As Featured In:
Webby
AdAge
HBR
WSJ
AI-induced angst seems to be on everyone’s mind. Just this week I was invited to an hour-long virtual session with a group of brand experts and strategists about the future of AI and creative industries. I was tempted to do what most others do and focus on the latest technology. Whether it’s fun but relatively … Read more
Have you ever picked up the phone to answer a call from a pollster? I can probably guess your answer, and that’s not uncommon. A tiny fraction of people actually answers those calls, which creates a predictably skewed result if political campaigns are truly relying on those calls to generate any useful insight. The modern … Read more
This past week, ChatGPT went down for all users. According to Gizmodo, “OpenAI’s outages have become somewhat common, which makes it difficult for people to rely on ChatGPT in their workdays.” Now that OpenAI estimates that the free version of ChatGPT has about 100 million weekly active users and there are a growing number of reports … Read more
How useful will tech reviews (or any other kind of online review) be in a future where they can increasingly be AI generated? This was a topic tech journalist Kara Swisher focused on in an interview with tech reviewers Walt Mossberg and Marques Brownlee. They are an interesting duo to discuss the topic side by side. … Read more
The biggest AI story this week was the showdown between Open AI and actress Scarlett Johansson over the use of a voice concerningly similar to hers after she had refused to collaborate with Open AI. This is quickly becoming a recurring typical deepfake story: someone steals the likeness of a famous person, and that person … Read more
This week’s example of unnecessary AI innovation comes from the caller ID platform Truecaller which is using Microsoft’s Personal Voice technology to power a new tool that can “replicate users’ voices in order to greet and respond to callers.” Here’s a breakdown of each “feature” it promises, along with a list of how I currently … Read more
The future of entertainment will be driven by more immersive experiences. This week, there was a story about how the Meta Quest VR headset will be accessible by passengers on long haul flights. The possibilities to tie this into tourism, destinations and the overall travel experience are vast. Also this week, Airbnb has been getting some attention … Read more
The day after the Met Gala, the Internet was flooded with deep fakes of celebrities who weren’t there, wearing things they never wore. Some of them were pretty convincing. The future of art, fashion, and music will see all sorts of disruptions in the coming years from technology like this. Where is all of this headed? … Read more
In aviation, most people know that a huge portion of the costs in that industry come from paying for fuel. Recent projections are that it will account for more than 30% of the overall expenses for most airlines. When it comes to AI startups, investors and industry watchers are starting to get a similar picture of just … Read more
When you are a notoriously geeky tech billionaire, having an AI clone of yourself built and trained on all your books and public videos and then interviewing yourself probably seems like a good idea. Netflix founder Reid Hoffman just did that and started by asking his clone to summarize one of his books in the fictional Star … Read more
Non-Obvious Thinking is my latest book about the 4 secrets of becoming a non-obvious thinker - relesaed 10/01/2024.
Rohit Bhargava is a trend curator, founder of the Non-Obvious Company and the 3-time Wall Street Journal bestselling author of ten books.
Skip the obvious and anticipate the future with our weekly newsletter. Join over 25,000 subscribers and start receiving the stories (and insights) you’ve been missing.
In addition to Non-Obvious Thinking, Rohit is the author of 10 books on trends, the future of business, building a more human brand with storytelling and how to create a more diverse and inclusive world.
