We’ve already seen Halloween candy hit shelves early (get it while you can), a scary sign that summer is almost over. And now General Mills’ monster cereals are returning with a major redesign by Brooklyn artist Kaws, who has previously collaborated with brands such as Nike, MTV, and Vans.

While Count Chocula, Franken Berry, and Boo Berry have remained perennial favorites, 2022’s lineup sees the return of Frute Brute after nearly a decade in cereal purgatory. With General Mills tapping into our childhood nostalgia for a long-discontinued product, we’ve got a hunch that Klondike is biding its time for the inevitable return of the Choco Taco.

Machine learning: How AI affects small businesses.

Infographic: How much data exists on the internet?

Neuticles: An innovative product with bark and bite.

(Source: Shutterstock)

You might want to believe that the only algorithms in your life are Spotify’s “Release Radar” and the footwear ads you got on YouTube after watching one shoe review. But as a small business owner, that won’t remain true.

Artificial intelligence isn’t just for megacorps with billion-dollar R&D budgets: 56% of nearly 2,000 companies surveyed now use it in some form, mostly for service operations and marketing, according to McKinsey. Two-thirds of companies plan to increase AI investments soon and more than a quarter attribute at least 5% of their earnings to it already. 

Business Reality, Not Science-Fiction

Machine learning (ML), which learns and adapts from consumption of data and statistical models, is on the verge of pervasiveness. Small businesses from mom and pop retail to indie app developers can’t ignore it for much longer, as it increasingly helps with everything from inventory management and customers’ questions to personalization and competitor analysis.

“We have already seen increasing automation in customer-service chatbots, real-time marketing insights, targeted ad campaigns, and even basic fraud detection,” says Nistha Tripathi, author of bestsellers No Shortcuts and Futurepreneurs. “Machine learning is going to change the way a lot of our mundane administrative tasks are performed.” 

How AI Will Turn Small Business into Big Business

Before long, small businesses could have inexpensive, sophisticated AI voice systems for their customer service platforms. These won’t be frustrating, wooden menus; they’ll speak, sound, and behave far more like humans.

ML gleans customer insights from each interaction, which are then leveraged into marketing, another area set for major sea change; over 95% of business leaders agree that ML and human marketers working together will become the new normal for businesses large and small.

By automating analytics, you’ll be able to target new customers and cater to existing preferences (like your Spotify playlist does) at a low cost. And ML-driven content generation, already in limited use by outlets like the Washington Post, allows for fast, accurate drafting of blog posts, press releases, and more.

“You can produce more content (including videos) without having a content army,” Triphati says. “We are just getting started.”

4 in 5

Companies using AI that saw improved team collaboration

(Source: MIT)

We’ve discussed the business upsides of AI. So, what about the potential downsides — like humans becoming obsolete?

People feared exactly this happening a century ago, Marquette University professor Jerry Prout explains in Chasing Automation: The Politics of Technology and Jobs from the Roaring Twenties to the Great Society. We asked him about parallels between then and now.

How is the AI revolution comparable to twentieth-century factory innovations?

Prout: From 1921 through 1966, productivity increases were really high, mostly due to mechanization of the workplace — the assembly-line Ford model of efficiency and the ability of machines to run other machines. There was a fear, voiced even in the ‘20s, about “technological unemployment.” The head of the AFL, William Green, was very vocal about this, and Robert Wagner, the senator from New York, was talking about it in 1928.

And then when the Depression hit … Roosevelt threw everything against the wall to see what would stick in terms of programs, but by 1935, he was convinced technological advancements were undermining New Deal initiatives.

But jobs still exist today, so workers can survive automation.

Prout: That’s the recurring question, does new technology destroy jobs or create jobs? Whole industries and communities have been hollowed out … but at the same time, somebody has to make the machines, run the computer.

You can take some comfort in the fact that throughout the ‘30s, ‘40s, ‘50s, and into the ‘60s, there was a concerted effort by reformers to address the problem and a rather impressive array of laws that helped workers negotiate for their fair share of productivity gains…

Like the movement for universal basic income today?

Prout: It first seriously surfaced in the ‘60s and had broad bipartisan support! Kennedy called for a commission to examine automation’s effects on jobs and Johnson saw it through; it had some pretty breathtaking and bold recommendations, including basic income.

With a (now fired) Google engineer sounding the alarm that AI has become sentient, could automation eventually be seen as unethical?

Prout: You might end up with some dramatic Kurt Vonnegut scenario in the future — but the nature of the political system is to address effects, not causes. That’s exponentially the challenge with AI because it’s happening in so many different forms and shapes.

Chasing Automation by Jerry Prout (Northern Illinois University Press) is now available.

Inspiration to chase your every dream, no matter how bizarre.

(Source: Neuticles)

Neutering a male dog provides many benefits: He’s generally calmer and less prone to marking territory — plus, the odds of developing prostate cancer plummet and he won’t be adding to the pet overpopulation problem.

Still, some dog owners aren’t comfortable with the aesthetic consequences. Enter Neuticles®, testicular implants for dogs and other neutered pets, available through veterinarians nationwide. The product allows your furry friend to “retain its natural look and self-esteem.” (It’s fair to wonder just whose self-esteem is most affected here.)

Neuticles boasts celebrity clients such as Jake Gyllenhaal, who got them for his “happy and healthy” German shepherd, Atticus. Kim Kardashian’s boxer Rocky has also been Neuticled. The product has made inventor Gregg Miller a millionaire, according to CNBC, which just goes to show: Any idea can succeed, even if it sounds doggone crazy.

“Whatever you are studying right now, if you are not getting up to speed on deep learning, neural networks, etc., you lose. We are going through the process where software will automate software [and] automation will automate automation.”

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Written by Dan Ketchum, Marty Beckerman, and Jane Meggitt.