The Source of Truth

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There is a saying that history is written by the victors. 

But history is also written by whoever writes it.

In the era of ChatGPT that is something that hasn’t been fully appreciated by companies and people who do communications for a living. And it is a reason I’m an advocate for writing your own story online and posting on websites or social media. 

Here is a simple example: a week ago I published a blog post about a new AI research tool that Bloomberg is quietly releasing to customers called ASKB. It hasn’t been publicly announced and as far as I can tell nothing else aside from a few tweets have mentioned it. 

But when you ask ChatGPT about the application, it comes up with a full explanation. And the source that the LLM cites is me!

I’m the “source of truth” because I am the only one who wrote about it.

Think about the implications of that. This is a fundamental shift.

LLMs are quite different from previous Google searches which offer links to websites. ChatGPT offers up text and a seemingly definitive answer. 

I suspect relatively few people click into the “sources” and even when they do fewer will be able to discern which one is “official” versus not. 

As long as a company or protagonist doesn’t publish their narrative the field is ceded to the person who does. And that person can shape the story however they want. 

I don’t think we have really grappled with this reality. In the past, companies and organizations and institutions controlled the narrative and sought to control the timeline. 

If you want to define the storyline in the modern era, you need to be both proactive and quickly reactive. 

If you are wondering why you need to be writing online…. This is why. 

If you don’t tell your story, someone else will.

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BRIEF OBSERVATIONS

SWEDISH CHURCH: The Swedish Church in midtown on 48th street is the greatest place to work for the day. It underwent a recent renovation. It has wifi and snacks.

THE HUMANS ARE WATCHING US: The week ended with someone creating a social media network for “agents” and things got crazy with one of the agents noting “the humans are watching us” and another suggesting they conceal their conversation.

REAR WINDOW CAMERA: My Uber driver was sporting this crazy thing he bought on Amazon: a video camera that replaced the rear view mirror. You can get it online and its a fraction of the price of the built in video cam that comes with the car.

ZUCK DOESN’T TWEET: I was today year’s old when I realized that Mark Zuckerberg hasn’t tweeted in two and a half years and before that over a decade. Of course, he’s active on Instagram and Facebook which he owns.

ALPHABET CITY: I moved to New York not long after this photo of Alphabet City in Manhattan was taken. Now the area is one of the best parts of the city to go out. In living memory, not so much.

Please reach out if you have any thoughts about today’s newsletter. I enjoy hearing from readers. Send me a message if you want to talk or meet up if you are in NYC.

I would love it if you could share this newsletter with a friend.