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🤔 What are the implications of AI-writing tools recommending specific products and brands?

Using Lex (GPT-3 writing assistant) I entered the title: "Best audio interface for Shure SM7B"

The AI generated text that specifically recommends the "Universal Audio Apollo Twin X Duo"

@thedigitalyenta I would check the podcast search engines listed here:

https://transistor.fm/podcast-search/

- Listen Notes
- Podchaser

are both good general purpose podcast search engines.

@ericsandy Be sure to watch the follow-up video:

https://youtu.be/L1xH0rVRFRI

@freekmurze Congrats! Upvoted on @ProductHunt! 🙌

@TimothyBramlett @arvidkahl - a story/journey that resonates
- lower costs + overhead
- understanding the customer better than anyone else

@mjwhansen @mattwensing loving this series!

Halfway through part 1; it’s really great. 👍

https://overcast.fm/+gJ-XTuNxs

@debgotwired @blogstatic So far, yup!

Really loving @blogstatic.

It's like Carrd, but for blogs. (At $19/year, the pricing is similar too!)

I've already switched two blogs over there, and I'll be switching more in the future. 👍

https://blogstatic.io/

@TheOmarZenhom @TransistorFM More details here: https://justinjackson.ca/team-retreat

@damengchen 🎉

Just published this video with lessons from the @TransistorFM team retreat:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ck3cbAO-fUo

@NicolasHoferer As long as they’re hosted on @TransistorFM, I’m happy. 😉

@andrewamann yup

@janetacarr 🤣

(Wait... are you an AI? 😳)

This is what AI-generated podcasts will sound like in the future

(when only AIs are listening)

Soon...

The AIs write all the content on the web.

Then, other AIs will summarize the content that other AIs have written.

And then AIs will make decisions based on the AI-summarized content.

Humans will just drink soylent and nap.

@thethoughtcard @WOCPodcasters @Afros_and_Audio @GirlGetVisible Love this photo!

RT @noahwbragg: Just listened back to one our old podcast episode with @mijustin.
Great reminder that...

- The market you build in really…

Balaji’s rhetoric is completely incoherent. https://twitter.com/liron/status/1583676196826492934

@Patticus @jessethanley I’d like to see that.

Based on the calculations I did, Stripe + Avalara would be significantly cheaper.

(Plus, there would be significant switching costs for us to adopt to Paddle)

@_KevinGraham I’ve calculated what Stripe + Avalara would cost, and it’s still seems significantly less than Paddle. 🤷‍♂️

Wrote a longer blog post about all of this:

https://justinjackson.ca/ai-darkside

Also, for many, the point of these AI-assisted writing tools is SEO: to rank on Google.

But, if people start skipping Google and just go directly to the AI... will we even need to write all this content?

And... will brands start figuring out how to optimize for AI suggestions?

What happens when people start going to AI for answers instead of Google search and Wikipedia?

How does the AI decide what to suggest?

What are the knock-on effects of these suggestions?

https://twitter.com/Altimor/status/1583341896666996738

There's a potential dark side of AI-generated written content, and GPT-3, that nobody's really talking about:

If you're Russia or Iran, you're probably thinking, "How can I get our propaganda to be suggested in these language models?"

@jessethanley We negotiated a lower rate last year.

I believe it's even lower for us as a US-based C-Corp.

@ianlandsman The principle is still sound: it would be way easier to collect from a handful of big banks (wires, etc) + credit card companies than from hundreds of millions of individual businesses.

@ianlandsman Exactly.

If governments went to MasterCard, VISA, and AMEX and said "we want you to handle all the sales tax collection and remittance for us" they'd only have to monitor three companies, and ensure the calculations were correct (as opposed to millions of SMBs)

@GeoffTRoberts That’s the other thing: these aren’t even “our” taxes!

These are sales taxes for customers, not us as the vendor!

Governments are outsourcing all the hard work + costs to businesses.

@kilianvalkhof This is assuming we hired a company like Avalara to do that stuff for us.

It's still 10s of thousands of dollars cheaper to do it that way.

(Plus, switching to Paddle from Stripe would be a nightmare and also requires tons of work on our side)

@thibpat @abhinavsohani @PaddleHQ When I calculate it, it's still cheaper (on an annual basis) to go with a service like Avalara which does everything for you.

We'd save 10s of thousands of dollars by not going with Paddle.

Make the credit card companies do sales tax compliance.

They have the infrastructure to handle calculation, collection, and remittance for every transaction.

Govts would see a huge increase in sales tax revenue because they're no longer asking millions of small biz to do it.

Free idea for governments:

Instead of putting the burden of sales tax registration, calculation, collection, and remittance on small biz get VISA, MasterCard, and AMEX to do it!!

Take the burden off small businesses, and just go after the big credit card companies.

Stripe: 2.9% + $0.30 per transaction
Paddle: 5% + $0.50 per transaction

The annual cost to be on Paddle would be significantly more than Stripe + annual sales tax compliance costs. 😞

@abhinavsohani @PaddleHQ Stripe: 2.9% + $0.30 per transaction
Paddle: 5% + $0.50 per transaction

The annual cost to be on Paddle would be significantly more than Stripe + annual compliance costs. 😞

The lack of responses here makes me think that Chas' observation is correct: most SaaS businesses are not collecting and remitting sales tax properly.

https://twitter.com/cemerick/status/1583535454573715457

Fellow founders:

What are you doing for sales tax registration, calculation, collection, and remittance globally?

(No pitches please, I just want to hear from other SaaS founders)

@startupvernon Yes!!!

cc @CityofVernon @kelly_fehr @BrianTGuy2022

@anthilemoon @JurassicWorld Wow! 😮

I want to go!

@chrispodcasting @jonbuda @TransistorFM YESSSSS

@AlbanBrooke @jonbuda @TransistorFM Yes! 🙌

@KeliWestgate https://www.nytimes.com/2022/10/19/world/europe/liz-truss-lettuce-stream.html?smid=nytcore-ios-share&referringSource=articleShare

@JoshDoody BTW – whenever someone in tech DMs me asking for help with salary negotiation, I send them straight to @JoshDoody.

He knows his stuff. It's not uncommon for him to help people get an additional $50k in annual salary.

It's OK to negotiate the job offers you get from tech companies!

(Even in a recession)

The big fear is that if you ask for more money they'll rescind their offer. @JoshDoody highlights why this is rarely the case:

@jmckinven @jonbuda @TransistorFM 🙌 LOVE IT

This is why I love running an indie product.

A few days ago I said: "It'd be cool if we could autofill podcast credits directly from Twitter"

Today @jonbuda deployed the feature to production. 💪

❤️ @transistorfm

It’s really hard to convince people to buy a product that they don’t have an active desire for.

You can send me the best sales pitch in the world, but if it doesn’t connect with a desire I already have, I’ll just ignore it.

Build something that people desire! It makes marketing so much easier.

@julianweisser @every It’s great!

I’ve heard these bits hundreds of times and they still make me laugh.

Legend.

https://youtu.be/Z_XbtYfrNYI

@adampallozzi @leenyburger 🎯

@FarisZacina THIS

Here’s the full video demo of me using Lex (an AI-powered writing assistant by @nbashaw and the team at @every):

https://youtu.be/XoCzf--j8uQ

@rezzz @nbashaw @every Let's test this out! I'll publish this on my blog and see if I can get this post to rank for "how to plan your remote work retreat" on Google.

I'll report back with the results. 👍

@RobertERitz @nbashaw @every Let's test this out! I'll publish this on my blog and see if I can get this post to rank for "how to plan your remote work retreat" on Google.

I'll report back with the results. 👍

@noahwbragg @nbashaw @every There are definitely ethical considerations with algorithmic feeds and proprietary AI-generated engines that create content on their own:
https://justinjackson.ca/the-ethics-of-ai-driven-content

I'll need to think more about the ethics of an AI-assistant like this. 🤔

I just tried @nbashaw’s new AI writing app that everyone's talking about: Lex.

Here's a supercut of all my reactions. 🤯🤯🤯

This just feels completely magical. It's going to change the way I write my blog.

Hats off to the @every team! 🙌

@nbashaw VCs chasing that AI scent...

(assuming you got a pitch from someone who was clearly good at what they do)

What would you want them to help you with?

@chrisbowler Folks were free to go to bed whenever!

The only mandatory thing you really had to be at each day was the group discussion at 11am.

What's something you'd hire someone to do right now?

@_danielmeade @cauuuseco NICE! 🙌

Upload that sucker and get it distributed to Apple Podcasts, Spotify, etc.

You can listen to @jonbuda, @jsonperl, @HelenRyles, and I discuss the entire retreat (with plenty of tips for other remote teams) on the @buildyoursaas podcast:

https://saas.transistor.fm/episodes/what-happened-at-our-team-retreat

Our team retreat schedule was really relaxed:

9am – wake up, have breakfast
10am – everyone meets up to work together
11am – group discussion
12:30pm – lunch
2:00pm – nap, alone time
6:30pm – dinner together
8:00pm – hang out as a group

(Highly recommended)

The first thing you notice when you meet people from the internet in real life:

"Oh, that's how tall you are." 😅

What are the benefits of doing an in-person retreat for your remote company?

The @TransistorFM team shared their highlights from our recent retreat in Montreal:

1) @CanadiensMTL hockey game
2) Walks/dinners together
3) Unstructured conversation
4) Building personal connection

@asmartbear What's the context for this one?

@jayclouse Software!

Web software, desktop applications, and mobile apps make great indie businesses.

@AlexLlullTW I recently tried @blogstatic and found it really easy to set up. I was able to start writing immediately.

@nbashaw @clayhebert Kathy often expressed this idea (“products make you more awesome”), but I’m pretty sure the graphic/Super Mario metaphor comes from @SamuelHulick

RT @asmartbear: Good questions.

I’ll add: remove the periodicity. Don’t commit to “weekly.” Just see how frequently you can make somethin…

@ZachInSpace @SquadCastFM Nice! Looks really great. 👍

RT @michael_diamant: Can you paint a pig? Well, we have to do that a lot in short term to create livable environments out of all the modern…

@AdrianMcIntyre Thank you!

Hey audio/podcast nerds: what mic arm is this?

Three questions for you today:

🔗 What's your marketing site's URL?

🖥️ How did you build and host it? (CMS, design framework)

🤔 What's one thing you'd like to do to improve it?

@evoterra Lol. That’s me!

Just got this book on @danshipper’s recommendation: “Metaphors We Live By”

How do you manage your SaaS pricing page? I'm using @tailwindcss to create a table on our marketing site, but it's tricky to update it. https://twitter.com/i/broadcasts/1OwxWwBpkRZxQ

How are you improving the indoor air quality in your home?

@iChris We're neck and neck!

Here's the list of everyone who's been on the podcast. Too many to list here!

(You can click on their photo and see all the episodes they were in)

https://saas.transistor.fm/people

I just added guest credits to the entire back-catalog of the @buildyoursaas podcast and can't believe how many people have been on the show!

Having the podcast was a huge benefit while we were building @TransistorFM: we got advice from so many smart people. 💯

@aarondfrancis @noahwbragg Yup. Probably the most challenging period of my life.

@AlbanBrooke @stephenrobles Your wrestling name is the Pacing Podcaster™

@noahwbragg @aarondfrancis loved the back-and-forth questions on this episode!

(Reminded me about what it was like as an indie hacker with small kids)

https://overcast.fm/+T3khIGRf0

@valsopi @blogstatic Congrats on the re-launch!

Everyone should have a blog; your new pricing makes it a no-brained. 👍

@AlbanBrooke @stephenrobles You gotta quit moving around so much when you record, bro 😄

@BretFisher 🤣

@benediktdeicke @uibreakfast @ClaireSuellen @userlist Happy company anniversary! 🎉

Happy Thanksgiving to all my Canadian friends! 🇨🇦🍁🦃

@FerraroOnAir @TransistorFM @jsonperl @HelenRyles @mitchjoel There were so many! Montreal has incredible restaurants.

@PieddeCochonMTL was exceptional.

https://www.aupieddecochon.ca/us/en/

Aside from dinners out, we had a bunch of special outings that really made this retreat special:

- @CanadiensMTL game
- @ModeratOfficial concert
- Ferry ride
- Notre Dame light show

I heartily recommend outings like this!

@mariepoulin @TransistorFM @jsonperl @HelenRyles Yes! We might do Banff next hahaha

@ChrisLaBossiere Love this. Looks incredible.

Also, a big thank you to @EpikMontreal. 🙌

We rented their penthouse suite to have a common room to meet, work, and hang out in and it was perfect.

They’re a small hotel with really friendly staff, and it’s walkable to everything in Old Montreal.

For remote companies, I highly recommend Old Montreal for team retreats.

The @TransistorFM team and I had an incredible time eating amazing food, going for walks, seeing a hockey game, going to a concert, running along the water, and seeing beautiful fall colors.

@twigpress Oh no! I mistakenly thought you could only meet for lunch on Sunday! 🤦‍♂️

Super fun to do a meetup in Montreal, and sit down with people doing interesting work here!

@CasJam Worth it! Looks great.