In a world obsessed with quick fixes and superficial enhancements, it’s easy to lose sight of what truly matters

Researchers at UC San Francisco and UC Berkeley are developing new AI-supported brain-computer interface (BCI) technology that could one day allow people like Ann to communicate more naturally through a digital avatar that resembles a person.

As the year winds down, on behalf of our team at Prestidge Group, I would like to say a warm thank you to all of our clients, agency partners, media friends, and colleagues for their continued support throughout the year.

In an era where reality is easily distorted online, scammers are achieving disturbing fame and fortune. Where Americans once revered rags-to-riches tales, today's influencer culture breeds exaggerated personas. Armed only with wits and delusion, fraudsters like Anna Delvey infiltrate elite circles, generating wealth and notoriety. This looks to be an era where distorting reality on social media leads to fame and fortune.

My incredible great-grandmother Gertrude lived a colorful life, growing to the age of 105. I love thinking back to her story. She migrated to New Zealand from Ireland in the early 1900s on a steamboat, and rode in a carriage. Her family churned their own butter and grew their own crops. In her lifetime, she saw plenty of new inventions, from planes and cars to televisions and phones.

Recent allegations suggest that Musk may have misled the public about the fate of monkeys involved in Neuralink trials, raising questions about the readiness of the technology for human experimentation, especially since the company has begun recruiting for its first human trials this week. 

Supermarkets are designed like Vegas slot machines, enticing us with colorful, pretty packaging holding a nasty surprise of processed sugars and additives within. Where a jar of peanut butter made from one simple ingredient (peanuts) costs more than double of its oiled-up, seven-ingredient fake alternative.

Perpetual fatigue and short attention spans are now the norm, courtesy of a constant barrage of information and stimulation being fed to us through the iPhones we carry

In older, more simpler times, humans omitted literature they did not agree with by burning it. The destruction of the House of Wisdom, the Bonfire of the Vanities, the WW2 book burnings — history is rife with extreme measures of censorship.

Many believe we lost over 1,000 years of history when the Library of Alexandria burned down.
In censorship, nobody wins.In today’s digital world - both as connected and divided as ever, with a proliferation of ideas and perspectives - it’s important that we neither ban nor censor books in an attempt to erase, destroy, or rewrite history.

A few months ago, I quit a “guilty pleasure” — reality TV. Like many of my friends — entrepreneurs, CEOs, and executives — I was using it as a mind-numbing distraction to help me unwind and relax after a long day at work.

It’s no secret that I’m on a journey to improve myself and live longer. When I revealed a couple of weeks ago that I want to be put into cryostasis if I’m 60 and technology hasn’t advanced enough to prolong my life, the feedback was mixed (you can find the post here: https://tinyurl.com/3xsdyx53) 

If by the time I’m 60, technology isn’t advanced enough to help me live longer, I will sign off to have my body put into cryostasis when I die.

The field of cryonics is not exactly new. People have been signing off for their deceased bodies to be frozen since the late 60s. They do this in hopes that technology will advance enough in the future to the point where they can be revived and reintegrated into society, where any illnesses they had suffered from would be cured, and their bodies could be deaged or made to live much longer.

After all, technology is rapidly evolving, and many futurists predict we are likely see these solutions within our lifetimes.

Is Apple’s much-hyped Vision Pro XR headset dead on arrival? The internet seems to think so. 

I mean, when you release a product that is almost triple ($3,499) the price of existing and popular offerings on the market, people won’t be happy. And let’s be honest, Apple is no stranger to overpricing products to coast on the strength of its brand.

Let me explain. Personally speaking, I’m always pursuing efficiency and seeking to maximize my time and bandwidth, every second of the day. Throughout all this, I’m enabled by my most reliable assistant: my smartphone.

This small but powerful device has consolidated multiple tools we’ve used in the past into one compact package. We carry it with us for hours on end, and it helps us be efficient and productive. But what if it could make our lives even smoother? What if we could integrate all of its capabilities into our own bodies?

I’ve just written a letter to the White House addressed to the US Secretary of Commerce, Gina Raimondo, calling for a set of diverse experts, including scientists, philosophers, tech leaders, and governments around the world, among others, to proactively plan and lead the way forward on the future of Artificial Intelligence.

In my 20s, I lived in many places around the world (NZ, Australia, New York and London ) before ending up in Dubai to start my first business.

Ever since ChatGPT dropped into our unassuming laps in October of last year, the world has never been the same. The large language model employed by OpenAI’s chatbot is leaps and bounds ahead of anything we have ever experienced before. Indeed, what it can do (and what still needs refining) has made ChatGPT a symbol of the AI Revolution quickly unfolding before us. 

TikTok has once more come under fire for accusations of sharing user data with its Chinese HQ and with the government itself, and for having a negative influence on children, this time from US Congress. But is TikTok really stealing our data?

Let’s start with privacy. We all know social media apps collect our data. We enter into foul play territory, however, when our data becomes a commodity to be traded or used by external parties.

TikTok’s CEO has dropped a demographic bombshell this week…

Turns out almost half of the US population uses the social media app, and a ban would directly impact the country’s economy. "Although some people may still think of TikTok as a dancing app for teenagers, the reality is that our platform and our community have become so much more for so many… The average TikTok user in the US is an adult well past college age."

Three months after the announcement of Twitter’s ‘Blue’, Meta has now launched its paid verification subscription, “Meta Verified”. And, just like that, the debate that started with Twitter’s ‘Blue’ has been rekindled because these once-free credibility-based services are now being offered on a pay-to-play model. All sorts of questions are doing the rounds on social media:

When Jacinda Ardern resigned from her post as Prime Minister of New Zealand, just days ago, she said:
“I’m leaving, because with such a privileged role comes responsibility. The responsibility to know when you are the right person to lead and also when you are not. I know what this job takes. And I know that I no longer have enough in the tank to do it justice. It’s that simple.” While many media outlets cited “burnout”, a few others went a step too far with headlines that read: “Jacinda Ardern resigns. Can women really have it all?”