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Christopher S Penn
Chances are, you’re accidentally using dumb AI. Spoiler: if you’re not actively making model choices in the AI tools you use, you’re probably inadvertently using dumb AI models. Broadly, there are two classes of large language models – reasoning and non-reasoning. Reasoning models are models like GPT-5-Thinking and Gemini 2.5 Pro and Claude Sonnet 4.5…
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Christopher S Penn
This is a gentle reminder to everyone who has a commercial website without pricing on it. When someone asks ChatGPT/Gemini/AI the following: “Hey ChatGPT, I’m looking to hire a new PR agency. I’m specifically looking to get in with influencers, Substacks, and local press/trade press. Of these, Substacks are my highest priority so the agency…
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Christopher S Penn
“AI is destroying creativity.” Then it was never there to begin with. Truly creative people NEED to create. They need to make things. They have ideas that are burning inside to get out. AI doesn’t suppress that. If anything, AI enables that. When I look at my work and play over the last 2 years,…
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Christopher S Penn
I feel a tiny bit sorry for all the marketers rushing to join and participate on Reddit after hearing lots of pundits say Reddit is where AI gets its answers. There’s a reason for that. It can be an exceptionally unforgiving place, especially if you are a marketer and your intent is obvious. Reddit tends…
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Christopher S Penn
Social media is harmful by design today. The advent of generative AI and large language models means that big tech companies who run social media services have exactly ZERO excuse for the societal harms they inflict, from misinformation/disinformation to incitement of violence. Why? Because LLMs – even very fast, light ones – are very, VERY…
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Christopher S Penn
If it doesn’t work as a prompt, it won’t work as an agent. I toyed with OpenAI’s new Agent Builder, which is like a watered-down N8N or Zapier. It’s obviously locked to the OpenAI ecosystem, so you can only use their models or infrastructure. First, to be clear, this launched on DevDay. A lot of…
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Christopher S Penn
What is “authentic” in an AI era when AI can capably simulate us? If you log into any avatar creator like HeyGen, you’ll see all sorts of options like gesture replication to make your AI avatars even more realistic. Folks who don’t follow the AI space closely don’t realize just how good digital clones can…
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Christopher S Penn
What is trust? Rebecca Bultsma and I were discussing this recently in the context of AI ethics and broadly, trust & safety within tech. There are a ton of angles, but I fall back to one very old perspective: Trust is built on predictability. Humans are prediction engines. Millennia before AI and probabilistic models, we…
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Christopher S Penn
Generative AI makes testimonial vital. By testimonial, I don’t mean glowing praise of you. I mean validation that you’re for real at all. Put aside Tilly Norwood for a moment. If you’re considering hiring someone – as a speaker, a keynote, an influencer, even an employee – and they had a sizzle reel that looked…
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Christopher S Penn
One of the top skills in an AI-forward world? Asking good questions. Not too long ago, Rebecca Bultsma introduced me to what looked like an interesting piece of software that did near real-time transcription using the microphone on your Mac and transcribing it right into the text box where you’re typing it. That looked super…
