I was listening to a Podcast with Chris Hayes and Alison Gopnik (Why Is This Happening?) about human intelligence vs. artificial intelligence. She's a distinguished professor of psychology and affiliate professor of philosophy at UC Berkeley.
She proposes that, “Every two-year-old in many respects is smarter than the smartest guy in Silicon Valley. Every two-year-old can do things with a very small amount of data, figure out really important new things about the world around them. That just is not the kind of thing that any adult can do, and not the kind of thing that even a super smart genius can do.”
Another interesting fact is that a four-year-old uses 65% of its calories on its brain, while we adults use only 20%.
Human Knowledge
Before the turn of the century (which we are about a quarter of the way through), more data was stored in filing cabinets than on computers. We hit a point where all that paper was converted to bits (digital data).
Today, paper isn't obsolete, but I don't print or receive as much paper as I used to. Our thoughts, records, and communication have mostly been digitized in the forms of PDFs, audio, video, websites, and more.
Our inputs have gone from pen and paper to typewriters to computer keyboards, then touch screens, and now incorporate our voice with audio prompts.
Libraries held our collective knowledge, cataloged using the Dewey Decimal System. That has (for the most part) been digitized, and now scrubbed and fed into AI. Now you can create prompts to ask questions, which are answered by synthesizing multiple sources into what appears to be a single, intelligent answer.
There is no way to simply fact-check that the cumulative responses all contain facts or data-based answers. In our haste to execute our work marketing programs, we may accept it as true and forge ahead to our next task.
Explore-Exploit
On the podcast, they made the point that there isn’t a little “intelligence meter” in your brain that explains why you’re good at what you do, and computer science actually backs that up. It’s not one big, general intelligence that you can keep cranking up forever; we have different abilities that sometimes pull in opposite directions.
One example they gave is the explore–exploit trade-off from computer science. The skills you use to explore, experiment, and learn new things are in tension with the skills you use to double down and execute efficiently on what already works. You literally cannot maximize both at the same time.
In marketing terms, it’s the tension between testing new channels, creatives, and offers (explore) and pouring budget into the proven winners to hit your numbers (exploit). If you only explore, you never scale; if you only exploit, you get stuck, and your campaigns slowly die out as the world changes. So the whole idea of “more and more intelligence” as a single number doesn’t really make sense when some of the most important ingredients of being “smart” are inherently in trade-off.
The AI Explore-Exploit Trade-off
The way I see most people using AI in marketing is by writing a prompt and then reviewing the output. Then they either ask AI to rewrite the text in a different voice or format, or copy and paste the text and rewrite it themselves. This is done with the goal of reducing the time spent creating it and then exploiting it by publishing and distributing it.
Exploring requires data and research. You can take data from your website or explore a website like LinkedIn, then build on it with more research by combining that data and allowing AI to interpret it and produce an output again. It may be a back-and-forth process.
The main difference is that exploiting saves time and costs less, while exploring adds time and ultimately costs more.
Exploiting is accessing knowledge created by others (and maybe yourself), while exploring can combine your data and brand, then use past knowledge to investigate how the data is helping or hurting your marketing efforts.
Email Example
Although most email programs have built-in intelligence, it's more about exploiting it by writing content or automating tasks.
What you want to do is export your list and the data associated with opens and clicks. Then you can use your QuickBooks or CRM to cross-reference contacts or contracts from people on that list.
Next, use AI to separate your list into people who have engaged and purchased, those who have engaged but not purchased, and those who are not engaging.
It's up to you what you do with that data. With purchased you may be able to spot trends in the topics of your emails. With the engagers, you may want to send them a different email campaign based on their collective needs, which may differ from the emails sent to others. The non-engagers could be put into a list for your sales team to reach out to on a more personal level.
The opportunities and options to exploit that data explored may be just what you need to spark new sales, develop your own intelligence on how your audience perceives your marketing, and identify which creative options you may need to break out to clean or optimize your list and marketing.
Closing Thought
I consider listening to podcasts, reading articles, and even writing my own, exploring. I do use AI to help me write, solidify concepts, and even simplify complex topics like this.
Two-year-olds can form knowledge and concepts without using our expansive human database of content. They learn motor skills, language, logic, reasoning, and human interaction, including how to negotiate for ice cream without AI, libraries, or databases. It's based on interactions with siblings, pets, and Mom and Dad.
When we write, we have the best results at an 8th to 11th-grade level (teenager). Having lived through my teenage years, I know that logic and negotiation are still based on our parents and friends.
30-year-olds are at the pinnacle of their business and family life. They may feel like superheroes, but they still can learn, grow, and evolve.
No matter how young or old you are, exploring new ideas, concepts, and ways to approach life is becoming faster and sometimes more complex. So slow down, take a deep breath, and give yourself some grace, and a pat on the back for making it this far!
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Comment below and share your thoughts, ideas, or questions about business-to-business sales and marketing today! Do you have a sales or marketing communications strategy that works for you? What tips or techniques can you share that work for you and your business?
To learn more about this and other topics on B2b Sales & Marketing, visit our podcast website at The Bacon Podcast.
