Limits of AI, Probabilistic Era, Reading, and Bananas
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:
📊 AI Entrepreneurship
🔚 AI Limit
👨🏫 Meta
🔢 Probabilistic Era
📖 Reading
🍌 Bananas
Podcast
Unlocking the Secrets of AI Entrepreneurship with Founder Andrew Amann
In this episode of Prodity: Product by Design, Kyle Evans interviews Andrew Amann, CEO and co-founder of NineTwoThree AI Studio. Andrew shares his extensive experience in entrepreneurship, product development, and the challenges of building AI products. We discuss the importance of understanding product-market fit, the patent process, and the journey of founding multiple companies. Andrew emphasizes the significance of focusing on a specific audience and the value of holistic entrepreneurship, where success is measured not just by financial gain but also by personal fulfillment and work-life balance. We also explore the future of AI, its applications across various industries, and the evolving landscape of technology.
News and Useful Reads
What if AI Doesn’t Get Much Better Than This?
The launch of GPT-5 was underwhelming, despite the hype that led up to the release. It made me wonder the same thing as this article: “What if we’re reaching the point of diminishing returns?” The companies and founders who are billions of dollars into AI aren’t going to admit it, but what if we’re already reaching some of the limits of what AI will be able to do?
Is it possible that the AI we are currently using is basically as good as it’s going to be for a while?
Meta is hitting pause on AI hiring after its poaching spree
It’s probably not permanent because Meta has invested too much into AI to stop now, but it’s a pause nonetheless.
Meta has frozen hiring in its AI organization after restructuring the unit earlier this week, reports The Wall Street Journal. The hiring freeze follows weeks of poaching more than 50 AI researchers and engineers from competitors.
Building AI Products In The Probabilistic Era
We're now in a liminal moment, where our tools have outpaced our frameworks for understanding them.2 This is a technical, epistemological, and organizational change, one where exceptional AI companies have started operating significantly differently from what we’ve known in the last decades.
From skim to substance: Designing the future of reading
Skimming is often the only way we can get by in our modern world, especially as we’re bombarded with endless information. We have to gain context quickly in order to prioritize our time. But that doesn’t mean all attention will be lost. We can design to help people get quick context and then dive deeper.
If skimming is the default entry point, then curation is the compass. And design is the map.
Other Interesting Finds
Artificial banana flavoring was common in the U.S. long before real bananas
Apparently, there was a time when Americans only knew what a banana might taste like from candy and artificial flavoring. Because America didn’t have bananas. And when it did, they were luxury items. Far from the way we view bananas today.
Artificial banana flavoring was first sold in the United States around the 1850s, predating the widespread availability of the tropical fruit itself by more than two decades. Bananas were a known commodity in the United States for most of the 19th century, as the first recorded shipment arrived in New York City in 1804. But those shipments were rare and limited, and the fruit remained a highly desirable exotic luxury that few Americans had access to.