50% AI adoption in 3 years
Don't be in the other half
Long weekend here in Aotearoa meaning this is coming to you a little later, but this meant I caught the Mary Meeker report on 'why AI is like no other prior tech trend’ so it worked out. I’ve curated a great list of other ‘need to knows’ you can embed in your brain (and share at your morning meetings to look like you are absolutely up to date) without necessarily going deeper — although of course I’ll always suggest you do!
📱 Samsung x Perplexity: The Assistant Wars
Samsung is close to finalising a deal making Perplexity AI the default assistant on Galaxy S26 phones, potentially launching early 2026. Perplexity is a great ‘Answer’ (vs just search) tool I use all the time and represents a big win for the company which continues to ship as fast as it can to stay ahead of Google. (Most recently Perplexity Labs which I’m still figuring out just what it is).
📸 Google Photos: New editor on the way
Speaking of Google. Their photo app celebrates 10 years with new editor features and enhanced sharing capabilities. All I want is for it to automatically get rid of screenshots and duplicates - a girl can dream.
🪄 'Vibe Coding' Goes Mainstream
Google Stitch joins the growing field of platforms where everyday language creates apps, dashboards, or websites without traditional programming. This has been coined ‘vibe coding’ but I’ve been playing around with the Replit platform and it feels like magic wand coding. I wave my wand, make a wish and the platform works its magic.
This is has been the break out, unforeseen trend and enables more people to be able to bring their ideas to market, which in a world of less regular jobs feels like a good thing.
🎧 Essential Listening
Four podcasts I’ve enjoyed over the last few weeks.
The AI Daily Brief
Host: Nathaniel Whittemore
This is a daily podcast, usually around 20mins and keeps you up to date with industry developments and research. It has a particular focus on AI at Enterprise level so insightful for anyone working in a large organisation to understand if they are behind the market. (Hint: yours probably is)
Which ChatGPT models to use
- A really great explanation of which ChatGPT model to use for specific tasks. I liked it so much, I made a post about it you can check out here. LinkedIn summary
Rick Rubin Interview (This was a longer episode at 58 minutes)
- Loved this chat with legendary music producer Rick Rubin on vibe coding, AI and creativity.
- Fascinating insight around the AlphaGo win (where an AI beat an AlphaGo grand master). It won because it was not constrained by the cultural norms humans had created around the rules, it just played to the rules. The AI's victory showed that not being bound by human cultural rules can enable breakthrough innovation.
Rubin's perspective on AI mimicking artists:
I listened to it and I realized I don't listen to Jay-Z to hear the sound of his voice or to hear the way he's thought about things in the past. I listened to Jay-Z to know what is he thinking about in this moment? AI can cobble together a historic reference of things you've thought about in the past, but that's not your point of view. And our point of view changes over time based on our experiences in life.
5 ways AI is different from past tech trends
This a 20 minute summary of a report over 300 pages long from legendary tech researcher Mary Meeker. I really recommend listening to this in its entirety but a few takeaways:
- AI adoption and evolution are occurring at unprecedented speeds compared to previous tech trends. ChatGPT growth outpaced Google search adoption by 5.5 times, showcasing extraordinary rapid user uptake. Note: this speed is in part because of all the tech that has come before. Each provides the foundation for new tech to be accelerated faster than that before.
- AI's global adoption is happening faster than previous tech trends. It took 23 years for 90% of Internet users to be outside North America, but only 3 years for ChatGPT.
- China is way ahead on ‘embodied AI’ (aka robots). It has more industrial robots installed right now than the rest of the world does in total.
The Exponentialist - The Next 5 Years
Hosts: Raoul Pal and David Mattin
Mind-expanding chat as always from a macro trend lens:
- Middle Eastern countries are making massive AI and blockchain investments, leveraging abundant energy to become world leaders in these sectors
- The interweaving of Nvidia and TSMC to make a supercomputer is making conflict "unthinkable"
- Solar energy advancement and investment - “difficult to stop the sun from shining on a country” so a nation has more control over their energy creation.
- Google DeepMind's Alpha Evolve creates self-improving AI cycles
- Key advice for kids (and us all): combine human skills with AI, work hard, be creative, find your passion
Everything is compute…..every tree, every atom, every drop of water, every rock, …every ant…it takes energy and does things which it learns about and then somehow passes that information, on or stores that information, or adapts using that information so that knowledge is held. Raoul Pal
