The great Dolly Parton quote
I’ve been enjoying the university summer break that lasts from May to Aug, but it has also given me too much time to ruminate on the past. I kept annoying my wife by questioning my career decisions over the past…
Ian Tan
Commentary: We cannot leave our kids to their own devices
I wonder how many parents will get riled up by my commentary on CNA today. Schools and governments around the world are trying to save our children’s mental health by restricting their smartphone and social media use. I argue that…
The season of Clingy Boyfriend movies
This summer, the hottest movies will be about Clingy Boyfriends. Alien Romulus: He will hug your face lovingly, then burst out of your chest a new man. Venom The Last Dance: He cannot live without you and he keeps taking…
Runway Gen-3 Alpha mini review
I spent $15 USD to test Runway‘s new Gen-3 Alpha engine for Gen AI video generation so that you don’t have to. Verdict: SAVE YOUR MONEY. My prompt for this video was: “A wide angle panning shot of a tiger…
George Orwell on Bozo the Resilient Philosopher
I recently signed up for the “Book Freak” newsletter by Mark Frauenfelder who extracts advice from the books he read. In his latest post, he shared this striking anecdote from George Orwell’s “Down and Out in Paris and London” (1933): …
On Air with CNA938: Phone call anxiety
Yesterday, I went on air to chat with Lance Alexander and Daniel Martin on CNA938 Radio about why young people don’t like making phone calls. Surveys show that many young people feel anxious when they receive a phone call or…
A dismal debate, but a great case study for comms
Like many people, I was dismayed by the Biden vs Trump debate last week. However, I was also secretly pleased because it provided fresh and compelling content for my upcoming communication classes. One of my lectures will be on headline…
Solving silly problems with short prompts
I write complex prompts in ChatGPT for my work, but I spend most of my time writing short prompts to solve silly problems. Like converting a bunch of imperial numbers to metric. Dear USA, you are leading the world in…
The first Sora video ad is quite dull
This is the first video advertisement made with Sora, the text-to-video generator from OpenAI. Are you impressed? The ad brief: “Imagine the excitement of creating a young Charles Lazarus, the founder of Toys“R”Us, and envisioning his dreams for our iconic…
Music Industry vs AI Music Generators
This is one AI battle to watch: Music Industry vs. AI Music Generators. What’s happening: Major record labels are suing AI companies Suno and Udio for massive copyright infringement. Suno and Udio enable text prompts to generate music and lyrics…