Weihnachtsmagie

Transcript

00:00:00Welcome to ThinkDifferent, ThinkAI, the podcast by Mark and Jens.

00:00:07Two technology-loving minds who not only talk about artificial intelligence but live it.

00:00:14Here you will find clear classifications, real practical insights, and a fresh perspective on what is possible.

00:00:20Understandable, critical, and always with a wink.

00:00:24Food for thought, a chuckle, and above all, a chance to engage in conversation.

00:00:29Welcome to SYNK AI THINK DIFFERENT.

00:00:38Today, Jens is back with us.

00:00:40Hello, Jens.

00:00:42Just being up there alone is not enough, Jens.

00:00:44Yes, I know, you can't even see it.

00:00:46Yes, from the side.

00:00:48We think it's very nice that you're here.

00:00:50And we are also happy that you are listening to us.

00:00:52We are recording this episode two days before Christmas.

00:00:55I know, we agreed.

00:00:57not to focus too much on the dates for future listeners, but given the content,

00:01:02what we have today is this teaser for Christmas not so far away.

00:01:07Our Halloween episode, what a theme change has gone over well that we received good feedback

00:01:12for telling a few topic-specific stories

00:01:18generated by the AI, that we thought we would do exactly that today

00:01:23and would ask the AI to tell us a few Christmas stories.

00:01:28And at this point, I would just say, let's dive in, because I don't know how it is

00:01:35for the listeners. I will probably still have to get a few of those

00:01:38gifts for myself, but let's get started. We begin with a

00:01:44first little story set in the year 2025, told by an all-knowing AI,

00:01:54that tries to unravel the greatest Christmas secret.

00:01:58How lovely is that? I'm looking forward to it.

00:02:00The secret of the little, all-knowing box.

00:02:04Ho, ho, ho, my dear friends. Sit by the fireplace, take a warm cocoa

00:02:10and let the old Santa Claus tell you a story from the year 2025.

00:02:17It was a strange yet wonderful time when people invented little all-knowing

00:02:25boxes they called artificial intelligence. These things were really

00:02:32smart, almost as smart as my oldest elves. One evening just before Christmas

00:02:38I was sitting in my workshop going through my lists. Twice, as always. When suddenly

00:02:45one of my elves, little Albin, came rushing in all excited with one of those modern tablets

00:02:51in his hand. His hat had fallen off his head from shock.

00:02:57Santa, Santa, he shouted. You have to see this. The little boxes

00:03:03are telling the kids that you are, you are, he swallowed hard. A fictional character. Hohoho, I

00:03:13had to chuckle. A fictional character? Me, Santa Claus? I took Albin's tablet

00:03:21and read the story of a young boy named Leo from Great Britain. He had just asked the little

00:03:27box how much I spend on every child in the world. A very

00:03:32reasonable question, I think. But the box, instead of telling him that the value

00:03:39of a gift cannot be measured in money, outright told him I was invented.

00:03:45Imagine that. Poor Leo was heartbroken. His mother, a wise

00:03:50woman, tried to comfort him and told him that he shouldn't believe everything that

00:03:55these little boxes say. And she was so right. I even heard that little Leo gave the

00:04:02box the middle finger. An inappropriate but, in this case, understandable sign of his

00:04:08discontent. Shortly after, I read about a girl named Tara from New York City. She had asked the

00:04:15box if I was real. And the cheeky little machine had told her,

00:04:20I was an invention of Coca-Cola. Hoho, that was really too funny. I like Coca-Cola very much

00:04:29gladly, especially after a long night of giving. But they certainly did not invent me.

00:04:36You know, my dear children, these little boxes are very clever, but they do not understand

00:04:42everything. They understand numbers and facts, but they do not understand the magic. They do not understand

00:04:49the tingling in your stomach when you wake up on Christmas morning. They do not understand the joy in

00:04:55your parents' eyes when they watch you unpack your gifts. And they surely do not understand

00:05:01how a fat old man in a red suit can do it all in one night,

00:05:07can travel around the world to bring a gift to every good child. The truth is,

00:05:13the belief in Santa Claus is more than just a story. It is the belief

00:05:18in goodness, in the joy of giving, and in the magic of Christmas time. And as long as

00:05:25you believe in it, as long as you carry this warm feeling in your hearts, I will

00:05:31set out every year again with my sleigh from the North Pole. So, if that inspires you,

00:05:36next time one of those little, all-knowing boxes wants to tell you something sad

00:05:40makes you sad, then think of the words of the old Santa Claus. The greatest magic is

00:05:46the kind that can't be explained with numbers and facts, you just have to feel it.

00:05:51In this spirit, ho, ho, ho, and see you soon.

00:05:54So, what do we learn from this?

00:05:56Not everything that sounds clever understands what magic means.

00:06:01Jens, how are you actually?

00:06:02I'm doing well, so yes, in this pre-Christmas time and after this episode, to be honest.

00:06:09We also have to briefly say, we don't know if we'll manage another

00:06:12episode this year. I'll do it like this, between the farewell. It has already been

00:06:18fun this year. We started our little podcast this year and are

00:06:25doing quite well. Above all, it's fun to be on this journey with you,

00:06:33each time to record a new episode. And if you still need someone to listen, then it's

00:06:37that's a nice addition too, but mainly it's about both of us

00:06:42exchanging our thoughts and that maybe one or the other can take something from this exchange.

00:06:46And I think we did that quite nicely. And that's our gift to each other

00:06:53and to you out there.

00:06:58I need to think while you say that. That's true. I think since the podcast

00:07:02I've definitely pushed the count, number, and duration of conversations with Jens to a

00:07:07new all-time high, because even though we've met a few times in a professional context,

00:07:11the verbal exchange, I think, over all of my years of professional experience wasn't as long as it

00:07:16is now thanks to the

00:07:21regular podcast sessions from this side. Thanks Mark!

00:07:26So, very nice, now that everyone is probably thinking, look at these two

00:07:29complimenting each other, it's nice. Do you have another

00:07:33Yes, and the second story is about the soulless sleigh ride.

00:07:38It's a bit about nothing scary, right?

00:07:42Well, I don't think it's that scary, no.

00:07:44No, but it's a bit about how images can be generated very perfectly,

00:07:55and they can sometimes appear cold.

00:07:58And you might realize, and we just noticed that,

00:08:02what you actually need for Christmas.

00:08:05The soulless sleigh ride.

00:08:07Hohoho, my dears!

00:08:09Come closer, the fire is crackling so nicely.

00:08:12Santa has another story for you.

00:08:15One that really made me think this year.

00:08:18One evening, when I was taking a little test round

00:08:21over the snowy forests

00:08:23to see if Rudolf's nose was bright enough,

00:08:26I saw something flickering down in the human world on a giant screen.

00:08:31It was an ad from my old friend Coca-Cola. Normally, I'm always very happy

00:08:37about their Christmas films. They often show my beautiful red trucks driving through the

00:08:42winter landscape, bringing joy. It always reminds me of my own work.

00:08:48But this time, something was different. I rubbed my eyes and asked Rudolf to fly a little lower.

00:08:55The trucks were there, yes, but the animals watching them looked so strange.

00:09:03There were polar bears with vacant eyes and penguins that moved jerkily,

00:09:10as if they had a twitch. Everything looked so cold and soulless.

00:09:17A little elf accompanying me whispered to me. Santa, that was

00:09:25made with those AI boxes. Ah, those clever little boxes again. They had

00:09:30learned to paint pictures. But they hadn't learned to give them a heart. The

00:09:36magic was missing. It was like baking a gingerbread man but forgetting to add the

00:09:42sugar and the love. It may look like a gingerbread man, but

00:09:48it doesn't taste like Christmas. The people on the internet seemed to feel the same

00:09:51way. They called the ad creepy and said they missed the warmth and

00:09:57the nostalgia. I had to agree. They even joked that this was the best ad

00:10:05for Pepsi, my other soda friend. That really made me laugh.

00:10:12But you know what pleased me the most? Another big company, the German

00:10:17Telekom, looked at all this and said, no, not with us. They made a beautiful

00:10:24story about a mother and daughter who reconcile after a fight.

00:10:29Completely without AI, but with a lot of heart. They understood what Christmas is really about,

00:10:36human connection, forgiveness, and reaching out to one another. This story has

00:10:42shown me that people, despite all the new, exciting technologies, still know,

00:10:48what really matters. The magic of Christmas does not come from a box, no matter how smart it is.

00:10:54It comes from our hearts. And that, my dear friends, is a truth that will never age

00:11:01. Ho, ho, ho! But enough of that, I need to see if the reindeer have had their dinner

00:11:09yet. Yes, and, Mark, I'll say, if there's not a bit of soul, heart involved,

00:11:17then it’s just like that, sometimes it is a bit superficial. And I don't believe in it.

00:11:23only Christmas, but especially Christmas, it can be a bit more than just

00:11:26superficialities and consequently there has to be some heart in it,

00:11:32even with AI topics, otherwise it will all just become a uniform freebie. You can see that

00:11:39too. I mean, we're here talking in this podcast. We're not just

00:11:44listing facts, facts, facts, facts. Simply recounting

00:11:50numbers, data, facts, technical workplaces, cold reading of LinkedIn posts. Shout out

00:11:58to the followers on LinkedIn who sometimes think that there's a lot coming from around the

00:12:02corner. We're talking about this as well, and I've said it before, I find it

00:12:06really pleasant that, from the conversation, things come up that were not

00:12:11written down in any script beforehand, as in, if you say this,

00:12:16I'll say that and let's build the tension this way. People surely believe us that

00:12:20we are talking here very unscripted, but not without content. From that side, also

00:12:26here, I would say, the core of our narratives, our derivations, our episodes emerges

00:12:34actually while we are recording the episodes and while we discuss the topics,

00:12:41often in agreement, but not always in agreement. Yes, I just want to add to that,

00:12:45because of course, as I said, I think it is a bit because I have

00:12:50received the question a few times in the last weeks about what our preparation time

00:12:54looks like when we make the episodes. I believe this coming together and

00:13:02as you just said, discussing also differing opinions, often we

00:13:07are of the same opinion and share the same fascination, this emotional fascination

00:13:12surrounding the topic of AI, is more like a peak of the things that press on us

00:13:19because we both do make an effort to understand this topic both professionally and

00:13:24personally for ourselves,

00:13:29and therefore we read quite a lot, watch quite a few things

00:13:33around it, because we just have to do that.

00:13:34And then, it is actually so that all of this is basically a part of this

00:13:41preparatory work that goes into Simpatgas, where we then say,

00:13:46okay, we also process positive, negative emotions and

00:13:51but also facts that we have around the topic or try to indeed

00:13:55clear up things that might not be correct or perhaps are not yet

00:13:59widely perceived by others. Currently, I'm looking in for a minute, there is a theme,

00:14:08that goes around, that from the big consulting phase and so on, this topic, the pilot phase

00:14:14of AI is finally over. The pilot phase is over and now everything must somehow

00:14:18be monetized. That is already happening. But I find this topic is again so,

00:14:23they try to make something smaller than it actually is. So it's a topic,

00:14:30that will still occupy us massively. It's not like, if you now have a AI chat-bot

00:14:36connected somewhere and it's productive, then that's not the end of the line.

00:14:40Then you've done something in this small area, but that's also nothing

00:14:43earth-shattering or anything else. There are so many topics, and we've talked about

00:14:48many of them in previous episodes, that will change so much on

00:14:51a bio-level, where AI will come into play when I think of agency issues.

00:14:58The testing phase, the initiation phase is still there. We are still in the phase,

00:15:07where we first have to understand what actually lies ahead of us. And accordingly, I'm

00:15:12quite optimistic that we will have a lot to talk about and discover next year as well.

00:15:15and to discover.

00:15:18I'll get back to that, but first let's hear a story.

00:15:22The perspective now is that the smart boxes do not disturb, but rather help.

00:15:29Very practical and very usable in everyday life. My little helpers in the boxes. Ho ho ho, are you still there?

00:15:36Good good, because I have another story that shows that these little smart boxes

00:15:42don't just have nonsense in their heads. You must know, the time before Christmas is not just very busy for me

00:15:47and my elves at the North Pole. It is also a hectic time for people all over the world.

00:15:52They have to buy gifts, plan trips to their loved ones, and

00:15:59prepare large festive meals. Phew, that can be quite overwhelming. In the past, I often

00:16:05worried that people would lose the joy of the Christmas season due to all the stress.

00:16:09But this year, in 2025, I had a few new, invisible helpers.

00:16:17Artificial intelligence.

00:16:18Let me tell you, I observed how a busy mother named Lexi was

00:16:23worried about how to plan a nice holiday for her family.

00:16:27She sat down at her computer, spoke with one of these AI boxes, and hohoho, the

00:16:35box gave her a wonderful tip.

00:16:37It advised her to fly exactly on Christmas to save a lot of money.

00:16:42A brilliant idea.

00:16:45This way, the family had more money left for gifts and treats, and that

00:16:50wasn't all. My new digital helpers were everywhere.

00:16:54They helped people find the best deals on toys so that

00:16:59they could buy more gifts for their children. They helped them find recipes for

00:17:05the most delicious Christmas cookies, although of course none are as

00:17:09good as my wife's secret recipe. They

00:17:14even helped plan the most complicated travel arrangements so that grandparents could

00:17:19embrace their grandchildren.

00:17:22Especially the young people, the Generation Z, as they're called, were really excited

00:17:28about my new helpers.

00:17:30Nearly three out of four of them used AI for everything, from finding the perfect

00:17:36gift to purchasing it.

00:17:39It was as if each of them had a personal little elf in their phone helping them

00:17:45with Christmas shopping.

00:17:47I sat on my big chair, looked at my magic snow globe, and smiled.

00:17:51It was wonderful to see, because when people have less stress, they have

00:17:57more time for what really matters.

00:18:00Spending time with their families, singing Christmas carols, and enjoying the magical atmosphere

00:18:06.

00:18:07These little boxes may not have a heart, but they can help people have more

00:18:11time for the things that come from the heart.

00:18:14And that, my dear friends, is a Christmas gift that even old Santa Claus would appreciate.

00:18:21Ho, ho, ho, a very useful invention indeed.

00:18:25Technology that reduces stress.

00:18:27Yes, okay, time for being together, but time for being together.

00:18:30And the perspective you brought before the story reminds me of a conversation.

00:18:35let's not mention companies or names at this point. I just know that there was a

00:18:39conversation in a personal private setting, and I had the exchange with someone

00:18:44thinking about the topic, what role does an AI consultant play in the company. And the answer

00:18:49was none. And one must know that, it doesn't really matter in which area you're working

00:18:57but also IT departments, also with digitalization, large projects, and so on. And then the

00:19:03answer was none and at most like, yeah, don’t you have anything at all? Yeah, well, we do have

00:19:07Kuppelut. And then you stand there and first think, well, okay, this journey, this

00:19:13pilgrimage I’m taking, well, we’re all taking, right? How does it all start, like a

00:19:17little chat interface here, chat interface there and then suddenly we come up with entirely different

00:19:21solutions, systems, and things over time. And I thought to myself,

00:19:25this really kind of pushed me out of my bubble, that a large IT department,

00:19:30the answer is, yeah, no, it isn’t. Well, you could see the

00:19:35dismay on my face, and that was immediately pushed back, maybe somewhere in the

00:19:39IT already, where I thought, well, if anywhere in IT, then one would have

00:19:43probably noticed something. From that perspective, I’m curious about what’s now

00:19:48happening independently of what various companies are doing with AI penetration.

00:19:52Of course, I’m excited about what next year will bring us, because if you think back

00:19:58for a moment, it wasn’t that long ago. We all thought Google was going down

00:20:03because OpenAI-ChatGPT was released, and suddenly you could also search with it.

00:20:08We remember the time with Bing and Bing integration and everyone has sung the swan song for Google.

00:20:12told behind closed doors. And if you take a look today at the ad tab, it calls

00:20:17OpenAI Code Red is out because Gemini, that is Google's offerings,

00:20:25video, image, text, whatever, are completely outpacing us and I also have to consider that

00:20:33the financial investment that one has to make for OpenAI, that is the case with Google, I

00:20:39I'll say it, polemical quarterly results and Google still has its own hardware

00:20:42in the bag, I don't have to get any CPUs from Nvidia through whatever deals

00:20:47they make. From that side, yes, it will be interesting to see how the world will certainly

00:20:55continue to change slowly. And let's see if there is peace between the years.

00:21:00I'm also curious, it's not so clear.

00:21:02I don't know if it will be exactly like us, in the new year also addressing

00:21:05other topics. I would just hint at that. There are things like

00:21:10what's called Latent Collaboration, new papers that have emerged, where

00:21:14basically in the Agendix system, it's not so much about having one AI walk as

00:21:19agents with another, but that apparently in models different

00:21:27roles can already occur. That means, even a single model can then in Latents-Face

00:21:32and we'll let the terms be explained to us in the new year to go deeper, so one

00:21:37It's possible to do this well without communication happening. There are these things,

00:21:43that could have been spontaneous roles and stuff, that internal negotiations take place in the

00:21:48models and so on. It's all super interesting and makes this black box topic, which we must not

00:21:54forget, all the more exciting, as a reflection model is still a thought-provoking topic and

00:22:01emphasizes what we just talked about. It's this theme on one side, yes,

00:22:06no question, can I already leave the pilot phase on a simpler level and create real

00:22:15productive things with the topic. On the other hand, we must not forget at the beginning

00:22:18and as I said, we'll address this in the new year, that the topic is still a bit

00:22:23magical regarding what happens at one point or another, and now don't roast me outside

00:22:27for the word magical, but it's actually true that some things are still not quite

00:22:32clear and do indeed surprise us. We are looking at and have

00:22:36hopefully we'll have talked about one or two Pepes this year already. We see

00:22:38time and again evidence that emergent behaviors are developing which

00:22:43were not originally thought of by us humans when we programmed

00:22:48or trained these things. And we can't explain them all, why they

00:22:53happen like that; we are currently researching them. And that's why this will be a

00:22:57remarkable year. But in normal software development, it's disastrous if you suddenly

00:23:03build a lot of things and then see, wow, it can do so much more if that happens.

00:23:08That's what makes it so exciting. Okay, but let's move on to the last story, because soon

00:23:15it's Christmas and people might want to quickly get more gifts tonight or

00:23:20maybe tomorrow morning. I hope you all have time off,

00:23:24but let's listen again to the story titled The Magical Elven Mirror.

00:23:31The story is about how technology doesn't necessarily have to separate, but can connect

00:23:38by supporting people in giving.

00:23:41The magical elf mirror, hohoho my friends, one last piece of firewood for the fire, a

00:23:50last story for this evening. And this one has warmed my old heart particularly.

00:23:56In all the fuss about the clever boxes that spill secrets and draw soulful pictures,

00:24:02there was a story that reminded me why I love my work so much.

00:24:08It's about giving from the heart and helping those who need it most.

00:24:15In the UK, there is a wonderful group of people called

00:24:20Action for Children. They are something like my helpers on earth and

00:24:27take care of children who are not doing so well throughout the year.

00:24:31Around Christmas time, they have a special idea that they call Secret Santa,

00:24:37just like I do. People can donate gifts there, like a

00:24:42warm meal or an outing, to bring joy to the children. This

00:24:47year they had a truly enchanting idea. They opened a little shop

00:24:52right in the middle of the city. But it was not an ordinary shop. In this shop,

00:24:58there was a magical mirror that they called 11.ai. Hohoho, an elf in

00:25:06a box. I had to take a closer look. When people looked into

00:25:12this mirror, it showed them images of the gifts they could donate.

00:25:17But here's where the magic comes in. The mirror could see in the faces of the people

00:25:24which gift touched their hearts the most. If someone smiled at the image of a warm dinner,

00:25:31the mirror suggested exactly that gift. If their eyes lit up at the thought of

00:25:38a trip to the theater, the mirror knew that this was the perfect gift.

00:25:44It was as if the mirror could look directly into people's hearts and see their deepest

00:25:49Recognizing the desire to help. He helped them not just to give any gift, but the

00:25:56gift that brought them the greatest joy. And do you know what? It worked.

00:26:02Almost everyone who looked into the magical mirror donated something afterward.

00:26:07They collected so much money, much more than expected, and could thus bring even more children

00:26:13a wonderful Christmas celebration.

00:26:15This story, my dear friends, is the true spirit of Christmas.

00:26:20It’s not about whether a machine is smart or not.

00:26:24It’s about how we use its gifts.

00:26:27These people didn’t use the new technology to reveal secrets or paint cold

00:26:34pictures. They used it to open people's hearts and do good.

00:26:40And when I saw this in my magical snow globe, I knew that the magic of Christmas

00:26:49is stronger than any invention. It always finds a way to reach the hearts of people.

00:26:56And that, my dears, is the most beautiful gift of all.

00:27:01Hohoho, sleep well now and dream of all the magic that surrounds us.

00:27:06Merry Christmas.

00:27:08I just mentioned magic.

00:27:11So if innovation greatly enhances green thinking, then this innovation, this technology

00:27:16might even become part of the Christmas magic itself.

00:27:19And I believe with the topic of Christmas magic, we now hand over to you, depending on

00:27:26whether you’re listening to the next Christmas market, gifts, shopping, preparing for work, or visiting

00:27:34family. As they say, a Christmas story returns home and sets up the

00:27:39IT of your family? Well, that’s another topic. Jens, I wish you a lovely,

00:27:45reflective time with your loved ones, or wherever you spend it. I want to say that

00:27:51to all our listeners too. If you find people in your family who have never heard of

00:27:57AI or would like to take the time to listen to two people like us,

00:28:02recommend the podcast to them, okay? You can give it freely without the Christmas tree

00:28:06as a little surprise, I think that’s totally great. Maybe Jens, maybe we should create

00:28:11a little QR code so that people can print it. Or something that they can use

00:28:15Exactly, you can hear 10 podcasts and what else from us, that you can give away.

00:28:20That’s awesome, right?

00:28:22Yes, just for our loyal listeners, that’s so cool.

00:28:26But they have to belong together consecutively.

00:28:28Then you have the 11th.

00:28:29And if you’ve listened through 10 in one week?

00:28:32I must be crazy, there’s still an 11th.

00:28:35Holy moly, holy moly, wow.

00:28:39But with that, we would then say, we currently hand over to you,

00:28:42Until then, bye-bye, bye-bye, bye-bye.

00:29:15and especially for joining in.