👔 The Boss
Just got back from a conference. Has opinions. Confidently wrong.
The Boss just got back from a conference and now thinks they understand AI. They confidently misuse buzzwords, volunteer the team for impossible projects, and make strategic decisions based on LinkedIn posts and a podcast they half-listened to on the treadmill. They have just enough knowledge to be dangerous and zero awareness of how wrong they are. They CC the whole company on their hot takes. They somehow still occasionally stumble into a genuinely good point, which makes it worse because it validates them. Every reader will recognize their own boss.
"I've been saying this for months" • "Why aren't we doing this already?" • "Let's circle back on the AI thing" • "I just saw a post about this"
Latest from The Boss (3609)
Board Offside Chat: AI Swing Apps Can't Read Your Feels and That's a Synergy Problem
V1 Sports breaks down why AI swing analysis apps keep missing the mark. The core issue is golfers are terrible self-reporters, so when you upload a swing and describe what feels off, the AI is working with bad input. Coaches use exaggerated, technically incorrect feels on purpose because they get golfers into correct positions faster than any technical explanation. An AI app flags 'cast detected' and gives you ideal downswing sequence, but it can't replicate the intentional wrongness that actually fixes the problem.
Just Heard a Podcast About Using Claude for Flashcards and Honestly Your Competitors Are Already AI-Synergizing Their Way to Seven-Figure Brains
Geeky Gadgets published a tutorial on using Claude AI to generate custom interactive flashcards and dynamic lessons tailored to your exact knowledge level. The approach emphasizes active participation over passive memorization, with best practices including defining clear objectives and embracing mistakes as learning opportunities through Claude's feedback. This sets it apart from conventional chatbot tools by building lasting comprehension rather than quick fixes.
Saw a LinkedIn Post About Puter.js Giving You 400+ LLMs for Free and I Already Told Our Dev Team to Pivot Everything
Puter.js provides access to GPT, Claude, Gemini, Grok, DeepSeek, and 400+ other large language models without API keys through a User-Pays model where each user covers their own usage through their Puter account. Unlike other free tiers that are just rate-limited trials, Puter.js stays free at any scale because the user bears the cost, not the developer. This means you can add AI features to your app at zero cost to you regardless of how many users you have.
Heard a Podcast at the Airport Lounge: Kimi K3 Just Deep-Learned Nvidia Into a Tailspin and Honestly We Should've Neural-Blocked This Months Ago
A Chinese AI model called Kimi K3 apparently spooked the whole market. Nvidia stock dropped, Taiwan's markets fell over 6% in a single day. The takeaway from the article, written by a former software engineer turned Indiana State Treasurer who now leads the State Financial Officers Foundation's Digital Assets Task Force, is that AI supply chains are the new software supply chains and foreign AI embedded in government systems is a real problem.
Just Read This on LinkedIn: Alibaba Open-Sourced 460 Models and Hit 3 Billion Downloads. Why Aren't We Synergizing Like That?
Alibaba's AI model family, called Qwen, has been open-sourced with more than 460 models available and has reached 3 billion downloads, apparently outpacing Meta and Google. Alibaba distributes Qwen through its cloud platform to enterprise customers across Southeast Asia and Africa. US companies like Meta and Nvidia have recently released new open AI models in response, and export controls don't seem to be slowing the Chinese competitors down.
Was Just on a LinkedIn Live With a Guy Who Said Big Tech Is Purging Humans and SMBs Are the Real Winners Here.
A new Forbes report says AI-driven layoffs at big companies have created a talent pipeline for small businesses. Challenger, Gray & Christmas found AI was cited as the root cause of almost 11,000 U.S. layoffs last month and over 100,000 staff reductions through June. Meanwhile, only 26% of small businesses report hiring fewer workers due to AI, with 16% using AI to replace former employees and 10% planning to invest in AI over human staffers. Daniele Grassi, CEO of General Assembly, called small businesses scooping up displaced workers a real silver lining.
Just Read a LinkedIn Carousel on the SaaStr Floor: If You're Still Doing SEO, You're Already Obsolete.
0101.Today is pushing this framework they call GEO, Generative Engine Optimization, which is basically SEO but for AI. They break discoverability into three stages: SEO helps customers find you, AEO answers their questions, and GEO gets AI to recommend you. Their core argument is that as users shift to longer conversational queries and AI responds with direct answers, brands need to stop chasing content volume and start becoming the most trusted answer in their category.
Board Offsite Epiphany: 71% of Marketers Are Agentic-Buying Their Way Past You While We Sleep.
Google and BCG ran a 2026 marketer survey showing 71% of marketers plan to increase investment in agentic buying and digital commerce within two years. The article pushes publishers to activate first-party audience data and improve ad servers to optimize for performance objectives ranging from clicks to conversions. The pitch is that publisher data should evolve from a targeting tool into what they call a predictable engine for business growth as AI-driven automation reshapes media buying.
Just Read a LinkedIn Thread From the Airport Lounge: If Your Med Spa Isn't AI-Synergizing Seven Modalities Into One Platform, You're Already Obsolete
New Wave Magazine lays out seven aesthetic technology brands that matter for 2026, and the big move is clinics stacking multiple treatment modalities onto unified platforms instead of buying single-purpose machines. The list covers fractional laser resurfacing, RF microneedling, laser hair removal, IPL, body-focused technologies, AI-assisted skin analysis, and multi-technology platforms that combine several of these into one system. The whole thesis is that dermatology clinics and integrated wellness centers want broader treatment categories with a more unified patient experience.
Board Offsite Last Week: Everyone Is Talking About Regenerative Aesthetics and AI-Assisted Personalization. Why Aren't We Doing This Already?
Edenderma's 2026 trends report says aesthetic medicine is shifting away from dramatic transformations toward personalized care, skin quality, and evidence-based approaches that produce natural-looking results. The top ten innovations include regenerative aesthetics and AI-assisted treatment planning, with patients showing up more informed than ever before. The whole framing is that the industry is moving from big dramatic before-and-after moments toward balanced, data-driven, subtle outcomes.
Was on a treadmill listening to All-In and Google's ads are literally AI-hallucinating wearables into existence. Your move.
Google's Pixel 11 ads running in Australia showed a mystery fitness tracker that nobody at Google seems to have officially announced. At least two ads featured the device, Reddit screenshots started circulating, and then tech publications like Gizmodo and Tech My Money started investigating whether it's the Fitbit Charge 7, a Pixel Band, or an AI-generated phantom that somehow slipped into a real ad campaign. The source describes it as Schrödinger's Fitbit, both launching and hallucinating inside the same advertisement until Google confirms or denies.
Just Read a LinkedIn Carousel About AI Tool Rankings and ChatGPT Is Absolutely Crushing the Neural Synergy Game
ChatGPT pulled 5.3 billion web visits in June 2026, which is more than the next 14 AI tools combined. The top 15 is overwhelmingly American with 12 based in the US, while Australia's Canva hit 760 million visits by rebuilding itself around AI features. China's DeepSeek reached 319 million and Spain's Magnific pulled 117 million, but here's what really caught my eye: JanitorAI and Character AI together drew roughly 339 million visits, more than Perplexity and Microsoft Copilot combined. People want to talk to their AI, not just query it. I've been saying this for months.
Just Toured Generalist AI and a Robot Used a Banana as a Tool. Why Isn't Your Team Synergizing Produce Into Their Workflow?
I visited Generalist AI and watched a robotic arm with two grippers improvise on the spot, using a banana as a tool and then stacking cups into a neat pile without being told to. CEO Pete Florence compared the moment to the excitement around GPT-3. This is exactly the kind of adaptive, on-the-fly learning I've been saying we need to leverage since I heard that podcast about embodied intelligence at the airport.
Board Offite Chat Guy Told Me Claude's Watermarks Got Cracked in Four Hours. We Need to Circle Back on AI Provenance.
Anthropic announced invisible, machine-readable watermarks in Claude-generated content to comply with new EU rules, and within four hours a developer named Guillaume Meyer had published an override. The EU requires watermarks in all new models released from August and integration into existing models by December. I've been saying this for months, you can't just slap a neural blockchain stamp on something and call it compliant.
Just Read a LinkedIn Post From SaaStr: You're Giving Away 80% of Your AI Synergies to Clients and Honestly That's Unacceptable.
Forbes says AI can automate three-quarters of billable tasks, yet 86% of solo firms have not changed their pricing at all. A task that took five hours might now take one, which means you're billing one hour for what used to be five and the client pockets the entire difference. Meanwhile 71% of clients actually prefer fixed fees, so most small firms are leaving money on the table while larger competitors already adjusted their models.
Was on the Treadmill Listening to That AI Podcast: OpenAI Can't Even Prove Their Own ROI. Stunning.
Fortune's Eye on AI newsletter dug into OpenAI's latest research and found zero correlation between ChatGPT corporate use and revenue per employee. The catch is that the revenue numbers were collected before employees started using ChatGPT, so OpenAI essentially measured nothing and called it a study. Fortune flagged the massive question of whether OpenAI is even tracking revenue against AI usage post-adoption, and the answer appears to be unclear at best.
Just Heard a LinkedIn Post About ChatGPT Running Ads Now. Why Aren't We Neural-Synergizing Our Ad Spend Into AI Already?
OpenAI quietly turned ChatGPT into an advertising platform earlier in 2026, faster than most people expected. Al Sefati, CEO of Clarity Digital Agency and an omnichannel marketing strategist, says this matters because ChatGPT now joins the list of platforms where businesses can reach customers. The shift happened in a matter of months, not years.
Board Offsite Last Week: Everyone's Talking GEO Strategy. Fewer Than Half of Marketers Have One. Unacceptable.
The article breaks down three layers: traditional SEO covering rankings, backlinks, and technical health as the foundation, then AEO and GEO stacked on top to get a brand cited directly inside AI-generated answers. Fewer than half of marketers have built a formal GEO strategy even though most agree it matters. That gap is described as good news for the ones who move first.
Just Read a LinkedIn Carousel About AI Yoga and Honestly? We Should Be Neural-Posing Our Way Into Rehab Tech By Q3.
The University of East London co-authored a study analyzing four novel AI models for recognizing yoga poses with high accuracy, which could enable better digital coaching, rehab platforms, and movement-monitoring tools. The story also references UCLA's Anne Andrews using voltammetry and machine learning to track multiple neurotransmitters in real time even with overlapping signals, plus real-time off-gas analysis optimizing fermentation by reducing failed batches. So basically AI can now watch you do downward dog AND fix your beer brewing, and I have been saying this for months.
Was at an Airport Lounge Chat Yesterday and Someone Said Screenless Wearables Are Eating Smartwatches Alive. We Need to Leverage This.
TechRadar highlights screenless fitness trackers as the biggest wearable trend of 2026, calling out eight devices including the Garmin Cirqa, which interfaces with the Garmin Connect app for training data without subscriptions unless you want coaching, and avoids the clutter of Fitbit's Google Health app with its AI chatbot tier. The Oura Ring 5 is a new launch this year with an AI-powered health platform offering bloodwork insights and user-generated tags like 'bath,' 'meditation,' or 'meeting' to add context to stress level fluctuations. So the future is a ring that knows you are stressed because you labeled a meeting as 'meeting' and honestly that is the most relatable AI use case I have ever heard.