Welcome to this 104th issue of our newsletter “Weak Signals and other Trends”.
Each week, I sift through hundreds of sources of inspiration to track where we’re_ heading. If you are a new subscriber to this newsletter, take the time to send me a note and introduce yourself, I love to understand who is reading.
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I am preparing this newsletter this week from Montreal, Canada. This is what I noticed this week, thank you for sharing with those who look into the future.
Estelle.
Competitive Intelligence
Plug in any user’s Twitter handle and this site will give you a GPT-juiced description of who they really are. How tech companies got access to our tax data. Elicit is a research assistant using language models to automate parts of researchers’ workflows. Perplexity.ai is closer to a general search engine. The 1970s librarians who revolutionised the challenge of search and this quote:
In this way, SUPARS is meaningful as both a design far ahead of its time and as a counterexample to established techno-utopian histories of the internet and the world wide web. The people credited as visionaries in this history almost always imagined a world where technology would improve human communication, intelligence and effectiveness absolutely.
Strategic blindspots
Looking at the familiar with “alien eyes” allows you to unlock new business model opportunities while avoiding risks stemming from strategic blindspots. This section also is about the risks we miss.
New Study Shows Microsoft Holds 85% Market Share in U.S. Public Sector Productivity Software. Google Secretly Showing Newspapers an AI-Powered News Generator. Maybelline and Microsoft are partnering on 12 beauty features that users can try on during Teams meetings. Etsy, Walmart, and Amazon are slinging divorce-themed decorations and party favors. Stripe Street Studio specializes in interior design for divorced men.
Our future
AI and the automation of work. Google Is Testing a Medical AI Chatbot in Hospitals. AI-powered decision-making for defense. Working from Home Around the Globe: 2023 Report. Culture and Trends 2023. Bulk Packaged “Label-less” Consumer Goods Catching on in Japan. Desiccant cooling systems. The hottest new corporate climate trend is “greenhushing,”.
We keep you updated on those trends and more on Twitter (which I still find infinitely better than Threads).
Weak signals
Weak signals are indicators of a change, a trend or an emerging risk that might become significant for the future. They allow us to run hypothesis, expand our thinking, and challenge assumptions. How will you interpret those in your industry or field of expertise?
Hollywood Studios’ Demand For Free AI Replicas Sparks Actor Strike. To reduce textile waste, France launched a new program that will subsidize clothing repairs. Seafaring Camping Trailers. National Geographic reportedly lays off its last staff writers. Best known for injera, the tiny teff grain aims to sow a big future. Johnny Cash sings "Barbie Girl". Fresh Startsoffers gift registries to help divorcees restock their homes. The UK’s top banks agreed to overhaul their handling of account closures and committed to upholding their clients’ “freedom of expression”.
Down the rabbit hole
This section highlights a subject that led me to many useful threads, or a single site, that opened many doors: “A rabbit hole is not a distraction. A rabbit hole is your brain trying to tell you to pay attention to something you’re curious about. Ignore algorithmic rabbit holes” ( by are.na)
This week, I stumbled upon “Get Well Soon”, an art project.
The comments posted on gofundme.com’s medical fundraisers form a revealing archive. These messages express care, well wishes, sympathy and generosity in the face of personal adversity and systemic failure.
Hodgepodge discovery
Articles for curious minds and the polymaths
Applying AI To Ancient Languages. The Coolest Library on Earth. Slime mold grows differently depending on the music playing. The world’s writing systems. Color psychology. Moon dust. Microsoft kicks Calibri to the curb. Dream of Antonoffication. WhatsApp voice notes are helping transform how Senegalese farmers collaborate and share knowledge. The persuaders.
On our radar
I am working on a set of keynote speeches taking place in the fall, and have been digger into a deep trend towards “slower”: Moving slower. The slow TV map. The slow living trend. Slow accomodation. 10 Ways Technology Can Help With Slow Living.
Numbers
18%- As of 2018, 11 percent of turtle and tortoise owners had a will that left money specifically to the care of their pets, a figure that in 2022 is now up to 18 percent.
50%- almost half of all openly accessible websites use English as their primary language, despite the fact that English speakers only make up just under 5% of the global population.
$1600: the cost of a typical 30-minute internal meeting at Shopify.
Feeling good
A catalog of NASA images and animations of our home planet. If you like eating pizza. Beavers are heat wave heroes. Legal lullabies. Math solving for a human shader.
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