Strands of Genius: AI Eating Its Own Homework = Model Collapse = Blurry Grey Future, Creativity Is Waiting to Erupt, Keeping Creative People in the Creative Equation
Guest curated by Pip Bingemann, Co-founder Springboards
This edition of Strands of Genius is guest curated by Pip Bingemann, Cofounder Springboards. (Faris and Rosie will be back next week!)
:: A BIT MORE ABOUT GUEST CURATOR, PIP BINGEMANN:
LOCATION: Queensland, Australia
Hello. My name is Pip. An ex-strategy nerd that spent time in media agencies, creative agencies and heading up brand marketing teams in Sydney and San Francisco and then ended up accidentally creating springboards.ai with my wife Amy and a team of super talented people across Europe, USA and Australia.
We like to say that we are a 'self-loathing' AI tool because we are trying to break AI to give people INSPIRATION instead of ANSWERS.
Excited to share a few research papers, points of view about AI, the dangers of it and why we believe we need to design these systems around great creative people and use them as an exploration tool not an 'easy button' tool.
Rosie & Faris: It’s always lovely to meet another husband and wife team that are up to cool shit. Pip and Amy are smart, lovely, enthusiastic and genuinely care about making AI that helps people in agencies rather than replaces them. We like that idea. When we got a sneak peak of Springboards, we were so excited. We closed the Zoom and we were like “THE FUTURE IS NOW!” We are delighted to partner with them as a (very small lol) strategic investor and will be singing their praises as loudly as we can.
:: GENIUS STEALS + SPRINGBOARDS.AI WEBINAR ::
For those of you curious about what Springboards is about, join us on April 1st (and no, this is not an April Fools prank!) at 1p PT / 4p ET. We’re going to talk to Pip about how AI can be a tool for inspiration, and share a little more about the platform itself.
In an era of sameness, AI isn't the enemy, boring outputs are so we need to figure out how to put the limits of exploration. This will be an insightful conversation about how we can all work to keep creative humans in the equation in the age of AI.
Please note, you will need to register in advance for this webinar!
:: WE ASKED PIP FOR HIS HOT TAKES ON METRICS MADNESS ::
How can we reclaim data as a tool for clarity instead of submitting to its chaos?
Just because we can measure everything doesn't mean we should. Digital media gave way to instant metrics which led to instant expectations on results but a CTR, a bounce rate, or even a conversion doesn’t always tell the whole story. The obsession with short-term, easy-to-measure numbers has led us to optimize for what’s measurable, not what matters.Reclaiming data means choosing signal over noise—focusing on the metrics that actually drive long-term success rather than chasing vanity numbers that look good in a report but mean nothing in reality.
It means remembering that data is a tool for insight, not a dictator of decisions. Creativity, brand-building, and cultural impact don’t always fit neatly into a dashboard—but they’re the things that actually move people.
The question isn’t how much data we have. It’s what we do with it that counts.
How do you resolve the tension between short-term performance metrics and investments in brand, which are inherently longer term?
Stop treating them like enemies. Brand needs to perform, and performance needs to build brand. Everyone got stuck on the 60:40 rule instead of seeing marketing as a whole, not a trade-off.
:: THE LINKS ::
AI EATING ITS OWN HOMEWORK = MODEL COLLAPS = BLURRY GREY FUTURE
Generative AI like GPT is here to stay, but there’s a problem: if future models train on AI-generated content instead of real human data, they start to “forget” reality. This phenomenon, called model collapse, happens when models lose the nuances of real-world data over generations, leading to dull, repetitive, and inaccurate outputs.
It’s like making a copy of a copy—each new version gets blurrier. Over time, AI models trained on AI-generated data will misrepresent reality, affecting everything from search results to creative writing. The solution? Keep people in the creative equation and use AI in a way to generate NEW and NOVEL ideas, not more of the same average.
There was also a NYT article which depicted it VERY well. (Nature)
CREATIVITY IS WAITING TO ERUPT
Everything online feels the same—same content, same trends, same viral junk. Pop culture is caught in a loop, recycling ideas instead of making new ones. But creativity isn’t dead—it’s just buried under the algorithm’s sameness factory.
Beneath the mainstream, a wild, thriving underworld of niche creators exists—historians reviewing sandwiches, Excel tutorials with dance moves, and more. The problem? Algorithms prioritize the familiar, drowning out the weird and wonderful.
The fix? Seek out smaller creators, demand better discovery tools, and maybe—just maybe—use social media less. And if we’re truly stuck in a stagnant era? History says creative revolutions come after periods of sameness. Maybe we’re on the edge of one right now. (YouTube; NYT)
KEEPING CREATIVE PEOPLE IN THE CREATIVE EQUATION
AI isn’t the enemy—boring is. And right now, we’re drowning in a sea of same. AI has the potential to pour gasoline on the 'age of average' problem to quote Alex Murrell.
But creativity? That’s human. It’s messy, weird, unpredictable. It’s the thing AI can’t do—at least, not without us pushing it somewhere interesting.
Our approach is to design around people and use AI as a Springboard, not a replacement. Explore more. Break more because if we let the machines take the wheel, everything turns to grey mush. (YouTube; Springboards)
:: AND NOW… SOME FAST FAVORITES ::
Game :: Chess. I’m very very addicted. My lifetime goal is to hit 2000.
City :: Damn. So many! Mexico City maybe?
Book :: Loving The Culture series by Iain M Banks
Podcast :: Dr Karl podcast
:: CREATIVE IDEAS ::
This is how I fell in love with AI. As a strategist I’ve always had creative ideas in my head but never the talent to bring them to life. Until Midjourney. This is one of the first things I did. An 'art series' called 'the dead painting the dying' It was supposed to be a commentary 'artwork' about the disaster in ukraine raging on but how quickly we forget and move to the next thing (in this case it was AI). So using AI I had dead artist interpret the Ukraine war. This was the Keith Haring version.
:: ‘TIL NEXT TIME ::
This edition was guest curated by Pip Bingemann, who you can connect with via LinkedIn or Springboards.ai. Your regularly scheduled hosts, Rosie & Faris Yakob, will be back next week!
Strands of Genius is currently read by more than 15,000 subscribers. Support us by sponsoring an issue, encouraging friends or colleagues to subscribe.
It's called Genius Steals because we believe ideas are new combinations and that nothing can come from nothing. But copying is lazy. We believe the best way to innovate is to look at the best of that which came before and combine those elements into new solutions.
Co-Founders Faris & Rosie are award-winning strategists and creative directors, writers, consultants and public speakers who have been living on the road/runway since March 2013, working with companies all over the world. Our Director of Operations is nomadic like us, our accounting team is based out of Washington, our company is registered in Tennessee, and our collaborators are all over the world. Being nomadic allows us to go wherever clients need us to be, and to be inspired by the world in between.
Hit reply and let’s talk about how we might be able to work together :)