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Among a flood of AI announcements in the last week — including remarkable advances in ChatGPT — Google’s move to produce narrative results called “overviews” instead of web links caused the most consternation. Neville and Shel break down all the news and focus in on Google’s overviews in this long-form episode for May. Also in this episode, a Baidu executive wound up in hot water after remarks that offended employees and customers; Australian media manipulated a photo of a member of parliament, launching conversations about ethical use of AI when it comes to photos; Apple misfired on both an advertisement and its apology, but Bumble’s apology is a prime example of how to apologize for a miscalculation; and a lot of venture capital money is going to companies offering apps that provide people with AI companions. In his Tech Report, Dan York, looks at evolutions among social media alternatives, a renewed interest in online communities, and Google’s new AI-generated answers.

Links from this episode:

• Introducing GPT-4o (YouTube video)
• Hello GPT-4o (OpenAI announcement)
• Introducing GPT-4o and more tools to ChatGPT free users
• OpenAI debuts GPT-4o ‘omni’ model now powering ChatGPT
• OpenAI’s latest chatbot jokes and pretends to blush
• OpenAI debuts GPT-4o ‘omni’ model now powering ChatGPT
• ChatGPT’s new voice welcomes interruptions
• With OpenAI’s Release of GPT-4o, Is ChatGPT Plus Still Worth It?
• Claude is now available in Europe
• Amazon-backed Anthropic launches its Claude AI chatbot across Europe
• Google IO
• Google’s broken link to the web
• Everything Goole Announced at IO 2024
• Google rolls out AI Overviews in US with more countries coming soon
• Google Takes the Next Step in Its A.I. Evolution
• Google rolls out AI-generated, summarized search results in US
• It’s the End of Google Search As We Know It
• Google unleashes AI in search, raising hopes for better results and fears about less web traffic
• Google is redesigning its search engine — and it’s AI all the way down
• Google’s New Search Engine Is Bad News for the Web Economy
• Google is “reimagining” search in “the Gemini era” with AI Overviews
• OpenAI’s Long-Term AI Risk Team Has Disbanded
• Baidu executive tells staff: ‘I’m not your mum’
• Chinese PR boss says sorry after glorifying work-till-you-drop culture
• PR executive reportedly departs China’s Baidu after comments glorifying overwork draw backlash
• PR executive at Chinese tech firm Baidu apologizes for comments seen as glorifying overwork
• Meet the woman taking on AI, its ‘fake’ models and alarming beauty standards
• Monique Zytnik’s LinkedIn post on AI manipulation of images
• Apple’s ‘crush’ advert annoys people across the generations – that’s why it misfired
• A rare misstep by Apple – “we missed the mark”
• Why Apple’s ‘Crush’ ad is so misguided
• Apple apologizes for iPad “Crush” ad that “missed the mark”
• Apple’s Crush ad (YouTube)
• Bumble apologizes for its anti-celibacy ad fiasco
• Artificial Intelligence ‘Friends’

Links from Dan York’s Tech Report

• Threads tests Tweetdeck-like interface
• Bluesky to add DMs, video support, and in-app custom feed curation
• Bluesky product roadmap
• Trunk Tidbits from the Mastodon Blog
• X Pushes More Users to Communities
• Reddit Reintroduces Its Awards System
• Maven Is a New Social Network That Eliminates Followers—and Hopefully Stress
• Google’s broken link to the web
• Google’s new “Web” search gives text-only results

The next monthly, long-form episode of FIR will drop on Monday, June 17.

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.

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