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Dan Taylor-Watt
Digital Consultant - Media & AI
Dan Taylor-Watt is a digital consultant specializing in media and artificial intelligence.12 He helps organizations understand and navigate the complexities of AI, including its functionality, applications, implications, and how to effectively respond to this emerging technology.1
Professional Background
With over 20 years of experience at the BBC, Dan Taylor-Watt played a crucial role in developing some of the UK's most successful digital products.24 He served as the Director of Product for BBC iPlayer and BBC Sounds, two highly popular digital platforms.45
Current Work
As a digital consultant, Dan Taylor-Watt now focuses on:
- Assisting companies in realizing the potential of digital technologies2
- Helping organizations avoid pitfalls associated with digital transformation2
- Providing guidance on digital product strategy and execution3
- Writing and illustrating content related to digital products6
Expertise
Dan's areas of expertise include:
- Digital product development and strategy
- Media and broadcasting technology
- Artificial intelligence applications and implications
- Audio and video streaming platforms
Online Presence
Dan Taylor-Watt maintains an active online presence:
- His personal website: dantaylorwatt.com1
- LinkedIn profile: dan-taylor-watt2
- Twitter handle: @DanTaylorWatt6
Through his consulting work, Dan Taylor-Watt continues to share his extensive experience in digital media and technology, helping organizations navigate the rapidly evolving landscape of AI and digital products.
Highlights
I prompted 12 AI video generators with the same deliberately open-ended prompt: 'Great leader at public gathering, golden hour, arc shot'. Below are the resulting videos.
Full analysis on my blog (link in comments).
Whilst speculation swirls around OpenAI’s next funding round, with Apple and NVIDIA both rumoured to be participating at a valuation of $100bn 😳, I thought I’d pull together a snapshot of some of big tech’s recent investments in AI companies.
Apple is absent as it’s tended to favour acquiring AI companies over investing in them (e.g. AI Music, DarwinAI, Datakalab, WaveOne) as is Meta, which has been overwhelmingly focussed on internal/open-source development in the AI space.
Notable:
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The magnitude of Microsoft’s $13bn investment in OpenAI (it’s not easy to conceptualise how much more a billion is than a million. Here one way: a million seconds is around 11 days, a billion seconds is over 31 years).
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Amazon and Google both investing big in Anthropic (maker of ChatGPT-rival Claude) to avoid Microsoft & OpenAI running away with things (Amazon is reportedly now planning to use Claude to power a new and improved Alexa)
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Microsoft hedging its huge OpenAI bet slightly with a $650m licensing deal with Inflection AI (maker of personal chatbot Pi).
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How small beer the investments are relative to the investing companies’ market valuations (Microsoft’s $13bn investment in OpenAI represents just 0.4% of its market cap).
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The recent trend in reverse acquihires/licensing deals instead of traditional investments/acquisitions (Amazon’s just done another with warehouse robotics firm Covariant), although these deals are starting to get more regulatory scrutiny
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NVIDIA’s vested interest in lots of boats rising leading to a diffuse investment strategy (more successful AI start-ups = more demand for AI chips). Competitors shared interest in backing enabling platforms (e.g. Databricks and Hugging Face).
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B2B being a good operating model in AI right now (note Databricks’ $43bn market valuation and NVIDIA’s gravity-defying $2.6tn)
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Hugging Face’s excellent name and logo 🤗
