Hi there,

What if I told you that not all manipulation is bad?

Before you call your therapist—hear me out.

I'm not talking about the not-so-nice Machiavellian type-stuff, I'm talking about data manipulation and creating structured data sets for AI inputs. According to the experts, it's going to be a vital skill in the AI era. 

We've also got a BIG update from Meta to share, an eye-opening Microsoft report (no joke!), and more AI shenanigans.

1. The most important skills in the AI era: Art direction, meet data manipulation
2. This week in AI: Meta makes the best (or worst) decision of the year
3. From our sponsor: We'll bring the memes back soon, I swear
4. From the community: Microsoft wrote a report; the remedy for 7-finger hands
5. On our socials: The emoji report; AI tools have feelings too

The Most Important Skills in the AI Era 🤖

According to Philip Maggs, our Director of Gen AI Excellence (and Resident Oracle), there are three major risks with gen AI tech:

1. Producing average content
2. Not building a data-first culture
3. Starting to believe you actually look like those beautiful, blemish-free headshots on Midjourney

Alright—sooooo I may have added that third one.

Jokes aside—Phil speculates that the most valuable skills in this new era will be skillful art direction, idea discernment, and structuring information so that it can be easily absorbed by AI and deliver higher quality, on-brand results.

>> Check out the full video to hear why

And see these photorealistic images, this custom comic design and more customer success stories. 

This Week in AI

Meta is Betting BIG on Open Source AI 👀

Did Mark Zuckerberg actually write this?

Probably not.

Is this a penned-by-the-CEO-caliber press release?

Definitely.

There's a lot of technical jargon in here, but near as we can gather, Meta just released Llama 3.1, the first frontier-level open-source AI model. This is a HUGE step in the world of AI development, where most companies are building closed ecosystems, which limit what users can create.

In other words, Meta are putting all of their AI secrets out for the world to see—and manipulate.

In other, other words, Steve Jobs would turn in his grave.

>> Do we like Meta again?

Looks like we managed to manipulate you into reading this entire newsletter. Or did you just come here for the memes? OR was it my charming penmanship? 

You know what—I prefer the latter. 

✨ Stay super,