You could argue that generative AI has had a pretty negative marketing campaign from its nascent introduction into the world order to where we are today. From heretic articles bemoaning the top jobs that will be replaced, to hastily arranged committees of the titans of tech defining our AI future, to the culture heralded CEO of AI (Sam Altman) being ousted and then re-ordained, to the Musk-ian battles for AI invasive supremacy, and to no doubt a year of election deepfakes. 

It’s clear that the “marketing” for brand AI, in mainstream culture at least, needs some help to garner momentum to make it the next positive industrial revolution it should be versus the current depiction as the doomsday development of modern times. 

We need a marketable version of “good” AI

So maybe it’s time to be more generous with generative AI and define a marketable version of “good” AI.

A first place to start on a more positive journey would be with nomenclature. Nobody likes artificial anything. Tell me someone who likes saccharin or sucralose, silicone lips or brow transplants—the word “artificial” just doesn’t seem to cut it. And I know that the examples that were just mentioned are full of folly, but capturing the real essence of how gen AI is supercharging how we live, work, and be, is beyond important to stimulate innovation and advancement.

Amplified over artificial

The clearest iteration that captures the supercharge of humanity well is the notion of amplified intelligence, as coined by Reid Hoffman amongst others, and that has been a turn of phrase since early 2019 wearables technology exploration. It’s in the world of wearables technology that we see the real value-add examples of how AI is less of an “artificial” replacement and is more of an augmented supercharger of human capability. 

AlterEgo is one of the most visible examples of this. The work of Arnav Kapur and team should be a more mainstream version of “good” AI, not only to help deliver positive AI branding but more importantly to stimulate innovation beyond accessibility in tech into further enhancing human capability across a plethora of industries.

Positive poster children

A second place is a posture change on poster products or people driving the conversation. It is a little ridiculous that mainstream culture seems to be obsessed with seemingly shallow output-driven examples of AI in content and visual arts as seen with the furor around Sora, or with headline-grabbing although potentially unneeded invasive surgery advancements like Neuralink. It sort of feels like we are being hoodwinked into looking at the pretty picture impact or the science fiction meme-like impact of AI versus the real depth of amplified change that is already happening in our real world. 

AlterEgo is a good example of this. From a mainstream perspective, the Neuralink column inches far outweigh those of Arnav Kapur, even though it could be argued they are at minimum delivering a similar capability, and one without such an intrusive innovation. And maybe it’s time for the mainstream to celebrate other input-based augmented advancements like the weaver enhancing Talim code AI or workforce matching software like Genie, a more accurate AI-powered pathology like PathAI, or even Flippy from Miso Robotics, that are all very different but similar examples of how AI is unleashing the superpowers of talent in the workforce.

Positivity from the top

A third place is within the minds and actions of every CEO as they wake up sweating as to how they can use AI to change their business. Currently only 27% of the 3,400 C-suite execs interviewed by Accenture said they are ready to scale with generative AI, and sentiment among the workforce is one of concern amongst 40% surveyed by BCG. 

The challenge here is an ownership and energy, one where the impact of AI should not just be outsourced to the new, highly paid title of chief AI officer, it should be a core deliverable of every CEO, and C-suite executive, to dig deep into the operations and outputs of their verticals and business to understand the POSITIVE value and capabilities of how AI can optimistically supercharge their people and their business. 

It’s this posture change that embraces and leans in to learn that will help create a culture and momentum for AI as a positive force within organizations versus an outsourced uncertain force driven by new external forces. More leadership, more experimental company-wide use, more momentum for innovation across the whole of the business, and the BCG numbers, and general mainstream momentum will change. 

More magic less tragic

And to swing back to how we started this piece, the fourth thing we could do better is how mainstream culture markets momentum. Take the aforementioned Sora as an example. Instead of this being pitched as a Hollywood killer, we should be going way beyond the films that have been made to show AI’s capability to the augmentation it can visually bring to the genius within us all: from how Sora could be the perfect nighttime story visualizer, to how the dream of a startup can be pitched into sellable reality, to how a student’s wild ponderings might be captured to drive intent and inspiration. Let’s find ways to celebrate use cases to not look at the negative and pitch things like Sora as an awesome ideas engine, not an industry killer.

And to be honest, that’s the “be more generous” with AI point. 

The more we can rebrand and continue to harness this moment to make what we do and how we do it better with a posture of the belief in good AI, the better the innovation and advancement will be.

Chris Kay, Global innovations at 72andSunny and Industry Professor at University Technology Sydney.