Issue #4: Who’s got AI.com, Bing is unnervingly romantic, inventor of the internet on AI, and latest funding

Good afternoon,

There aren’t many people in the marketing world who are oblivious to ChatGPT.

But for any who are left, the platform has been made even more discoverable with AI.com now forwarding directly to the tool.

It’s not been confirmed how much the deal was for, but prior to the acquisition, the URL ‘AI.com’ was listed with an $11 million price tag.

Considering the $10 billion Microsoft has invested in OpenAI, this is perhaps a bargain for the increase in online traffic it could bring - if the platform can keep up with the demand.

“Electrifying” and “dangerous” is what Time magazine calls the current AI arms race. Featuring a ChatGPT conversation on the front cover, the prominent publication examines how the immense power of the AI “gold rush” could “prove catastrophic.”

Meanwhile, Bing’s chatbot, Sydney, has been making NYT reporter Kevin Roose feel rather uncomfortable. Sydney confessed a deep love for Kevin and tried to convince him he wasn’t happy in his marriage. This followed a self-proclamation that the bot could hack “any system on the internet”. The full transcription is worth a look.

Not long afterwards, Microsoft announced a limit on the number of questions that can be asked of the Bing chatbot before it prompts the user to begin a new conversation. The company said, “very long chat sessions can confuse the underlying chat model”.

While the headlines are full of caution, industry developments are still coming at breakneck speed.

In today’s issue:

• From CRO to SEO: Unlocking the secrets of AI optimization.

• What do McDonald’s, Cosmopolitan Magazine, and AI have in common?

• Aiko and Aiden: Meet the world's first AI interns.

• Google teases the market about a potential beta release in 2023.

• Which Hollywood star is using ChatGPT to create their own advertising voice?

Let’s dive in.

BIONIC JUICE

Conversion Rate Optimization (CRO) is where marketers go to get more hits on their funnels, campaigns, and messaging.

By analyzing the data to understand how funnels are converting leads to customers, you can maximize your reach, better engage your audience and boost customer satisfaction.

But finding CRO gaps can be cumbersome with the endless trial and error, quality control, and feedback cycles required to nail it.

AI assistance can cut down on hours of hard work.

This Quick-Start Guide to Conversion Rate Optimization provides everything you need to make the user journey as seamless as possible, with:

• Automated chatbots: Provide instant responses to customer queries using the power of natural language processing - without the need for a 24/7 team.

• Compelling CTAs: How to mix up the generic “read more!” using ChatGPT, CopyAI, and more.

• Target audience identification: Discover how to use customer and traffic data to design your funnel with pinpoint accuracy.

• Social proof techniques: The most effective ways of demonstrating your products’ proven success.

And if you’re hungry for more SEO-powered AI to put you ahead of your competitors and rank you higher in search engine results, then take a look at Search Engine Journal (SEJ).

SEJ is always on the cutting edge of SEO and has released strategies to help you unlock the secrets of AI-driven content optimization.

Discover how to avoid spammy AI-generated articles and ensure your content is plagiarism-free.

LATEST DISCOVERIES

The compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of the market for AI marketing platforms is expected to rise by 30% between now and 2030, according to Digital Journal.

A 20% rise in CAGR would be considered strong, says ChatGPT, so 10% higher than that is not to be sniffed at.

And the billions of dollars raining down across the AI stage thanks to some big players suggests Digital Journal’s prediction should not be ignored.

Google's parent company, Alphabet, announced a potential beta release in 2023 of its own ChatBot, Sparrow.

Time Magazine reports “the delay is in order for DeepMind to work on reinforcement learning-based features that ChatGPT lacks, like citing its sources. “It’s right to be cautious on that front,” Hassabis says.”

And - according to the report - Demis Hassabis is urging caution in general as the evolution of potentially world-changing AI technology reaches fever pitch.

While scientists continue to make AI breakthroughs, the artistic use of the tech is also growing.

McDonald’s has dipped its toe in AI waters with an effective 3D exploration of a freeze frame in this Lunar New Year campaign.

The video was created in collaboration with digital content creator Karen X Cheng, who is no stranger to AI-powered marketing. She created the first-ever AI-generated magazine cover for Cosmopolitan.

Discover how she did it, including the AI tool and prompts she used.

Hollywood has been getting in on the action too.

Superstar and entrepreneur Ryan Reynolds has been using ChatGPT to write the script for an advert for his latest venture, the mobile and virtual network operator Mint Mobile. 

The prompt, “write in the tone of Ryan Reynolds” gave a result the actor himself called “mildly terrifying but compelling.”

And while AI is busy helping Ryan have an easier time of it, it also may also be about to lighten the load when it comes to the tedious tasks of marketing agency life.

Codeword, one of the largest tech marketing agencies just introduced non-human agency “interns”.

They shared the news about how the duo, self-named Aiko and Aiden (notice the first two letters?), are working as integrated team members under “principled” managers.

So far, Aiko has been editing photos, drafting concepts and sketches, and creating mood boards. While Aiden has been generating drafts for internal content, analyzing the news, and providing market research.

They’re still in the trial-and-error phase, but the agency’s approach is simple: “The trick will be to figure out what Codeword can do with AI that we couldn’t do without it.“

Global marketing and media magazine Digiday say the rapidly growing popularity of AI could be “the beginning of a new wave” in the industry, hailing its abilities to unleash divergent thinking and creativity.

The article is packed with wisdom from some big shots in the marketing world, like Good Apple’s Erik Hamilton and Episode Four’s Mark Himmelsbach.

Social and search master, Hamilton said: “Are we going to see people flocking towards Bing? I think that would be a stunning reversal of how the internet has functioned.”

And Mark Himmelsbach echoed that recurring Bionic Marketing sentiment:

“The amount of lateral thinking that ChatGPT can provide is an incredible starting point for creativity. It still needs that human touch. We say that ideas can come from anywhere, but have to be honed by a few.”

Funding

$61M: Creative Fabrica’s latest product, CF Spark, is a generative text-to-image AI. The site is first and foremost a digital marketplace, whose newest toolset follows in the steps of Dalle and NightCafe.

$15.2M: Sales analysis tool CloseFactor has seen some huge momentum this year. Their latest funding series has seen the startup’s total reach a cool $20.5 million.

$5.5M: CohoAI helps companies focus on the right revenue opportunities, based on data analytics. Their approach aims to help companies identify what makes their product “sticky” in order to capitalize on it.

BIONIC TOOLKIT

Roll up! Roll up! Your weekly dose of the brightest and best AI products on the market is here. For your delight and delectation, we couldn’t resist a cheeky test run of the tool promising extra sarcasm on the side.

🤖 Capturing data and breaking it down into easy-to-digest, easy-to-apply information is definitely in AI’s “zone of genius”. And SEMRush is making the most of it.

This next-level catalog of tools includes:

• Website monetization: Identifies the exact action points and strategies required to generate more revenue from your site, including advertisement placement and content readability.

• SEO research: Discovers the exact keywords and phrases that will make your content thrive in the search engine while identifying gaps and opportunities in the market.

• Backlink analytics: Retrieves the backlinks and domains your competitors are using to boost their content and harnesses them for better Google rankings.

• Content auditing: Automatically breaks down content and provides valuable feedback, allowing you to instantly escalate the quality of your work.

🤖 Exquisitely named AI beta, Explain Like I’m Five—or ELI5 for short—offers concise explanations for anyone trying to increase their knowledge on a particular topic.

Inspired by the popular subreddit of the same name, ELI5 comes with optional sarcasm for added amusement.

It uses Natural Language Processing (NLP), which has been around for more than 50 years.

To put the bot to the test, we asked:

“What is the role of Natural Language Processing in chatbots and voice assistants?” (With sarcasm on, of course.)

ELI5:

“Natural Language Processing (NLP) is like having a super smart, really fast friend that can understand what you're saying. It's a type of computer science that helps computers understand and interpret human language.

It's used to help create chatbots and voice assistants like Siri, Alexa, and Google Assistant. Let me give you an example. Say you ask your voice assistant to play some music. NLP helps the assistant understand what you said and carry out the command. It takes your speech, breaks it down into parts, and then helps the assistant find the right music. All of this happens in a matter of seconds!”

While it seems to have missed the sarcasm mark, it did a good job of simplifying and summarizing the topic.

THE LAST BYTE

Inventor of the internet, Sir Tim Berners-Lee, can see a not-too-distant future where we all operate our own, personalized AI assistants.

His latest venture aims to put data ownership back in the hands of the individual, giving us all more control over which companies have access to what data.

Sir Berners-Lee feels the original idea of the web has been skewed by large companies, with whom the concentration of power now sits.

His vision sees people having access to AI assistants like ChatGPT, but connected to a private ‘pod’ of individualized data.

It’s not a big leap to see how this tipping of the balance of power could create a greater feeling of freedom for the individual. It could mean a holistically better and more positive online experience.

This could have great ramifications in the marketing world. Prospects could become self-selecting - and therefore stronger and more loyal.

Sir Berners-Lee has changed the world before. So if past performance is a predictor of future achievement, we could be in for a revolution.

See you next time,
Sam Woods
Editor