Everyone knows AI will give you superhuman powers. Mike Koenigs wants it to do much more.
He wants to make sure it also makes you more humane – by taking away the repetitive, “inhumane” labor that AI does better, faster and without getting bored.
“The tech keeps on moving and moving. It feels like you’ve got a rug-pull under you all the time, every week, because there's some huge, new, significant platform that totally rearranges the way I think about the creative process as well as the business process. It’s scary wild.”
Mike has been a leader in the world of online marketing for over two decades. He always seems to be one step ahead of the pack in testing out and making new tech tools practical to serve entrepreneurs.
“What I have been thinking a lot about these last couple of years is how do you make AI a true collaborative partner that produces consistent results, that makes you a better presenter, allows you to consistently innovate, augment a team, and allow all the team members to be more human, doing the things only people can do and do best – like having relationships and collaborating.”
He put his suite of AI innovations to use recently on an audience of 7000 teens who intend to become doctors.
“High school kids scare the hell out of me. They can be really mean,” he says. So he put his mind to work: how could he both engage them AND demonstrate at the same time how he used AI to engage them?
“I had to figure out how can I be the most relatable 58 year old imaginable. What I did in my presentation was to show them how you could quickly give yourself superhuman capabilities without cheating so they could get into any college, get any job, and change the world. So I used AI, and my presentation deconstructed exactly how I presented, and made the presentation for them, and how they could do it too.
THE BIG DAY ARRIVES
In his recent METAL talk, Mike demonstrated his process, which he points out is completely reusable for all members to now “gain superpowers, improvise, connect with more people, present more effectively, and make amazing creative stuff that you might not have the capabilities to do on your own.”
Again, his task was to make a presentation on how AI could help this group of “scary” teens get ahead in life – without seeming like a boring old guy or out of touch.
Step #1: Prompt It!
The first thing he did was interview the organizer of the event to figure out exactly who his audience was, what their mindset was, and what would be most helpful for them.
“I then made a prompt that said, ‘integrate all the best ideas and concepts from these notes, and write a one minute script that is exciting and engaging for an audience of smart, 15-to-18-year-old nerds who want to get into the best college, get a great job in the medical field, and create massive impact.’”
Step #2: A Team of Geniuses
What if you could have six geniuses sitting by your side, helping you create content? That is how Mike describes his secret weapon, a platform called Chathub.gg.
“There are a couple of other ones that are similar, but Chathub allows you to run six AI’s at once. So instead of putting one prompt into one tool, I put the same prompt into Chathub. This tool lets you copy, paste, hit return, and see six results at once. I'd say this is one of my favorite hacks. Right now, I run this all the time on everything, because I'd rather talk to six geniuses than just one.”
A favorite of his among the six is Perplexity. “Perplexity is to me like the Google of GPS; it’s a completely different engine. What it does better is research, gather data, provide citations and – key here – is least likely to hallucinate.”
Step #3: But First, Say it in Song!
Unlike many speakers who just open their mouths and start spouting, Mike opened with a completely AI-generated song about “Nerds and Geeks” changing the world and played it for the audience – a beautiful Swiftian-style ballad.
But then…
He hit a button and showed how AI turned those same lyrics into a pounding rap.
He asked them to choose which they liked best.
Music warmed them up, opened them up… and made Mike look cool. Which of course, got them to listen to him more closely.
Step #4: Insta-Videos on the Fly
Mike also demonstrated for the 7000 scary teens how they could create short “promo” videos that explain who they are and what they are looking to accomplish.
“I use Invideo.ai, which is astonishing. I plug in the information I want to communicate, and it (1), writes the script, (2), finds royalty free music and (3) video, then (4), creates the voice and (5), licenses the music and video. After it generates a complete video for me, if you don't like it, (6), you can edit it with text. You simply say ‘I want you to remove this and this and this, or change the voice to a different style, or use different music,’ and voila – it’s done. This would cost me thousands of dollars and untold man-hours if I didn’t use AI.”
Mike adds that Runway.ml also provides similar video-generating services.
Step #5: Any Language, Any Time
Next, he wowed the audience by running his own talking-head video through HeyGen, which translated it into multiple languages in real time.
Step #6: PowerPoint Never Dies
Finally, he showed them how to take that video and how to run it through a platform called Gamma.app, which turns it into a PowerPoint-style presentation – all on autopilot, and editable throughout.
AND THE CROWD WENT CRAZY…
Teens are hard to impress.
Even if they did not rush the stage and tear at his clothes for a souvenir, they did mob him after his presentation, asking him a thousand questions… and for his autograph.
Cool dad quest completed.
In less than an hour, he showed them that they could “change the world with AI as a tool, rather than becoming, as so many people fear, AI’s tool.”
And he reminded them that while innovating with AI is fun, the real prize is freeing yourself up to be more human, to get into rooms with each other, make live music, improvise, collaborate, and relate.
A little old-fashioned?
Maybe.
But with AI giving us freedom from drudgery, everything old becomes new again.
Written by Adam Gilad
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