for you.

From their “Rabbit Hole” portal, you securely sign in to common services like Uber, AirBnB, DoorDash, Spotify, etc., and connect your accounts to allow the Rabbit to use the services on your behalf. If a service is not initially supported, the Rabbit R1 can be trained to interact with it by watching your interactions, touches, and clicks on your phone or browser, expanding its range of capabilities.

The idea isn’t completely unique. Robotic Process Automation (RPA) has been gaining traction in Enterprises in recent years to observe and replicate monotonous application interactions like data entry across legacy systems where it’s not worth the investment in building out new APIs and capabilities. However, it hasn’t been done in the consumer space with anywhere near this level of ambition.

Why is it relevant?

If everything works as described (and to be fair, who knows how well it’ll actually deliver), the Rabbit could be a massive catalyst for a transition from apps to Intent-Based Computing. The tax you currently pay to get stuff done through your computer or phone is having to learn the user interface, functionality, and interactions to build a mental model of what you’re trying to achieve. Then, you have to go do those interactions every time you need that service.

Humans love saving time, and the Rabbit shows a path forward to create a meta user interface that sits on top of and obfuscates the user interface of the service provider(s). Providing the minimum information and interaction to fulfill the intent.

What’s more, they’ll do this for just $199, with the first 100K users getting a year's worth of Perplexity Pro subscription (Perplexity’s AI-driven search has replaced 90% of my Google Search usage, by the way. I’ll save that for another day).

For me, that’s essentially free, as I’d have paid $200 for Perplexity and its ChatGPT capability alone.

Yes, there will be issues.

• Will the service providers embrace or block Rabbit from interacting with their sites?

• What about complex UI interactions that aren’t well-suited for keyboardless data entry, voice, or camera?

• Do I want another device in my pocket?

• What if it screws up and gets something wrong?

There is also a valid argument: “Why can’t I just have something like Rabbit on my phone?”

In truth, I think you will in the future. The problem is that Apple and Google have a vested interest in maintaining the 30% cut of sales for the existing app paradigm for now. They’re not going to shift that overnight. AI has been a wake-up call, and it takes some time to change the course of an oil tanker. It’s likely going to take a while, and they will be constrained by protecting their own walled gardens.

I have no illusions that this thing will be perfect. But I’m willing to take a bet that the pros will outweigh the cons.

If successful (and the fact that they’ve sold 50K units in pre-orders sounds promising), we may remember this launch as an inflection point in Human-Computer Interaction and the start of Intent-Based Computing at scale.

I think if you watch one tech video this month, make it the Rabbit R1 Keynote. Not only is it Apple-esque and engaging, but also easy to understand and a great example of how to market a technology product in 2024. It does a fantastic job of explaining why I’m so excited in much richer detail.

Now From LAMs to Lamballs. . .

Palworld

A Black Swan: A $10,000 indie game that spawned a potential billion-dollar franchise in less than a week.

As a connoisseur of high-quality media and a lifelong gamer, I love to be a part of a new phenomenon. Exactly one week ago, a small Japanese studio named Pocket Pair, with less than 10 people and an original seed budget of $10,000, launched Palworld to an unsuspecting global audience.

7 days later, amassing over $100 million in revenue with over 8 million copies in less than six days, it has become the second game in Steam history to reach over 2 million concurrent players, with an all-time peak of 2,033,118 players. It is second only to PUBG: Battlegrounds, which holds the record with 3.2 million concurrent players.

The game took 3 years to develop and by all accounts was made with a relatively novice team of engineers and designers, and a relatively low total budget of $6.75M.

This kind of success does not come often in the huge gaming business and is shaking the foundations of the industry as they try to figure out HOW and WHY?

Share THE SHEP REPORT

What is it?

So, first of all, what is Palworld? You may have already heard your teen kid (or middle-aged friend) mention it this week. The trite response, which may turn many people off and is a far too superficial description, is: “Pokemon meets Fortnite meets ARK: Survival Evolved.”

In reality, it is a unique blend of open-world survival, crafting, and monster-collecting elements.

One of the game's most compelling features is its “Pals,” creatures that players can capture, fight, and somewhat dubiously press gang into building their base. Each Pal offers unique abilities and has their own work suitability levels for your base.

Some of Palworld's success can be attributed to its unique blend of familiar and innovative features. It has learned from and built upon the core game loops, visual style, and the success of popular game franchises like Pokemon and Fortnite, and frankly, made them more fun.

The game also offers a refreshing experience without microtransactions or paywalls, which has been well-received by players. It removes much of the monotony and micromanagement that are complaints of the other franchises, providing a fun, creative playground where players with different styles and interests can hang out and make progress.

Despite its success, Palworld has faced some controversies and criticism. Some accuse the game of being a derivative product, but others argue that it offers a refreshing experience. Pocket Pair has been responsive to feedback, with a detailed roadmap for future updates that includes improvements and new features based on user feedback.

In conclusion, Palworld's success can be attributed to its unique blend of familiar and innovative features, its responsive development team, and its commitment to providing a refreshing gaming experience without microtransactions or paywalls. Essentially, it is the antithesis of some of the more exploitive and anti-player practices that have become more common as the larger franchises seek to maximize profits. Palworld isn’t the only indie game to have seen success by doing right by players first, with the 2023 Game of the Year award going to “Baldurs Gate 3” by Belgium-based Larian Studios. Like Palworld, Baldurs Gate 3 is fantastic game praised for its expansive and immersive world, a faithful adaptation of tabletop RPG mechanics, and its approach to player freedom and choice.

Why is it relevant?

Even if you’re not a gamer, economically, any time you see a Black Swan event, there’s something to learn. My wife recently read Nassim Nicholas Taleb’s book, “The Black Swan,” and has been educating me on the topic in recent weeks.

Source: Wikipedia

1. The disproportionate role of high-profile, hard-to-predict, and rare events that are beyond the realm of normal expectations in history, science, finance, and technology.

2. The non-computability of the probability of consequential rare events using scientific methods (owing to the very nature of small probabilities).

3. The psychological biases that blind people, both individually and collectively, to uncertainty and to the substantial role of rare events in historical affairs.

Taleb's "black swan theory" (which differs from the earlier philosophical versions of the problem) refers only to statistically unexpected events of large magnitude and consequence and their dominant role in history. Such events, considered extreme outliers, collectively play vastly larger roles than regular occurrences.

Palworld's success fits this description in several ways:

1. Rarity: The game's rapid ascent to the top of the Steam charts and its achievement of over 2 million concurrent players is an extraordinary feat, especially for an indie studio, which typically has much lower budgets and marketing reach compared to major studio releases.

2. Severe Impact: Palworld's success has had a significant impact on the gaming industry, as it has challenged the norms of what an indie game can achieve in terms of player count and revenue. It has also sparked discussions about game development, the use of AI, and the potential for indie games to compete with major franchises.

3. Hindsight: After the fact, it may seem obvious that a game combining popular elements from different genres could be successful. However, predicting which games will break through in a market saturated with titles is incredibly difficult. The fact that Palworld has reached such heights could lead to retrospective claims that its success should have been expected.

In summary, Palworld's unexpected and significant success, despite the challenges faced by indie games, aligns with Taleb's Black Swan theory. It was an unpredictable event with a major impact, and its success was not widely anticipated before it happened.

More broadly, I wonder whether this might be the start of a trend. Coupled with the use of AI to create and refine new gaming experiences quickly, large and small game studios may experiment with combining game genres. As I often like to remind people, in 2021, the global games market had a whopping $180 billion in revenue, making it bigger than Hollywood and the music industry combined.

While there were initial accusations that Palworld must have used AI to derive assets from Nintendo or Fortnite, this was quickly dispelled.

However, the point is that it very well could have done so! And chances are that some smart studios are going to do exactly that and likely see success.

The next billion-dollar franchise might start by someone prompting ChatGPT with something along the lines of:

“Create a hyper-detailed design document that combines the most successful game mechanics of Minecraft, Fortnite, Call of Duty, and Madden NFL in a format with the broadest possible appeal and revenue potential.”

(If you want to invest in my new billion-dollar franchise, be sure to check out the synopsis that ChatGPT came up with here)

Joking aside, I do think that in the same way we will see AI innovating new products in drugs, materials, and healthcare, we’re going to see the same thing happen in media and entertainment.

Omnichannel marketing, where one reaches a customer through every imaginable channel, has been the industry buzzword of recent years. What we might be about to witness is Omniproducts that are hyper-personalized and mashed up from a variety of formats to your individual media consumption preferences.

So, in conclusion: play Palworld! Currently available for free on XBOX Game Pass or $29.99 on Steam. It’s fun, it’s creative, and it could well be a glimpse at the future of gaming and entertainment :)

Shep Report Notes

My most impactful early “influencer” marketing campaign started in Plymouth, England, circa 1982. It targeted a very exclusive and skeptical audience that, for the purpose of this tale, we’ll call “Mum & Dad.”

Sir Clive Sinclair had launched the ZX Spectrum. More than just an affordable home computer; it was a portal to a new world of digital creativity. Its unassuming rubber keyboard and diminutive size belied its significance. It brought computing into the living rooms of the average British family, demystifying technology and igniting a passion for computing across the nation. 8-year-old Adam had to have it. Thus began a campaign of attrition designed to wear down poor Mum & Dad. Like a miniature Steve Jobs, I would carefully stage-manage the perfect pitch. . .

The Argos catalog would be placed on the living room coffee table, just so happening to fall open to the double-page spread extolling the educational benefits of this magical device. Sensationalist articles in the Daily Mirror featuring Lamborghini-driving teenage programmers would be clear proof points that anything other than succumbing to my ask would be a complete failure of parenting. I made it clear that this would improve my maths, allow me to learn new languages and assumedly receive my own knighthood from Her Majesty for my contributions to the crown.

Obviously, all I really wanted was to play video games. . .

But who would have thought? This clever little machine, hooked up to my black and white TV and connected to a flagging tape cassette recorder, was 100% a portal to my future. After the post-Christmas excitement of playing “Horace Goes Skiing” and “Manic Miner” wore off, I wanted more…and like the Minecraft / Roblox generation of today, I wanted to create.

In order to create, I had to learn to code. BASIC was installed by default on the Spectrum, and so with help from my Dad, I would marvel as I would wield my new algorithmic superpowers with such complex algorithms as:

10 PRINT “ADAM IS THE GREATEST”

20 GOTO 10

Judging by similar profanity-strewn screens of the Spectrums on display at the local Boots store, I wasn’t the only one. In fact, the relatively low cost, accessibility, and utility of the ZX Spectrum is attributed to being the reason the UK is still, to this day, known for being a hotbed of software development talent.

So while my Mum had to work probably far too many extra shifts at the village post office, and my father likely missed out on a golf club that year, I’m always thankful that they saw the potential in my earnestness and excitement to learn about technology, and were willing to support me.

That glimmer of excitement from 8-year-old me is still very much alive inside of me as I dream about and help contribute to bringing the future to life for the next generation. And so, with that, I wanted to share my own personal “Holiday Tech Gift Guide,” hoping it might help ignite that same glimmer in you or your loved ones. Some of these things are pricier than others but hopefully mostly accessible and in my mind, hold a lot of relative value in terms of what they might provide. There are some affiliate links, but I’m not paid for promoting. These are things I mostly own and value.

Galaxy Fold 5

Avg Price. $1,800-$2,000

For well over a decade I was a die-hard Apple iPhone fan. It was only after a visit to the pub with my brother, when he pulled out and opened up his otherworldly Galaxy Fold, that I spat out my Kool-Aid and thought it might be time for a change. That was the Fold 2, and several years later, I’m now on the Fold 5. The most futuristic phone I’ve ever owned. And I’m not alone in my appreciation. It also happens to be the device of choice for BillG. Not only is it my primary phone and tablet all in one. But, and this may shock a few folks. . . I don’t own a laptop.

My home PC is my daily work machine, and if I need a computer on the go, 9/10 times my phone running Samsung Dex or remote desk-topping back to my home PC with a Bluetooth mouse and keyboard is all I need. Email, presentations, video conferencing, etc all running on my phone. It features an OLED Screen, multi-tasking of apps (I love this), a great camera, long battery life, and a lightweight, comfortable form factor. What’s not to like?

Yes, there are some other foldable options on the market, but Samsung is the world leader in display technology, and they’ve refined both the hardware and software over 5 iterations at this point. There were admittedly some durability issues initially, but I feel they’ve worked through them, and typical phone insurance is enough to make that, at worst, an inconvenience. While definitely not the cheapest phone on the market, it starts to look pretty attractive as a pocket-based phone, tablet, and laptop all in one.

Meta Quest 3

Avg Price. $200-500

I’ve written recently of how the Meta Quest 3, reignited by my passion for VR and Mixed Reality. It’s simply one of the most futuristic experiences you can have today, even with all its current limitations. I use it daily for :

• Fitness (boxing, yoga, beat saber, meditation, archery and target practice)

• Fun (Great games like Half-Life Alyx, Wrath of Asguard, Assassins Creed, Demeo, Population One, and City Skylines)

• Sports (Football, Basketball, Pickleball, Goalkeeping, Hockey, Table Tennis, Walkabout Mini Golf)

• Hobbies (Pottery, Sculpture and designing 3D prints, Painting with Bob Ross in Vermillion, Flying with Microsoft Flight Simulator, Car Racing, Puzzles, Piano)

• World Travel (Wander, Google Earth VR, Brink, Wooorld, Blueplanet, National Geographic)

• Socializing - (VRchat, Horizon Worlds, Multiplayer Games)

• Media viewing - (Bigscreen VR)

• Productivity - (Virtual Desktop, Immersed)

And there’s so much more. You simply can’t convey the experience without trying it, and the color pass-through capability of the Quest 3, fidelity of graphics, and processing power truly make this the best time to dive in.

There are some quality-of-life accessories I’d recommend. Primarily being custom prescription lenses for those who may benefit from them. Improved head strap for comfort with the BoboVR M3 and a silicone facial interface for sweaty workouts.

Try this instead of a New Year’s gym membership, and I think you’ll be happy with the decision. Note while I highly recommend the Quest 3, the Quest 2 is still pretty darned good. You can get refurbished models for about $269.

Valve Steam Deck OLED

Avg Price. $300-600

As a gamer, The Steam Deck is one of my favorite pieces of technology. A highly refined, handheld gaming PC. I can be hanging with the kids or watching a show while playing a slew of games I’ve accumulated over the years in a small, super-powerful form factor.

I recently upgraded to the new OLED edition, and Valve continues to lead the pack in terms of portable gaming. Not only can I play games directly on the machine, but it seamlessly connects to my Xbox Series X, PlayStation 5, and PC. Good second-hand deals are to be had right now on the LCD version (~$300), as many are upgrading.

Fellow 16 oz Travel Coffee Mug with Slide-Lock lid

Price $35

Stylish, safe material, leak-proof, and perfectly designed. I use this mug daily, take it with me everywhere, and feel like Fellow has thought of everything. Nothing else to say. It’s great.

Bambu Lab P1S 3D Printer

Price $600-1000

I got into 3D Printing about 7 years ago when I bought a Creality CR10-S. It was the perfect blend of electronics, mechanical, software, hardware, and creativity. All activities that as a tinkerer, I love. Unfortunately, 80% of my time with this machine has been spent tinkering to try and get things working well, and 20% actually creating successful prints.

This is a common story for most folks who’ve delved into it over the years, but a year or so ago, a new player emerged from a Kickstarter project called Bambu Lab. Completely turning the 3D Printing consumer market on it’s head.

I ended up purchasing their new mid-tier printer, the P1S with the Automatic Multicolor System (AMS). Key features include its ability to print at blazingly fast speeds, up to 500 mm/s, an enclosed design for high-temperature filament printing, and simple auto bed leveling for ease of use. Setup takes just 15 minutes and includes an integrated camera for remote print monitoring. When combined with the AMS, it supports up to 16-color printing.

It can print carbon fiber, wood, PLA, nylon, and flexible TPU rubber. I’m honestly astonished at the quality, speed, and reliability of this thing. Needless to say, Santa’s Elves are working overtime to meet the holiday rush. In the long term, this will give me the ability to tinker, repair, and explore more functional hardware and creative projects. I see this being another great gateway for my kids to learn and experiment, especially when they can design and make their own toys. I’ll do a more in-depth feature on this in the future.

If you’re looking for a cheaper alternative but with similar capability, it’s worth looking at the Bambu Lab A1 mini at just under $500.

Meta Ray Ban Smart Glasses

Price $300-500

I’ve spent the last 10 years steeped in building Virtual and Augmented Reality applications for Enterprise and Media. I’m a believer in the potential for this kind of technology to provide true value in our everyday lives, and I think it’s important to explore and support the incremental steps it takes to get there. For an example of Meta’s longer-term vision, much of it taking place a few miles from me at Meta’s Reality Labs, check out the Project Aria video below.

While we wait for the hardware, form factor, physics, compute and battery issues to be improved upon to realize this vision, there are real early benefits from a subset of these use cases that you can experience today for about $300.

The second iteration of the Meta Ray Ban Glasses (2nd Generation) was recently launched. Their primary value proposition is:

1. Lightweight, classical design

2. Reasonable Battery Life (~4+) Hrs actual results depending on activity.

3. High Resolution, Stabilized Photo and Image Capture

4. Live Stream / Instant Share to Social

5. Bluetooth Spatial Audio

6. Prescription, Transparent, and Transition options available (Note: This can add up without Vision insurance)

7. And most interestingly, AI integration.

So for the price of a usual set of Ray Ban Way Farers, you get all this functionality and, early next year, the ability to show an AI what you’re looking at and have it answer questions or interact with you about what you’re viewing.

THIS IS HUGE

As a parent, the highest value to me is being able to capture my kid’s early years in a seamless, instant way at the touch of the frames. The beautiful, lightweight design mitigates any Glasshole fears. While I could wear it in public, I think that’ll be less common for me personally in the near term, and I’m willing just to ignore the privacy concerns that go along with that (There’s an LED that lights up when you’re recording, FWIW). Add the additional benefits of audio without earbuds and being able to take my AI into the real world. This is getting very close to the kind of capability we see in the movie “Her”. Hopefully, with a little less dystopia. . . hopefully. . .

LG 65” GX OLED Monitor Screen

Price $1000-3000

During the pandemic, I was finding I just couldn’t spend hours on end working with my somewhat ridiculous Obutto Revolution Simulation Station that I’d been using as a gigantic multi-monitor setup. It was great for certain flight sims like Elite Dangerous and Microsoft Flight Simulator, but rotating my head to the extremities of the 81560 x 3440 desktop was causing neck issues. Climbing in and out of the cockpit wasn’t conducive to frequent breaks, although it did help me channel my inner Tom Cruise….*shudder*.

When I upgraded our TV, I moved the 65” HD TV downstairs as an experiment. Connecting it to my PC on a standing desk. I instantly appreciated the massive screen real estate and found the setup much easier on my body.

As an aside, giving yourself or your employees more screens is probably one of the cheapest and easiest productivity upgrades you should consider. One study found that people using a 24-inch screen completed tasks 52% faster than those using an 18-inch monitor, and those using two 20-inch monitors were 44% faster than those with an 18-inch monitor.

I ended up moving the new OLED TV down to my office, and it’s my primary productivity setup. I find the crispness and refresh rate of the LG OLED GX to be perfect for anything I throw at it. I operate everything in Dark Mode to reduce eye fatigue, and when gaming I simply just use the bottom half of the TV to avoid neck strain.

When doing focused work, I just pull windows into the lower middle section but have access to calendar, slack, browser windows, email, etc, all around me and readily available. Basically, a poor man’s “Minority Report” (clearly, I’m on a Tom Cruise kick today). . .

I know it’s not for everyone, but if you’re curious and you have a TV you can try it with, I recommend giving it a whirl.

You can find more of us weirdos at https://www.reddit.com/r/oledgaming

While my LG is a few years old now, I’m pretty sure you’d be satisfied with any recent model, and I’d encourage you to explore the excellent, https://www.rtings.com/ to explore the best options for your needs.

XGIMI Horizon Pro 4K Projector

I’ve owned projectors for about 20 years and have always loved the cinema experience they offer. Our primary entertainment setup is the XGIMI Horizon Pro 4K Projector with an Elite Screens Spectrum 106" Electric Motorized Projector Screen. Again a few years old, and there may be better options available, but for the price point, it’s really hard to beat this thing. Incredible 4K picture, with a 1500 Lumens Lamp, Quiet Operation, Harmon Kardon Speakers Built-in with Google TV. Compact and portable when you occasionally want to show the big game outside. I still find myself marveling at the clarity of the picture.

Wellue O2Ring

$70-120

The Wellue O2 Ring is a wearable device that tracks your blood oxygen level and heart rate while you're asleep. I purchased one after my Galaxy Watch 5 was reporting erratic sleep data that didn’t seem to be correct. The O2Ring provides much better results than my smart watch and allows me to have a more informed discussion with my physician as well as measure whether different actions are helping to improve.

While I usually wear it when sleeping periodically, I’ve found it comfortable and unobtrusive, although a little snug. You can view the results in the Wellue ViHealth App with a simple update over Bluetooth. You can also download and analyze the data via OSCAR, the Open Source CPAP Analysis Reporter. If there’s a loved one who snores (not me of course) or who’s maybe suffering from a respiratory or heart condition, this might be a helpful tool to have to hand. There are plenty of the devices available refurbished on eBay, or you can buy from Wellue direct.

I hope you found something that might be a good addition to your Holiday Shopping list.

If you’d like some additional ideas, please do head over to my friend Omar Shahine’s annual Holiday Picks list below. His posts are always an instant read for me, and he’s got some really great suggestions this year.

OmarKnows

Omar’s Holiday Picks 2023

Hi and welcome to my annual Holiday Picks, now in its eighth year! You can always check out past issues such as the one from 2022, 2021 and 2020. And a very Happy Thanksgiving 🦃 to all my friends in the US! Since this post is long, you may not be able to read it in your email app. If that is the case, click through to read it on this website…

Read more

2 years ago · 2 likes · Omar Shahine

If you have additional questions, ideas, or thoughts, I’d love to hear from you!

Share THE SHEP REPORT

As always, here’s a summary list of some additional SHEP REPORT notes from the past week or two. Thankfully without too much reference to the wild week of OpenAI…why does that feel like a lifetime ago already?

Do you remember 2008 when the iPhone launched with an initial 500 apps in its store? As of this year, there are 2.24 Million Apps available with ~$155 Billion paid to developers (Apple taking their customary 30%, of course).

I believe in the years ahead, November 6^th will be viewed as an equally impactful moment in the evolution of computing. The day that the application as we know it changed forever.

So what happened? OpenAI announced at their inaugural Dev Days event a number of great cost savings, feature and API enhancements, and one MASSIVE capability that has me buzzing.

First, the quick updates (all of which are noteworthy in their own right).

-          GPT-4 Turbo with Vision: This is about giving the AI the ability to understand and interpret images, not just text. It can describe pictures, analyze their details, or read documents that include images.

-          DALL·E 3 Integration: Developers can now use the DALL·E 3 technology in their own apps. This means they can automatically create images or designs, like generating unique graphics for advertisements or products.

-          Text-to-Speech (TTS): This feature turns written text into realistic-sounding speech, useful for things like reading out text in different voices, making audiobooks, or assisting visually impaired users.

-          Price Reductions: The costs for using various OpenAI services have been reduced, making it more affordable for developers to use these advanced AI technologies in their projects.

Now for the biggy:

GPT’s – Roll your own Assistant

Open AI introduced the concept of “GPTs” (Generative Pre-trained Transformers). Tailored versions of ChatGPT for specific purposes. This allows both non-coders and developers alike to create special-purpose AI apps using GPT technology tailored to their specific needs. The “GPT” term is something you’re going to hear a lot more of, in the same way “there’s an app for that” became common vernacular.

So what are they?

In essence, GPTs are like having a highly capable digital personal assistant with highly specific domain knowledge. It can handle a wide range of tasks, from simple conversations to complex problem-solving.

-          They can remember previous parts of a conversation, so you don't have to repeat yourself.

-          They can write and run Python code, which is like being able to do complex calculations or solve tricky problems on the spot.

-          They can pull in information from outside sources, like grabbing data specific to a particular field or topic.

-          And on top of all that, they can TAKE ACTIONS by using existing APIs. That might include everything and anything you would do in an app on your desktop or phone today.

o   Processing an order or refund in a chat

o   Coordinating calendars and creating meetings

o   Tracking stock levels, reordering supplies, or analyzing sales trends.

o   Handling common queries, routing tickets, or providing after-hours support

Most interestingly, is that in many cases, you don’t need to be a software engineer to create one.

In fact, for one of my clients, I was able to take their entire publicly available SDK documentation and create a natural language bot to help their customers integrate with their platform. It took me literally 5 minutes.

90-second Assistant creation guide

If you’re a ChatGPT Plus subscriber and want to try it for yourself, you should have the ability right now. Simply go to ‘Explore’ in the top left of ChatGPT.

Here’s a simple example where I describe an idea I have, a Business Gift Suggestion Assistant, that I can provide either an exported file of LinkedIn contacts or specify a LinkedIn URL Profile. It comes up with gift suggestions along with a personalized message and even a customized card.

Think how long it would take and how expensive it would have been for someone to create an app like that on Android or iOS previously.

Want to try it yourself? No problem, because not only can you create them for yourself. You can share them with others. Check out my Business Gift Guru.

Where do things go from here?

At the end of this month, OpenAI is allowing developers to monetize GPTs based on how many people use them. Creators will be able to publish their GPTs on the GPT Store and earn a portion of the revenue generated by the usage of their GPTs. OpenAI CEO Sam Altman mentioned that they will be paying people who make the most used and most useful GPTs with a portion of their revenue. The exact payment scheme has not been fully articulated, but it is clear that creators will be compensated based on the usage of their GPTs.

If you thought the gig economy and side hustle culture was heating up, wait till you see every influencer and enterprising individual create their own Assistant.

And this ultimately is why I think we’re about to see the demise of the application as we know it. Today an app is a neatly encapsulated user interface that you’ve been trained to go to on your phone when you have a need in mind. Each app usually has a different interaction method, interface, and capabilities. The app developer has created a ‘point of view’ of what the user is trying to achieve with the app and competes to offer its services to the broadest possible audience by marketing, store placement, and word of mouth.

Personalization in recent years has gone some way to tailoring experiences, but ultimately you’re still working within the confines of the app developers’ constraints and motivations with the application.

What if you never needed to install an app again?

What if all you needed to do was express intent?

Rise of the Assistants

Today, interacting with an app is “the tax you pay” to achieve the outcome you’re seeking.

• I don’t want to spend 3 hrs comparing flights on Expedia for a European trip. I want the most affordable and convenient flights for my family to get to our destination.

• I don’t want to browse doctors on my health insurance website to see what expertise and experience they have. I want the best-damned doctor for my individual age & gender profile, medical history, and coverage

• I don’t want to learn about and wade through Turbo Tax to figure out what laws and advantages apply to me and my business. I want to file my taxes on time, accurately, and to my best benefit.

And that’s what’s coming. . . Monkeying around with hundreds of apps on your phone and computer is going to seem as archaic as the typewriter.

The assistant of the future will know you. In all actuality, it’ll likely know you better than maybe you know yourself.

It’ll know what you like, what you don’t like, who you work and socialize with. It’ll know what brands you prefer, where you travel through the world, and when. It’ll know what you own and where you can get the things you need or want. It will know how much money and other resources you have at your disposal. It will see, hear, and sense everything around you, both in the digital and physical world. It will work tirelessly to achieve each and every outcome that you ask of it.

The “point of view” will shift from that of the developer who created the app to your personalized assistant who will “compose” an outcome on the fly for the outcome you’re seeking to achieve. The results of that outcome will depend on your modality. If you’re driving in the car, you might hear it give an overview of the trip it’s booked in your ear on your morning commute. If you’re walking down the street with your AR glasses on, it might see and highlight a great new Indian restaurant that you might like. Your tax preparation might be sent to you as a document for your final review without you lifting a finger.

So what happens to all the existing online businesses and application providers? It’s adapt or die time. Their services are still absolutely crucial, but over time they will need to let go of “owning the user experience” or at a minimum, make it services available in parallel. And they will, because 8 billion agents buzzing around trying to fulfill their owner's needs programmatically is a lot more efficient than trying to grab your attention with a dumb banner ad and hope you click to install.

They will need to expose their capabilities to AI Assistants through Microservices. The user’s AI Assistant will seek out the best providers in real time (maybe based on cost, subscriptions the user has, or other preferences) and cobble together the optimum outcome based on the user’s intent. Each service provider participant in fulfilling that intent will receive appropriate attribution and their cut of the transaction.

A much more efficient model, and one that might see huge increases for the service providers who are first to adopt.

While I don’t think this is going to happen overnight. . . it might. For many companies, their services are already architected in such a way that instead of exposing their capabilities to just a Mobile or Web interface, they’ll just need to expose it *thoughtfully* to AI Assistants.

The big winners in this game are likely going to be the Siri’s, Alexa’s, Google Assistants, and Cortana’s of the big tech companies that will effectively be your trusted AI Assistant. You will “trust” them to act on your behalf, and the stickiness and brand loyalty they’ll drive will be based on an intimate attachment you establish with them by sharing every facet of your life and trusting them to navigate and broker effectively and safely.

They’ll offer assistants of different capabilities and different price points to consumers. They will also be the ones (along with the NVIDIA’s of the world) who will benefit from all the service providers who are utilizing these services on their cloud computing platforms.

I don’t think this is at all far-fetched, and I think Nov 6th is the start of it all. We’ll see in the weeks and months ahead how quickly we’ll move to this new paradigm. While there will likely be some hurdles along the way, and clearly a need for better rails for privacy, legal, safety, and other societal concerns, I think this is an inevitability, and I think it’s going to happen quickly.

In my day job, I’m already helping clients prepare for this new era, and together we’re learning, experimenting, and already seeing very real and impactful optimizations, returns, and new opportunities.

If any of this resonates, or you’d like just to learn more, I’d love to hear from you.

Thanks for taking the time to read, and let’s look forward to a world of magic where your intent is manifested at the speed of thought, or at least, for now, by how quickly you can chat with your AI Assistant.

Looking for more?

Check out some recent brief notes from the last couple of weeks.

I had my first experience trying the Oculus Rift DK1 prototype Virtual Reality headset. It was 2014, and I’d been invited back to Microsoft to visit the late, great Bill Crow, a former Live Labs colleague who was working on a super secret project that I was later to discover was the “Microsoft Hololens.” This was my first time experiencing any VR outside of early forays with VRML back in 1994 at IBM Hursley’s Research Labs.

The DK1 experience was nauseating as I clunkily moved around a beautifully rendered virtual penthouse. It was heavy, hot, and yet despite all that, I was hooked. This was something new. A peek behind the curtains of a sci-fi future I’d dreamt about since I was a child.

The next day I spoke to my business partner William. We’d been struggling to find a True North for our innovation lab, 8ninths. By necessity, we took on many different projects of different types for different clients as we struggled to keep the lights on and revenue flowing into our growing business. The popular wisdom was, “pick one thing and do it well,” and while we were doing great work, we were doing many different things.

This was compounded by digital agencies becoming more prevalent both domestically and offshore; if we wanted to raise capital and get to the next level, we’d need to differentiate. After many hard and sometimes heated discussions, we picked a direction. We will become early leaders in Virtual and Augmented Reality.

And so we pivoted the company and retooled the entire 8ninths business. None of us were experts in 3D at the time, and VR experts just didn’t exist. We hired a creative director (the amazingly talented Heather Raikes of NeoPoetics), a former dancer with a degree in Digital Arts and Experimental Media who understood the nuances of spatial computing and composition. We brought on an incredible 3D modeler and animator, Thomas Huang, who had worked on Hollywood movies and could translate Heather’s direction into something living and breathing. Our talented designers, developers, and project managers all rolled up their sleeves and embraced the new direction. In a matter of months, we were defining and publishing design patterns for describing our ideas to one another in this exciting new medium. We later heard that schools like the Pratt Institute were incorporating our patterns into their fledgling courses.

By 2018, post-acquisition, we had created dozens of experiences across multiple headsets with clients in Automotive, Aerospace, Education, Retail, and Entertainment.

It was an exciting time. We felt we were not only on the cutting edge but leading the way through fresh snow where there was no prior art.

But. . . the medium was fading. All of the companies in the space were battling the limitations of the hardware. Small fields of view, battery life, heat, discomfort, motion sickness. Outside of Zuckerburg investing billions of dollars and continuing to push the vision of gaming and the Metaverse, it seemed like AR/VR had been a flash in the pan.

I found myself being disillusioned with the medium, and for the most part, my Oculus Quest 2 sat on the shelf gathering dust.

Fast forward to the present day, I think we’re in for a resurgence, and I’d like to share why.

A New Hope

Firstly, we have the $3499 Apple Vision Pro headset about to hit the market early next year. From what has been shared, my prediction is that it will have mind-blowing visuals and typical, refined Apple integration across its established ecosystem (Communications, Productivity, and Entertainment). It will be bootstrapped by enthusiasts, executives collaborating with their teams, and professional digital creators. It will be democratized as people start to literally see the value and the hardware price points drop. I’ve not spoken to anyone personally who’s tried the device yet, as it’s still under closed doors with select developers, but I’m looking forward to seeing it, and I suspect I’ll be impressed.

However, Meta has not been complacent. Having spent some time consulting with the computational photography team at Meta on the Rayban Stories glasses a few years back, I’m a believer in their talent and vision.

A couple of weeks ago, Meta unveiled the Meta Quest 3 at their Meta Connect event.

Initially, I was a “meh.” Another incremental update focused on gamers playing rhythm games like Beat Saber and shooters. Pass-through video . . . sure . . . who cares? Increased resolution and field of view . . . OK . . . I guess.

But then, in the last week or so, people started to receive headsets.

WOW.

/r/oculusquest lit up with amazing mixed-reality videos. People were transforming their homes into virtual playgrounds. People were:

• Cooking and cleaning their homes while watching a show.

• Learning piano, DJ’ing, and playing virtual drum sets.

• Playing table tennis and pool in their living room.

• Playing PlayStation while watching movies, TikTok, and checking email.

• Exercising with virtual sparring partners

• Watching sports and movies together with their distant friends and relatives on giant virtual IMAX screens.

I rushed out to Best Buy, picked one up, and I have to say I’m kind of floored by how reinvigorated and excited I am about where this is going.

I’m not going to give a full review of the hardware itself. There are plenty of folks who’ve done a stellar job at that (Check out Norm from Tested’s review). Rather, what I hope to do is pique your curiosity and explain how and why I find it enhancing my life. With a bit of luck, I’ll hopefully have you come join me in the Shepiverse!

In the past week, oftentimes with my wife (with me using the Quest 2), I’ve:

• Explored a life-size cadaver to help diagnose some sciatica

• Gone fishing at exotic locations around the world

• Learned the basics of pottery and pottery painting

• Worked out on a rowing machine and exercise bike while watching a streaming video

• Worked out even harder playing Beat Saber, sparring with a boxer in my basement, and doing calisthenics

• Learned to oil paint with Bob Ross

• Meditated as I floated through the solar system

• Fought through dungeons with random strangers

• Watched a 3D movie in an IMAX theater with my wife that was better than the actual theater

• Sung karaoke

• Listened to and participated in thoughtful VR Chats with smart people talking about current events

Now most of these experiences were technically possible with the Oculus Quest 2. But it was never truly a joy to do so for all the reasons I’ve listed earlier.

I believe the Quest 3 is a tipping point. The combinations of a powerful processor, excellent 4K optics, impressive and intuitive pass-through color video, lightweight, enhanced comfort, and an active and dedicated developer community have produced something unique. You’re essentially getting an experience pretty darned close to what Apple is touting for a fraction of the cost (128GB - $499.99 / 512GB $649.99). While not “cheap,” you get a lot for your money that you could offset from a gym membership, hobby lessons, big screen TV, gaming console, or travel upgrade. If you can afford it, I’d say err on the side of the 512GB version. The storage fills up quickly, and there’ll be a lot more apps and content that will eat up the space. More storage will save you from juggling installs.

The challenge of VR / Mixed Reality is that it’s very difficult to convey the experience unless you’re actually in the headset. It’s a multi-sensory experience that doesn’t translate well to 2D. In addition, I think Timothy Leary’s advice on psychedelics from the 60’s of ‘set and setting’ is just as important for these digital hallucinations. Your mindset and the environment you’re in are important to getting the most out of an experience. If your experience to date has been a rushed 5-minute demo at a conference with hundreds of people watching you, you haven’t truly experienced VR.

If I’ve sold you on purchasing and you’d like a referral, please do use my link: https://www.meta.com/referrals/link/ashepp/

You can buy it from any retailer and we’ll both get $30 store credit to purchase apps.

I’ll be posting some ‘Shep Shorts’ videos on a regular basis of some of my favorite experiences across a variety of tech. You can find the first video on the Medical Holodeck by clicking the image below. Warning: Medical Holodeck includes high-resolution models of cadavers, so use your best judgment if you’re sensitive to that content.

Thanks for taking the time to read, and I’d love to hear below if you’ve got ideas for how Virtual & Mixed Reality might be relevant to your own work and areas of focus.

Shep Report Notes

Be sure to check my bite-sized snippets of tech, media, and just plain fascinating things I’ve found on my digital travels at https://www.theshepreport.com/notes

This week’s highlights:

Share THE SHEP REPORT

Here’s my first ‘Shep Short’ giving you a tour of “Medicalholodeck” on the Meta Quest 3. A wonderful application for anyone who is interested in the human body from medical professionals to the just plain curious.

If you’re interested in learning more about why I think VR is about to have its day in day in the sun again, check out ‘How I fell back in love with Virtual Reality’

Five years after our acquisition, I still yearn to re-engage with the entrepreneurial world, and this post outlines how I'm approaching things differently. Not long after ChatGPT launched, buzz emerged around a project named “AutoGPT,“ aimed at evolving GPT-4 into a fully autonomous entity capable of tackling complex tasks with minimal to no human intervention. Similar projects, like Microsoft Research’s AutoGen and ChatDev, started surfacing, focusing on creating cooperative autonomous AI agents. I've been dedicating some time to experimenting with these new tools, and I thought it might be useful to share some of my findings and thoughts.

My Goal

The hype around what AI can and cannot do is abundant. We are in the very early stages of the hype cycle, a journey that I think will likely continue indefinitely.

I sought to answer the question: Can I really come up with an idea and work with AI agents to design, develop, and test a business concept fully on my own?

Inspired by the way many people, including myself, doom-scroll through content on platforms like Reddit, I conceived an idea. Although I don't read many books these days, I voraciously consume podcasts, audiobooks, and videos. Would a “reddit-esque“ short-form format facilitate individuals like me to engage with longer-form content like a book?

That's the premise of “Snackify.“ I planned to use this relatively simple concept to see if I could collaborate with AI to design, build, and test it.

This project is a work in progress. I've encountered some astounding results and surprising pitfalls. I chose to work openly on this venture as I truly believe the evolutions of this endeavor will significantly alter the nature of work in the years to come.

ChatDev

Initially, I delved into ChatDev. Imagine wanting to create software without a team. ChatDev functions like a virtual development company where instead of humans, computer programs called agents perform the tasks. There’s an agent acting as the CEO, a programmer agent who writes the code, a tester agent who checks for mistakes, and so on.

You inform ChatDev about the kind of software you desire, and these agents collaborate, much like how people would in a real company, to build an application. They can design, write code, test it, and rectify any issues, all while working together seamlessly. You can even modify how these agents work to better suit your idea, like instructing the designer agent to focus on bright colors or the programmer to enhance mobile-friendliness.

At the core of ChatDev is a user-specified LLM, in our case “ChatGPT,“ which powers each coordinating agent (you just provide your API key).

You assign a task to the system, it operates in the background, and then you can “replay“ the results through a cute 8-bit style UI, providing context around each agent's actions. The code, documentation and imagery is all created in a directory ready for you to modify or continue to iterate upon.

In my example, I started out with a simple task specified as:

"Create a product that will turn a book into reddit style posts, each paragraph will be a separate post that can be viewed, commented upon, saved, shared and voted upon. Every 10 posts create an AI generated image based upon the posts on the page. The application should be targetted at the web and mobile form factors”

The system ran for about 10 minutes, engaging in design, code development, testing, art generation, and iteration. You can witness a replay of the logs/work in progress in the short video snippet below, where each participating agent is highlighted with a thought bubble as they tackle their section of the problem.

The resulting first iteration of the app, created by my AI companions, is showcased below. Alice in Wonderland, turned into paragraphs. Th Although it's not yet at a stage where I can relax and start collecting ad revenue from the Bahamas, it's a solid start. The architecture, crafted in Python, is structured well enough for continuous evolution and iteration.

So why should I care?

Autonomous AI agents working collaboratively are central to discussions about the future of work. To understand its evolution, consider using tools like Chatdev—a platform for role-playing team compositions. This exercise can help you envision how to integrate autonomous agents with your human team and determine the most effective areas for AI deployment in your organization.

Will professionals like lawyers, doctors, software engineers, product managers, and designers be replaced by relentless, innovative, creative AI agents who can surpass the best in their respective fields?

In my view, this scenario is a “maybe. . .“ depending on the timeframe under discussion. We're definitely not there yet, but a decade from now? We are likely at least to witness a surge in the utilization of specialized agents for tasks, accompanied by a drastically reduced human workforce.

In the near term, I envision a middle ground emerging during these transitional years - a hyper-personalized AI agent that learns from our work ethic, styles itself after us, and represents us or acts as a liaison with other humans and agents toward achieving a goal. This might redefine the role of the information worker, where nurturing, guiding, correcting, and assisting an agent who represents us becomes the norm. We might find ourselves working at multiple companies simultaneously, surprised by some contributions “we“ (whatever ‘we’ is) make to solve a problem, learning about it only during a weekly update from our agent and being rewarded (through the blockchain of course…) for our fractional contributions.

What remains certain is that change is the only constant. I prefer to harbor an optimistic outlook that, akin to every other technological transition humankind has navigated, we will adapt and hopefully thrive.

I hope to continue to share progress on my experiments in AI Entrepreneurship in future posts. Your thoughts on this are highly encouraged, and I would appreciate it if you would share your insights or experiences in the comments below.

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Stay ahead and let Sheppard Consulting help navigate your business through the new technology era. Let’s Talk.

I don’t know how many meetings I’ve been in where people are busy taking notes but not actually (and actively) listening. What if you could have faith that every meeting was accurately captured, summarized, and action items identified? What if you could even have the tone of the conversations analyzed to take a temperature of how the meeting went?

While some products like Microsoft Teams have real-time meeting recaps as a Premium option, it often comes with constraints, additional payments, or doesn’t work if the meeting is with an organization that doesn’t use Teams. I’ve created a pipeline that works agnostic of the video conference technology platform or audio source for the cost of a few cents.

While the steps might seem a little daunting, it’s really quite simple even for a non-techie. Once set up this literally takes a minute each time you need it in the future.

Audio Capture

First of all, you need to capture the audio. You should know that the laws regarding audio capture vary by state and by country. This is not legal advice, but If you’re in the US, you can check here for whether you’re in a one-party or all-party consent state. Regardless of the legal obligation, it’s just good form to ask the participants and respect their choice.

Assuming all parties have consented (be sure to send them the notes too!), then a great open-source tool for capturing any audio (and video) on a PC, Mac & Linux is OBS Studio.

1. Download OBS Studio and ensure your earbuds/headset is connected.

2. Launch OBS Studio and Click on “Settings”.

   

3. Select “Audio” from the left side menu and click on the dropdown next to “Desktop Audio”. Pick the headphones/earbuds you use to listen to a call as well as for speaking by selecting “Mic/Auxilary Audio”.

   

4. Click on “Output” on the left-hand menu and set the ”Recording Path” to wherever you want to place the captured conversation audio file, such as the desktop.

   

5. Click ”Apply” and ”OK” when done and you’ll now be at the main OBS Scene.

6. The general flow works from Left to Right here. First, we’ll create a ”Scene” which is really like creating a small project that contains all our settings. Then we’ll select which source (The Video Meeting Window) we want to capture from. The Audio Mixer will show levels once you’re in a conversation to know that audio is being heard and captured, and to the far right you can Start / Stop the recording itself. I’ll walk you through this below.

   

7. Clicks the ”+” icon in the bottom left of the screen and enter a Name for this scene, e.g. ”Video Meeting Recorder”, and click ”OK”. You’ll only need to do this once as it’ll remember your settings next time you come in. You should now see it listed and highlighted under Scenes.

8. Click on the ”+” icon in the lower left of the ”Sources” section and select ”Application Audio Capture (BETA)” from the top of the list. It’ll prompt you to create a new Source and default to ”Application Audio Capture (BETA)” which you can just select with ‘Ok’

9. Now you’ll select the meeting window that you wish to record. Typically this’ll be obvious by the browser tab name and can be selected before you ”Join” the meeting itself. You may need to play with this a bit to ensure you’re recording the right window, but conceptually you’re just specifying the source Chrome window or application to be recorded.

   

10. In my case, I usually use Google Meet, and the window name for my example meeting I have open is ”Meet - zhb-vyfs-vnm - Google Chrome”. Select the window and hit ”OK”.

11. Assuming you’re in the lobby of the meeting. You should now see the levels for your Mic start to pickup any noise. Once the other participants are speaking you should see their audio appear in the ”Audio Mixer” levels area.

12. To start and stop the recording simply select ”Start Recording” before you enter the meeting or during it, and ”Stop Recording” when you’re done. The resulting audio file will be stored wherever you specified earlier, usually with a timestamp filename like, ”2023-10-14 12-29-09.mp4”.

Transcription

Congratulations! You now know how to capture audio from your desktop without being dependent on any paid software or your audio being stored in the cloud.

Now let’s transcribe the audio file into something that we can feed to ChatGPT in a textual form. I like another great free utility called ”Buzz” by Chidi Williams.

1. Download ”Buzz” from https://github.com/chidiwilliams/buzz

Select the latest release and download the ”Asset” for your Windows or Mac machine.

2. Install and launch the ”Buzz” software and you’ll be greeted with an application window that looks like this.

3. Select ”Help” then ”Preferences” and you’ll see it asks for your OpenAI API Key. Enter your ChatGPT API key and click ‘Test’ to make sure it’s working correctly.

Note: It’s very simple to get your API key, simply follow the instructions at.
https://help.openai.com/en/articles/4936850-where-do-i-find-my-secret-api-key

As of writing, you can get a free trial of the API Key with about $18 of credit, but if you want to continue using it then you’ll have to pay a small nominal fee. More details here. https://openai.com/pricing. For our purposes, we’re usually talking about a few cents per conversation.

4. Click the Models tab and select ”Tiny or Small” and select ”OK”. This is essentially downloading the OpenAI Whisper Speech to Text model to your computer where it will process the audio file locally to create a textual transcript file. I’ve tried the ”Large Model” but found that the transcription time was much, much longer, and not much better in terms of quality, but your results may vary.

   

5. We’re now ready to import the audio file of our video meeting and create a transcription! Go to ”File”, select ”Import Media File”, and select the audio file we created using OBS Studio.

   

6. You’ll now confirm the settings as shown below and hit ”Run”. The resulting text transcription should be placed in the same location as your source audio file.

   

   Note: For an hour-long conversation this might take 15-20 mins to transcribe and will be dependent upon your machine’s hardware. You’ll see a progress % update along the way. The software doesn’t currently do speaker diarisation, which is a fancy way of saying that it doesn’t distinguish between different speakers in the conversation but ChatGPT seems to figure this out automatically. As you’ll see below, I’ve not found this to usually not be a problem, especially in 1:1 conversations.

Summarize, Analyze and Share

OK! We now have an audio capture of the meeting and a usually very accurate textual transcription in a text file. Time for ChatGPT to do its thing and process the text into something useful!

1. Open up a ChatGPT session at

   https://chat.openai.com/ and select GPT-3.5 or GPT-4. I’ve found good results with both.

2. Give ChatGPT context with a prompt like:

   Imagine you’re a professional transcriber, I’ll provide you with a transcript of a meeting between myself and Claire from accounting. I’d like you to create meeting notes in the following format. A highly detailed, verbose summary, call out any and all action items that were discussed, brainstorm 5 additional ways we could help one another and point out any discussion points that might have been confusing or unclear. In addition create a ”tldr” summary at the top, along with details of the time, location and sentiment of the speakers

3. ChatGPT will respond with something along the lines of, “Absolutely, Adam. Please go ahead and provide the transcript of the meeting with Claire from accounting, and I'll create the meeting notes as requested.

4. “Open your audio transcription text file, and hit ”CTRL/CMD-A” to select all text, ”CTRL/CMD-C” to copy the text.

5. Paste the full transcript into the ChatGPT Window. The results will be a concise and detailed report that succinctly summarizes the conversation with specific actions and recommendations called out.

Here’s an example based on a fictional conversation I asked ChatGPT to create, in terms of what you might expect:

TL;DR Summary

Time: October 14, 2023, 2:00 pm - 3:00 pm
Location: Conference Room A, Corporate Office
Sentiment: Collaborative but cautious; both Adam and Claire are keen to align, yet aware of the challenges ahead.

---

Detailed Meeting Notes

Agenda

1. Introduction and setting the stage

2. Review of the current year's budget

3. Planning for next year's budget

4. Pain points and challenges

5. Discussion of growth opportunities

6. Final thoughts and action items

---

Introduction and Setting the Stage

Adam and Claire acknowledged the importance of budget planning for the upcoming fiscal year. Adam emphasized the need for agility and innovation, given his entrepreneurial background and tech focus. Claire, representing accounting, expressed concerns about maintaining financial health and compliance.

---

Review of Current Year's Budget

• Adam pointed out that the technology budget was almost exhausted due to unexpected needs in cybersecurity.

• Claire highlighted that although some departments underperformed, Accounting was able to reallocate funds efficiently.

---

Planning for Next Year’s Budget

• Adam suggested a 10% increase in the tech budget to accommodate emerging technologies.

• Claire advised a more conservative approach, recommending a 5% increase with a contingency reserve.

Action Item 1: Adam to draft a detailed proposal for the suggested 10% budget increase.
Action Item 2: Claire to provide data on this year’s spending to help inform next year’s budget.

---

Pain Points and Challenges

• Adam mentioned the difficulty in predicting costs for adopting new technologies.

• Claire talked about challenges in financial reporting due to remote work.

Action Item 3: Both to meet again in two weeks to review progress and adjust plans accordingly.

---

Discussion of Growth Opportunities

• Adam emphasized the potential ROI from investing in AI and Cloud Computing.

• Claire was interested but asked for data to back up these claims.

Action Item 4: Adam to compile ROI metrics for proposed tech investments.

---

Final Thoughts and Action Items

• Both agreed that a more detailed follow-up meeting is needed.

• Claire to lead the financial review and Adam to spearhead tech strategy.

Action Item 5: Schedule a follow-up meeting for a deep dive into specifics.

---

Brainstorm: Five Additional Ways to Help One Another

1. Cost-Benefit Analysis Workshop: Adam could host a session to help the Accounting team understand the value of tech investments.

2. Financial Literacy for Tech Teams: Claire could conduct a seminar to educate tech teams on budgeting and financial planning.

3. Monthly Sync-Ups: Regular meetings to ensure alignment and adapt to any changes quickly.

4. Tech Audit: Adam could help Claire understand what software/tools could make Accounting more efficient.

5. Resource Pooling: Explore opportunities to share resources between departments for mutual benefit.

---

Points of Confusion or Unclear Discussion

• The exact percentage of budget increase remained unresolved, requiring more data and discussions.

The implementation roadmap for new technologies was not clearly defined, leading to some ambiguity about timeframes.

So there you have it. I appreciate this might seem a little daunting at first, and undoubtedly there are paid tools and services that can replicate much of this. But I like it because:

• It’s essentially free or costs very little

• It allows me to easily capture any audio or conversation and feed it to ChatGPT to discuss further.

• It only takes me a few seconds to start the recording after gaining consent and capture the audio. Another few seconds to drag and drop it to ”Buzz” afterward and another few seconds after transcribing to copy it into Chatgpt.

Conclusion

As an information worker, I consider this a MUST-HAVE capability whether you cobble it together yourself or use a paid service like Otter.ai . In a future post, I’ll detail more about how I integrate this method into my Personal Knowledge Management workflow using ”Obsidian”.

Hopefully, this will become second nature, and your colleagues will thank you for taking some of the best meeting notes they’ve ever seen.

Stay ahead and let Sheppard Consulting help navigate your business through the new technology era. Let’s Talk.

Let me explain and give you some examples of how ChatGPT Plus has completely changed the way I work and play.

What is it?

Launched in February 2023, ChatGPT Plus is a subscription plan introduced by OpenAI to provide an enhanced user experience. Priced at $20 per month, this plan offers a slew of perks over the free 3.5 version or the ChatGPT Model integrated for free into Microsoft Bing, although Bing and others have their place as I’ll outline in more detail below.

Key Features of ChatGPT Plus:

1. General Access: Subscribers will experience unrestricted access even during peak times.

2. Faster Response Times: The paid plan facilitates quicker interactions, making the conversation flow smoother and more natural.

3. Beta Features:

   • Custom Prompts: Give context and help guide the context for an interaction.

   • Voice Input / Output: Conversate with ChatGPT on any topic

   • Image Input: Take a picture of anything in the world and use it as input.

   • Image Generation: Describe anything you can think of an instantly generate an image using the latest DALL·E 3 engine.

   • Advanced Data Analysis: Upload and analyze any document.

   • Plugins: 3rd Party specialized plugins for discrete tasks such as diagrams, maps, spreadsheets, presentations, etc.

   • API Access: For those who want to push the boundaries of current capabilities or create a solution around ChatGPT.

Much of the true differentiation compared to the “free models is in these Beta Multi Modal Features which is a term you’re going to be hearing a lot more of. Essentially meaning that the system can now ‘hear’, ‘see’, and ‘talk’ about the world through these different modalities just as we humans use our senses to understand the environment around us.

Why is it relevant?

Since Google's PageRank Algorithm in 1998, search engines haven't truly evolved. They sift through content, match keywords, and rank results. However, ChatGPT promises a rich, contextual, conversational experience. It understands the intricacies, personalizes interactions and redefines how we seek information. Instead of keyword hunts, you converse, extracting insights seamlessly.

Rather than hunting and pecking for matches of keywords on web pages. I’m able to show or speak to the AI in the same way I would a human and get to the real nuggets of what I’m trying to achieve way more quickly.

Here’s OpenAI’s marketing video and some examples I’ve collected from around the web.

Vision

• Take a photo of your clothes and ask GPT to advise what combination would look great

• Plant identification

• Take a picture of your refrigerator contents and ask it to suggest recipes

• Take a picture of a room and ask for interior design ideas

• Take a photo of your dumbbell rack, foam roller, etc., and ask it to generate a set of exercises for the equipment that you have.

• Send it an image of your bookshelf and request recommendations for new books based on them.

• Draw an image of a website and send a picture of it, then ask for the Python code to create it.

• Feed it a workflow diagram and instruct it to generate a project scope statement, epics and features, requirements, acceptance criteria, and use cases.

• Ask it to critique your website and provide suggestions for improvements.

• Have it read handwritten letters from your long-gone grandparents and transcribe or summarize their content.

Voice

1. Ask it to create a recipe, then skip its long response by tapping the screen. Afterwards, tell it, I've gathered the ingredients. What is the next step?"

2. Have voice assistance turned on beside you while studying or working. Tell it what you have to study or do, and ask for encouragement. When you've completed something, request congratulations and guidance on what to do next.

3. Utilize it for self-reflection and personal growth, as well as learning about different philosophies. Ask it to create a "council of elders" with historical and modern thinkers to answer your questions from their own perspectives.

4. Use it as a platform to develop "blue-sky" ideas without immediate criticism. Ask it to explore the feasibility of your random thoughts and help you flesh them out.

5. Create homeschooling content for your kids.

6. Send it any document and have it quiz you on it.

7. Create a voice note and instruct it to create to-do lists.

8. Request a guided meditation session.

9. Ask for an interactive bedtime story with 10 chapters, each ending with 3 options for the next part.

10. Request lessons on how to speak Italian.

Data Analysis

• Upoload a Zipfile of a github project - Request it to add a new feature that does x, y, z.

• Map addresses onto a custom map and give the optimum route to visit each.

• Upload an excel spreadsheet or any comma delimited file. Ask it to output different transformations on the data.

Image Generation (DALL-E3)

• Show 3 male adults in their 50s on a Washington lake with a blonde woman and black haired woman in their 30s and 50s with a 4 yr old girl and 2 year old, on a floating deck powered by solar with an electric outboard

  

• A middle-aged consultant sitting in a nice basement office sitting in front of a 65 inch screen writing a post on substack (bit of a hallucination compared to reality here….)

• Create a beautifully intricate coloring book image of a jungle with a 4 year old and 2 year old girl playing with lots of different animals.

So hopefully that’s enough to inspire and interest you. Many of the examples above are things I use on a regular basis now, and I’m finding that the more that I interact with my new friend, the more use cases and benefits I discover.

Yes there are limitations (the current model is trained up until January 2022), It can only remember context for 100 tokens and then it forgets), there’s a small delay when processing voice, it can’t generate images based on a submitted image, etc. These problems are all being worked on and with the blistering pace we’re already seeing with AI, we’ll see major advances and much more in the months to come.

I also highly recommend pairing chatgpt with an AI enabled search Engine. I’ve been using Bing a lot more which has vastly improved since the OpenAI integration. Google Bard which I’ve found a little lacking compared to the competition but it’s early days and I think we’ll likely see some great things from the incumbent. Meta’s making big strides in media and a more open and rapid approach to making their models available. Amazon will make Alexa smarter overnight, I’m sure.

However, I’ve mostly been moving away from the traditional search players and have been getting a ton of utility from using a new app called “perplexity” especially on my phone. Somewhere between a traditional search engine and chatgpt, their application will both serve up a page of related links AND create an AI generated answer to your question. Worth experimenting with, I’m liking it a lot.

Got any idea for something you’d like me to try?

What have you been using ChatGPT for?

I’d love to hear about it in the comments below.

In a future post I’ll talk a little bit more about where I think this is all going but I wanted to share my enthusiasm and excitement as we’re in for some magical times ahead and I choose to believe that we’ll all have superpowers that can enhance and allow us to improve the world around us.

Stay ahead and let Sheppard Consulting help navigate your business through the new technology era. Let’s Talk.

Eventually, my friends and colleagues, weary of my random midnight emails on some new tangent, suggested I find a creative outlet and put my ideas into a newsletter (blogs hadn’t quite turned up on the scene yet…), and thus “The Shep Report” was born.

It turned out that this approach resonated. I would highlight some new start-ups, explain why I thought it was relevant to Microsoft, and send it out every other week to an organically growing mailing list. Eventually, Bill Gates and many other members of the executive team also subscribed, forwarded, commented, and discussed, opening up new opportunities for my career at the company.

I’ve had many more incredible experiences in the 15 years since I left Microsoft. From Starbucks to Starships, Big Tech to Start-Ups, CEO to Consultant. My North Star has always been to follow my passions and trust my intuition. As a generalist with an insatiable curiosity, I’m compelled to envision, experiment, tinker, and create with the technology tools we have on hand.

To my astonishment, former colleagues still ask about The Shep Report to this day. And so, now that I’m independent and consulting with a variety of companies, I figured it may be time to bring it back.

I aim to shed light on the ever-evolving intersections of technology, media, and culture. A resource designed for everyone, ensuring you’re well-informed and along for the ride with me. Regardless of your tech background, I hope to help connect the dots back to both your work and personal lives.

I plan to post more thoughtful pieces here as well as quick takes and short-form thoughts over in the Notes section. I deeply appreciate your support. Please share your thoughts and suggestions and let’s see where this new voyage takes us.

Adam

Stay ahead and let Sheppard Consulting help navigate your business through the new technology era. Let’s Talk.