If I learned anything this past week, it’s the increasing value of human connection, especially in the age of and in the face of AI. Show notesHere’s Tuesday’s mixed bag of AI+Creativity content.Here’s one of the 110 AI Coca-Cola holiday spots.Here’s Ben Affleck speaking about the difference between craft and art and the implications for AI.Here’s the digital twin of the Vatican.Here’s my Thursday post about AI and the responsibility of having taste. Subscriptions are free. Your attention is invaluable. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit timbrunelle.substack.com

The humans give me all kinds of inspiration. Show notes:The Strands of Genius newsletter from Rosie and Faris Yakob is well worth subscribing to. Faris’ book Paid Attention is also worth your time and attention. Many thanks to Inga Rundquist for quoting me in her guest curation.This week I wrote about The Slot a kind of creative collective alchemy worth noticing. Also mentioned two AI conference appearances, the first with Applied AI who present very useful experiences. Big thanks to Justin and Emily! (📸 Event photos by creative director Kyna Min.) And the second is next Wednesday 11/20 with the Marketers Community (tickets still available). Finally, I talked about Marc Watkins’ perspective on resisting AI. And the poetry of Joseph Fasano.Subscriptions are free. Your attention is invaluable. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit timbrunelle.substack.com

This episode is a little different. Show notes:Here’s the longer interview with Rafa Jiménez. Listen via Apple or Spotify.The post linking to the four articles I mentioned. Shelly Palmer’s persuasive thesis.And ReCraft. On Friday, November 15 I’m moderating the closing panel of the Applied AI annual conference. It’s a full day of useful presentations. You should attend if you’re in Minneapolis and St. Paul. And if you’re looking for connection, let’s schedule time to talk. Because the work continues. Subscriptions are free. Your attention is invaluable. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit timbrunelle.substack.com

Are you, as Brian Eno offers, an architect or a gardener? Do you need ideas meticulously dictated or might you be willing to curate and see where they grow?It’s hard to imagine a better metaphor for my conversation with Rafa Jiménez, founder of the AI creativity and innovation platform Seenapse. This is the second iteration of the Curiosity+Courage interview series, and we cover a lot of territory. Rafa tells the story of a childhood focused on making culture versus merely consuming it, discovering how an audience reacts to your ideas, and how to learn from their perspectives. This is the difficult, yet critical development of a successful creative mindset. Then we venture into the heady days of the late 1990s as technology and advertising become strange bedfellows, and Rafa’s company is acquired by WPP and he finds himself discovering the world of advertising and characters like Neil French. In that period, Rafa witnesses a computer win at the game Go, and has his epiphany—the notion of a computer generating useful, fresh ideas alongside humans. Seenapse is born. But the journey is long, winding, and never obvious. Product Market Fit proves illusive until the current generation of AI begins to emerge, and Seenapse is reimagined. Ultimately, we discover idea people need to be in constant dialogue with their tools, to see where they might take us. Listen via the podcast above (subscribe via Apple and Spotify), or watch our conversation below.Subscriptions are free, but your attention is invaluable. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit timbrunelle.substack.com

Happy post-Halloween, pre-Presidential election—that nebulous weird space. And look what also just arrived: the 2024 Communication Arts advertising annual. This publication has been an important tradition in my creative career, a chance to review amazing ideas and “judge the judging.” A few of my favorites include:👏🏾 Coca-Cola’s “Magic Duos” OOH campaign via VML Canada, which won Best-in-Show. (More via Ads of the World.) It’s brave work for an iconic brand already known for its bravery.👏🏽 And we talked earlier this year about the “First AI President” campaign via Impact BBBDO/Dubai and AI production firm Addition (solid backstory here). (More via LBB.)More reference linksEarlier this past week I did a deep dive into Runway’s Act One animation pipeline. And I published part one of a series asking, “How do we evaluate creativity?” How do the diversity of agencies and creative leaders and clients decide what works? It’s a really tough question, actually.Last but not least, I celebrated Halloween by playing percussion, noises and drums for a Tom Waits tribute show. And it got me thinking…what if I asked Google’s NotebookLM “podcast” to write a new song inspired by the zigzagging locution of the infamous lyricist? We give their efforts a listen, and well, you be the judge. This podcast is also available via Apple, Spotify and Overcast.Subscriptions are free. Your attention is invaluable. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit timbrunelle.substack.com

If you’ve been trying to keep track of creativity and AI the past few weeks, your exhaustion comes honestly. There’s a lot going on—which explains why I posted this late Sunday versus early Saturday.This podcast is also available via Apple, Spotify and Overcast. Reference links:1️⃣ HeyGen interactive avatars, Adobe’s AI enhancements, the new Anthropic Claude release, Google’s NotebookLM audio podcast updates, and three worthwhile blog excerpts from Dario Amodei, Ethan Mollick and Marc Watkins are covered in last Monday’s newsletter. 2️⃣ Midjourney’s evolution including personalization and its external image editor, as well as Runway’s new character animation pipeline, were written about in Friday’s newsletter. Subscriptions are free. Your attention, however, is invaluable. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit timbrunelle.substack.com

It’s been a busy week. I posted three times to the newsletter. Let’s run them down.On Monday I demoed ChatGPT’s Canvas “co-writing” tool. The jury is very much out for lunch, but color me intrigued. I’ll keep experimenting with Canvas.On Wednesday I inaugurated the first of what I hope will be many long format interviews with creative people under the Curiosity+Courage banner. The conversation was with musician, technologist and former band mate Peter DuCharme, who also works at AI-generative music platform Boomy. Then on Friday I posted four questions for organization leaders regarding the impact of AI on workplace culture. That’s it. I hope you are thriving!Subscriptions are free, but your commitment is invaluable. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit timbrunelle.substack.com

Sometimes you just have to talk it out.Welcome to something new. I want to engage in longer format conversations with creative people within this newsletter—I want to illuminate how artists and idea people think about their process and work, and how they’re navigating AI. But where to begin? Hard to imagine anyone better than a former band and room mate.Peter DuCharme and I met in a Boston recording studio around 1995. I was at National Studios on assignment, producing audio for a client of agency Heater/Easdon. Turned out the engineer, Ken Michaels, played bass in a band. And the lead singer / guitarist just happened to swing by. And wouldn’t you know it, their band didn’t have a drummer. The marvelous Evelyn Pope joined us on keyboards and vocals soon after. The New Prime Numbers played around Boston and Cambridge in that wonderful era just before the smoking ban took effect. Many fond memories of gigs at T.T. the Bear’s Place, The Middle East, the Lizard Lounge, the Paradise.Peter, and my first wife and I shared a second floor apartment on Beacon Street, not far from Cleveland Circle in Brookline around 1998—the same year Volkswagen debuted the New Beetle. Mine was yellow, which I parked out front until someone knocked off the driver’s side rearview mirror. For several years Peter and I got to collaborate on all kinds of diverse music and technology projects at Arnold Worldwide as Volkswagen first engaged in the Internet. Peter composed and produced this infamous music track. And he helped us imagine RadioVW, a branded Internet radio station born years before platforms like Spotify existed.For this inaugural chat, Peter and I talked about the responsibility of creating, the role of technology in art, those “lawsuit-infused” text-to-music platforms and where AI might be headed. Alas, we did not discuss Fuzzy Slippers.Peter currently serves as Senior Music Automation Engineer at Boomy, where he helped develop LoopMagic, the AI beat and sample creation platform predicated on, and with the collaboration with producer and songwriter Illmind. Listen via the podcast above (subscribe via Apple and Spotify), or watch our conversation below. 🤖🎶 Worth noting: In a related interview, Semafor’s Reed Albergotti writes, “Will.i.am has been playing with AI models like instruments, experimenting with how to get them to behave the way he wants.” The artist believes the evolution of music via AI is still very formative, “We’re at Pacman and we haven’t even gotten to Halo yet.”Subscriptions are free, but your commitment is invaluable This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit timbrunelle.substack.com

Do you ever notice how whatever you’re thinking and working on starts showing up everywhere? This week’s newsletter was inspired by a question: Are we asking the most effective questions around AI and its impact on work? I’ve got a project consulting on AI agents and workplace operations, which is another word for culture. I was motivated by a piece from Planet Money reacting to a survey produced by Harvard around AI and productivity. Both focused on a time-worn concept: more labor done in fewer hours. I think this definition lacks gumption in the age of AI. It focuses too much on older norms, and not enough on relevant ideas, i.e. What if knowledge is freely available, and not kept behind the gates of education, or books?And all of a sudden, my TikTok addiction paid off. Nate Jones is a self described Silicon Valley “graybeard” product manager. I enjoy his TikTok. He offered some observations this week which align well with the ideas percolating in my own brain about work culture in the age of AI. So the bulk of today’s podcast are excerpts from Nate’s positions paired with my reactions and commentary. Subscriptions are free, but your commitment is invaluable. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit timbrunelle.substack.com

This week’s episode features Generative AI Tim, standing in for Human Tim who has Covid and sounds awful. Maybe this is how we’ll roll in the future? Episode links:This week’s newsletter focused on two themes.First, the burgeoning realm of AI agents—technology capable of stringing together separate tasks to complete complex assignments. While the tech is fascinating, the real questions are rooted in culture. Speaking of AI agents, Shelly Palmer provides two additional definitions—one for SLMs (more secure and specialized LLMs) and one for SAMs (dynamic, autonomous agents) to help illuminate the building blocks of this evolution.And topic two—AI art and copyright. Jason Allen is back litigating an appeal for his AI-generative art to be considered copyrightable. The argument boils down to “effort,” and where you see that occurring. Here are two posts [first, second] I wrote about the HeyGen platform and the process of creating the AI facsimile of myself used in this episode. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit timbrunelle.substack.com

It’s been another busy week in the world of AI and creativity. I wrote one post on Friday, focused on Google’s announced AI video platform, Google Vids. We’re evolving from AI enabling singular tasks (i.e. create a painting) to more complex challenges (i.e. walk me through how to make a video). And it’s definitely still early days. Episode links:OpenAI releases an update to Voice Mode. Nate has some potent thoughts. Meanwhile Sam Altman pens a salient blog post titled The Intelligent Age. Rishad Tobaccowala offered “10 thoughts on AI, Humans and Work.”AI Researchers in Switzerland have determined, “The creative ideas produced by AI chatbots are rated more creative than those created by humans.”Neil Perkin pens a fabulous newsletter which you should subscribe to. He notes two AI startups focused on brand strategy: Adaily, from Piotr Bombol; and SpringboardsAI. Both look very useful and promising. Subscriptions are free, but your commitment is invaluable. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit timbrunelle.substack.com

A longer episode this week. The concept behind these podcasts was to recap what I’ve written about in the newsletter in less than ten minutes. But as you’ll hear, or see, I’ve got something weird to share.Here’s Sprout Social’s 2024 Report, as mentioned (thanks, Greg—if you haven’t yet subscribed to his newsletter, you should). And I discussed Rory Sutherland’s book, Alchemy. Definitely worth purchasing, reading and then returning to often for future insights. I wrote about two big announcements for the week of September 16-20. The first was Microsoft’s Copilot Wave 2 release, originally covered here. In that segment I mentioned AI productivity research from Wharton, Harvard, and others in collaboration with Boston Consulting Group.And then I wrote about what has been the most surprising AI experience I’ve had to date: Google’s NotebookLM audio generation capability, covered here. And embedded within this episode is the eleven minute AI-generated podcast created entirely by Google’s AI. It’s surreal. Especially the Kai Ryssdal impersonation. Not talked about in this episode is a third post from this week. Money quote:“So there’s tension in the air as AI settles into our lives, becomes routine, boring, yet remains wildly unfamiliar and unsettling.”Here are the various AI+Creativity updates mentioned in the cast. That’s a wrap. If you haven’t typed your email in the box and hit “Submit,” now would be a good time This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit timbrunelle.substack.com

Here’s episode three of my weekly newsletter recap. This one included a book report as well as a mixed bag of AI-related news.Episode themes:🤖 Apple announced a slew of upcoming features under its Apple Intelligence moniker, and I think what’s happening here is “AI for the rest of us.”🚕 Waymo announced recent AI-taxi stats which continue to suggest a nearby future with fewer accidents. We can hope!🍓 OpenAI launched its o1 LLM, now with greater reasoning capabilities.🎥 And Adobe announced upcoming enhancements to its suite of AI capabilities within the Premiere video-editing environment. Key words there being “designed to be commercially safe.”📚 Last but not least, earlier in the week I posted a second book report, this time on Dr. Rollo May’s very useful The Courage to Create. Subscribe to Curiousity+Courage here.Thanks for listening! This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit timbrunelle.substack.com