3076: Bridging Creativity and Technology: How Anomaly is Transforming Brand Strategies

[00:00:03] What happens when creativity meets cutting edge technology?

[00:00:07] Well today we're going to venture into the realms of generative AI, Web3, spatial computing with an incredibly cool guest.

[00:00:16] Someone that's at the forefront of blending innovative technology with brand development and solving real world problems.

[00:00:22] And let me tell you, he's the kind of guy that I could just chat to for hours.

[00:00:26] So knowledgeable, I learned so much from him and I know you're going to too today.

[00:00:31] His name is Christopher Neff.

[00:00:34] He's the global head of emerging experience and technology at a company called Anomaly.

[00:00:40] So today we're going to explore how emerging technologies are reshaping the landscape of creativity and brand engagement.

[00:00:48] So whether it is creating a unique metaverse experience or deploying Gen.A.I. to tackle real world business challenges,

[00:00:55] my guest's work is defining the future of digital interaction.

[00:00:59] So I invite you to join me as together we uncover the potential of these technologies to transform not just how brands engage with consumers,

[00:01:08] but how they can also drive sustainability and ethical innovation.

[00:01:13] This is a rich conversation.

[00:01:15] Hope you enjoy it as much as I did, but enough for me.

[00:01:18] Let's get Christopher onto the podcast now.

[00:01:21] So a massive warm welcome to the show.

[00:01:24] Can you tell everyone listening a little about who you are and what you do?

[00:01:29] Thank you so much, Neil.

[00:01:30] Super thrilled to be here.

[00:01:31] My name is Christopher Neff.

[00:01:32] I am global head of emerging technology at Anomaly.

[00:01:35] I've been in marketing and advertising my entire career, but I'm on a lot of different spectrums of it.

[00:01:40] So we sort of called innovation, digital media.

[00:01:44] Once upon a time it was interactive.

[00:01:46] So I've been a producer by trade came up that way.

[00:01:49] And then beyond sort of producing, I started running production teams like to dabble more in the creative and the strategy side,

[00:01:55] and then really kind of pivoted back to the agency world where I've run innovation and now emerging technology,

[00:02:02] which is the newer frame of the, I guess, of the year.

[00:02:05] And we'll see where the frame goes from there.

[00:02:07] But yeah, I just love sort of the tinkering and the challenge that comes with new mediums and new ways to sort of break through in the world, new ways to communicate.

[00:02:16] And I've helped brands do that my entire career.

[00:02:19] And I've helped my teams figure it out as well along the way.

[00:02:23] So thrilled to be here.

[00:02:25] Absolutely love that.

[00:02:26] And as someone working right in the heart of emerging technology, a question I've got to ask,

[00:02:31] because whenever you scroll down your news feed at the moment, any emerging technology or new technology, let's say AI for an example,

[00:02:39] everyone's talking about it, but there's a lot of negativity around it.

[00:02:42] AI is going to take my job, et cetera.

[00:02:45] And one of the things that I heard about you is you say, just be curious, just play with it.

[00:02:50] Can you expand on that?

[00:02:51] Because I think it's such an enlightening way and a refreshing way to deal with emerging technologies,

[00:02:56] especially when there are so many scary articles that are built just for clicks to please advertisers.

[00:03:02] No, for sure.

[00:03:03] I mean, between fear and then also, I mean, you just had a show which was overcoming AI fatigue, right?

[00:03:09] I think it's a great with Leo Spiegel.

[00:03:10] So it's fatigue, people are worn out, they're tired of all the headlines and all the chasing.

[00:03:15] And then certainly there are some really crazy tensions that are out there, like AI is stealing from me, AI is going to replace me, AI is going to destroy the world.

[00:03:23] You've heard sort of people compare it to fire and electricity.

[00:03:27] And you've also heard Stephen Hawking say that it's probably going to be the end of mankind, right?

[00:03:32] So we've seen both of these two sort of things.

[00:03:34] So in that sense, from like a polarizing tension standpoint, it has magical principles and terrifying principles.

[00:03:41] So for me, and I think, you know, maybe a bit more so than other forms, people didn't think VR was going to kill us, right?

[00:03:49] Like people didn't, it was like, oh, Pokemon Go in terms of AR, like not going to, people didn't necessarily think that was going to come for their job.

[00:03:56] So we've seen sort of some of the rise of it.

[00:03:59] So I'd sort of say it's probably a little bit closer to maybe the dawn of the internet itself, sort of a new form of existence, a new interplay with technology that we haven't seen before.

[00:04:08] Certainly going to be a before and an after to sort of this emergence of generative AI, what we're seeing now.

[00:04:14] But for me, it's like you bring up like play, experiment, be curious, but fulfill that curiosity.

[00:04:20] I think that like people get caught up in sort of the macro tensions, the hype.

[00:04:25] I mean, I even saw it with Web3.

[00:04:27] It was like a lot of the people caught up in it were very inexperienced or sort of outside the spectrum of use, right?

[00:04:34] So they were sort of talking about it as sort of culture was talking about it, but it wasn't inward.

[00:04:38] Right.

[00:04:39] It wasn't on the inside.

[00:04:40] It was coming from this outward perspective, which can be skewed.

[00:04:43] It can be biased.

[00:04:44] It can certainly be dated as well because you're sort of hearing about it after and in secondhand.

[00:04:50] And then you're like, oh, like it works like this.

[00:04:52] And it's like, well, it used to work like that.

[00:04:53] But now here are some opportunities.

[00:04:55] So when I think about AI and playing and experimenting, so look, I can, I'm more in control of my creativity than I've ever been in my life because I can make music, right?

[00:05:07] I'm using AI.

[00:05:08] I'm not a musician.

[00:05:09] And is my AI music on the equivalent spectrums of some of the best music I've heard?

[00:05:14] No, absolutely not.

[00:05:15] But it's fun to sort of craft and storytell in that way.

[00:05:18] I can create logos now.

[00:05:20] I can create vectors.

[00:05:21] So if I have an idea for a brand or something that I want to sort of visualize, I can go into tools like Craya.

[00:05:27] I can use things like Flux.

[00:05:28] I like this sort of real-time engine where I can say I want like a vector object, a logo, and then I can just quickly iterate on it and output it.

[00:05:37] So it's, I've never been able to create and craft the way I can now, but it's all based on just playing.

[00:05:44] And I'm like, hey, again, creating music.

[00:05:46] As like I have, we're hosting a dinner party.

[00:05:48] I have two friends, different friends and different couples that are going to be at this dinner party.

[00:05:52] I want to curate the music that I'm going to play for this dinner party that's going to play on the Sonospeakers.

[00:05:57] I want it to be original music that I have created around their families.

[00:06:02] So it has their names.

[00:06:03] It has their interests.

[00:06:04] And I didn't even tell anybody that I was going to do this.

[00:06:07] And I started playing the music.

[00:06:09] And then after a little while, people picked up on it and they were like, this is crazy.

[00:06:13] Like this person's from where I'm from.

[00:06:15] They're saying when, and then everybody sort of was like, oh my goodness, is this AI?

[00:06:19] And then it unraveled.

[00:06:20] But it's like those demonstrations, those capabilities.

[00:06:23] Like I wouldn't know that if I didn't play.

[00:06:26] And if I play, then I can get better and I can find different things in different facets.

[00:06:30] And like to me, that completely cuts through the tension.

[00:06:33] And I've seen it happen in hundreds of people that we have chatted with and shown sort of the tools and the technologies and how to use them.

[00:06:41] Like I've just seen the tensions float away because they're like, man, like it needs me to push it.

[00:06:47] And like, wow, now it allows me to sort of unearth all these things about myself that I wasn't able to do before.

[00:06:51] And that's, to me, the brilliance of where we are.

[00:06:55] 100% with you.

[00:06:56] And for anyone listening that is intimidated by any technology, just pick it up and have a play with it.

[00:07:01] That's the advice we would both offer, I think.

[00:07:04] And your work life, though.

[00:07:06] I mean, how does your work at Anomaly, particularly with the Classify Incubator,

[00:07:10] how does that help brands navigate and apply emerging technologies from Gen 3 to Web 3 and spatial computing to real business challenges?

[00:07:20] Because we hear a lot around the hype that surrounds these emerging technologies,

[00:07:24] but not the real world business problems and challenges that it can solve.

[00:07:28] So can you expand on that for me?

[00:07:30] Yeah.

[00:07:31] No, I think it's a great question.

[00:07:33] So, so ultimately brands through marketing, and I've found this like my entire career,

[00:07:39] like the brands that want to experiment come to us and say,

[00:07:44] hey, there's this new thing I've heard about, like, how do we utilize it?

[00:07:47] Right.

[00:07:48] Or it's a new medium, or maybe we've brought it to them.

[00:07:50] It's like, yeah, let's, you know, shoot a car commercial in VR, a 360 perspective.

[00:07:55] Right.

[00:07:55] Let's let people sort of be more immersed into your product.

[00:07:59] Right.

[00:08:00] Okay.

[00:08:00] Well, that's interesting.

[00:08:01] How do we do that?

[00:08:01] And then we figure out the narrative we're going to tell.

[00:08:05] And then there's the whole sort of production of it, the shooting, the editorial, all that.

[00:08:08] And you put it in the world and you see what happens.

[00:08:10] And sometimes it's like, it's great.

[00:08:12] Sometimes it, and it's like, well, it didn't necessarily have the effect that we thought.

[00:08:16] Oftentimes it costs a lot of money because you're using new technologies, new mediums,

[00:08:20] like you're not necessarily getting economies of scale in any of that.

[00:08:23] Right.

[00:08:24] So like that ultimately is not where we are today.

[00:08:28] That's where we've been.

[00:08:29] And it's very interesting where it's like brands used to really throw down money on sort

[00:08:35] of new mediums and new technologies.

[00:08:36] But I think right now there is more of a hesitancy to do that.

[00:08:40] I think because of some of those tensions we talked about, there is fear.

[00:08:43] What is the backlash?

[00:08:44] Right.

[00:08:45] Brands have sort of seen the ability to be canceled, the ability for an audience to drop

[00:08:50] off if you take a stand or even if like something is sort of put out in the world and people

[00:08:54] don't agree with it.

[00:08:55] It's can be very detrimental to your bottom line in a way that we never saw those extremes

[00:08:59] before.

[00:09:00] So taking chances, taking risks, it's not for everyone.

[00:09:04] And a lot of times emerging technology is sort of seen as a risk.

[00:09:07] Certainly now that it is packed, like Web3, you mentioned, and generative AI are packed

[00:09:13] with tensions.

[00:09:14] Right.

[00:09:14] It's like, hey, is it this is Web3 was sort of caught in the hype cycles of financial gain,

[00:09:21] speculative gain, like unlike anything else.

[00:09:23] Right.

[00:09:23] We heard we're going to I'm going to 10x this money.

[00:09:26] Like how many people were just thinking like, OK, you know, Shibu Inu Min Coin.

[00:09:30] Right.

[00:09:30] Like beyond 10x, you know, it's like a thousand X.

[00:09:33] Right.

[00:09:33] 10,000 X like that was sort of possible and that created the wrong sense of attraction.

[00:09:40] Now Web3 is still going through its cycle and potentially in its bullish position again,

[00:09:46] which means hype will come back.

[00:09:47] But I don't think we'll quite see what we saw with the NFT craze.

[00:09:51] And that scared a lot of brands off.

[00:09:53] So I think for me, it's like.

[00:09:55] At Anomaly with these incubators, it's really important that we just sort of look at the

[00:10:00] core foundation and framework of the brand, look at the advantages that the technology

[00:10:05] could pose to that brand to solve some of their pain points or challenges.

[00:10:10] And then collectively, our teams and the client teams kind of come together.

[00:10:15] We use technology.

[00:10:16] We explore different facets.

[00:10:18] We apply it in a frame to solve that challenge.

[00:10:22] And then it's a lot of exploration.

[00:10:24] It's a lot of showing your work.

[00:10:25] It's a lot of insights and then sort of capitalizing on the insights.

[00:10:28] And then it comes back and yeah, and it's like, let's just like immerse ourselves in

[00:10:32] what we did, the experience.

[00:10:33] And that's led to like then actual production streams.

[00:10:36] Like, let's go build this.

[00:10:38] There's this now program that we're going to go do.

[00:10:40] Okay, great.

[00:10:40] That turns into a year and a half of work, right?

[00:10:43] Or it turns into four or five months to go materialize that thing.

[00:10:47] But it's born from the right principles.

[00:10:49] It's attaching the strengths of the movement to the technology with the needs of the brand.

[00:10:54] And I'd like to say that not only is it like expressive, but it is rooted in clear focus

[00:11:02] and positive intention for the client.

[00:11:06] And just to bring to life some of what you were talking about there, I was recently reading

[00:11:09] about your Web3 program.

[00:11:11] I think you developed it with Ally Financial.

[00:11:14] I think it was called Creator Cash.

[00:11:16] So can you tell me a bit more about that and how that supports creators in utilizing

[00:11:21] emerging technologies and maybe the kind of impact that you've seen by companies or by

[00:11:27] this company embracing it?

[00:11:29] Yeah, I think that right now creators in general, like Ally's really well positioned and we love

[00:11:34] Ally Financial.

[00:11:34] I've been working with them now for a few years and just so expertly run such a good lens on

[00:11:39] culture and have great associations and partnerships and all that good stuff.

[00:11:44] And that helps us because when we started our incubator with them, we realized that the creator

[00:11:49] economy, I mean, obviously this emergence of the creator economy, which we see on so many

[00:11:54] platforms, right?

[00:11:55] People that feel like here's my craft, here's what I do.

[00:11:58] They can monetize it.

[00:11:59] But in monetizing it, sometimes it can create a lot of questions that they don't have answers

[00:12:03] to.

[00:12:04] How do, when do I become a business versus an individual taxes, savings?

[00:12:09] What types of accounts to use?

[00:12:10] Blurring the lines between an individual and a business can happen very quick for creators.

[00:12:15] Some creators want to go to the next level.

[00:12:16] Some creators have gone to the next level and they just don't know how to handle it.

[00:12:19] So Ally Financial is really good about when our program was saying like, okay, let's figure

[00:12:23] out how to provide education through gamification around sort of emerging technologies to help

[00:12:30] these creators kind of level up and grow, right?

[00:12:33] So we're going to expose them to forms of generative AI.

[00:12:37] We're going to expose them to web three sort of principles, but then also things like how

[00:12:41] to do a better podcast, right?

[00:12:42] How to brand yourself, how to market yourself.

[00:12:45] What does it mean about savings and finances and business goals and objectives, right?

[00:12:49] Most of these individuals are not businesses and that's fine too.

[00:12:53] And Ally has a lot of things to support them.

[00:12:55] So the CreatorCash program is going.

[00:12:57] We are really helping and we've embraced the creator economy and given them a rewards-based

[00:13:03] platform.

[00:13:03] So the more they participate, the more they earn, the more they can spend.

[00:13:06] They can get access to Masterclass and they can get access to Adobe rewards, right?

[00:13:12] So allowing them to sort of do some of the things that they do that they need, but making it

[00:13:16] more affordable, making it more accessible.

[00:13:18] Also have the ability and the proximity to like talk with talent, maybe aspirational talent

[00:13:23] creators that they see that they hope to be.

[00:13:25] Ally is really connected to that community.

[00:13:27] So it can be about, hey, let's let you meet maybe one of your people you're looking up to,

[00:13:32] right?

[00:13:32] And all of a sudden we facilitate that.

[00:13:34] So it's been great.

[00:13:35] The emerging tech side is, it's always going to be something that we're striving for, right?

[00:13:41] As a financial institution, you can imagine like Web3 principles, generated AI principles,

[00:13:46] having to sort of deal with what those regulatory measures are through the process.

[00:13:50] We've dealt with FTX.

[00:13:52] We've dealt with definitely some of the fall of the banks.

[00:13:56] We've dealt with regulation issues.

[00:13:58] We've dealt with speculation, a fall and a rise in different cycles.

[00:14:02] So that creates, that creates just a lot of management.

[00:14:06] We have to confront what's happening.

[00:14:08] We have to educate around it.

[00:14:10] And we also have to just be resilient.

[00:14:12] Really, it comes down to resilience.

[00:14:14] It's like, if you believe in emerging technology to be a benefit to not only your brand, but

[00:14:18] to your consumer, you fight to provide that benefit.

[00:14:20] Because if you think it's going to be easy, you're in the wrong field, right?

[00:14:25] There's plenty of easy things to make in this world.

[00:14:28] Things with emerging technology, things that are cutting edge, things that have all kinds

[00:14:33] of uncertainty, they're not easy.

[00:14:35] And that's actually sometimes in that extraordinary effort, some of the best stuff is born and that

[00:14:42] stuff is innovative and it changes the space.

[00:14:44] And that's the stuff that you look back on and you say, that was really hard.

[00:14:48] That almost broke me.

[00:14:49] But because it didn't, it made me that much stronger and the world needed it.

[00:14:53] And I'm super thankful that I helped deliver it.

[00:14:55] And it's so refreshing to hear you say that.

[00:14:58] There's a lot of hype around AI at the minute.

[00:15:00] A lot of businesses just want to be part of that AI narrative.

[00:15:03] They put the tech in first and then look for the problem to solve where it should be the

[00:15:07] other way around, of course.

[00:15:09] And for businesses that are sat on the sidelines or sat on the fence at the moment, trying

[00:15:13] to work out what problems they're solving.

[00:15:15] I think we might be able to bring it to life with some examples that you've got there.

[00:15:20] So how are you seeing brands benefiting from application of Gen AI through, I think it's

[00:15:26] your classified sessions and what practical challenge have helped these brands overcome

[00:15:31] or have they helped these brands overcome with emerging tech solutions?

[00:15:36] Because hearing these stories and stories like this that you're going to share, that's

[00:15:39] where the magic happens.

[00:15:40] And it might spark some ideas in some people listening, right?

[00:15:44] Yeah.

[00:15:44] I mean, it's, I think what's so interesting is like my whole career has been about bringing

[00:15:48] things into the world, like helping bring people together, connect, fundamentally understand

[00:15:53] an objective and go make it and bring it out and share it.

[00:15:56] The last two years, I think thanks to Generative AI has been a different, it's been a different

[00:16:02] experience, right?

[00:16:03] This has been about internal organizational transformation, helping people all around.

[00:16:10] And this is what I've done.

[00:16:11] I've helped people all around the world of Anomaly.

[00:16:13] We've done this in five of our offices and we have Shanghai office coming in January.

[00:16:19] We've done an immersive training that's a week long and it goes at actual brand business

[00:16:26] challenges using a suite of Generative AI.

[00:16:28] We mix that with inspirational keynote speakers.

[00:16:32] There's a challenge component, there's prizes.

[00:16:34] And we let the team sort of go at, go out and demonstrate for a few days and then come

[00:16:39] back and present what they did.

[00:16:40] And it's really rewarding because it gets people immersed in it, it gets people trying

[00:16:45] different tools and techniques.

[00:16:46] And then they're the ones that have to sort of demonstrate what they did in their craft

[00:16:50] to each other.

[00:16:50] And it's really beautiful to sort of see everyone come together in the end.

[00:16:54] It's rewarding.

[00:16:55] And then it sticks with them.

[00:16:56] So in this case, same measurement, like we are a business, we are a brand of Anomaly,

[00:17:01] right?

[00:17:01] So how I've had to transform the way 800 people around the world work is through the

[00:17:08] presence of these tools and technologies.

[00:17:10] We cut those tensions.

[00:17:11] We sort of, we have eight plus hours of curriculum that we balance with speakers and we just come

[00:17:16] in and we say, Hey, this is, these are different things you can do with different tools, right?

[00:17:20] So if you are, again, you're trying to create music, you're trying to create moving visuals,

[00:17:24] you're going from a concept to text, to image, to video, maybe to motion graphics, maybe to 3D.

[00:17:32] You're just jumping around and you're creating things, you're crafting, but you're doing it

[00:17:35] together in these groups.

[00:17:37] You're blurring the skill sets, blurring the lines of what people do, right?

[00:17:41] So I've seen strategists be creatives.

[00:17:43] I've seen people in finance be strong presenters and present creative work because they are all

[00:17:48] working together in these interdisciplinary teams.

[00:17:51] And because of the presence of these tools, we really blend and balance what people can

[00:17:55] do.

[00:17:55] Again, we let them control their creativity and their craft.

[00:17:58] And that's been, that's been how, right?

[00:18:01] So, so I think your core question, what it is now is businesses and brands want that.

[00:18:07] They don't want to put generative AI material into the world.

[00:18:11] And in fact, like we are going to see a radical difference in designation around the use of AI

[00:18:19] in outward facing material.

[00:18:20] First of all, nobody wants to say it, but everybody is going to start using generative AI and many

[00:18:27] already are in small facets of the production flow, right?

[00:18:31] So it's being used for frame interpolation to help finishing and speed in post-production.

[00:18:37] It's being used to augment environment, add snow, right?

[00:18:42] To footage, things like that.

[00:18:43] And it's being used to localize from a language perspective or different facets of content.

[00:18:48] These are sort of quick techniques that AI can do well.

[00:18:52] You're doing it on a frame level.

[00:18:53] You're doing it on a shot level, but you're not creating an emotional piece, right?

[00:18:57] You're not creating like a dialogue scene or a really high end action sequence using

[00:19:02] AI, but you're using it to sort of bridge the gap.

[00:19:04] And I think that like, that's acceptable because you can hide the AI.

[00:19:08] But AI as an idea is not what the world wants right now because AI as an idea gets a lot

[00:19:15] of hatred, again, for some of those reasons we've already discussed.

[00:19:18] So for me, it's about helping brands understand what it means within their walls, what it means

[00:19:25] for their people, getting them to play, getting them to demonstrate, getting them to go at

[00:19:30] challenges with the presence of technology can ultimately change the way they operate and

[00:19:35] can set them up with a fundamental understanding of how to use this technology, not necessarily

[00:19:40] for the tools of today, but knowing that the innovation of tomorrow is going to continue

[00:19:45] to augment what we do on a regular basis.

[00:19:47] So we're building for that as much as we are building for right now.

[00:19:51] And I think, again, it's like internally we change and then externally we are just stronger

[00:19:57] and better, but we are not outwardly throwing up the AI flag and be like, yeah, that was

[00:20:03] no generative AI.

[00:20:03] Yeah, there's so much hype around AI at the moment.

[00:20:07] And in many circles, we've almost forgotten around the metaverse.

[00:20:11] There was a lot of hype around that two years ago.

[00:20:13] And some people say it's gone for good, but I would disagree.

[00:20:16] I think at the moment, 2024 is the year of the AI smartphone, the AI PC.

[00:20:22] And what always excites me about emerging technologies is not them in their own right, but what happens

[00:20:27] when they start to converge?

[00:20:29] If everyone's got AI devices and if that starts to converge with the metaverse, I would imagine

[00:20:34] it's inevitable.

[00:20:35] And with your extensive work in the metaverse, particularly with, I think it was Samsung 837X

[00:20:41] in Decentral.

[00:20:42] And I'm curious, as someone that's been on both sides of this fence, how do you envision

[00:20:46] the future of brand experiences evolving with these digital worlds?

[00:20:51] Because the lines between offline and online have almost disappeared.

[00:20:54] But how do you see this taking shape?

[00:20:57] Yeah, I believe that, well, the metaverse still has a massive presence, whether it's called

[00:21:03] the metaverse or not.

[00:21:03] I mean, I think that gaming, gaming in general is such an engine that fuels culture, right?

[00:21:09] So it's bigger than music, movies, and TV combined, right?

[00:21:13] So we know it is this massive sort of spectrum.

[00:21:16] And I think gaming is where sort of metaverse or shared environments kind of exist, right?

[00:21:22] So we're seeing, and we've seen it for a while, we've seen games where people coexist,

[00:21:27] they interact.

[00:21:28] We've seen this as a form of escape.

[00:21:30] It's a way to rebrand.

[00:21:32] Ready Player One did a good job to illustrate that, right?

[00:21:36] Whatever avatar you sort of showed up as, that's who you were.

[00:21:39] Your gamer tag, your gamer persona.

[00:21:42] That is a rebrand.

[00:21:43] That is a finsta, if you will, of social media, but it's in the gaming world.

[00:21:48] And now you have in culture, it's popular to be anonymous, to not want to get docs.

[00:21:56] Like all these sort of things and these facets are out there.

[00:21:58] But a lot of that came from gaming.

[00:22:00] A lot of that came from that sort of perspective.

[00:22:03] So I believe, you know, you have Generation Alpha, still loves Roblox, loves Fortnite,

[00:22:08] loves these shared systems.

[00:22:10] That's not going to change.

[00:22:11] Minecraft, these things are being like, when I say these words, now granted my kids don't

[00:22:16] play these systems, but when I say these words, my kids get very excited when they hear Roblox.

[00:22:21] To build that type of excitement in them, it's because it feels like this sort of world that

[00:22:27] right now some kids are like fully in and others just want to touch.

[00:22:31] It's where their friends want to be.

[00:22:32] It's where things are purchased.

[00:22:34] Robux have so much value, even more so.

[00:22:37] Gen Alpha probably wants Robux as much as they want US dollars, right?

[00:22:41] Bitcoin falls somewhere in that spectrum as well.

[00:22:44] That's what they're after.

[00:22:45] They want currency to be able to exchange it in this world that they exist in.

[00:22:49] So, you know, my feeling on the metaverse is that platforms, new platforms will continue

[00:22:54] to emerge.

[00:22:55] Some of these platforms, like we have discussed, are not going anywhere.

[00:22:58] They're going to just continue to grow and scale, but it's really around the spectrum

[00:23:01] of gaming.

[00:23:02] It's around the ability to escape exist.

[00:23:05] If somebody has to go home and maybe they're in like a small apartment, they're in a shared

[00:23:11] space.

[00:23:12] They always feel sort of like they can't have any time for themselves, right?

[00:23:18] They just feel restricted.

[00:23:19] They feel claustrophobic, whatever that kind of feeling is.

[00:23:22] To then be able to port yourself into this game world and escape and connect and feel now

[00:23:28] all of a sudden this expanse and this freedom is, it is a fundamental feeling that humans

[00:23:35] need.

[00:23:36] And gaming and quote unquote metaverse is a way to give it to them.

[00:23:41] And then commerce, community, watching movies, right?

[00:23:45] Watching content, watching live sports, watching concerts, like all of these things exist within

[00:23:50] these platforms as well.

[00:23:51] We just haven't necessarily seen it become the standard.

[00:23:55] Right now we've seen it in stunt form.

[00:23:58] We've seen it here and there, but at some point technology will sort of warrant the ability

[00:24:04] to your point to blend those worlds.

[00:24:06] Computing will be strong enough.

[00:24:08] Hardware will be democratized and affordable enough, i.e.

[00:24:12] that presence on your phone or the sunglasses that everybody has or whatever it might be.

[00:24:17] And now all of a sudden digital and physical ecosystem and world overlap.

[00:24:22] And when that happens, escape and entertainment and all of these sort of forms that right now

[00:24:29] exist more in silo or immersions become free and everywhere.

[00:24:34] Right?

[00:24:34] And I think that's like where certainly brands are trying to go.

[00:24:37] I don't know if that's ever though going to change again, that desire to fundamentally

[00:24:42] disconnect and escape and sort of be in control of your world.

[00:24:47] Like you can do within games and metaverse right now.

[00:24:51] And I think that you're still going to want that.

[00:24:52] So it's immersion, right?

[00:24:54] And it's sort of this blended reality as well.

[00:24:57] Ready player one sort of puts it together a little bit.

[00:25:00] And I think to a degree that there will be some synergy there, but I also think that there'll

[00:25:04] be some separation as well.

[00:25:06] So, and there's also a lot of excitement around AI text to video at the moment, anything you

[00:25:12] can think of, whether it be, I don't know, a dog and a rabbit walking through a desert

[00:25:16] at Times Square and it will just create it for you.

[00:25:19] And I know you've authored several pieces on using generative AI tools like Runway for

[00:25:24] animation and video.

[00:25:26] I'm curious how you see the intersection of creativity and AI almost shaping a new future

[00:25:32] of advertising and brand storytelling.

[00:25:34] How do you see this taking shape?

[00:25:37] One of the things that excites me is I think that level of creativity, a little bit like

[00:25:41] your creating music example earlier in our conversation.

[00:25:45] Creativity around digital videos and digital art, et cetera.

[00:25:49] You needed to know the Adobe Creative Suite inside out and hundreds of hours, not to mention

[00:25:54] a very expensive Adobe Creative Suite.

[00:25:56] But it's almost like the barriers of creativity are lowering and your creativity itself is almost

[00:26:02] limitless.

[00:26:03] The only limit is your imagination.

[00:26:05] But enough for me, how do you see this evolving?

[00:26:09] No, I love that.

[00:26:10] You're exactly right, though.

[00:26:11] It's a multiplier of our creativity.

[00:26:13] It's a multiplier of our skills.

[00:26:15] And the imagination aspect of what you said is so on point.

[00:26:19] And it's something that we say as well.

[00:26:20] This can really speed up and it can visualize your imagination.

[00:26:27] So you can test against what's in your head.

[00:26:30] And that's really powerful when it's like, here's my concept.

[00:26:34] And I can chuck it into ChatGPT.

[00:26:36] And I can ask it to lay this concept out for me.

[00:26:40] And I can get sort of a sense of how it would extract it.

[00:26:43] And then it's like, maybe there's like charts or graphics.

[00:26:46] And it's like, give me some context on the type of chart, right?

[00:26:50] And then I can actually have it create the chart.

[00:26:52] I can chuck that into Claude and maybe have it make a better chart.

[00:26:55] I can get sort of the graphical prompt.

[00:26:57] And I'd be like, okay, I want to manipulate that.

[00:26:59] And then I go into like a mid-journey or I go into Cray or whatever I go into.

[00:27:03] And I bring it to life.

[00:27:04] Or I say, maybe I don't want the still.

[00:27:06] To your point, I just want to go straight into video.

[00:27:08] And I chuck that into Runway or I chuck that into Kling.

[00:27:11] And now all of a sudden, I'm bringing to life a moving visual.

[00:27:14] So I'm feeling like a bit of an orchestrator of all of these tools.

[00:27:17] But generative video, I mean, it's really important to note that right now,

[00:27:21] that's where most of tech is after.

[00:27:23] And we just saw Meta's launching theirs.

[00:27:25] I've chatted with NVIDIA about theirs, Adobe about theirs.

[00:27:28] And we've seen like a lot of different demos.

[00:27:30] I'm actively using, I'd say, Runway, Kling, and Luma the most, right?

[00:27:35] Those are sort of the three that we use on a regular basis.

[00:27:38] Different advantages.

[00:27:39] Like Runway is really beautiful at like making a singular object come to life.

[00:27:44] And in my opinion, like it's really good about,

[00:27:47] I don't know if it has quite the same understanding of the scene.

[00:27:50] So something that we sort of talk to our teams about is like Kling,

[00:27:53] in my image to video experience right now,

[00:27:56] tends to understand the full scene better, right?

[00:28:00] So it will pick up elements of the scene that Runway just doesn't.

[00:28:03] And it'll animate those.

[00:28:04] Now they both have a motion brush,

[00:28:06] although motion brush and again,

[00:28:08] the newest model doesn't have a motion brush with Runway unless they launch it today.

[00:28:13] So that happens.

[00:28:13] Sometimes I'll say, hey, this feature doesn't exist.

[00:28:15] And literally it launched for breakfast, but I just don't know yet.

[00:28:18] But they do,

[00:28:19] they had their motion brush is with the older model,

[00:28:21] still really good.

[00:28:22] Whereas Kling has the motion brush with the newer model,

[00:28:24] which is quite good.

[00:28:24] So it's just lots of different moving parts and facets,

[00:28:27] but all companies right now are trying to understand how to contextualize video.

[00:28:32] Because if they can contextualize video,

[00:28:34] and they can understand the components of video,

[00:28:36] not relying upon the words that accompany the video,

[00:28:39] i.e. the dialogue,

[00:28:40] the data that comes with it,

[00:28:42] the transcript,

[00:28:43] but the context,

[00:28:44] then all of a sudden we should be able to theoretically generate stuff

[00:28:47] that is more contextually on point with what we are trying to do.

[00:28:50] And it looks and it feels and it delivers the emotion or the content that we are trying to get

[00:28:57] through words.

[00:28:58] And right now there is a bit of a disconnect,

[00:29:00] which is causing a lot of push within research and certainly a lot of money within tech walls.

[00:29:05] How do we contextualize video?

[00:29:06] How do we make sense of it?

[00:29:07] So one of the perfect examples of this,

[00:29:09] this is what we sort of use as like where,

[00:29:11] what would break the model right now is January 6th,

[00:29:14] right?

[00:29:15] So January 6th,

[00:29:16] Washington,

[00:29:17] D.C.

[00:29:17] you see imagery and video of people storming the Capitol,

[00:29:22] doing like the worst possible thing,

[00:29:26] but they're smiling and they're happy,

[00:29:29] right?

[00:29:30] And they're happy inside Congress.

[00:29:32] And if you're not seeing sort of terrified members of government

[00:29:35] and you're just looking at them and they're smiling,

[00:29:38] it thinks it's happy,

[00:29:40] right?

[00:29:40] So video is contextualizing this and it's like,

[00:29:43] there's all these happy people,

[00:29:44] very patriotic inside the Capitol building.

[00:29:47] Yeah.

[00:29:48] Like energized.

[00:29:49] And it's like,

[00:29:49] no,

[00:29:49] no,

[00:29:50] like you're missing something very important,

[00:29:51] but how do you get to that ability?

[00:29:54] How do you contextualize that?

[00:29:56] Right?

[00:29:56] So is that sort of a,

[00:29:58] no,

[00:29:58] granted that's an extreme case,

[00:30:00] but if you're ultimately trying to craft and create video,

[00:30:04] you need to be able to unpack that nuance

[00:30:07] and you need to be able to contextualize video to a higher degree,

[00:30:11] right?

[00:30:11] You need to be able to extract all of those details.

[00:30:14] Right?

[00:30:15] So does it cross-reference that data with other sort of elements,

[00:30:20] news,

[00:30:21] other understanding?

[00:30:22] Does,

[00:30:22] does it ask the,

[00:30:23] is there sort of a language model facet that's actually going to tag it?

[00:30:27] Cause it's probably the case.

[00:30:28] Does it go into reasoning with that language model?

[00:30:31] And now you can see how a reasoning model might benefit the ability to

[00:30:35] contextualize.

[00:30:35] Cause it says,

[00:30:36] well,

[00:30:36] wait a minute.

[00:30:37] There's something interesting about this.

[00:30:39] These are civilians in a Capitol building.

[00:30:42] There was this instance,

[00:30:44] January 6th,

[00:30:44] where civilians stormed the Capitol building.

[00:30:46] This is probably what we are looking at.

[00:30:48] And in fact,

[00:30:49] oh,

[00:30:49] this was a very bad thing,

[00:30:51] right?

[00:30:52] Though it appears happy.

[00:30:53] So it adds that context.

[00:30:54] And now all of a sudden when it has that context,

[00:30:56] it can say,

[00:30:57] well,

[00:30:57] wait a minute,

[00:30:58] like in order to grab context from this,

[00:31:00] now I'm cross-referencing this,

[00:31:01] that's the proper data to accompany this,

[00:31:04] this element within the model,

[00:31:06] which theoretically makes it,

[00:31:07] it's smarter.

[00:31:08] So I am a huge fan of generative video.

[00:31:11] Generative video is not there yet,

[00:31:13] but we can definitely do again,

[00:31:15] little pickups,

[00:31:16] little augmentations,

[00:31:17] certainly making our presentations and our storytelling more interesting.

[00:31:20] It can,

[00:31:21] we can create testing materials with it without having to shoot,

[00:31:24] which is cool.

[00:31:25] But a lot of times we're just doing that for the purposes of pre-production.

[00:31:28] And then regular production is using live action directors,

[00:31:32] the typical process.

[00:31:33] And then maybe post-production is being augmented a little bit with AI as well.

[00:31:37] And we're talking a lot around intensive AI today.

[00:31:41] And of course,

[00:31:41] AI is a thirsty beast.

[00:31:44] Water,

[00:31:45] so much water is required for cooling,

[00:31:47] so much energy is well documented.

[00:31:49] Some of the stats on how much the average chat GPT query,

[00:31:52] how much energy that consumes.

[00:31:54] And I noticed that your advisory work with startups like Million Marker,

[00:31:58] and I think Sky Narno,

[00:31:59] highlights an interest in sustainability and biological testing.

[00:32:04] So how do these emerging tech projects align with your work at Anomaly?

[00:32:08] And how might sustainability become a larger focus for brands in the future?

[00:32:13] What are you seeing here?

[00:32:14] Yeah,

[00:32:15] I mean,

[00:32:15] I think,

[00:32:15] look,

[00:32:16] I think sustainability has to be on all of our minds.

[00:32:20] So I will say that every single brand that I've worked with in probably the past decade

[00:32:24] has had sustainability as a pillar of their business.

[00:32:27] And I think it's a massive component.

[00:32:28] I mean,

[00:32:29] I think about Samsung,

[00:32:30] I think about all the stuff that they were doing with sustainability when we're working on A37X.

[00:32:34] We even had several experiences within Decentraland that were purely around sustainability,

[00:32:39] the recycling efforts,

[00:32:40] the reducing carbon emissions,

[00:32:42] all that.

[00:32:43] And I think that my experience with startups,

[00:32:45] specifically Million Marker,

[00:32:46] who I still advise from a marketing perspective,

[00:32:49] and I love them.

[00:32:50] So Jenna,

[00:32:51] who is the CEO of Million Marker,

[00:32:53] and she founded it,

[00:32:53] she's got a very personal journey that led her to sort of discover the negative aspects that plastic,

[00:33:02] when consumed,

[00:33:03] can have on the human body.

[00:33:05] And when we first started talking about it,

[00:33:07] I mean,

[00:33:07] now,

[00:33:07] I guess it was like five years ago,

[00:33:09] probably.

[00:33:10] It was very new science to me,

[00:33:11] or four years ago,

[00:33:12] I was like,

[00:33:12] well,

[00:33:12] this is kind of crazy.

[00:33:13] So how much plastic do I have in my body?

[00:33:16] And it was like,

[00:33:16] well,

[00:33:17] pretty much at any given time,

[00:33:19] any of us have plastic in our body.

[00:33:21] We have different forms of plastic,

[00:33:22] right?

[00:33:23] So there's hardeners,

[00:33:23] there's softeners,

[00:33:24] sort of learn how to unpack like what phthalates are,

[00:33:28] what's the difference between BPA and maybe environmental phenols and all that stuff.

[00:33:32] So it's like all these contaminants are there,

[00:33:34] they're present in our world,

[00:33:36] but they're present in our body.

[00:33:37] And that was the unlock.

[00:33:38] So what Million Marker has done is not only have they allowed individuals to understand what's inside their body.

[00:33:45] So I've been tested for plastic.

[00:33:46] My wife has as well.

[00:33:48] And Jenna and her team are so good at like helping you then understand why.

[00:33:52] So maybe your BPA levels are high.

[00:33:55] And maybe you're a vegan and a health nut,

[00:33:57] but you drink canned water or sparkling water like LaCroix or whatever you drink.

[00:34:03] And that's where that plastic is coming from.

[00:34:06] Other times it's your beauty products,

[00:34:09] your shampoo,

[00:34:10] your face wash,

[00:34:10] whatever.

[00:34:11] So we used Kiehl's when we first tested that as a product that we used.

[00:34:15] And that caused the phthalate levels to be really high.

[00:34:18] So then she can,

[00:34:19] her and her team like recommend different products.

[00:34:21] And that led to like product testing.

[00:34:23] So now they test products for brands.

[00:34:25] And there's a lot of that that's happening.

[00:34:27] And it's a lot more sort of business to business now,

[00:34:29] testing populations and things like that,

[00:34:31] because it can lead to fertility issues,

[00:34:34] right?

[00:34:34] To have sort of high levels of plastic.

[00:34:36] And those are specific things that we're looking at.

[00:34:38] So if you go back like in time and you think about big tobacco,

[00:34:41] and you think about sort of what toppled it,

[00:34:43] it was massive studies of populations.

[00:34:45] It was irrefutable evidence,

[00:34:48] right?

[00:34:48] It was like,

[00:34:48] it became kind of undeniable to say,

[00:34:51] this is what is happening.

[00:34:52] And that's what ultimately pushed legislation.

[00:34:54] Well,

[00:34:54] right now,

[00:34:55] from a plastic perspective,

[00:34:56] the data just isn't there,

[00:34:57] right?

[00:34:58] So a lot of populations haven't been tested.

[00:35:00] So populations where preterm births or things that are happening,

[00:35:03] right?

[00:35:04] Or fertility issues could potentially be pointed back to these environments have high

[00:35:09] levels of plastic in terms of it within people.

[00:35:12] So that's coming from environmental standpoints,

[00:35:13] it's coming from water,

[00:35:14] it's coming from different facets.

[00:35:15] And then that could be linking to it.

[00:35:17] So it's drawing these conclusions,

[00:35:19] this data,

[00:35:19] which is,

[00:35:20] which,

[00:35:20] so I mean,

[00:35:20] I love their mission.

[00:35:21] And it's definitely something that I try and always think about.

[00:35:26] If we think about like compute,

[00:35:28] we think about the data,

[00:35:29] the usage,

[00:35:29] we think about like what it means to our planet.

[00:35:32] Like I'm affected by hurricanes living in Florida for part of my life.

[00:35:36] Now living in North Carolina,

[00:35:37] I have this immediate sort of effect of hurricanes.

[00:35:40] We have friends staying with us now because they can't stay in their house because of a

[00:35:43] landslide.

[00:35:44] Like this is stuff that is,

[00:35:45] it hits close to home.

[00:35:47] And I,

[00:35:47] we homeschool our kids.

[00:35:48] I talk to my kids all the time.

[00:35:49] I'm like,

[00:35:50] how do we preserve this planet?

[00:35:52] How do we bring it back?

[00:35:53] So I'm really fascinated with them,

[00:35:55] like figuring out how to reform and freeze glaciers and how to move compute underwater.

[00:36:00] So it's more energy efficient.

[00:36:03] You know,

[00:36:03] what quantum computing could mean,

[00:36:06] what,

[00:36:07] you know,

[00:36:07] what fusion means ultimately from a power perspective.

[00:36:10] These are really interesting facets that are going to reshape our technological world.

[00:36:14] But a lot of this is going to also help the sustainable components of our world.

[00:36:19] It's about preservation.

[00:36:20] It's about just existing,

[00:36:22] right?

[00:36:22] So it's bigger than technology.

[00:36:24] It's bigger than like,

[00:36:26] it's bigger than just like those small facets that it used to be like,

[00:36:29] Oh,

[00:36:29] that's intriguing.

[00:36:30] That's interesting.

[00:36:31] It's like,

[00:36:31] no,

[00:36:31] that's life-saving.

[00:36:33] That's planetary impact.

[00:36:35] That's curing cancer.

[00:36:36] That's banking words in ALS before somebody loses the ability to speak,

[00:36:42] right?

[00:36:42] Like that's science that is profound.

[00:36:45] And it's,

[00:36:47] that's the thing that gets me,

[00:36:48] I guess,

[00:36:49] excited,

[00:36:49] but it certainly gets me paying attention.

[00:36:51] And the closer I can be from a proximity standpoint to what's happening in that world

[00:36:55] and bring it back into my world,

[00:36:57] which it's largely outside of,

[00:36:59] I feel like at least I'm doing something to help with the mission or the objective.

[00:37:03] But yeah,

[00:37:04] that's why I guess I'm a positive person by nature,

[00:37:06] but I certainly focus on the positives that technology can bring.

[00:37:10] But I also don't deny the tensions in the negative.

[00:37:13] I just kind of like to unpack them and cut them when possible.

[00:37:17] Absolutely.

[00:37:18] Love that.

[00:37:18] And your passion and excitement and positivity really shines throughout our conversation today.

[00:37:23] And we've covered so much in a short amount of time.

[00:37:27] And I'd love to try and give some valuable takeaways for everyone listening here.

[00:37:31] And as someone that is so deeply involved in emerging technologies,

[00:37:34] encouraging people to think bigger,

[00:37:37] what skills or mindsets do you think will be crucial for professionals and brands

[00:37:42] to stay ahead in the rapidly evolving world of technology?

[00:37:46] And also there's this real state of pressure of us all to be in a state of continuous learning.

[00:37:52] So where or how do you self-educate?

[00:37:54] I realize there's about three questions in one there.

[00:37:58] Ultimately, any advice on mindsets and how do you self-educate

[00:38:02] and keep up to speed with these tech trends?

[00:38:05] No, it's a compound question.

[00:38:07] I'll start with the first part.

[00:38:08] So I think soft skills are very important.

[00:38:10] So Jason Galan, who's the founder of Anomaly, our company,

[00:38:13] and I've learned so much from, he's basically,

[00:38:16] he's published some pieces on how soft skills now are more important than ever, right?

[00:38:19] So the ability to teach, the ability to listen and extract and support people

[00:38:24] with an understanding of technology is critical, right?

[00:38:27] How are we bringing this into education, into youth?

[00:38:31] How are we helping each other?

[00:38:32] And I couldn't agree more.

[00:38:33] So soft skills are everything going into the future, right?

[00:38:36] So I mean, I've become a teacher in this world.

[00:38:39] I've become not only to my kids, but to my coworkers, to businesses.

[00:38:42] Like helping them understand and unpacking this technology,

[00:38:46] helping guide them through it.

[00:38:47] So those soft skills, super critical into the future.

[00:38:49] I hope it means different compensation levels for educators.

[00:38:52] I hope it means sort of a reformation of education

[00:38:55] and certainly an infusion of technology into that.

[00:38:58] That's my hope.

[00:38:59] And I'm doing my part in that.

[00:39:01] I think in terms of staying versed, like, again, now I feel like the wear out of AI,

[00:39:06] but it really is such a great way to extract information.

[00:39:11] So I'll give you an example of sort of a prompt.

[00:39:13] Because yes, reading is still wonderful.

[00:39:16] And I listen to podcasts as well.

[00:39:18] And I think that those are sort of great forms of information, right?

[00:39:21] Everybody should be doing that.

[00:39:22] Read zero to one, read sapiens, read whatever you can.

[00:39:26] Read things.

[00:39:26] And I read theology as well.

[00:39:28] And there's other sort of facets that play into my life

[00:39:31] that my fundamental beliefs are informed by.

[00:39:33] But I'm also like, it's really important you're up on current information.

[00:39:37] And I chuck into some prompts into ChatDBTA, also perplexity,

[00:39:41] because it allows you to gain from more sources.

[00:39:43] But I say, here are 10 newsletters that I follow on a regular basis.

[00:39:48] And maybe I curate newsletters.

[00:39:50] And I say, give me, like, search all of these sources, summarize them,

[00:39:55] find common themes across them, and basically output it in the form of information.

[00:40:00] So I get sort of a one-pager.

[00:40:02] And I can go back to that well a bunch of times I create.

[00:40:06] So in this case, I'm like summarizing or almost creating a newsletter for myself.

[00:40:09] I also publish newsletters doing this using perplexity pages.

[00:40:13] So there's other ways to just go in and extract information.

[00:40:17] I'll also use it like somebody say, oh, well, tell me a little bit about quantum computing.

[00:40:20] And I'm like, man, like quantum is difficult.

[00:40:23] So I'm going to go and I'm going to like learn up on quantum.

[00:40:26] And I'm going to sort of, so then I'll go in and again, I'll start playing with it.

[00:40:29] And it's like, I want to think about this and this facet.

[00:40:32] Why is quantum so hard?

[00:40:33] Why is it so fragile?

[00:40:35] Where does it exist?

[00:40:36] Well, why is IBM spending so much money on it?

[00:40:39] Like, what does it mean for the future of AI?

[00:40:41] Like all these things.

[00:40:41] But as I start chucking in these questions, I can start to really crystallize my answers.

[00:40:46] I can start to form them in something that's digestible.

[00:40:48] And like one of my new favorite things, and this is like now, it kind of blows my mind,

[00:40:54] but notebook LM, and it's starting to be shared everywhere.

[00:40:56] But notebook LM, you can add sources.

[00:40:59] So websites, or I've taken like a bunch of decks that I've done.

[00:41:04] I've taken like, you can take a memo and you can create a podcast from it.

[00:41:08] So you can generate a podcast and it, you don't tell it how long it's two people right now that

[00:41:13] speak, but they look at the information and they provide a commentary on the information

[00:41:18] that you can listen to.

[00:41:19] Some I've generated are like eight minutes long, some were like 15, 16 minutes, but it's

[00:41:24] a fascinating way to analyze the information, study it, and then extract it.

[00:41:28] So I've done it on like, I'm working with a company that's democratizing space.

[00:41:32] I think they're wonderful.

[00:41:33] They're called Sarah.

[00:41:34] We just started talking and like, I love their mission.

[00:41:38] I love their objectives.

[00:41:39] So I was like, oh, I'm going to chuck in some public stuff around Sarah space and I'm

[00:41:43] going to see what the podcast says.

[00:41:45] So then I did that and I listened to it and I was like, man, like it really, it pulls out

[00:41:52] such great detail, great enthusiasm.

[00:41:54] And sometimes I'd be like, oh, we got this internal memo from anomaly and here's what we

[00:41:59] think.

[00:41:59] And I'm just sharing that podcast with people within our walls, but it's really cool now

[00:42:04] to like extract the information, to editorialize it, to summarize it.

[00:42:08] So that is a lot of how I am digesting information now as I'm going to, when a sentence is like,

[00:42:15] yeah, I'm shortcutting the synthesis of it.

[00:42:19] I'm making it digestible for myself in formats that I know I'm going to retain, but I can

[00:42:25] do that now.

[00:42:26] And I can do that in a way that I was never able to before.

[00:42:29] Maybe it's 250 page report.

[00:42:31] Maybe it's a combination of things.

[00:42:33] Maybe you're trying to like, again, extract and correlate differences or unique things.

[00:42:38] And like, and that's what these tools can do right now in such a magical way.

[00:42:42] So it's making me, it's making me sharper.

[00:42:44] It's making me smarter.

[00:42:45] Certainly making me faster because I'm not a fast person, but it's making me faster, which

[00:42:49] is pretty cool.

[00:42:51] Wow.

[00:42:52] Wow.

[00:42:52] There's so much food for thought there.

[00:42:54] A lot of things I'm going to be checking out and we covered so much in a short amount

[00:42:58] of time today.

[00:42:58] So for everyone listening wanting to find out more information about you, your team, or anything

[00:43:03] we talked about today that you want to, or they want to dig a little bit deeper on,

[00:43:08] where would you like to point everyone listening?

[00:43:10] Well, they can definitely, LinkedIn is probably where I'm publishing the most.

[00:43:14] So my LinkedIn is, you find me at CNFO8 or Christopher Neff.

[00:43:17] I got my nice little PFP avatar, but then also Anomaly.

[00:43:20] Anomaly, we publish a lot through those means.

[00:43:22] I am definitely around.

[00:43:23] You can reach out.

[00:43:24] I love to connect with people that are interested to learn more about this.

[00:43:28] Universities, students, definitely that's like a, something near and dear to me.

[00:43:33] Like I like speaking at schools and, you know, again, helping guide people however I can.

[00:43:37] I've pivoted my career.

[00:43:38] I've gone through a lot of sort of spectrums of this tech in different ways.

[00:43:42] And like, I believe everybody should find the thing that really they're happy doing and

[00:43:46] what their passions are.

[00:43:48] And I think sometimes it just takes like, takes that search, right?

[00:43:52] And then that, again, that relentless energy to do it.

[00:43:54] So come find me, come say hi, and let's have a chat.

[00:43:56] Well, I am going to be staying in touch with you.

[00:43:59] I want to find out more about Notebook LM.

[00:44:01] I'm going to be playing on that over the weekend.

[00:44:03] And I think your infectious and innovative nature with this infusion of vast spectrums from Gen

[00:44:09] AI, Web3, spatial computing and beyond.

[00:44:12] We could talk for hours about this stuff.

[00:44:14] So I will get everything added to the blog post associated with this podcast so people can find

[00:44:21] you nice and easy just by clicking on a link.

[00:44:23] But more than anything, just thank you for starting this conversation today.

[00:44:26] So really enjoying it.

[00:44:27] Thank you.

[00:44:28] Thank you, Neil.

[00:44:28] You're awesome.

[00:44:29] And I appreciate being here.

[00:44:29] Our journey today through the innovative worlds of AI, Web3 and beyond with Christopher has

[00:44:35] for me been nothing short of enlightening.

[00:44:38] And yes, I've seen how Anomaly under Chris's guidance is not just keeping pace, but setting

[00:44:43] the pace in the utilisation of emerging technologies.

[00:44:46] And as a result, enhancing brand creativity and interaction is incredibly impressive.

[00:44:52] And from generating AI driven music for an intimate gathering to advising startups on

[00:44:57] sustainability, I think Chris's insights highlight the profound impact of those technology on

[00:45:02] both the present and future digital brand experiences.

[00:45:06] But how is your organisation adapting to these rapid technological advancements?

[00:45:11] Are you considering the ethical implications of integrating such technologies?

[00:45:16] I encourage you to share your experiences and your thoughts on navigating this ever evolving

[00:45:22] digital landscape.

[00:45:23] And ultimately, let's continue to learn and innovate together.

[00:45:28] And to share ideas with me, if you've got any questions, you want to come on the show,

[00:45:32] techblogwriteroutlook.com, Twitter, LinkedIn, Instagram, just at Neil C. Hughes.

[00:45:37] Love to hear your thoughts on this one.

[00:45:38] What did you take away?

[00:45:39] I know I'm going to be checking out a few things from Chris's recommendations.

[00:45:45] But let me know yours.

[00:45:46] If you've got anything you want to shout about that you think I should check out, let me know.

[00:45:50] But that's it for today.

[00:45:51] So thank you for listening.

[00:45:52] And I will speak with you all bright and early tomorrow.

[00:45:55] Bye for now.