Notes on Cannes Lions '26
Reporting From a Deal Zone. Plus a Juicy Rattle Bag.
Catch-up service:
Andy Burnham Is Going To Be Another Terrible Prime Minister
Podcast: Benedict Evans on AI and Jobs
5 Ways Active Listening Can Backfire
The Petty Status-Seeking of Great Geniuses
Labour Isn’t Thinking
All the Photos I Couldn’t Use For ‘John & Paul’
Why Writers Should Use AI More
I am joining Tom Holland and Samira Ahmed on stage to talk Beatles at the Chalke History Festival this evening. If you’re at the festival make sure to come and see us, it should be lots of fun.
I have a piece in the New York Times this Monday on the fall of Keir Starmer.
I spent the latter half of this week on the Côte D’Azur, attending the annual advertising festival, ‘Cannes Lions’. Yes, this is the kind of hazardous duty I undertake in order to bring you The Ruffian. I don’t have much to do with advertising these days but I was there as a guest of Microsoft to talk about human-AI collaboration through the lens of the Beatles.
(The talk was based on an article I’ve written. Microsoft’s AI division is launching a new journal about the intersection between AI and the humanities, with some excellent contributors, and me. There’s a launch event in London, in a couple of weeks should you be interested.)
I spoke about what it means to be a creative collaborator, and whether AI is or can ever be one. I started from the proposition that a human collaborator is not like a tool. He or she does not simply do what you want. Imagine Paul trying to ‘prompt’ John and expecting John to just give him what he asked for. The most productive human collaborations involve challenge, argument, and complex emotional dynamics, and they are not easily replicated with machines.
I have not had time to write a full piece for The Ruffian this week, for which I beg your forgiveness. Instead I offer my impressions of Cannes Lions, plus a Rattle Bag of juicy links.
