AI Care, TikTok Ban, Spotify Wrapped, Crypto Scams, and Gifts that will Last
Weekly Review of News in Technology, UX and AI
Here’s the latest news, resources, and use cases from the world of product, UX, AI and technology. Let’s go:
🤹 Character over Skills
⚕️ AI Care
👿 TikTok ban
🎛️ Spotify Wrapped
🌦️ Weather Predictions
❌ Social Media Ban
🤑 Crypto
🎁 Gifts that will Last
Podcast
Character Over Skills: A New Framework for Growth and Leadership with David CM Carter
In this episode of Prodity: Product by Design, Kyle sits down with David CM Carter, a serial entrepreneur and mentor. With over 40 years of experience mentoring top leaders and building innovative businesses, David shares his insights on what separates high-performing organizations and individuals from the rest: character development.
News and Useful Reads
The Rich Can Afford Personal Care. The Rest Will Have to Make Do With AI
If you’re a techno-optimist, you likely believe that AI will augment humans and human tasks. If you’re a techno-pessimist, you likely believe that AI will replace humans and take away jobs and human connection.
Maybe it will be both. Maybe it will just depend on where you are in the socioeconomic hierarchy.
In 2025, the affluent will get their connective labor from humans. The rest will get theirs from a machine.
TikTok inches closer to a US ban after judges shoot down appeal
In a major victory for American social media companies and other wealthy and powerful interests, and a major loss to half the population of the US, the US Court of Appeals has upheld the law banning TikTok.
Three judges shot down ByteDance’s petition to overturn a law that could ban TikTok in the US. On Friday, The New York Times reported that the judges upheld the new law, which requires the company to sell the app to a non-Chinese company by January 19 or face a ban.
Spotify Wrapped, TikTok—Maybe the Algorithms Are Losing Touch
Just last year, I was using Spotify Wrapped as an example of building an engaging and viral user experience. I used it to pitch major executives at Fortune 100 companies on a product vision and they loved it. But this year, it went viral for all the wrong reasons. Maybe tech companies shouldn’t be so quick to lay off their talent…
Wrapped relied on AI more than ever this year, with AI podcasts to analyze your listening habits, an algorithmic playlist hosted by Spotify’s AI DJ, and bizarre, probably AI-generated genre descriptions.
Google’s AI weather prediction model is pretty darn good
Weather is difficult to predict. And even more complicated when we discuss it in probabilities. So AI may not have a high bar to become good at predicting the weather, but it seems like it is getting there.
GenCast, a new AI model from Google DeepMind, is accurate enough to compete with traditional weather forecasting. It managed to outperform a leading forecast model when tested on data from 2019, according to recently published research.
As Australia bans social media for kids under 16, age-assurance tech is in the spotlight
There is no doubt that social media for kids and teens can be extremely detrimental. So we’ll see how the ban in Australia goes, as well as how platforms verify ages.
The law, which is expected to come into force in Australia in November 2025, will require social media platforms to take “reasonable steps” to ensure they verify users’ age and prevent minors from accessing their services.
I'll Take the Crypto Industry Seriously When Its Biggest Advocates Stop Saying "What Did You Expect?"
I’m inclined to agree that an industry that is constantly having issues like what just happened with Hawk Tuah isn’t a serious industry. If you have to a deep insider just to survive, how can you expect to grow?
the crypto industry should not be taken seriously so long as the culture of “What do you expect?” is normalized.
Other Interesting Finds
36 Gifts That’ll Last Forever (or Extremely Close)
I love the “buy-it-for-life” mindset. I’m personally trying to focus spending more on things that will last for a long time. If you need ideas for similar things, this is a good list.
The most appreciated gifts aren’t always the newest or flashiest ones. More often, they are useful, indispensable gems that recipients can enjoy year in and year out.