Scammers, Security Threats, Mac Announcements, AI Slop, and Election Despair
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:
🖼️ Visual Thinking
⛔ Scammers
👦 Security Threats
🖥️ Mac Announcements
📝 Elections
🦾 AI Slop
💀 Despair
Podcast
The Power of Visual Thinking in Product Management with Christoph Steinlehner
In this episode of Prodity: Product by Design, host Kyle interviews Christoph Steinlehner, a product management coach with a background in interaction design. Christoph shares his journey from web development and multimedia production to product management coaching, where he helps product managers and teams navigate complex challenges, improve communication, and find focus. He emphasizes the importance of visual methods in facilitating better team collaboration and product strategy, offering insights into how product leaders can balance internal and external priorities. Christoph also introduces his "Mapper Method," a six-step framework designed to clarify assumptions, risks, and strategies through visual mapping. Our conversation also delves into practical advice for improving product processes, creating effective communication, and advancing careers in product management. If you are interested in starting or advancing your product career, you won't want to miss this discussion.
News and Useful Reads
They’re Giving Scammers All Their Money. The Kids Can’t Stop Them.
We’ve talked about these types of scams before, but with the technology to run them becoming more and more prevalent, we’re going to continue to see these types of issues.
These victims were slowly groomed by con artists posing as love interests, investment advisers or government officials, among others. Once ensconced inside this bubble, they are unable or unwilling to acknowledge that they have become victims. Even when their own children are warning them of the con.
The biggest underestimated security threat of today? Advanced persistent teenagers
The kids may not be able to stop their parents from getting scammed, but those persistent teens are unstoppable scammers apparently.
If you ask some of the top cybersecurity leaders in the field what’s on their worry list, you might not expect bored teenagers to be top of mind. But in recent years, this entirely new generation of money-driven cybercriminals has caused some of the biggest hacks in history and shows no sign of slowing down.
Every Apple Mac announcement this week - and what models we're still waiting for
Apple announced new MacBook Pros, new iMacs, and new Mac Minis. It was a great group of products, and I know we’re likely to pick up at least one or two since we’re in the market for some upgrades.
FBI warns voters about inauthentic videos relating to election security
If you see a video showing voter fraud, it is probably a fake video produced by bad actors from Russia trying to influence the US elections. They seem to be popping up more and more frequently. Especially on the cesspool that is X/Twitter. Voter fraud is extremely rare. Fake videos are not.
AI Slop Is Flooding Medium
Like so many places on the internet, Medium is also being flooded by AI slop. Nearly half of articles recently have been posted by AI. But, according to Medium, they are still controlling the quality that people see.
Stubblebine sees people as the cornerstone of Medium’s approach to quality control. “Medium basically runs on human curation now,” he says. He cites the 9,000 editors of Medium’s publications, as well as additional human evaluation for stories that can be “boosted” or more widely distributed. “I think you could, if you're being pedantic, say we're filtering out AI—but there's a goal above that, which is, we're just trying to filter out the stuff that's not very good.”
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Other Interesting Finds
How to get through election season without despair
We are on the cusp of elections in the US. It is easy to get wrapped up in anxiety every four years, and even more so this year. I have no desire to see Trump, or anyone like him, anywhere near power in the US. But, as this article points out, regardless of the outcome, we can continue to work for good in the areas we have direct impacts on, which is always the most important thing.
But I do think that when you step back and take some perspective, it’s clear that many of the things that matter the most for our lives — the lives of our loved ones, and the lives of everyone on Earth — don’t get decided in elections. And how those things go are much easier to affect than elections are…
Instead of letting every twist and swing of the polls in Wisconsin control your mood, work on something that really matters and that none of our politicians are bothering to solve. This is an important decision you don’t have much control over. But the direction of our country and our world is an important decision you do have an enormous amount of control over.