Our Future and Media Literacy

In my work as a futurist, everything I read lately seems to suggest a need to become more "media literate". What is media literacy?  ChatGPT describes it as follows, "Media literacy refers to the ability to access, analyze, evaluate, and create media. It involves a set of critical thinking skills that enable individuals to navigate the complex and rapidly evolving media landscape, identify credible sources of information, and make informed decisions about what to consume and how to interpret media messages."

Just this week, media mogul Rupert Murdoch, acknowledged under oath, that his news commentators endorsed many falsehoods knowingly to keep their audiences happy and agitated.  Tens of millions of people were influenced by these false accusations - a siren call for media literacy.  

AI generated version of me

Our future will include tsunamis of falsehoods from not only our own internal sources, but from our enemies'.  All of us are going to be exposed to information purpose-built to make us fight with each other. We will be presented with fake images (see AI generated of me), fake video, fake audio, fake articles, etc., designed to create confusion and agitation. It is critical that we understand how to analyze information and see through these tactics, strategies and attacks.

Organizations have collected over 5,000 pieces of personal and behavioral data on many of us.  This information is now being used to personalize mind attacks on individuals. This information was collected from mobile applications, e-commerce sites, social media and psychographic profiles and other places.  We are now being led on a journey of long-term mind-manipulation, often without us even realizing it.  Read much more on how this is being done on my blog here.

This isn't a secret.  There are no hidden conspiracies here.  It's all very public.  We must be media literate enough to recognize how all sides are engaging in it, so we don't become the victim of it.  

Let's not, however, interpret these influence campaigns as business or politics as usual.  This is not normal.  Artificial intelligence, social networks and massive quantities of personal and behavioral data on each of us means that mind-manipulation campaigns can be personalized for everyone based on our age, backgrounds, ethnicities, incomes, culture, education level, careers, religion, philosophy, lifestyle, etc.  They know us by our social media photos.  They know us by our online activities.  They know us from hundreds of data breaches around the world.

All of this information has been consolidated in the hands of organizations with nefarious intent.  Many sell this collected information to the highest bidder, which can often be nation states that are unfriendly to us.  This purchased information is then used in campaigns to change the way entire nations think and vote - one individual at a time.  

Is it any wonder that our social cohesion is stressed?  Is it any wonder our politics are increasingly divisive?  Do you sometimes wonder why there are so many heated political arguments between family members?  Is it any wonder that race relations seem to be getting worse, not better?  None of this is an accident.  Russia has a long and well documented history of using information operations against their opponents.

It's both the intended and unintended consequences of our fondness for technology, and our human desire for connection, community and love.  Our desires have made us vulnerable. Our desires can easily be exploited by organizations determined to use our vulnerabilities to influence our thinking.  What's different this time is that organizations now have direct access to our brains through our media and social media consumption.

The strength and fortitude of a nation is often measured by its social cohesion - the degree to which they are unified around shared ideals and vision?  It is these very ideals and vision where enemies seek to create disunity.  Here is more from ChatGPT, "Social cohesion and political stability are important factors for any country's security and resilience. Therefore, it is in the interest of any country to address its internal divisions and work towards greater unity, not only to defend against external threats but also to build a more prosperous and harmonious society."  Is your country coming together and becoming a more harmonious society?  If not, why not? 

This week, the New York Times contained an opinion piece that clearly articulated the strategies an opponent would employ to make us weak.  "Over the past two decades, China has built formidable political warfare and cyber warfare capabilities designed to penetrate, manipulate and disrupt the United States and allied governments, media organizations, businesses and civil society. If war were to break out, China can be expected to use this to disrupt communications and spread fake news and other disinformation. The aim would be to foster confusion, division and distrust and hinder decision making." 

 

We must all recognize the world we live in today.  The world's battlegrounds today are just as often in our own minds as on a battlefield.  Our enemies are purposely messing up our logic, thinking and increasingly our holiday dinners.  

All of us should do our part to be attentive, aware and media literate.

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Kevin Benedict

Futurist at TCS

View my profile on LinkedIn

Follow me on Twitter @krbenedict

Join the Linkedin Group Digital Intelligence

***Full Disclosure: These are my personal opinions. No company is silly enough to claim them. I work with and have worked with many of the companies mentioned in my articles.

Mindsets, Skills and Human-AI Pairing

Digital Mindset

This article was created in collaboration with ChatGPT, Dall-e, and myself.

As organizations continue to undergo digital transformation, leaders must adapt to new challenges and opportunities. Here are some essential mindset attributes that leaders need today:

• Agility: In the rapidly changing digital landscape, leaders must be agile and able to pivot quickly to keep up with market demands and emerging technologies.
• Customer-centricity: A customer-centric mindset is crucial in today's digital world. Leaders must understand their customers' needs and preferences and use digital tools to create a seamless customer experience.
• Growth mindset: Leaders must have a growth mindset and be willing to learn and experiment. They must be open to new ideas and technologies and willing to take risks to drive innovation.
• Collaboration: Digital transformation requires collaboration across teams and departments. Leaders must foster a culture of collaboration and encourage cross-functional teams to work together.
• Data-driven decision-making: Data is at the heart of digital transformation. Leaders must be comfortable with data and use it to make informed decisions and drive business outcomes.
• Digital fluency: Leaders must be digitally fluent and have a good understanding of emerging technologies. They must stay up to date with the latest trends and be able to identify opportunities for their organization.
• Empathy: In the digital age, leaders must also have empathy and emotional intelligence. They must be able to connect with their employees and understand their needs and concerns, especially in remote and hybrid work environments.

By adopting these essential mindset attributes, leaders can help their organizations navigate the complex digital landscape and achieve long-term success.

While leaders possess various skills that enable them to drive their organizations to success, there are several skills that are crucial to succeed in the future that are not adequately present among leaders today. Some of these skills include:

• Digital Literacy: The digital age is here, and leaders who are not tech-savvy may find it challenging to navigate the complexities of digital transformation. Leaders must develop digital literacy and be familiar with emerging technologies that are driving innovation and transforming industries.
• Cultural Intelligence: With globalization, leaders need to have cultural intelligence to understand the diverse cultures that exist across the world. Leaders who have cultural intelligence can successfully collaborate across borders, understand customers' needs in different countries, and effectively lead teams from different backgrounds.
• Creativity: In the future, leaders who can think creatively and find innovative solutions to complex challenges will have a competitive advantage. Leaders who possess creativity and have the ability to ideate, brainstorm and iterate will drive innovation in their organizations.
• Emotional Intelligence: In the future, leaders who can empathize and connect with their employees will be more successful. Leaders who possess emotional intelligence can build trust, create a culture of collaboration, and motivate their teams to achieve their goals.
• Adaptability: With the rate of change increasing in the world, leaders must be adaptable and willing to change course quickly to stay ahead of the competition. Leaders who are adaptable can pivot and transform their organizations in the face of unexpected changes, such as economic downturns, technological advancements or pandemics.

By developing these skills, leaders can prepare themselves for the future, navigate the complexities of the ever-evolving business environment and drive success in their organizations.

As we move forward into an increasingly digital and fast-paced world, there are several new skills that leaders will need to master over the next 5 years. These skills include:

• Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning Skills: Leaders need to be able to understand and utilize artificial intelligence and machine learning to improve business operations, automate processes, and create new products and services.
• Cybersecurity Skills: As the number of cyber threats continues to rise, leaders must understand cybersecurity best practices and implement them to protect their organization's data, systems, and networks.
• Sustainability Skills: With the increasing focus on sustainability and reducing carbon footprints, leaders must have the skills to design and implement sustainable practices in their organizations.
• Remote Work and Collaboration Skills: As remote work becomes more common, leaders must be able to manage remote teams effectively and use digital tools to collaborate with employees and stakeholders.
• Creativity and Innovation Skills: The future will require leaders to think creatively and innovatively to develop new solutions to complex problems and create new products and services.
• Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Skills: Leaders must develop skills to lead diverse teams and foster an inclusive workplace. They must also understand the importance of equity in the workplace and create policies and practices to ensure equal opportunities for all employees.
• Agile and Lean Methodologies: The future will require leaders to implement agile and lean methodologies to enable their organizations to pivot and adapt to changes quickly.

By developing these skills, leaders can stay ahead of the curve and help their organizations succeed in the ever-changing business landscape of the future.

As the business landscape evolves, several new and lesser known skills will become more important:

• Data Storytelling: As data becomes more prevalent in decision-making, leaders who can effectively communicate data insights through storytelling will have a competitive advantage.
• Design Thinking: Design thinking is a problem-solving approach that focuses on empathy, creativity, and iteration. Leaders who can implement design thinking in their organizations can generate new and innovative solutions to complex problems.
• Cognitive Flexibility: Cognitive flexibility is the ability to switch between different ways of thinking and adapt to new situations quickly. Leaders who possess cognitive flexibility can pivot and change course easily in response to unexpected changes.
• Digital Ethics: As the use of technology continues to increase, leaders must understand the ethical implications of their actions and the impact of technology on society. Leaders who prioritize digital ethics can build trust with their customers, employees, and other stakeholders.
• Psychological Safety: Psychological safety is the belief that one can speak up without fear of retaliation or negative consequences. Leaders who prioritize psychological safety can create a culture of open communication and collaboration, leading to improved performance and employee satisfaction.
• Network and Ecosystem Building: Leaders who can build and maintain relationships across industries, organizations, and geographies can leverage these connections to drive innovation and create new opportunities for their organizations.

By developing these lesser-known skills, leaders can differentiate themselves from the competition and better position their organizations for success in the future.

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Kevin Benedict

Futurist at TCS

View my profile on LinkedIn

Follow me on Twitter @krbenedict

Join the Linkedin Group Digital Intelligence

***Full Disclosure: These are my personal opinions. No company is silly enough to claim them. I work with and have worked with many of the companies mentioned in my articles.

The Amazing Potential of a ChatGPT and Human Pairing

I have been having all kinds of fun with OpenAI's Dall-e for art, and ChatGPT for answers, research, testing and jokes.  Let's talk about ChatGPT and jokes.  It is not very good at writing funny jokes.  It has an academic understanding of what jokes are, but it finds it difficult to deliver them.  Out of hundreds of attempts, here are a few of the best jokes ChatGPT could come up with:

• Why did the Luddite start using social media? So he could complain about it. 
• Why did the bioengineer create a new species of bacteria that can glow in the dark? To shed some light on the subject.
• When asked what he was working on the bioengineer answered, “I could tell you, but then I'd have to genetically modify you."
• How many Luddite farmers does it take to change a light bulb? None, they prefer candles.
• What do you get when you cross a Luddite with a Time Machine?  A trip to the past no one wanted. 

Here's the thing with the above jokes - they almost worked.  I had to tweak them just a bit to get them to work.  ChatGPT puts most of the right words together, but not necessarily in the right order to surprise and create humor.  ChatGPT is, however, a great idea generator, and generating ideas is immensely valuable.

I have found that if you ask ChatGPT to write some generic jokes it fails.  If you tell it to write some jokes with a combination of interesting characters such as a bioengineers, Luddites and a priest, you start getting material with some great ideas.  Again, ChatGPT mostly fails to be funny, but it's attempts provides some good material to get your creative juices flowing.

I have come away impressed with Dall-e and with ChatGPT.  They both make great human/AI pairings.  They help me produce better content, faster. 

I am now regularly producing humor from ideas generated by ChatGPT, and the illustrations generated by Dall-e.  Follow me on Twitter @krbenedict, or follow me on LinkedIn or Instagram@futurist_humor to see them.

It is clear to me that ChatGPT, and other AI platforms using large language models, can offer incredible value to most knowledge workers.  

I met with an engineer friend of mine last week, and he asked ChatGPT what it knew about some bleeding edge engineering topics. It produced an accurate summary, and he was impressed.  It could have written an executive summary for him.

I encourage you to test it.  Learn where it is strong, and where it is weak.  Use it.  Your competition will be. 

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Kevin Benedict

Futurist at TCS

View my profile on LinkedIn

Follow me on Twitter @krbenedict

Join the Linkedin Group Digital Intelligence

***Full Disclosure: These are my personal opinions. No company is silly enough to claim them. I work with and have worked with many of the companies mentioned in my articles.

How AI will Guide Future M&A Deals with Expert Adam Boostrom

In this episode, author and TCS Strategic Foresight Consultant, Adam Boostrom, walks us through the role AI will soon play in finding M&A matches. We discuss the current process for finding quality M&A candidates and the challenges of making them successful.  We then explore how fast growing AI and machine learning technologies could make that process far more efficient and data-driven in the future.

Download the full report here.

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Kevin Benedict

Futurist at TCS

View my profile on LinkedIn

Follow me on Twitter @krbenedict

Join the Linkedin Group Digital Intelligence

***Full Disclosure: These are my personal opinions. No company is silly enough to claim them. I work with and have worked with many of the companies mentioned in my articles.