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The theme I’m feeling this week is bulldozing. No, not the end-of-summer construction that happens to prep for the upcoming school year. More the Big Tech bulldozing of AI and technology into every aspect of our lives. Let’s start with our three stories. This week on the Brief we cover: OpenAI infiltrates your text messages, Higgsfield AI tryes to hide sponsored creator videos, and you can now get your UberEats delivered via drone.
I always thought the concept of focus groups was interesting and strategically smart. Get a group of eclectic people together that may (or may not) be a product-market fit and ask them a ton of questions. The goal is to not understand what they like or dislike about a product, show, or something you’re trying to sell, but uncover something they may not even know they want in that current moment.
Then I jump to OpenAI’s announcement about ChatGPT’s integration into text messaging (the first story I cover). It truly made me ponder what the statistical odds of asking a hundred people a simple question: “Would you want your friends, family, or someone you’re close with to text and respond to messages you send via ChatGPT?” I’m fairly confident that around 98% of people would give a resounding “hell no!” to that question. Perhaps a couple of very Type A, early tech adopter nerds might like the idea of super efficient messaging.
Regardless, I can’t imagine OpenAI held too many focus groups asking this question. Sam Altman just likely got into his big tech bulldozer, put it in the highest gear, and slammed on the gas pedal as a “SHIP IT” air freshener hung down from the rear view mirror. The bigger question on AI features like this is whether there is a true revolt to them, or if we tepidly agree to trade real communications and companionship for convenience. I’m hoping it’s the former.