Back in the 1980s, artificial intelligence faced a cold, barren winter.
Funding became scarce.
Researchers started abandoning the field.
And critics piled on, saying that the big promises AI was supposed to fulfill did not and will not happen, ever.
Well, the winter is long gone.
And summer seems to be here.
I’m sorry Dave, I’m afraid I don’t feel like playing chess with you any more
I just read a fascinating and frightening article that confirms it.
DeepMind, an artificial intelligence lab owned by Google’s parent company Alphabet, has come up with a new little program called AlphaZero.
AlphaZero plays games.
Things like Go and chess.
The thing is, it doesn’t need any human help.
You don’t have to teach it, train it, or tweak it to the specifics of the game.
You just tell it the rules.
And within a few days time, the thing learns how to play on its own.
How good is it?
Well, within three days, this Skynet embryo taught itself to play Go.
And it then beat another DeepMind program, which made history earlier because it beat one of the best human Go players on the planet. (This earlier program required months of training and hand-holding, unlike AlphaZero.)
Now Go isn’t real life.
It’s not even poker.
But just wait.
I’m sure the guys at DeepMind are already working on it.
You might think I’m bringing this up because I’m afraid DeepMind and AlphaZero are coming for our copywriting and marketing jobs.
That’s not it. (When Skynet arrives, who’s gonna care about advertorials any more?)
Instead, I think this story is a good illustration of an important and valuable principle. The idea is this:
Creating something new will often sweep away hard and narrow problems.
AlphaZero has been designed to play any game, and incidentally, it learns to play better than any human-designed program that plays just one game.
As in AI, so in persuasion. It just might be described using different words.
For example, copywriting and marketing experts Matt Furey might say, “Stop solving problems. Create instead.”
Daygame guru Jon Matrix might say, “Play to win, don’t play not to lose.”
However you say it, I think it’s an important idea to keep close to your heart at all times.
In my own experience, it seems to have a magical ability to guide you to easy (or easier) success.
Anyways, enough about Skynet.
Back to more earthly things.
Such as weight loss supplements, plantar fasciitis insoles, and kidney disease ebooks.
If you sell any of those — or something like them — you might be interested in my new book. It talks about email marketing for the health space, and it brings together some lessons I’ve learned by writing copy for those exact products above.
For more info: