Brain Food - what I am reading from around the Interwebs
- Summary:
- A miscellany of stories from around the Interwebs that you might find interesting
Some represents background research, some is entertaining and some is just a thundering good read - at least to me. All of it helps me be a smarter person. That's particularly true for relatively new topics like AI, where the tsunami of content flowing on that topic ranges from the absurd through to the wildly geeky.
I also drink in niche topic newsletter content from a relatively small selected list of uber-smart folk, some of which ends up on my pick list.
It struck me as wasteful that I don't share those readings here, even though I ping the odd story link out to my social networks.
The regular email blast readers like that content so why not here as well? This post corrects that omission and is taken from the last week's readings. As you can see, I'm a tad inconsistent with naming sources. Note to self: must suck less everyday.
Enjoy.
- GDPR will render 75% of UK marketing data obsolete - cheerful news (not) to add to the compliance headache.
- Man spraypaints Twitter office sidewalk with abusive tweets it refuses to delete - as if Twitter doesn't have enough problems?
- Former CIA operative Valerie Plame says privacy is precious — and she should know - you need to know this stuff.
- By Firing the Google Memo Author, the Company Confirms His Thesis - more opining on a story that is defining Google, and, by implication, the rest of Silicon Valley.
- What Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning Can Do—And What It Can’t - a timely reminder for the overly ambitious
- CIOs hit a new high as business influencers - not so long ago, CIOs were in the firing line, literally. All change?
- Why AI is now at the heart of our innovation economy - you've been told, by no less of a curmudgeon than Andrew Keen. (He's actually a really nice guy.)
- Teaching A.I. Systems to Behave Themselves - inside DeepMind and OpenAI, fascinating stuff
- Tech’s Damaging Myth of the Loner Genius Nerd - more culture shifting
- How to keep UX design from becoming a commodity exercise- a timely warning from Joe McKendrick.
- Benchmark's Letter to Uber, Is Benchmark Right?, Intel CEO Leaves Trump Advisory Board - not linking directly as this is one of Ben Thompson's posts via his paid newsletter. It's the Intel bit that caught my attention. It's worth the reading.
- The myopic focus on business failure has gone too far - The Byre at UK Business Forums provides an ample demonstration of muddled thinking
- What is LIDAR, and Why Does It Matter to Business? - Insights-ISG offers us a 101 on the tech behind AV
- Amateur Drone Lands on the U.K.'s New Aircraft Carrier, No One Even Notices - Popular Mechanics picks up on this amusing yet worrying story.
- There Is One Thing Computers Will Never Beat Us At - Azeem assures us that your barista will never be out of business. Some nifty historical references too.
- Amazon is creating more jobs than it destroys - the FT weighs into a long running debate.
- Can a Crowdsourced AI Medical Diagnosis App Outperform Your Doctor? - the Scientific American answer should not be surprising.
- What stories get shares vs. likes on Facebook? - if you're angsting about your Facebook performance, this Newswhip story might help you figure what's happening.
- Diageo’s head of culture departs to link brands to cultural influence – but not influencers - The Drum story will make you sit up and think.
- The Future of Artificial Intelligence in UX Design - Sitepoint provides a good starting point on this issue
- Microsoft Overtakes Salesforce.com – Forrester - A nuanced pitch for Microsoft? Possibly. But we've been hearing similar rumors for some time.
Endnote:
- I don't surface all the content I find interesting because a good amount doesn't relate to what we talk about here. Those other stories help me maintain a balance with topics that include my wider interests.
- Some of the above content is also surfaced in Jon's Hits and Misses.