TikTok Teleshopping & LinkedIn Spies
5 in 5 - Brave & Heart HeartBeat #148 ❤️
This week we’ll be looking at the “revelation” of the future dangers of AI, the TikTok Teleshopping phenomenon and why a digital detox is now pretty much impossible.
Also, we learn that the espionage game is changing along with new technology and new ways of working, plus Coca-Cola hit it out of the park again with a new AI marketing campaign.
Let’s get into it.
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#1 - The Most Dangerous Thing About AI? Us.
The CEO of OpenAI, who brought us ChatGPT, the AI app everyone and their dog has been harping on about for the last month or two, has given a grave warning. He warned us that the technology comes with real dangers, as it is in the process of literally reshaping our society.
I’m sure you’re imagining scenes from The Terminator, iRobot, Ex Machina or even Westworld – AI gone mad, taking over the world, becoming more intelligent than us and turning against us. But no, according to Sam Altman, the most dangerous thing about AI is… us.
While Altman pointed out that AI works only under direction or input from humans, he noted grave concern over WHICH humans had input control over the technology.
Basically what you get out is what you put in, and Altman is worried that other companies developing the same technology will be lax with safety limits. When it comes to usage of the technology, he’s worried more specifically that the technology has the potential to be used for large-scale disinformation, or writing code for offensive cyber-attacks.
Basically, it’s not the sort of tech we want a super villain getting their hands on… Does anyone have eyes on Elon Musk?
#2 - Is TikTok The New Teleshopping?
TikTok has been described as “An infinite loop of shoppertainment”. By who, you might be wondering? Well, by themselves, in their most recent sales pitch to brands. They boast of a unique business model that endlessly entices people not just to discover and buy new stuff, but also to become repeat customers.
While the famously sophisticated algorithm’s only purpose is to get you hooked by showing you hyper-relevant content, if you’re already a bit of a shopaholic it’s like teleshopping streamed directly into your brain. The hashtag #TikTokMadeMeBuyIt has over forty billion views, and TikTok’s own research found that 52% of millennial users in the UK bought a product after seeing it on the app this last year, rising to 60% for Gen Z.
Users describe a peer pressure like phenomenon, where they rush to buy items for fear that they sell out, as the algorithm creates a “scarcity mindset” among users. Makeup items are one of the biggest culprits of this, with a Revlon lipstick recently selling out across the US after finding popularity on the platform, meaning that young women are disproportionally affected, as with most marketing.
A 2021 Adweek survey in the US also described TikTok users as potentially “the most dedicated group of buyers from social media”, making them more likely to buy items promoted on other platforms including Pinterest, YouTube, Snapchat, Reddit, and LinkedIn.
The Guardian raised a worrying question this week, asking if TikTok was pushing younger generations into debt, and while that may be a bit of an exaggeration, it’s certainly encouraging consumption behaviors which are anything but normal.
#3 - Why A Digital Detox Is Now Impossible
This week BBC asked, is it actually possible to do a digital detox nowadays? The world has changed since the phrase was coined in 2012, and although Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff took a ‘digital detox’ recently which consisted of ten tech-free days at a French Polynesian resort, for mere mortals like us, that is no longer really an option.
We bank through apps, work on our phones via email and LinkedIn, and even track our health on screens now. We’re so dependent on our devices that experts say trying to do a digital detox would just be setting ourselves up for failure.
The pandemic has increased our reliance on technology - A 2022 study showed that 54% of adults in the UK use screens more often now than before the pandemic, with half of those surveyed looking at screens for 11 hours or more each day. Critical relationships have become more digitised, from family whatsapp groups to online dating, our social and love lives are almost always online.
Digital mindfulness, rather than digital detox, may be the answer. One user, realised she was clicking on Instagram 80 times a day, so she downloaded One Sec, a plugin that makes users take a deep breath before they can open and access the apps on their phone, which forces the user to take a moment and helps pull them out of autopilot mode.
Experts call this a “grey detox”, allowing you to send off a quick text or email while still paying attention not to get sucked into mindless scrolling. Maybe we’ll give it a go…
#4 - LinkedIn Spies
Humble brag posts and marketing nonsense isn’t the only thing you need to be looking out for on LinkedIn right now, apparently it’s crawling with spies. Yeah, actual James Bond, service of the crown, spies.
Russia, North Korea, Iran, and China have been caught using fake profiles to gather information. But the platform’s tools to weed them out only go so far.
Freelance journalist Anahita Saymidinova ,who does work for Iran International, a Persian-language news outlet that has been harassed and threatened by Iranian government officials, was targeted by a state-backed actor posing as a politics and security researcher offering her work. She contacted her first via Linkedin, before offering to “shoot” her an email to her inbox, before it became clear to Satmidinova that the aim was to hack her computer.
The fake profile was detailed, full of information and activity that seemed perfectly legit. Espionage is clearly adapting to the times, creating detailed online profiles in place of the fake lives created to make spies blend into society, as we see in films and TV shows like “The Americans”.
While LinkedIn are described as very reactive on the subject, and are largely good at deleting fake accounts after contacting them asking for proof of ID when they have been flagged as suspicious, it’s difficult for them to keep up and catch everyone. Keep your friends close, and your LinkedIn contact closer.
#5 - The First Brand To Use AI In Marketing Campaign
Coca-Cola are at it again, first they got their claws into Santa Clause, and now they’ve sunk their teeth into AI, making history as the first brand to use it in a marketing campaign.
Described as proof that AI is the “shiniest new penny” in marketing, their “Create Real Magic” campaign asks the public to generate an artwork with iconic creative assets from the Coca-Cola archives.
Built exclusively for Coca-Cola by OpenAI and Bain & Company, “Create Real Magic” is the first platform of its kind to combine the capabilities of GPT-4, which produces text based on user input, and DALL-E, which produces images based on text.
Through the contest, artists can download and submit their work. They’re competing for the opportunity to be featured on Coke’s digital billboards in Time Square and Piccadilly Circus, and a group of 30 creators will be selected to travel to their global headquarters in Atlanta this summer for the “Real Magic Creative Academy,” a workshop curated by their Global Design and Creative teams in partnership with OpenAI.
Coca-Cola will be getting a double whammy out of this marketing campaign, as along with the images generated throughout the contest, the chosen winners will also co-create content during the workshop that could be used for Coca-Cola licensed merchandising, digital collectibles and more.
They will be credited for their work, but it’s not a bad shout from the big C to combine publicity and free marketing image creation.
I’d Like To Buy The World A Coke , And Give Them Free Ad Images
Brave & Heart over and out.
Bonus
Following our recent article about online therapists and their forays into online content, this list of online therapy horror stories has us missing in-person meetings.
From taking screenshots to spouses walking in halfway through intense stories, the new therapy format is making a lot of room for faux pas.
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