Welcome to The Upgrade

Welcome to my weekly newsletter, which focuses on the intersection of AI, media, and storytelling. A special welcome to my new readers from The Financial Times, Civil Eats, Tech Transfer Central, and many other top organizations — you’re in good company!

In today’s issue:

• The Week’s Top AI Stories 📰

• 🎓 MindStudio No-code AI Dev Course Next Month!⚡️

• 🎙️ The Big Interview: Solopreneur Jenny “JZ” Zhang of CallMeJZ on AI Video, Consulting & Podcasting

The Week’s Top AI Stories

Top AI Headlines

• EU approves landmark AI law, leapfrogging US to regulate critical but worrying new technology — CNN

• OpenAI calls Elon Musk’s lawsuit ‘frivolous’ and ‘incoherent’ in legal filing — The Guardian

• ‘Forget Chatbots. AI Agents Are the Future — WIRED

• Hackers can read private AI assistant chats even though they’re encrypted — Ars Technica

• AI's destiny: Altman's return to OpenAI board leaves billionaires in control — Axios

Regulation & Policy

• U.S. Must Act Quickly to Avoid Risks From AI, Report Says — TIME

• Generative AI's privacy problem — Axios

• Are Draft AI Regs Too Strong or Too Weak? The CA Privacy Agency Can’t Decide. — Consumer Watchdog

Ethics & Safety

• Proliferating 'news' sites spew AI-generated fake stories — Yahoo News

• ‘Parents need to talk about this’: The best way to teach your kids about AI, according to an education expert — CNBC

• This AI says it has feelings. It’s wrong. Right? — Vox

• As Generative AI Takes Off, Researchers Warn of Data Poisoning — The Wall Street Journal

Legal & Copyright

• Reddit Says FTC Looking Into Licensing of User Content to Third Parties for AI Models — The Wall Street Journal

• Law enforcement struggling to prosecute AI-generated child pornography, asks Congress to act — The Hill

• Generative AI adoption will slow because of this one reason, according to Gartner — ZDNET

AI in the Workplace

• Four AI jobs that don’t require advanced data science skills — Fast Company 

• AI Jobs in Marketing: Brands Are Reassessing Roles to Build Out New Capabilities — AdWeek

• OpenAI Made AI Videos for Us. These Clips Are Good Enough to Freak Us Out. — The Wall Street Journal

🎓MindStudio AI Course Next Month! 💻

Ready to learn the fastest way to build no-code AI-powered apps? The Upgrade is partnering with MindStudio to lead its developer certification course. ⚡️

The next cohort starts on Saturday, April 13th at 7pm ET / 4pm PT. There are seven spots left, so don’t wait!

SAVE 20% WITH CODE: THEUPGRADE20

💡The Big Interview: AI Solopreneur, JZ

JZ, founder of CallMeJZ, specializes in leveraging AI for marketing and consulting. She focuses on client acquisition, automating repetitive workflows, conducting AI assessments for company growth, and transforming services and data into sellable products through no-code app development.

Note: This interview has been edited for clarity and brevity

Peter: I'm curious to learn about your product, design, and user experience background and how it informs your current work. Give us an overview of your professional journey so far.

JZ: Starting off as an artist and designer after my time at Stanford, I journeyed from being a fine artist to a UX designer in social media, eventually stepping into a product manager role in fintech. Recently, I ventured out as a founder. On the spectrum of technical versus non-technical skills, I lean heavily towards the technical side. I have a passion for coding and an avid interest in AI modeling. However, my true strengths lie in business and user experience, particularly in engaging with people one-on-one. As a product manager, I found it limiting to stick solely to that role, which is why, as a consultant to founders, my background in marketing and design became a unique asset. So, my career has come full circle—from design to product management, to founding my own venture, and now, integrating marketing and design back into my AI solutions.

Peter: Tell me about Call Me JZ - what are your current business operations and goals? Is it a consultancy, media brand, or both?

JZ: It's both, because in this economy focus alone doesn't work well. I think diversification is key. On the marketing side, I teach podcasting through video courses, which intersects with my college teaching. That coaching could be the marketing side.

On the product and AI side, I coach technical founders on user interviews and help companies figure out their first AI use case. So I have a marketing side and a product side to my business. Yes, I work with founders who have existing communities and products. Even if their first solution didn't succeed, they understand user pain points and trust for the next round of immediately profitable solutions.

How do you prioritize the different aspects of your own business? I'm curious to learn from you as well, Peter.

Peter: Of course! The Upgrade has three sides: media, AI training, and consulting. The media side includes this newsletter and soon-to-launch podcast. The training includes my AI courses, co-branded partnership courses, and customized AI training packages. The consulting ranges from short AI coaching sessions to longer-term strategic consulting with companies and agencies to address bigger-picture strategy and employee training.

The key is connecting these offerings in a way that feeds one another. For example, my free content serves as service journalism and marketing to lead people to The Upgrade’s courses and consulting offerings. I'm early in this journey, so it's easy to feel mission drift. I keep coming back to my core purpose—helping bridge the AI skills gap—which guides my decisions.

Peter: Let’s get back to you! What types of work do you love? What's your decision framework and mission?

JZ: Everything I do involves AI as a copilot to speed me up. My mission and what excites me are "give-take"—the name of my podcast all about AI video.

Peter: Cool name. Tell me more about what you mean by give-take.

JZ: Well, when I talk with CTOs about podcasting, they need it because sales seem fake, and they can only be themselves on shows that discuss technology deeply. But they fear just listing skills and getting silence in response.

So "give-take" means giving the gift of fame or referrals to understand pain points while also showcasing your own skills. It helps sell by giving first.

Peter: Interesting, makes sense. What does that look like in reality?

JZ: If I'm a tech officer, I should have marketing officers on my podcast who may want to buy my AI video technology. That gives them free media and an audience, and they finally understand what I do, and I understand their needs.

That 5 minute "giving" pitch at the end pays off because we discuss shared interests, not random things. It feels equal. So the giving builds understanding and pays off for both sides.

Peter: Definitely, that's smart positioning. Tell me more about your podcast consulting specialty too.

JZ: Well I've helped students quickly launch podcasts as a repeatable process focusing more on lead generation than tedious production. That's changed over time - now people want to hire me to host and teach them to guest for them because they lack the time. So I've considered offering production services too to serve that demand.

Peter: What are you most excited about in 2024 for AI's impact on your workflows or business?

JZ: I want a video diffusion model, likely GAN-based and trained on RAG, that creates black and white animations from podcast audio soundtracks. I prompt for simple podcast images now but get distracting, full color videos back. I want models letting voices stand out instead without rainbow dancing bunnies.

Peter: Makes sense. What current products show promise there?

JZ: I really like VidioFy AI from Stacie Chan and Augie from Jeremy Toeman. However, I may need to commission a data scientist to create my custom black-and-white podcast animation model. What are you most excited about?

Peter: Cool idea, I haven't seen that one yet. I’m excited that professionals are finally taking AI seriously by upgrading skills, rather than writing it off. Many experienced initial frustrations with chatbots not delivering business value due to the nascent tools and sometimes their lack of knowledge. It's exciting because that's the gap I help address - meeting people where they are to solve problems with AI tools and workflows. I love advising on use cases during one-on-one consulting.

Don’t be shy—hit reply if you have thoughts or feedback. I’d love to connect with you!

Until next week,

Peter

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