A Better Lemonade Stand #300

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Name: Anonymous (Update)
Business Status: Not Added (Update)

Welcome to issue 300.

When I launched A Better Lemonade Stand in 2012, fueled by curiosity and a desire to explore online businesses, I never imagined the incredible, life-long journey ahead. Twelve years later, that same curiosity drives me forward, guiding me through this incredible moment in history, which I call the Digital Renaissance.

Your support as subscribers inspires me to share this journey. For those who have been with me for a while, thank you. To the newcomers, welcome! After 12 years of building online businesses, I've never been more optimistic about the future for entrepreneurs.

The best is yet to come.

A Quick Update

As summer is in full swing, I'll be shifting to a bi-weekly publication schedule. Since welcoming my daughter, my time has become even more precious.

Producing each newsletter demands well over a dozen hours of effort each week. I'll be reallocating this time to focus on building my private community, and further developing my skills in AI, no-code, and automation.

Rest assured, you'll still hear from me regularly, just at a more relaxed summer pace.

A Bold Prediction

Yesterday was a trifecta of celebrations—Canada Day, my daughter's 4-month milestone, and a friend's 40th birthday.

Hanging out with some old friends at a BBQ led to a thought-provoking conversation about AI. When I boldly predicted that within 3-5 years, AI would negatively impact or replace 50% of all jobs, it sparked skepticism and pushback from others around the grill.

Admittedly, I'm neither a data scientist, AI researcher, nor economist. However, I've closely tracked AI's capabilities and rapid advances for the past two years, coupled with my decade-long study of consumer and market trends.

This prediction isn't merely speculative; we're already witnessing real-world examples.

Just last week, I shared an article about Benjamin Miller, who in early 2023 led a team of over 60 writers and editors creating engaging content for a tech company. The introduction of AI to cut costs transformed his role drastically. AI-generated outlines soon replaced the team's brainstorming, and within months, ChatGPT was writing entire articles, leading to massive layoffs.

By 2024, Miller found himself alone, tasked with editing repetitive and often subpar AI-generated content. Eventually, even this role was deemed unnecessary, and he too was laid off. Ironically, he later secured a job at a company developing software to make AI writing less detectable, continuing his work with AI in a different capacity.

Miller's experience underscores the profound impact AI is already having on employment across sectors. And this is just the beginning.

Upon reflecting on the breathtaking pace of AI advancements since the conversation yesterday, I'm compelled to refine and backup my initial prediction:

In 3-5 years, we're poised for a seismic shift in our job market and societal structures due to AI advancements and integration.

Consider this: ChatGPT 3.5, debuted in November 2022. In just a year and a half, it has already reshaped our world in myriad ways.

Currently, public Large Language Models (LLMs) operate at roughly a high school level of intelligence. And at that level, we're witnessing a democratization of media creation across written content, music, voice, sound effects, and coding with tools like:

• Leonardo and MidJourney for graphic assets and images

• Udio and Suno for music

• ElevenLabs for audio, voiceovers, and sound effects

• Showrunner (in beta) for AI-generated TV shows

OpenAI recently suggested that ChatGPT 5, will achieve PhD-level intelligence.

Soon, AI models will be able to take actions in your browser or other software, dramatically expanding their capabilities.

The next significant leap will be the progress of AI agents – autonomous systems capable of breaking down complex goals into manageable tasks and executing them independently. By ChatGPT 6, we may see AI begin to replace software itself, as many apps are essentially interfaces for humans to accomplish specific tasks.

With versions 7 and 8, it's conceivable that AI could surpass all human intelligence, capabilities, and dexterity, working faster and more accurately without breaks. And this is merely the beginning. Beyond creative roles, consider the potential impact on customer service, content moderation, and countless other sectors.

The pace of AI advancement is staggering. In just the last six months, we've witnessed numerous major updates, from larger context windows to multimodal AI capabilities that can process and generate various data types, including text, images, audio, and video.

The Potential-Practice Paradox of AI

We're currently navigating the 'potential-practice paradox' phase of AI, where its potential far outstrips our ability to seamlessly incorporate it into our workflows. It might appear that AI has plateaued (as one of my friends argued), but that's an illusion born from our own limitations in keeping pace with its rapid evolution.

The reality is that AI's capabilities are expanding at a breakneck speed. The challenge lies not in AI's abilities but in our capacity to effectively harness them.

At present, leveraging AI requires a fragmented, multi-step process. You must must first identify a specific task or process within their business, then determine if and how AI could optimize it. Next, they need to select an appropriate AI tool, provide it with context, break down the task into manageable chunks, and work through each piece with the AI to achieve the desired outcome. Finally, they must bring that output back to where it's actually needed.

This process demands a high level of strategic thinking and familiarity with AI capabilities to achieve favorable results. It's a far cry from the seamless integration we envision for the future. The current state is clunky and inefficient, requiring users to bridge the gap between AI's potential and its practical application in their specific contexts.

Companies are grappling with this disconnect, trying to find effective ways to implement AI into their existing systems and processes. The technology is ready and expanding quickly, but we're still learning how to dance with it effectively.

This will all get worked out over the next few years.

Our World Operating System Requires an Update

The operating system for our world has served us well thus far, with constant maintenance and tweaking to adapt to societal changes. However, that operating system now seems increasingly incompatible with what's coming.

AI feels fundamentally different from past technological revolutions.

Supporting this prediction is the recent spike in corporate mentions of "operational efficiency," as shown in the chart below.

This chart highlights a dramatic increase in discussions around operational efficiency in corporate transcripts. Historically, such trends often precede significant shifts in workforce dynamics, including mass layoffs. This pattern suggests that businesses are gearing up for a transformative phase, likely driven by advancements in AI and automation.

The Robots Are Coming

Parallel to the AI revolution, humanoid robotics is poised for a breakthrough that will amplify AI's impact. As the technologist Joe Scott points out, we're heading towards a robotic labor force and an industrial "production arms race." Agile robots could act as a powerful force multiplier, accelerating AI's disruptive capabilities.

While the full integration of robotic labor may take longer than my 3-5 year prediction for seismic job market shifts, the signs point to agility robotics becoming increasingly commonplace in our society and workplaces. Expect factories, warehouses, logistics operations, and even service roles being augmented or supplanted by fleets of dexterous robot workers, powered by advanced AI minds.

Recently, BMW has partnered with Figure to deploy humanoid robots at its Spartanburg, South Carolina manufacturing plant. This collaboration marks a significant milestone as it represents one of the first commercial agreements to integrate general-purpose humanoid robots into a manufacturing environment. Figure's humanoid robot, known as Figure 01, will initially be tasked with specific jobs within the plant, such as body shop work and warehouse logistics. The deployment of these robots underscores the growing trend of integrating advanced robotics into manufacturing to enhance productivity and efficiency.

Similarly, Amazon has significantly expanded its use of robotics, deploying over 750,000 robots across its facilities. This shift has been a key part of their strategy to enhance efficiency, safety, and delivery speed by automating repetitive tasks traditionally handled by human workers​. The integration of robots like Sequoia and Digit plays a crucial role in this transition. Sequoia enhances inventory management and order processing, while Digit, a bipedal robot developed in collaboration with Agility Robotics, is designed to handle tasks like moving empty tote boxes and navigating human-designed spaces.

This convergence of artificial intelligence and robotic automation could reshape entire sectors at a pace we can scarcely comprehend. As these technologies continue advancing exponentially, the dawning of a new robotic labor era seems not just plausible, but inevitable. The robots are indeed coming – and their impacts could be profound, redefining the very nature of work and human employment as we know it.

As Tony Seba highlights in a recent article, "This time, we are the horses," referring to the rapid obsolescence of horse-drawn transport in the early 20th century. Between 1907 and 1922, horses went from providing 95% of all private vehicle-miles traveled on American roads to less than 20%.

Despite these predictions, I remain very optimistic. Whether or not the metaphorical sky falls, the best preparation is versatility.

This is precisely my strategy, and I encourage you to consider adopting a similar approach as we navigate this exciting, if uncertain, future.

AI is going to disrupt and break many things, but it also presents unprecedented opportunities for those prepared to adapt.

If what I’m saying above resonates with you, I am building a private community that you might be interested in.

Space is a community I'm creating for entrepreneurs, creators, and digital explorers who are passionate about pushing the boundaries of what's possible online and preparing for what’s next.

After over a decade in the digital business world, I've seen firsthand the power of connecting with like-minded individuals.

That's exactly what Space is all about.

In Space, we'll be building a community focusing on:

• Leveraging AI, no-code, and automation in our businesses

• Creating and launching impactful digital products

• Building sustainable online business models

• Developing strong personal brands in the digital age

This community is for those who are always looking ahead, ready to adapt and innovate as the digital landscape evolves.

I'm curating this group carefully to ensure we build something truly valuable. If you're intrigued by Space and what we'll be exploring together, you can sign up for the wait list here:

Ok, with all of that out of the way, here are all the highlights this week:

• 👨‍💻 Remote Job Boards on the Rise: How specialized job boards tap into the growing remote work market for solopreneurs.

• 🖋️ Eddie Shleyner's 68k Subscriber Success: Growth strategies and monetization methods that grew Eddie's copywriting newsletter.

• 💰 The Power of Exact Match Domains: A traffic-driving strategy using exact match domains to improve SEO rankings and targeted traffic.

• 👩‍💻 AI's Impact on Coding: Coding experts share AI's role in automation, problem-solving, and ethical concerns in programming.

See you in 2 weeks! 👋🏼

You made it to the end. Thanks for reading!

Don’t hesitate to hit reply, even if it’s just to say hi—I’m always up for a chat, and I personally handle all responses. No VAs or AIs here!

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