Can AI threaten human rights?: Friday’s Daily Brief

Good morning, Marketers, MarTech is still buzzing.

Our conference has officially concluded, but everybody is still catching up on what they missed. For me, I still can’t wait to see what a brand like Michael Kors is doing to navigate a cookieless future.

There is also Ray Valencia, Director of Digital Customer Experience at Cinemark, talking about strategies in the pandemic-present. The perspective from a Big Three movie chain is immensely valuable and relevant to MarTech, as we continue to assess the conference experience that our visitors value. Amid the busy schedule, I saw trusted sources I’ve interviewed for stories, and also was introduced to commanding new voices in the space.

Join us in the virtual realm to continue your on-demand MarTech journey, or to relive highlights from the past week. Register free and tap into MarTech here.

Chris Wood,

Editor

Getting to DAM 3.0

“The DAM universe is now segmented into three distinct categories that we label DAM 1.0, 2.0, and 3.0,” writes Jarrod Gingras of the Real Story Group. “In nearly every case, DAM buyers find themselves with a desire to advance their enterprises along this phased maturity spectrum. And for better or worse, DAM platforms in the marketplace tend to cater to buyers in one of these phases.”

In his latest contribution to MarTech, Jarrod shows how DAM can evolve from just a basic asset library to a solution that supports marketing activities, to an omnichannel content platform enabling sophisticated mixed-media content.

“Every enterprise lives within one stage of this DAM maturity spectrum, but no one has reached their final destination. Even the most sophisticated enterprises are constantly trying to improve the way they can provide experience creators with the most impactful content.”

Read more here.

2021 Stackies: How the winners design their stacks  

“When we say the winners, what really makes a winning stack is, does it actually deliver results for your company?” said Scott Brinker, program chair for MarTech, when presenting the winners of the 2021 Stackie Awards this week. “There’s no external judging for that.”

True. But as a judge, Brinker is uniquely qualified in the marketing technology field. He’s Editor of chiefmartec.com and serves as VP Platform Ecosystem for HubSpot. Of 29 entries in this year’s awards, just five were given the distinction as top stacks: Juniper Networks, Philips, Itau, Betway and SAS.

As in previous years, entrants submitted a PowerPoint slide mapping out their marketing tech stack, showing the ways each component works with the others. This year, MarTech donated $100 to nonprofit COOP Careers for each stack that was submitted.

At the end of Day 1 of this year’s MarTech conference, Brinker had a chance to discuss the stacks with some of the winners and offered insights into what it was about their design that got these stacks to rise to the top.

Read more here

UN says we should cool it on AI that could potentially affect human rights

“The United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights Michelle Bachelet on Wednesday called for a moratorium on the sale and use of artificial intelligence (AI) systems that threaten human rights until adequate safeguards are in place to ensure the technology will not be abused,” according to Al Jazeera.

The AI in question refers to those that affect “who gets public services and decide who has a chance to be recruited for a job” with the idea that data collection isn’t totally private and can risk discrimination against those online.

But there could be even wider implications for search engines and search marketers if the moratorium were to actually take effect. Bachelet released a report detailing “the risks of AI technologies, and emphasising that while AI can serve as a force for good, it can also cause catastrophic effects if used irresponsibly.”

“The complexity of the data environment, algorithms and models underlying the development and operation of AI systems, as well as intentional secrecy of government and private actors are factors undermining meaningful ways for the public to understand the effects of AI systems on human rights and society,” said the report.

Yes, AI does help search marketers, but Google’s unfettered and undisclosed use of it could potentially be contributing to this discrimination. We’ve seen it before when Google Ads settings allowed advertisers to discriminate against people multiple times.

Will a moratorium actually take effect? Probably not. AI is so engrained in our technology now. But we could benefit from more transparency around how big tech is using it.

Hat tip to Doug Thomas for the heads up on this news.

Quote of the day

“Realistically you only have 18 months of data. Why? Because up until March 2020, that was a different world. We are living in a world since that time that is radically different, structurally different, customers behaving differently, B2B, B2C, it doesn’t matter. Everybody has been changed by the events of the last 18 months.” Christopher Penn, Chief Data Scientist for TrustInsights.ai