BUSINESS & ECONOMICS EDITOR'S PICK STRATEGY The Business Impact Of Reduced Marketing Key Takeaway: A study published in The Journal of Marketing suggests that businesses often cut their marketing budgets for short-term savings, but these cuts can cause long-term problems. The study gathered transcripts of nearly 25,000 earnings calls held by public companies from 2008 to 2019. The more earnings-oriented language in the calls, the more likely […] Saving Bookmark this article Bookmarked
ART & DESIGN EDITOR'S PICK TECHNOLOGY The Science Fiction Feedback Loop Key Takeaway: OpenAI CEO Sam Altman sparked controversy by referencing the 2013 movie “Her” to highlight the novelty of ChatGPT’s latest iteration. Actor Scarlett Johansson accused the company of improperly using her voice after she spurned their offer to make her the voice of ChatGPT’s new virtual assistant. This highlights the “sci-fi feedback loop,” which […] Saving Bookmark this article Bookmarked
BUSINESS & ECONOMICS EDITOR'S PICK SCIENCE The Science Of Gaming’s Future Key Takeaway: Game developers are increasingly focusing on creating experiences that stay with players, despite the shrinking market and layoffs during the pandemic. Research on inner experience, which includes thoughts, memories, inner dialogue, visual imagery, feelings, and emotions, is becoming an important field of cognitive science. Gaming has the potential to transform gaming by creating […] Saving Bookmark this article Bookmarked
EDITOR'S PICK TECHNOLOGY Is Gemini Really Better Than ChatGPT? Key Takeaway: Google Deepmind has announced Gemini, a new AI model to compete with OpenAI’s ChatGPT. Gemini is a “multi-modal model” that works directly with multiple modes of input and output, including text, images, audio, and video. It is a new acronym for “large multimodal model”. OpenAI’s GPT-4Vision, which can work with images, audio, and […] Saving Bookmark this article Bookmarked
CULTURE EDITOR'S PICK PSYCHOLOGY Does Music Manipulate Our Memories? Key Takeaway: Studies in psychology are beginning to understand how music helps people remember films, scenes, and characters. Music can help us understand characters, create deeper emotional links, and create mood-congruency effects when the music and movie both make us feel the same way. Irony and mood-incongruity effects occur when music and movies make us […] Saving Bookmark this article Bookmarked
EDITOR'S PICK TECHNOLOGY Bringing Back The Dead With A.I.? Key Takeaway: Generative AI, such as large language models (LLMs) and image and video generators, is amplifying the phenomenon of “digital necromancy,” which involves the reanimation of the dead through their digital remnants. This technology has been used to reanimate celebrities like Bruce Lee, Michael Jackson, and Tupac Shakur, and has expanded access to these […] Saving Bookmark this article Bookmarked
ART & DESIGN CULTURE EDITOR'S PICK How Video Games Are Reviving Classical Music Key Takeaways: Starfield, a highly anticipated video game, allows players to build their own character and spacecraft, travel to multiple planets, and follow multiple story arcs. The game’s interactive music uses a palette of musical language that cultivates a contemplative soundscape, launching the listener into the vastness of space while remaining curious, innocent, and restrained. […] Saving Bookmark this article Bookmarked
EDITOR'S PICK SOCIOLOGY TECHNOLOGY How A.I. Is Transforming Music Key Takeaways: The intersection of music and artificial intelligence (AI) is a topic of concern for many students. While AI has the potential to create a world where music is abundant, it could also lead to the eradication of human musicians. Three ways AI is changing the way music is made include song composition, mixing […] Saving Bookmark this article Bookmarked
BUSINESS & ECONOMICS EDITOR'S PICK SOCIOLOGY TECHNOLOGY What Is The Metaverse? Facebook’s Plan To Change The World Facebook chief executive Mark Zuckerberg recently announced the tech giant will shift from being a social media company to becoming “a metaverse company”, functioning in an “embodied internet” that blends real and virtual worlds more than ever before. So what is “the metaverse”? It sounds like the kind of thing billionaires talk about to earn headlines, […] Saving Bookmark this article Bookmarked
LIFESTYLE PSYCHOLOGY 7 Habits Of Unhappy People “Very little is needed to make a happy life; it is all within yourself, in your way of thinking.”Marcus Aurelius “Let us be grateful to people who make us happy, they are the charming gardeners who make our souls blossom.”Marcel Proust Circumstances can certainly make life unhappy. But a part – often a big part […] Saving Bookmark this article Bookmarked
Why A.I. Sometimes Lie Key Takeaway: AI hallucinations are when AI systems present false information, such as generating bogus citations or misidentifying images. These errors can range from harmless to hazardous, and can have serious implications in legal, medical, or safety-critical domains. AI systems are designed to mimic human intelligence, but when they are asked to produce factual or […] Written by Empirics Asia April 10, 2025April 10, 2025 Saving Bookmark this article Bookmarked
The Future Tech Of Music Is Space-Bending Key Takeaway: Researchers have developed a technology that creates “audible enclaves” in open air, creating highly focused, localized zones of sound. These isolated audio pockets allow sound to materialize only at a precise point in space, unheard by others nearby. This breakthrough could revolutionize public communication, entertainment, military applications, and office design. The process, known […] Written by Empirics Asia April 9, 2025April 9, 2025 Saving Bookmark this article Bookmarked
Are Viruses Alive? Key Takeaway: The question of whether viruses are alive or not has become increasingly complex due to the lack of a universally accepted definition of life. Viruses are neither truly alive nor completely inanimate, as they cannot replicate on their own and have no metabolism or self-contained cellular structure. They can, however, hijack a host […] Written by Empirics Asia April 3, 2025April 3, 2025 Saving Bookmark this article Bookmarked
How Hidden Friendships Redefine Animal Intelligence Key Takeaway: Research shows that some animals form surprising partnerships, challenging traditional views on how intelligence evolves in the animal kingdom. For example, Octavia and Finn, a day octopus and coral trout, work as a team, each bringing unique skills to the hunt. Other species have also developed remarkable partnerships, such as the greater honeyguide […] Written by Empirics Asia March 28, 2025March 28, 2025 Saving Bookmark this article Bookmarked
Can A Book Be Dangerous? Key Takeaway: Books have long been a subject of debate, with some being praised for sparking imagination and empathy, while others are feared for warping minds or seducing readers into fantasy. The fear of fiction altering our sense of the world dates back to the early days of the novel, with women often being portrayed […] Written by Empirics Asia March 24, 2025March 24, 2025 Saving Bookmark this article Bookmarked
The Hidden Cost Of Space Key Takeaway: Satellite re-entry, a process where defunct satellites are disposed of, is causing a significant environmental impact on Earth’s atmosphere. As satellite usage increases, researchers are focusing on the re-entry process itself, which releases metal particles into the Earth’s atmosphere. These particles, such as aluminum oxide and lithium, can influence the planet’s energy balance, […] Written by Empirics Asia March 21, 2025March 21, 2025 Saving Bookmark this article Bookmarked
The Science Of Impatience Key Takeaway: Impatience is a common trait in humans, often influenced by our evolutionary past and perception of time and risk in the modern world. Early humans preferred immediate rewards, such as food and resources, as they were more likely to survive in unpredictable conditions. However, modern financial decisions often favor delayed rewards, as our […] Written by Empirics Asia March 20, 2025March 20, 2025 Saving Bookmark this article Bookmarked
Rethinking Education Key Takeaways: The Industrial model of education that fueled the modern era and its dizzying reach did its job incredibly well. In his writing, Flynn illustrates study after study, spanning nations and decades, in which modern educational gift of abstraction — a transcendent sign of intelligence, as we saw in Raven’s Matrices — has been […] Written by Anthony Fieldman March 2, 2022October 19, 2022 Saving Bookmark this article Bookmarked
How China Is Transforming Its Economy Through Learning I highly recommend reading the McKinsey Global Institute’s new report, “Reskilling China: Transforming The World’s Largest Workforce Into Lifelong Learners”, which focuses on the country’s biggest employment challenge, re-training its workforce and the adoption of practices such as lifelong learning to address the growing digital transformation of its productive fabric. How to transform the country […] Written by Enrique Dans February 1, 2021February 1, 2021 Saving Bookmark this article Bookmarked
Why You’re Not Seeing Success With Influencer Marketing With the new year around the corner, now is a good time to re-evaluate your past marketing strategies and gear up for the year ahead. For some businesses, influencer marketing has simply not seemed to live up to its lofty promises of genuine engagement, credibility, and transparency. Some have claimed that it has been failing […] Written by Michael Tan January 14, 2021January 15, 2021 Saving Bookmark this article Bookmarked
A New Philosophy of Business I’m about to ask you to take a mental leap. For the next 8 minutes, suspend your notions of what a business is, and I’ll propose a new lens for you to look through. There are a lot of questions asked around what “community” means for business. “Where should community fit in my organization?” and […] Written by Empirics Asia September 5, 2018September 5, 2018 Saving Bookmark this article Bookmarked