Culture, tech, luxury, travel, and media news in 5 min. or less
To design their new 1 of 1 convertible, Rolls-Royce studied West Coast custom hot rods from the 1930s (Rolls-Royce / Robb Report)
đŒ American âreservation salaries.â The minimum annual amount that the average worker needs to leave their current job is almost US$79,000, a new record »»
đœ Salary transparency in Britain. UK companies are more secretive about pay, amid a cooling jobs market »»
đŹÂ âThe longer away in time something is, the more abstract our conception of it is.â Dividing your life into âsemestersâ helps goal-setting, time management, and motivation »»
đ Ganni teamed up with New Balance again »»
đ Rolls-Royceâs new 1 of 1 La Rose Noire Droptail comes with an AP Royal Oak built right into the dash. Itâs believed to be the worldâs most expensive new car »»
Marie Antoinetteâs private chambers are two floors of rooms that look out over an inner courtyard. They opened to the public this Summer (ChĂąteau de Versailles / T. Garnier)
Margaret Qualleyâs bridal bob is everything »»
A round-up of over 75 (!) new and forthcoming London hotels »»
Related: More evidence that the future of the hotels industry is extended stay: 7 of the 10 newest hotel brands are on that model »»
Wealth inequality has reduced across Africa over the last couple of decades »»
A US judge ruled that art generated solely by AI could not qualify for copyright protection. That wonât stop Hollywood's AI ambitions »»
Related: Striking Hollywood writers have been in consistent talks with studios for over a week now »»
The Palace of Versailles recently reopened Marie Antoinetteâs chambers to the public âtheyâre as glamorous as youâd expect »»
Arsenalâs âthird kitâ for â23/â24 sports a serious 80s vibe »» Related: We've officially reached peak football kit »»
Also: Messiâs move to MLS has made an impact on ticket sales. Asking prices for late-season game seats have surged by 1,700% »»
Get ready for Swedish wine. Global warming is moving Europeâs vineyards north »»
A cargo ship fitted with giant, rigid sails has set out on its maiden voyage »»
40m counterfeit watches are sold worldwide every year »»
Five iOS 17 features that wonât be available on launch day »»
Snapchat is expanding their generative AI offering with Dreams »»
Lidlâs coming to NYC »»
Generative AI is shifting value away from knowledge, and back to human labor. Call it the âreverse Industrial Revolution.â
The Industrial Revolution transferred an incredible amount of value away from labor and towards knowledge. Will generative AI swing the pendulum back again?
RIP CHATGPT?
If your feed is anything like mine, youâre beginning to see the ChatGPT/generative AI doubters bubble up.
Most of the negative sentiment seems to be around (important) copyright issues, or this thing called âmodel collapse.â (Thatâs just fancy AI-speak for future generations of ChatGPT becoming unusable as it cannibalizes its own output.)
But, as Iâve written, many of the basic terms of the AI copyright debate are far from clear. Meanwhile AI firms are full of smart people who know all about the dangers of model collapse and are taking active steps to avoid it.
NOT THE ISSUE
These issues are essentially âmechanicalâ âby which I mean, they relate to the nuts and bolts of how AI works (the model collapse thing), or how generative AI will fit into existing legal standards/mores (the copyright thing.).
Letâs get more conceptual and big picture than that for a sec. Come along as we dive into a crazy âyet also, somehow intuitiveâ notion about what generative AI will do to the value of human output.
A REVERSE INDUSTRIAL REVOLUTION?
As most people know by now, ChatGPT (and other generative AI systems) democratize access to vast amounts of information, insights, and creative ideas.
We believe this unlimited access is redefining our relationship with knowledge itself âso much so that we may be on the cusp of something Iâm calling the âreverse Industrial Revolution,â one that swings value away from knowledge and back to labor âInformation Age labor, that is.
Stay with me.
THE GREAT SWING
Zoom out: From the late 1700s through to the mid 1800s, the Industrial Revolution transferred an incredible amount of value away from physical labor and towards knowledge. The machines rolled in, and all of a sudden, our muscles and dexterity weren't as valuable as they were before. As mechanized factories took over manual tasks, knowledge became a widespread economic good, fueling a centuries-long boom in what would be called white collar work.
PLOT TWIST!
Generative AI systems like ChatGPT make knowledge abundant and super cheap. As Iâve previously written, weâre currently in the middle of a foreshock before an historic, society-changing, economic earthquake.
The mainshock is going to move most media, most of human knowledge, and many, many, many services âincluding complex, problem solving onesâ from an era of scarcity to an era of complete abundance.
As I wrote earlier this year, weâre all on the precipice of a âpost scarcity economy.â
A lot of goods (like art, music, literature, and movies) and a lot of services (like copywriting, legal analysis, tax preparation, and medical diagnoses) that provide a lot of livelihoods are all about to be produced in great abundance, with minimal human labour.
A world where all of those (previously) economic goods are available cheaply or even freely, is totally uncharted territory. Like it or not, weâre all entering it
In our view, generative AI is going to invert the industrial revolution, and actually transfer value away from knowledge and back to labor (not physical labor; that's going to stay mechanized, obviously), but rather Information Age labor: think work that relies on uniquely human attributes like empathy, judgment, and critical thinking.
Some examples:
CONTENT CURATION
With the vast amount of content generated by AI, human labor in the form of curating, interpreting, and synthesizing all that information will become ever more crucial. (Fun fact, by coincidence, that was one of the bases behind the creation of this newsletter, which predates ChatGPT by about a year.)
Look for more and more âcurationâ roles to pop up across the media sector in the months and years to come.
HUMAN CONNECTION
Over the past 18 months, weâve written about the importance of empathy, understanding, and human interaction, both in the context of the WFH debate, as well as in the context of the generational divide between Gen Z and Boomers.
That importance is only set to grow as generative AI becomes ever more ruthlessly efficient in delivering information, insights, strategy and more.
Whether weâre working under a line manager, or trying to decide whether to join a community, we humans value EQ in other humans.
Look for human-centric roles (community manager; line manager) that are absolutely reliant on uniquely human abilities âlike empathy and understandingâ to thrive.
OK, WHATâS THE POINT HERE?
Despite the lawsuits, and the skeptics, in our view, generative AI represents a revolutionary shift that is here to stay.
BUT. Far from making humans obsolete, it will place greater emphasis on our unique human skills and attributes.
Get ready for âinformation age laborâ to take center stage in this reverse revolution.
Written by Jon Kallus. Any feedback? Simply reply.