Howdy 👋🏾 This weekend, the Super Bowl takes center stage as the Kansas City Chiefs and Philidelphia Eagles battle it out. As a New Orleans Saints fan, I can’t say I have a favorite, but I do have my eye on two winners:

• The City of New Orleans, which will be on full display right in the middle of Mardi Gras. It’s hard to beat football, parades, and a city that knows how to throw a party.
• The AI Advertising Bowl, where brands will continue to weave AI into their identities, flooding this year’s Super Bowl ad slots with tech-driven narratives. (See what’s coming.) Let’s hope companies like Google get it right this time—and avoid a repeat of last summer’s AI-generated Olympic flubs.

Enjoy the game, and as we say in New Orleans, laissez les bons temps rouler 🪅!
-jason

Maps Are Much More Than a Pretty Picture

Maps aren’t just tools they’re reflections of politics, culture, and history. The recent executive order to rename the Gulf of Mexico and reinstate Mount McKinley has sparked debates about how maps define the world around us.

Maps have become so ingrained in what we do and so easily accessible that it’s easy to forget these changes also have a tech side. An executive order like this ripples across the platforms we rely on daily, from Google Maps to Apple Maps, as companies update their systems to reflect shifting geopolitical and cultural landscapes. In the digital age, maps aren’t just about geography—they’re dynamic stories, constantly rewritten to mirror our world.

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SMS2025 Keynote: The AI Evolution

Last week, I delivered the keynote for SMS 2025 in Kinston, NC. Speaking to a packed house at Lenoir Community College was an incredible experience, and the audience’s energy made it all the more rewarding.

Big thanks to Magic Mile Media for hosting me and for the opportunity to connect with such an engaged group! Bonus: I got to stay at the beautifully restored retro Mother Earth Motor Lodge in Downtown Kinston. Check out the talk and let me know your thoughts!

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🔗 The Best in Tech This Week 

🧠 OpenAI Considers Chain of Thought Transparency
In a recent AMA, Sam Altman and the OpenAI team shared some introspective takes, including whether OpenAI has been on the wrong side of history regarding open source. One of the biggest reveals? OpenAI may integrate DeepSeek’s chain of thought process—a method that shows how AI arrives at its answers, providing a peek behind the curtain OpenAI has kept closed until now.

🤖 The Race for “Thinking” AI Heats Up
The battle to build better reasoning models is on! Google just launched Gemini 2, OpenAI rolled out 03-mini, and Hugging Face researchers are racing to create an open alternative to DeepSeek’s groundbreaking approach. For consumers, this means better, more capable “thinking” models from every direction—making AI more powerful and intuitive than ever.

Pebble is Back with Open Source Ambitions
In a surprising move, the Pebble smartwatch is making a comeback, now under Google’s ownership with an open-source twist and hardware promises. While I love my Apple Watch, Pebble’s return could inject much-needed creativity into a market currently dominated by Google/Samsung and Apple.

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🎤 The AI Roadshow: Workshops, Talks & Beyond

February 6, 2025 – World Trade Center Institue Bowe-Fest

February 13, 2025 – MTC Technology Transformation Conference

February 18, 2025 – MD Student Venture Showcase

February 19, 2025 – AGILE: Empowering Global Disaster Response with Tech

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🛠️ My Toolbox: Podcasts, Pages, and Pixels

🤖 Elvex: For deploying AI bots
Helping companies deploy AI-powered bots to interact with their clients, Elvex bridges the gap between businesses and conversational AI. A practical tool for automating customer interactions.

🗣️ ElevenLabs: For conversational AI
A cutting-edge tool for generating realistic AI voices. It’s ideal for creating natural-sounding voiceovers, audiobooks, or virtual assistant interactions.

🎥 Runway ML: For making videos
A go-to tool for creating AI-generated videos, adding special effects, and editing with ease. A must-try for creative video projects or experimenting with generative media.

P.S. Before You Go…

Printing domains on physical products or documents continues to be a risky—and sometimes costly—affair. The Swiss tax authority recently found themselves in a bind, forced to purchase a domain in the Bahamas after a URL typo sent people to the wrong place. At least it wasn’t like that unfortunate toy packaging mistake that sent parents looking for dolls to an adult site…