High Agency
This week's field notes ...
It seems a little tone-deaf to write about work stuff as the world gets curiouser and curiouser...
And it’s getting curiouser by the day.
Baader–Meinhof illusion
Strangely I’ve been asked to give talks on AI in three different countries over the past few weeks. Strange because I’m not an AI expert at all, although I do hang out with a few people who are.
And because of that - hanging out with actual AI experts and/or being asked to do presentations on it - last week I felt particularly receptive to information related to it.
A perfect illustration of the frequency illusion, also called the Baader-Meinhof effect.
And as a result of that, most of the notes I jotted down last week clustered around the thoughts of others around the risks and rewards of artificial intelligence, generally and in our little community of PR and communications professionals specifically.
Mimetic or agentic?
This in particular seems important, an opinion piece by Sophie Haigney in the New York Times, All The Worst People Seem To Be High Agency.
I think if asked in an interview I’d say I’m “high agency” but I suspect I’m really rather mimetic. I think most of us are, and that’s one of the freakier things revealed to us by LLMs about the work we do and nature of work itself.
I’ve gifted the link so please give it a read and let me know what you think, if it’s your kind of thing.
Dangerous Mythos?
Meanwhile, the seemingly nice people behind the increasingly popular (and my personal favorite) AI package Claude have news:
They’ve even announced a new partnership to help secure software against its potency before they release it:
We formed Project Glasswing because of capabilities we’ve observed in a new frontier model trained by Anthropic that we believe could reshape cybersecurity. Claude Mythos2 Preview is a general-purpose, unreleased frontier model that reveals a stark fact: AI models have reached a level of coding capability where they can surpass all but the most skilled humans at finding and exploiting software vulnerabilities.
This (the issues with Mythos, not Glasswing) prompted senior US officials to convene big bank CEOs:
Bessent, Powell warned bank CEOs about Anthropic model risks, sources say
To be fair, some analysts aren’t buying it:
And FYI, Kerry Knight Chart.PR puts this whole thing at the center of her second (and excellent) Signals And Soapboxes newsletter, which you’ll want to subscribe to.
Wealth gap
And if existential cybersecurity risks aren’t enough ...
We Are Witnessing the Rise of a New Aristocracy
But what about the young people?
The first step to recovery
All of which is to say ...
Front lines
I mention these because I think there are some big questions for us to grapple with as leaders in this business, beyond implications for the billable-hour business model and where GEO fits in our service propositions (although both are big in their own rights, too).
Arun Sudhaman offers an update on where things stand in agency land:
Uneven is exactly the right word.
Sell off
WPP Explores Sale Of PR Arm, Report Says
Diana Kaufman Marszalek‘s report kicked off a storm of hot takes (on my timeline at least) about what it all means ... for public relations generally, large agencies, holding companies, valuation models, marketing communications...
My own take for what it’s worth: the big groups are reorganizing into more truly integrated solutions companies with similar theses on how to best deliver growth for clients.
For WPP:
WPP launches new Elevate28 strategy with four core divisions and £500m savings
For Omnicom:
So what does it all mean?
Best guess: these groups will rearrange their legacy assets and a few new acquisitions around new narratives under a central brand, and in that respect they’ll start looking and sounding like some of more recent PE-backed “roll up” consultancies.
What do you think?
It’s time to be brave
My friend and past Ketchum colleague Denise Blaya Powell is running for Congress in Nebraska, and I love it!
https://deniseforcongress.org/
April outlook
Here’s what’s on this month from my Folgate Advisors teammates.
Back on Earth
It’s good to be reminded we can still do amazing things.
Shared resilience
As I said at the top, things in the world continue to seem increasingly incoherent.
During other conflicts or disasters, I’ve found that business leaders can feel isolated and discouraged, and that even small gestures of goodwill can help significantly, so later this week I’ll share some perspectives from people on what they’re hearing and what they suggest.
But don’t wait for that - if you’ve got wisdom to offer, don’t be shy.