Artificial Intelligence: Boon or Threat?

Douglas Caldwell, editor of the Central Valley Business Times, interviews William Ammerman about his new book, The Invisible Brand: Marketing in the Age of Automation, Big Data, and Machine Learning (McGraw-Hill, 2019).

Back in 1957, the journalist Vance Packard published his book called “The Hidden Persuaders,” revealing how advertisers used consumer motivational research and other psychological techniques, including subliminal tactics, to manipulate expectations and persuade Americans to buy certain products.  Over 60 years later, artificial intelligence is hard at work, changing us. Sophisticated AI algorithms can scrape, log, and cross-reference who you are and how to best exploit your emotional hot buttons in fractions of a second.

Listen to the podcast here.

Learn more about William Ammerman here.

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