Minesweeper, AI Vending Machines, Netflix Podcasts, and Christmas Colors
Your 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 in Healthcare
👩💻 Minesweeper
🌯 AI Vending Machines
🎙️ Netflix Podcasts
👁️🗨️ Product Vision
🎅 Christmas Colors
Podcast
Harnessing AI in Healthcare: Insights from RJ Kedziora
In this episode of Product by Design, Kyle Evans interviews RJ Kedziora, co-founder of Estenda, a company specializing in custom software and data analysis for healthcare. We discuss RJ’s journey in technology and entrepreneurship, the importance of energy management over time management, and the role of AI in healthcare. RJ shares insights into the challenges and future of AI applications, the need for ethical considerations, and the potential for personalized healthcare solutions. He also offers advice to aspiring entrepreneurs looking to make a difference in the industry.
News and Useful Reads
We asked four AI coding agents to rebuild Minesweeper—the results were explosive
We saw a couple interesting tests of AI agents this week. In this experiment, agents were asked to code Minesweeper, with varying degress of success.
To see how effective these modern AI coding tools are becoming, we decided to test four major models with a simple task: re-creating the classic Windows game Minesweeper. Since it’s relatively easy for pattern-matching systems like LLMs to play off of existing code to re-create famous games, we added in one novelty curveball as well.
We Let AI Run Our Office Vending Machine. It Lost Hundreds of Dollars.
In another test of AI agents, the WSJ put an AI agent in charge of a vending machine to see how well it could run a business.
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Netflix is betting on podcasts to become the new daytime talk show
Podcasts continue to grow as a medium, and Netflix wants to compete against YouTube in this area.
“As people begin to spend less time watching traditional television, and more time watching short form or low-cost, low-production value content on YouTube, that might present a long-term competitive threat to Netflix,” Matthew Dysart, an entertainment attorney and former head of podcast business affairs at Spotify, told TechCrunch.
You’re Confusing Vision, Strategy, Objectives, and Roadmap (Here’s Why That Matters)
I’ve encountered this same problem many times over my career. It’s critical to understand the difference between a vision and a strategy, especially for leaders.
If your vision is “be the leading SaaS platform in our category,” you’ve failed. That’s a business goal dressed up in vision language. Nobody cares.
Other Interesting Finds
Why Are Christmas Colors Red, Green, and White?
If you're guessing it’s a mix of pagan traditions, early Christianity, and modern marketing, then you’d be correct.
Part of the reason the colors red and white are so heavily associated with Christmas is — as you may have guessed — because they’re the colors worn by Santa Claus. However, that wasn’t always the case.
