Welcome to the 1st edition of “AI vs Marshy”.

My goal is to share about AI and review new tools to help you grow - and your startup.

This edition features:

• 🚀 Notes from Sam Altman’s (OpenAI) fireside chat in Melbourne last Friday
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• 🔨 AI Tool of the week: Virtual CMO​
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• ♻️ Using ChatGPT for remixing a concept from one of my favourite books - Principles, by Ray Dalio

I’ll also share what I'm working on with my business.

Got a tip?
Let me know here.

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There’s never been a better time to begin a startup: Notes from Sam Altman’s Fireside chat in Melbourne, June 2023

I saw Sam Altman’s “fireside” chat last Friday generously brought to you by the Startup Network (formerly known as Startup Vic).

I’ve got 8-week old twin boys and live an hour from the city - yet I knew I needed to make the effort to get down to the Melbourne Convention and Exhibition Centre (MCEC) to hear what he had to say.

Any concerns I had about it being a well-rehearsed media track were blown away within the first 15 minutes. There was something equally exciting and unnerving about hearing a technology leader utter problems like: “climate change and diseases will be solved”.

It started mid-afternoon and felt like some sort of unannounced hipster concert. There was an edgy buzz in the air, furtive glances about what was about to go down, and a lot of black.

The black had more to do with Melbourne’s bleak weather - because once things got underway the forecast was bright!

Here’s my main takeaways:

• OpenAI is taking the repercussions of this technology very seriously.​
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  Melbourne was the last leg of a tour that saw him visit 22 countries, 28 cities, 6 continents, and the Australian Prime Minister that morning. He described it as a "diplomat" leg of his career, and not something he could have envisioned himself doing as a 16 y.o. interested in computers. But understanding the local use cases and nuances this technology brings sounded really important to them. An example learning was from Japan - hello in English = 1x OpenAI token, yet konichiwa costs 7x equivalent tokens - "that's unacceptable".​
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  It was also interesting to hear his takes on how world leaders are thinking about it - they’re taking it very seriously in the short-term and some heads of state are “using the technology daily”. I hope their respective cybersecurity teams have put the right controls in place!
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• The impact of this is far bigger than we can imagine. ​
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  The claims around the capabilities of this technology are on a world shifting scale. The industrial age and computer age were referenced and Sam believes this will be bigger. The trajectory that’s ahead is steep and “we’re all at the starting line”. Given the rate of change we’ve already witnessed over the last 30 years - and not all of it good - that’s impossible to wrap your head around. Instead - we’re going to have to develop new ways to adapt to this.

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• Equity and improving the world remains top-of-mind. ​
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  Mike Kelly asked a great question about conflicts of interest between Sam’s investment in Worldcoin (an identity platform) and leading a breakthrough AI technology. He was fast and earnest in pointing out that OpenAI started as a NFP to protect the world from this “threat” and only changed its model to “harness the power of capitalism” to get there more quickly. He shared there’s a fixed cap multiplier for investors to get their return and then that’s it - the ultimate goal is to decentralise this technology’s capabilities so that it’s accessible for all.
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• Want a startup? Now is the time. ​
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  He referred to the capabilities of this tech as levelling the playing field. There’s never been a better time to start a startup. The way things get better is through creativity, and people who innovate by “embracing technology the fastest and deepest”. He sees education’s potential as huge, and accelerating scientific breakthrough being the thing he is most excited about.
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• This is a complex and conflicting thing to manage. ​
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  So far, OpenAI has made tradeoffs and adapted to shifting conditions that has seen it rise rapidly as a tech company. Yet there were some conflicting points of view. One person asked “how can a small team achieve so much?” and Sam countered (with tongue in cheek) “how do large companies achieve anything at all?”.
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  That’s a spicy take for the leader of an organisation that Microsoft bought a 49% stake in! 🔥

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AI Tool of the Week: Virtual CMO​

This is a nifty little tool for solving marketing challenges. I popped in some of my current ones and the results were on-point (partner with co-working spaces, create a referral program, collaborate with complementary service providers).

This could work well for delivering services as well. For example, don’t know how to optimise your funnel for SEO? Well let me help you right there.

​Check it out and have a play yourself! Email me if you find something good for yourself.

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Share a concept you like, and then build from it with ChatGPT

The buzz around “prompt engineering” makes me yawn a bit - when the fastest way to get the most out ChatGPT is to be curious, asks lots of questions, work out better ways to ask questions, and continually iterate through what works for you.

I love the book Principles by Ray Dalio. The founder of Bridgewater and a successful investor, Dalio distilled his lifelong lessons into a book that urges you to document ways to make your decisions ahead of time, and then continually improve the process.

Something stuck with me about it though - is that I don’t have access to algorithms. Or even the Principles app mentioned in the book as it’s not accessible from Australia.

Yet the concept of doing an exercise like this stuck with me and it’s now 2023.

Guess who has access to an algorithm?

This spat out 30 obvious ones like the death of a loved one and starting a new job.

I was then able to multiply it out to 300, and personalise it for a new father who is nearly 40, running a consulting business, who has worked through some big rocks (divorce, mental illness, etc).

The information that came back was then much richer, and I could work through what were the most “likely encounters with reality” I’d face over the next 6 months, and then make a note to think through this if I wanted to continue the Principles approach.

For a long time I’ve been obsessed with the idea of having a pensieve (the memory collector in Harry Potter) and being able to work through snippets to get to better outcomes in the future.

I feel like the tech in this area is only going to keep becoming more capable in this area and at an alarming rate.

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My focus areas

• I’ve finished work with 3 pilot startups with something called “speed marketing”. I built fast go-to-market campaigns for the startups with graphics, videos, pitch scripts, templates, and slides. They each were very different businesses but I think there’s enough in it to build a productised service. I’m building a landing page and will get more offers out there soon. I’m able to do this with pace and effectiveness thanks to AI tools.
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• I’m also filling the calendar with lunch + learns - if you’re an educator, accelerator, or member association - get some free lessons on AI tools, managing external suppliers, or building a marketing team via this link.

Thanks for reading and if you have any feedback please shout.

I’m going to keep chipping away in this area with the goal of making it as educational and useful as possible.

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We’ve got this 💪

-Marshy