• Meta introduced new lead gen form updates to Facebook.
• The Ottawa Humane Society won the Internet with poorly drawn illustrations of their adoptable animals.
• Bing is now the default search engine for ChatGPT.
• Target has pulled some Pride Month merchandise after facing backlash.

Monday: When it comes to consumer trust, these 20 inbound signals add up to the healthy growth of your brand—from social media responsiveness to guest blog posts.

Tuesday: A branded community is a group of customers so invested in a brand that they regularly engage with branded content, connect with other fans, and create content for the brand. Check out these community-based marketing (CBM) stats.

Wednesday: Over 92% of businesses have adopted AI-powered personalization as a means to boost their business growth. Dive into Twilio Segment’s 2023 State of Personalization Report to discover invaluable insights that will empower you to create engaging, personalized experiences for your audience, while staying compliant with privacy regulations.

Thursday: If your Instagram account has taken a sudden hit in engagement and reach, you might be shadowbanned—or (unofficially) penalized by the app’s algorithms, leading to limited visibility. Follow these steps to get back in Instagram’s good graces.

Tori asked, “Is anyone using AI to successfully create content videos?”

Shannon asked, “Are any other copywriters out there struggling with ChatGPT? It seems to take me as much time to make the responses usable as it does to just write original copy in the first place.”

Gittel asked, “What are the best proofing practices for marketing departments?”

Gabriela asked, “What’s keeping you on Facebook?”

Marketers will have noticed by now that we’re in a kind of abundant, verdant summer for artificial intelligence. A daily deluge of headlines warns of societal collapse or promises innovation beyond our wildest dreams.

In short, it’s hype season.

What you might not know is that we’ve been here twice before—in the late 70s and late 80s.

But what follows hype? Historically, the frenzy of public excitement, investor interest, and government support wanes after the limitations of AI become apparent in practical applications. This leads to the closure of labs, the exodus of researchers from the field, and a deceleration of progress.

These cyclical periods of skepticism are referred to as AI Winters.

With factual and functional blunders from each of the big players in chat apps—which have ranged from benign to disturbing—and the collective letdown of self-driving vehicles, it seems there’s been at least some overpromising and underdelivering.

That said, today’s advancements in machine learning, deep learning, and computational power are leading to real breakthroughs in various domains and increased adoption of AI technologies in industry.

Is AI Winter coming? We can’t say for sure. But you know what they say about history.

Ingredients

• 5 fresh blueberries
• 1 oz blueberry vodka
• 1/4 oz absinthe
• 1/4 oz fresh lemon juice
• 1/4 oz simple syrup
• 1 dash raspberry brandy
• Ginger beer, chilled, to top
• Garnish: sugar cube

Steps

1. In a shaker, muddle the blueberries.
2. Add the vodka, absinthe, lemon juice and simple syrup, plus ice, then shake until well-chilled.
3. Pour (unstrained) into a highball glass.
4. Drizzle with the raspberry brandy and top with ginger beer.
5. Garnish with one sugar cube.

Answer: Stephen Hawking.

In 2017, at the Web Summit in Lisbon, Hawking said, “We cannot know if we will be infinitely helped by AI, or ignored by it and side-lined, or conceivably destroyed by it.”