Dispatch from an advertising future #112

https://www.technologyreview.com/2020/09/24/1008882/facebook-ai-test-benchmark-people-break-adversarial/ He’d told her he had a job with “a big tech company”. She was so proud. He’d spent three years in his room: in lectures, tutorials, ‘socialising’ or whatever students did. She had wondered if the fees had been worth it. But now he had a job. She’d heard how much people could earn. …

Dispatches from an advertising future #110

https://www.engadget.com/oldest-computer-manual-zuse-z4-161214346.html It had been a themepark for a long time. Students came on fieldtrips and marvelled at the rows of desktop computers, giggled at the printers and looked puzzled at the meeting rooms. The guide was programmed as a Don Draper-style CD, from The Before. He talked about pitches and client meetings, and told tales …

Dispatches from an advertising future #109

https://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2020/09/traders-set-to-don-virtual-reality-headsets-in-their-home-offices/ He’d always been slightly envious of them, their corner of the office. It was just more… fun. They had paper, lots of it. Doodles and post-it notes with half-written jokes or quotes. Their screens always looked better too, their software exciting. And then there were the gadgets and games. They justified playing as work …

Dispatch from an advertising future #103

https://arstechnica.com/gaming/2020/09/ai-ruined-chess-now-its-making-the-game-beautiful-again/ They called me the “ugly duckling”. They were the ones people wanted to see. “It’s a revolution, a whole new world,” the press marvelled. There were documentaries and of course awards. I knew they were the next big thing when commentators used the word “dangerous”. They were perfection. And then there was me. I …

Dispatch from an advertising future #101

https://www.engadget.com/nfl-microsoft-teams-covid-19-coronavirus-180945560.html Running a start-up has never been easy. Your team needs you as founder, your personality. And you need them; their energy. But as you try to build businesses in the New Normal dispersed across Office 2.0, there are no TGIFs, no chance for you to use their feelings towards you. But with Adore (™) …

Dispatch from an advertising future #87

https://www.warc.com/newsandopinion/news/new-brand-opportunities-in-the-domestic-space/44011 They’d always been into home improvement, houseproud. Now they were hubproud. When the firm joined Office 2.0, they took their grants to remake the space: hubwork spaces for them; hubschool space for Charlie and hubhome spaces for what was left of the day. And as the partnership deals were offered, they signed up. They …