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A little over six months ago, De Beers Group announced the DiamondProof “diamond verification instrument” at a jewelry trade show in Las Vegas. The idea was that this device could sit inside a retail jewelry location and immediately distinguish between a natural diamond versus a lab-grown diamond. The official announcement for the device included this telling line: “with research … Read more
In case you needed more life imitating fiction, a startup known as The Los Angeles Project is using gene editing to experiment with doing some “crazy” things to animals—including making glow-in-the-dark rabbits, cats that are hypo-allergenic and maybe, one day, actual unicorns. As founder and biohacker Josie Zayner says, “I think, as a human species, it’s kind of … Read more
Amazon, Spotify, Netflix, Uber … all dominant players in their industry. What if the secret to their success is just that they were all willing to lose money for longer than any of their competitors? An article I read this week suggested that perhaps the ten year journeys of both Netflix and Hulu to now … Read more
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
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
Would you leave a tip for your driverless taxi? This past week a security researcher named Jane Wong shared leaked screenshots apparently showing the autonomous taxi service is planning to experiment with letting riders leave a tip. Before your temperature rises too much, it’s important to note that the tips would go to charity, and you can … Read more
Wide-eyed predictions of the future are fun to read, and even more fun to write. Yet for every book that promises to predict the future, there remains a nagging problem at the heart of those predictions: that future, which should already be here, continually seems far off. Why isn’t tomorrow’s technology already here? That is … Read more
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
There is a housing shortage in many cities. And there’s a Costco in those cities. In an ambitious new project, the brand is working with LA-based developers Thrive Living to build a new 800-unit apartment complex in Baldwin Village, South Los Angeles, with a new Costco store occupying the ground floor. Nearly 25% of the … Read more
Rather than sharing a book recommendation this week, I wanted to switch it up and share a media source that’s particularly timely right now. If you’re not familiar with Shelly Palmer, he is a tech commentator and overall insightful voice on the future of technology. At CES he hosts tours and often offers his own perspective … Read more
Non-Obvious Thinking is my latest book about the 4 secrets of becoming a non-obvious thinker - released 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.
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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.
