It’s been quite the start to the year, what with the US tech oligarchs decreeing from on high that all our lives must now become that much more chaotic under their disinformation monetisation doctrine.

Cynical cosy-up-to-Trump power benefits notwithstanding, they really have picked their moment, haven’t they?

Spend any time scrolling your socials - as I’m sure you do without needing my prompt - and you’ll likely have noticed the rapid increase in AI-generated text, images, videos and voices. (If you haven’t, then the tech is already well and truly pulling the digital wool over your eyes - and it’s only going to get exponentially better at it.)

Wider AI breakthroughs are undoubtably able to transform society for the better, but when such powerful tech is stirred into the bubbling cauldron of today’s feed-based, freedom of expression-first media, there’s plenty to worry about.

So to see the likes of Musk, Zuckerberg actually sticking the proverbial firework up it all, precipitously pushing everyone towards these risks/decline is truly woeful. These are also the very same guys developing the most rapacious, unregulated of AI models, too.

However, through all the darkness I do see a silver lining…

Having stuck at this local media game for for well over a decade now, encompassing everything from print magazines to buggy Wordpress plugins, I’m fascinated by every bit of new media tech that comes along, and whether it can solve some of the problems the slightly older tech left in the wake of its own disruption.

When looking through the plethora of AI tools out there to see what might make putting together Camdenist each week a little more time-efficient, all the products I could find cheerily claimed they could replace me, and produce the whole newsletter themselves.

BUT I LIKE DOING THE WRITING! I want tools that help me find out more info without all the grunt work, so I can curate and craft this publication in a way that resonates with readers on a personal level. I never asked for AI to erase that in favour of its cliches and hallucinations, but that’s where the investment to date has focused.

It couldn’t sum up the soulless way the tech bros see the creative industries any better, really. But therein also lies opportunity.

Most local business owners hate having to keep on top of endless social media posts on top of doing their actual vocation, but you can’t deny that ‘we’re all content producers now’, like it or not. These AI tools also promise to make the pressure to create new posts all the time go away for everyone - just let the robots do it!

Sprinkle in 10x supercharged AI slop coming down the line from thousands of businesses, alongside all the bad actors, grifters, autoresponders, Kremlin (or Musk) promoted disinformation storms and synthetic clickbait videos and pretty soon we must surely reach a point where your Xs and Instagrams are basically unbearable.

Robots will be talking to robots on these platforms, so we can all get on and do something more creative and wholesome with the hours we’ll suddenly have gained.

The hunger for consuming and producing real media content won’t go away, but I believe we’re hitting an inflection point. The imperative of doing everything just to maximise reach and engagement, always under the woo-woo of the algorithm, has to slow down, because it’s scrambling our mental health and dissolving the wider social contract.

Decentralised networks that are optimised for connection, rather than simply maxing out advertising dollars, should finally, and quite rapidly, start to flourish. People clearly yearn to be part of civil communities in which they can trust what they are seeing, and the people producing it.

Sounds a bit like a local media platform to me.

That’s why I am such a big fan of producing newsletters like this one, not bland marketing emails, and creating quality over quantity when it comes to communications.

We’ve all spent years on the hamster wheel of likes, follows and trying to make everything ‘go viral’, but there are much better strategies and platforms emerging, fast.

Since my initial research, I’ve now found AI tools that do actually help, not replace, what I want to do. I’ve created one AI agent to find me what’s on at all Camden’s theatres, so I can pick the ones to feature each week without trawling through all the websites or feeds.

Impressively/scarily, at the touch of a button it can also produce a half hour podcast where two synthetic AI ‘hosts’ discuss all this week’s shows, make intelligently funny jokes and banter about the topics covered in each play, and let me drop questions into their conversation, which they will then answer if I hit refresh.

Don’t worry, I’ve not gone down a synthetic content rabbit hole. All you’ll read here is still 100% human produced, but it highlights how fast the landscape is changing, and how differently we’ll doubtless be searching for and consuming local information in the very near future.

If you’d like advice on improving the communication strategy at your place of work in this new AI era, I’ve got plenty of suggestions, thoughts, hacks and insights direct from the coalface to share with you. That might mean coming in and presenting to your team, or it could be devising and helping you deliver a 3-month comms and events plan to significantly grow your genuine community of loyal, local customers.

This is a scary moment for the global information ecosystem and the erosion of trust, but also an exciting opportunity to shake up our frustrating relationships with social media, mailing list databases and all, and to remind ourselves of the benefits of thinking local, regaining far more meaningful, beneficial and profitable connections in the process.

Let’s chat - email [email protected] to discuss improving your own comms and content, and I’ll be writing more about how things are unfolding in forthcoming edition of the newsletter, too.

📊 This week’s one-click poll

Last week’s results to the question: Is the Central YMCA doomed already?

Yes - money talks, and though it's sad, that means change
🟨🟨🟨🟨⬜️⬜️ 38%

No - people are waking up to the value of this unique gym
🟨🟨⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️ 17% 

Maybe - the protesters might just be able to turn things around
🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩 45%

and some of your comments:

“I totally agree that a facility like this is a place of cultural importance. Losing the YMCA would be a massive blow to keeping a diverse, interesting and human-centric West End. Don’t stick another huge hotel there.”

“Think of the embedded carbon! Don’t remove that beloved pool and giant gym!!”

“The key will be getting Criterion Capital to understand they haven't bought an empty shell. Their claims of being community-focused will be sternly put to the test.”

UPDATES

More on last week’s stories

🍴 Following my report on the rather sorry recent spate of restaurant and bar closures on Jamestown Road, Camden Councilor Adam Harrison reached out with some more encouraging news. “The proposals for pedestrianising Camden High Street [a trial running later this year] include reallocating more space on Jamestown road for streateries for the restaurants there and to draw more people down that way.” Will be interesting to see more of those plans, which are to be decided in a few week’s time.

🤸‍♀️ In other Councilor news, in the ongoing battle to try and save the Central YMCA, the lead story last week, I forgot to include mention of some very wise words spoken by Councilor Sharon Hardwick at the recent chamber item on the building’s secret sale. She basically collaborated our whole argument, saying “spaces like this are part of our culture,” and suggesting that the same model employed by the Music Venues Trust in supporting threatened grassroots venues should be used in cases like this.

🧵 Following a popular festive market season round this way, the people behind Shoreditch Pop are running Camden Pop - a series of handmade artisan craft markets, every Saturday in January at St Michael’s (the big church next to Sainsbury’s in Camden Town).

🚢 We spotted an intriguingly scrubbed-up doorway opposite Camden Town tube this week, leading into what we guess was once the basement of the old Plaza Cinema. From today, you can buy tickets to see the forthcoming ‘VR experience’ Titanic - Echoes from the past, which takes you on a 45-minute trip on the doomed liner. While the content might be culturally a bit thin, and ethically a bit ghoulish, it’s still interesting to see these experiences continue to reshape high streets. Camden Town seems to be leading the way, with various operators having run or planning to open more in the area.

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