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The author of an AI-focused newsletter suggests that companies need to establish discrete ethics policies for using Artificial Intelligence (AI). With all the codes of ethics out there designed to address anything and everything, is this really necessary? Neville and Shel don’t see eye to eye in April’s monthly long-form FIR episode. Also in episode 403, there’s a new beauty pageant — just for AI-generated women. While critics pile on with their disdain for this idea, the Dove brand is coming at AI-generated beauty differently, which you might expect if you’ve followed the Unilever company’s 20-year-old Real Beauty campaign. TikTok needs to find a non-Chinese buyer or be banned from app stores in the U.S. if the new law can survive the challenges it will surely face in terms of freedom of speech. Peter Shankman revived his free email service, Help A Reporter Out, under a new name. He had previously sold the service to what is now Cision, and Cision has essentially killed it. So Peter re-invented it as Help Every Reporter Out. Imagine an accountant who failed to use AI to review financials when the AI might have caught a fraudulent entry the accountant missed. Could that accountant be held liable for not using AI? It’s a question every profession should be pondering. And you may find yourself working alongside a synthetic employee before too long. In his Tech Report, Dan York looks at 20 years of editing Wikipedia, WordPress’s announcement of a new way to develop sites locally, Mastodon’s establishment of a U.S. nonprofit, the status of Threads’ integration with ActivityPub, and the Internet Society’s post on the internet and climate change.

Links from this episode:

• Making the Case for an AI Marketing Ethics Policy
• Technology Trust Ethics (PDF from Deloitte)
• World’s First AI Pageant To Judge Winner On Beauty And Social Media Clout
• Exclusive: World’s first beauty pageant for AI women is announced
• Read comments on the AI Pageant on the Facebook House of Marketing & PR community of practice
• Dove pledges to not use AI models in lieu of real women in its advertising
• The TikTok bill passed. Here’s what PR pros need to know. 
• Andy Lambert on LinkedIn:  I honestly didn’t think this would happen; The US TikTok ban has been passed
• ByteDance would shut down TikTok in US rather than sell it, sources say
• Congress passed a TikTok bill. Will the US really ban the app?
• TikTok User Statistics 2024: Everything You Need To Know
• Everything TikTok users need to know about a possible ban in the U.S.
• 19 Ways TikTok Changed America
• LinkedIn is experimenting with a TikTok-like video feed in its app
• Help Every Reporter Out
• Christopher Penn on LinkedIn: Using Google Gemini with Help Every Reporter Out (HERO)
• It will soon be negligent not to use AI, Master of the Rolls predicts
• Speech by the Master of the Rolls: AI – Transforming the work of lawyers and judges – Courts and Tribunals Judiciary
• Building Your First Synthetic Employee
• Synthetic Employees, your Ai colleague

Links from Dan York’s Tech Report

• 20 Years as a Wikipedia Editor
• WordPress announces “Studio”, a new way to develop sites locally
• Mastodon forms new U.S. non-profit
• President Biden is now posting into the fediverse
• Threads on Mastodon and The Bright Future of the Fediverse
• Threads Has 150 Million Monthly Users
• The Internet and Climate Change (from the Internet Society)

The next monthly, long-form episode of FIR will drop on Monday, May 20.

We host a Communicators Zoom Chat most Thursdays at 1 p.m. ET. For credentials needed to participate, contact Shel or Neville directly, request the credentials in our Facebook group, or email fircomments@gmail.com.

Special thanks to Jay Moonah for the opening and closing music.

You can find the stories from which Shel’s FIR content is selected at Shel’s Link Blog. Shel has started a metaverse-focused Flipboard magazine. You can catch up with both co-hosts on Neville’s blog and Shel’s blog. Neville’s Asides blog is also available.

Disclaimer: The opinions expressed in this podcast are Shel’s and Neville’s and do not reflect the views of their employers and/or clients.

About Shel Holtz

Shel Holtz, SCMP, ABC, IABC Fellow, is senior director of Communications at Webcor, a commercial general contractor headquartered in San Francisco. Before joining Webcor, Shel spent 21 years as principal of Holtz Communication + Technology. In addition to integrating technology into communications strategies, his expertise includes strategic communications planning, change management, organizational culture, business initiatives and communications research. Full bio

About Neville Hobson

Neville Hobson is a communicator, social strategist, consultant, digital change agent, writer, and podcaster. He is co-founder and co-host of the 'For Immediate Release' podcast. Since 2000, his career has focused on working with organisations globally to help them leverage his experiences, knowledge and subject-matter expertise of social networks, social media marketing, analytics and insights reporting, to create and build foundations for authentic engagement and to expand online reach and influence. Full bio