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What The AI-Enhanced Beatles Grammy Award Win Tells Us About the Future of Memories

BEATLES GRAMMY

In case you missed it, at this past weekend’s Grammy Awards, the Beatles took home the win for Best Rock Performance for the AI-assisted track “Now and Then.” Before you go down the rabbit hole of seeing this as the first step in the music apocalypse, it’s important to note exactly what was done here. … Read more

The Age of the AI Chatbot Salesperson Might Have an Unintended Side Effect

AI chatbot sales

Training an employee to do upselling (and be good at it) is notoriously difficult. When it’s done right, it can drive significant revenue for many types of businesses though so it’s not surprising that some are experimenting with letting AI do the job. An article from WIRED this week showcases a few examples of vendors working on … Read more

The Non-Obvious Book of the Week: Humanize: A Maker’s Guide to Designing Our Cities, by Thomas Heatherwick

Humanize

Imagine a graphic novel that offers a compelling argument for why our cities can be more than just boring backdrops for daily routines. That’s the vision in Thomas Heatherwick’s Humanize and it comes to life through lots of examples, stories and visuals of exactly how cities could be more interesting and exciting. You may not … Read more

The Library of Lost & Imaginary Books

Library of imaginary books

There are books mentioned within the pages of other books that never existed on their own, but what if they did? That’s the fascinating story visitors can explore at the Center for Book Arts in Manhattan where you can either show up with your own idea for a book or help recreate an imagined title from another … Read more

Why The “World’s First” AI-Powered Hotel May Be More Than Fancy Marketing

Otonomus hotel

From the outside the Otonomus Hotel (pun probably intended) doesn’t really look much different from any other spot. The property just had their soft-launch before officially opening in April 2025, declaring themselves the “first true AI-powered hotel in the world.” I can already picture you rolling your eyes. Despite the cringe-worthy marketing hyperbole, there are … Read more

The Brilliant Entrepreneurial Lessons of a Plant Hacker Inventing New Flowers

inventing flowers

To raise money to put himself through school and earn a biotechnology degree, Sebastian Cocioba would gather orchids that his local Home Depot had thrown out and apply a plant growth serum to bring them back to life so he could sell them back to the store. Later, he would buy used lab equipment in … Read more

The AI Granny Scambaiter Is Everything We Hope AI Might Become

AI granny scam baiters

The largest mobile operator in the UK clearly has a delicious sense of humor and a life-affirming grasp on the therapeutic benefits of schadenfreude. Especially if that delightful misfortune comes at the expense of people working for scam robocaller networks trying to hustle people out of their money. Daisy, as this “scambaiting Grandma AI” is … Read more

Is All-Blind Narration the Future of Audio Description for Films & TV?

audio description

“He looks ahead, his dark eyebrows overshadowing his dark eyes. One of his several gold teeth gleams in the dim light.” This is the audio description for a scene from a limited series called The Penguin from Max, a part of the Warner Brothers group. This isn’t just another AI-generated audio description of a visual … Read more

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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.

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