What if... that was the week that was. Edition #122
Another week in The Speculation Studio
One way to think critically about a fast changing industry, is to speculate: to imagine a little way into the future and see what might happen. To manage and empower that speculation you can set a constraint - in my case, exactly 100 words. In each flash fiction I take the philosophy behind my PhD and take a number of objects or actants and make them interact. This could be a human and a software algorithm, a culture and a hardware billboard or any combination of the myriad of actors in play. Daily speculation: creative calisthenics for an overloaded time.
AWS is spending $50B build AI infrastructure for the US government
November 25, 2025
https://techcrunch.com/2025/11/24/aws-is-spending-50b-build-ai-infrastructure-for-the-us-government/
It was outside town but in many ways it defined the community. An anonymous, Kubrickesque giant slab. It was eerily smooth; no seams, no windows, seemingly no doors. There were no security guards patrolling the site but the message was clear: no trespassers. There were few jobs for the locals in the site itself. Some money came from visitors who drove through the town to the site. Some tourists who came to stare, try and take photographs before the drones spotted them. It was separate but how the town was now known. Its name was synonymous with “vital national infrastructure”.
Creating the right pitch environment for your teams
November 26, 2025
https://uk.themedialeader.com/creating-the-right-pitch-environment-for-your-teams/
The pitch team was human. They’d tried a hybrid team. On a virtual pitch they’d even tried a fully Agent presentation, but the data showed even Agents responded better to human presenters. Of course that didn’t mean there were no Agents involved. They ran their models, prepared the decks, designed the clients’ visit, ran the preparation sessions and “coached” the team before the pitch. And of course they were there to “support” the team. As she smiled and welcomed the client, her glasses showed the latest “background”: the latest from the building’s sensors. She watched the itinerary and script change.
JustiGuide wants to use AI to help people navigate the US immigration system
November 27, 2025
https://techcrunch.com/2025/11/26/justiguide-wants-to-use-ai-to-help-people-navigate-the-u-s-immigration-system/
They were searched when they landed. It didn’t take long. The people smugglers had demanded they leave most of their belongings on the beach. Bags took up paying spaces. They were too tired and scared to argue. They were met when they landed, although “met” sounds welcoming: they weren’t welcomed. They were rounded up and transported to the centre where their biometrics were used to start their file and they were searched. Some had paid the people smugglers extra for one. They probably wouldn’t work. Some had better ones, ready to act as their lawyer, their guide. They were confiscated.
OOH ad revenue growth outstrips DOOH in Q3
November 28, 2025
https://uk.themedialeader.com/ooh-ad-revenue-grows-in-q3
Children would occasionally just stand and stare, looking puzzled at the giant picture, reading and re-reading the joke. They’d try and get closer, let it fill their peripheral vision. It didn’t last long of course. They’d soon shake their head and turn away with their screens and headsets. Sitting in their driverlesses, their parents would glance (if the windows were set to clear); a subliminal image loaded into a glimpse . As the sun went down and the lights came on, its stillness and silence somehow seemed to deepen. Even when the latest round of powercuts hit. It just sat there.
Citizens of Smart Cities Need a Way to Opt Out
November 29, 2025
https://spectrum.ieee.org/smart-city-personal-data-collection
She was a shadow. She was a flâneur. She wandered; ever so quiet. She didn’t hide. The cameras and sensors fought running battles with the refusers: better cameras, algorithms, more sensors. She just wandered. The refusers joined the arms race, improving their silence suits or broadcasting more fog data. She didn’t wear anything special or look down. She didn’t hide her data trail. She just wandered. The city knew her, watched her, heard her, sensed her. But the city couldn’t make sense of her. The data trails, the traces made no sense. She didn’t fit the models. She was useless.
Leave me alone, AI
November 30, 2025
https://www.ft.com/content/1e93adc5-4186-4775-a289-d684865da2ce
It was his alone time. He left the office with its incessant data flows and generative models, its hum of Agents “helping”. He couldn’t leave his Agent behind of course, he had work to do when he got home but maybe just for a few minutes. He found he could use the security settings to lock his Agent when it wasn’t in the building or his home so he could walk to the Tube in silence. The station and the train would break the moment, he knew. His data would prompt the noise, but for now, just a few moments.
The AI skills employers want — and what business schools teach
December 1, 2025
https://www.ft.com/content/68abc2d4-5f13-43f2-a62d-a811da483bd4
They weren’t just given an Agent. They even had classes where they didn’t use one. The sponsors weren’t happy! The University wasn’t an institutional refuser or one of the remaining few fighting an arms race. No, The University trained its students to use Agents, to have “partners”, it demanded students use the sponsors’ technology: researching, modelling, creating. But the students were expected to push their Agent: “break it”, play with it, hack it until it was weirder, wilder, stranger. The University turned Agents back into tools. Partners were not just “smart interns”, they were creative partners. The sponsors weren’t sure.