> PR executives say UK companies are forcing them to present ordinary automation as artificial intelligence What a time to be alive
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'AI washing': firms are scrambling to rebrand themselves as tech-focused
21–30 of 177 posts
Re: 'AI washing': firms are scrambling to rebrand themselves as tech-focused
#22> PR executives say UK companies are forcing them to present ordinary automation as artificial intelligence What a time to be alive
Yup. Also ML is called AI now too at least as far as hiring managers are concerned. Adjust your resume accordingly.
Re: 'AI washing': firms are scrambling to rebrand themselves as tech-focused
#23My favourite is Allbirds that pivoted from eco friendly shoes to AI infrastructure. How do you even make that decision?
It's not really a pivot though, is it? As I understand it, the company went bust and sold their branding to a different company that wants to do AI infra.
Branding not used for its intended purpose is about as useful as calling your landscaping company four seasons.
Re: 'AI washing': firms are scrambling to rebrand themselves as tech-focused
#24My favourite is Allbirds that pivoted from eco friendly shoes to AI infrastructure. How do you even make that decision?
It's not really a pivot though, is it? As I understand it, the company went bust and sold their branding to a different company that wants to do AI infra.
What I saw somewhere, don't know if it's true or a rumour, was that it was a wallstreet guy offering them $5M for if he could shift the strategy. So be bought a _lot_ of shares of the very cheap pre-pivot price, paid them $5M for the pivot, sold the shares at the now 600% stock increase. Netted a tidy profit after the $5M.
They didn't trade company fundamentals, they traded the market sentiment.
Re: 'AI washing': firms are scrambling to rebrand themselves as tech-focused
#25There's this new misplaced belief that most how of stock market works is by fooling the stock market with short term plays like this rebranding and then cashing out. Its attractive and speaks to the cynic in us.
The article gives three examples
- Allbirds, a shoe company
- A genetics company marketing that it is using AI
- a property tech company using AI to create 3rd landscapes
The Allbirds one is just financial re-engineering. The others are reasonable?
Re: 'AI washing': firms are scrambling to rebrand themselves as tech-focused
#26I'd love to read the mind of an investor that actually falls for this shit. Who actually thinks that Allbirds will see much higher returns because they "have an AI graphics division?" I like AI, but seriously, who actually invests on this basis? Where is the critical thinking? I don't feel sympathy for any investor that gets rug pulled on this stuff.
AI graphics division: Putting in 100s of engineering hours to build and internal AI tool to produce AI-slopified marketing in order to save ~2h a month of human work.
Re: 'AI washing': firms are scrambling to rebrand themselves as tech-focused
#27Earlier quoted context omitted.
It's not really a pivot though, is it? As I understand it, the company went bust and sold their branding to a different company that wants to do AI infra.
Branding not used for its intended purpose is about as useful as calling your landscaping company four seasons.
To be clear, everything about Allbirds including the brand name and other IP was sold off. The shoe store will continue operating (unless or perhaps until the new owners choose to shut it down) under the name "Allbirds"; the public company doing AI infra with the stock ticker BIRD will be named "NewBird AI".
Re: 'AI washing': firms are scrambling to rebrand themselves as tech-focused
#28I think a lot of people are secretly wishing for AI to be like the crypto grift but are in for a rude shock when it is definitely not going to end up like that. We will see more and more companies become AI driven and produce AI products.
To think otherwise is naive.
Re: 'AI washing': firms are scrambling to rebrand themselves as tech-focused
#29I'd love to read the mind of an investor that actually falls for this shit. Who actually thinks that Allbirds will see much higher returns because they "have an AI graphics division?" I like AI, but seriously, who actually invests on this basis? Where is the critical thinking? I don't feel sympathy for any investor that gets rug pulled on this stuff.
Investors by nature lap up hype, and it seems to work for them
Re: 'AI washing': firms are scrambling to rebrand themselves as tech-focused
#30> PR executives say UK companies are forcing them to present ordinary automation as artificial intelligence What a time to be alive
BPM is now agentic, don’t you know.