Shelly Palmer - PowerPoint is a Privilege, Not a Right

Greetings from NYC. It's Prime Day, Amazon's biannual salesathon, where everyone is strongly encouraged to buy things they don't need with money they don't have. I am truly in awe of the hype (but I got a great deal on USB-A to C cables this morning and an awesome box of piano-shaped paper clips).

In the news: Google has introduced Google Vids, an AI-powered video creation tool for Google Workspace Labs. It's not available for normal people yet, and there's no general release date set. Why am I telling you about a vaporware product that will certainly go through a zillion iterations before it sees the light of day? Because it looks to me like the next step in PowerPoint's evolution.

The video suggests, "If you can make a deck, you can make a video." That's Google's pitch. Vids is basically a drag-and-drop AI-assisted editing tool purpose built to help you find and insert stock audio and video into a deck.

Two things: first, "PowerPoint is a privilege, not a right." All creators of presentation decks, regardless of software, should be trained and licensed. I'm pretty sure you should have to pass a test to get a PowerPoint permit. Second, "PowerPoint is for public speaking, not public reading!" If you're going to read me the deck, just send me an email.

OK, with this off my chest, I absolutely hate the idea of putting this tool in the hands of unlicensed deck makers. The results will be interminable, over-produced, templated fodder. May the PowerPoint Gods have mercy on our souls.

As always your thoughts and comments are both welcome and encouraged. -s

P.S. I received a bunch of emails yesterday about our AI hacker weekends. Yes, hackathons are still a thing (bigger than ever, actually). Yes, we do them almost every weekend in SF, NY, and in various European tech hubs. If you need an MVP or POC for an AI project, just reply to this email.