AI Karl Marx weighs in on the Out to Lunch conversation
In conversations about business, you don’t hear Karl Marx quoted very often. That’s principally because of his enthusiasm for communism, which is kind of the opposite of business. But Marx was an economist back in the mid 1800’s and the reason we still know about him is because he had some insights that are still relevant. Among them is the observation that everything contains the seeds of its own destruction.
A current example of this is the way the internet is changing. Every single day there are 14 Billion – with a “B” – Google searches. Most of these searches lead the searcher to a website. If you own a website and a business, and you want people to find you online, you use a science called Search Engine Optimization. Or SEO. SEO makes sure that when someone’s searching for what you’re selling, your website comes up first on a Google search.
Brian Hong, Founder of Infintech Designs, has created three new AI platforms specifically designed for running a business and to demonstrate his confidence in their ability to grow a business he’ll take a share in the company in lieu of a fee
Brian Hong had spent hours, weeks, months and years building websites and manipulating SEO for clients at his New Orleans company, Infintech Designs. Then along came the seed of the internet’s destruction. AI. AI doesn’t search the web the way a human does. But every day more and more people are using AI to do web searches. So how does Brian adapt? He gets into the AI business. He creates three AI companies, BigEasyData.ai, Flowbots.ai and Thorbit.ai.
In one way or another, each of these defeat the death of SEO and instead use AI to grow a business. Any kind of business. HVAC. Plumbing. A medical practice. A law firm… To demonstrate his confidence in his AI tools’ ability to grow any business, instead of taking a fee, Brian will take a small stake in each company. And, but the way, in case you’re wondering, this is not theoretical, it’s actually working.
In another example of Marx’s seeds of self-destruction – one of the ironies of the of the so-called “Information age” – is the death of information itself.
We started publicly sharing written information as early as 59BC. That was the first newspaper. Almost continuously throughout human history since then, and certainly since the invention of the printing press, newspapers have played all kinds of functions in our communities. From a record of small-town births, deaths and marriages, to uncovering national political scandals and covering international wars, the newspaper has been a cohesive element of almost every literate community, everywhere.
The demise of newspapers has been well documented. And news of the shrinking of the news industry continues. Which is what makes an organization called Deep South Today so interesting.
Warwick Sabin, President & CEO of Deep South Today, reinventing the local newspaper with a novel business model that shares resources among under-served southern states
Deep South Today is a nonprofit network of local newsrooms that includesThe Current in Lafayette,The Garrison Project,Mississippi Today,and in New Orleans, Verite News.
Warwick Sabin is President and CEO of Deep South Today. Among his varied past occupations Warwick served three terms in the Arkansas House of Representatives, he was a press secretary on Capitol Hill, he has a graduate degree from Oxford University in the UK, and from 2008-13 he revived and was the publisher of the equally prestigious Oxford American magazine.
Peter Ricchiuti hosts Out to Lunch at Columns in Uptown New Orelans
You’ve probably heard the expression, “When one door closes another door opens.” If that literally happens, you’re probably in prison. But as a metaphor it applies to both Brian’s and Warwick’s businesses. They’re both in fields where the traditional way of doing things doesn’t work anymore, and they’ve both created original and unique pathways out of what has looked to most people like a dead end.
Frankly, most people who care about these issues in this country are not looking in a southerly direction for solutions. It’s pretty amazing what these guys have accomplished already. Watch this space!
Brian Hong, Founder of Infintech where they’re re-imagining AI for business, and Warwick Sabin, President & CEO of Deep South Today, where they’re re-imagining the local newspaper, Out to Lunch at Columns in Uptown New Orleans
Out to Lunch was recorded live over lunch at Columns in Uptown New Orleans. Photos by Jill Lafleur.
