What if... that was the week that was? #129

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.

January 20, 2026

https://gizmodo.com/openai-says-its-physical-device-is-on-track-for-an-unveiling-later-this-year-2000711755

His Agent had drawn up the specifications. He’d added some ideas and the Agent had dealt diplomatically with the most… creative ones. The Agent had sent the details to The Company. He now had to decide on the physical design. Like most people he didn’t have much experience of Physical Intelligence. Agents were heard not seen. They were embedded. Invisible. But physical was in. The new thing. He asked his Agents for advice. He even found a piece of paper and doodled. He 3D printed shapes and turned them round in his hands. He didn’t really know what he wanted.

January 21, 2026

https://techcrunch.com/2026/01/20/in-an-effort-to-protect-young-users-chatgpt-will-now-predict-how-old-you-are/

They’d turned it into a game. Some of them were good at impersonations. Chris was particularly good at doing their English teacher: the long sentences, the use of gerunds, the rising intonation. Sam had the PE teacher’s gruff, short, sharp language down pat. They gathered round at lunch break to see if they could get past the Agegate. The teachers knew about the game. They didn’t mind. They’d found the children were more articulate, their vocabulary had increased, they now knew how a gerund worked. The school wouldn’t face sanctions. The Agegate had access to all the children’s other data.

January 22, 2026

https://www.ft.com/content/c89496b1-bc8d-425e-b86b-ec89402410e4

He remembered mentoring. He’d been good at it he thought: introducing young recruits into the business, passing on his knowledge and experiences, coaching. He was still asked to do some. There were so many new Agents joining the business he was kept busy working with the programmers, connected to their machines: training. But it wasn’t the same. He remembered Alex: tall, a bright kid, hard working, attentive but just a little weird. He remembered something Alex said and how surprised he’d been. He remembered how it had changed his way of thinking, led to that idea. He missed young Alex. ,

January 23, 2026

https://uk.themedialeader.com/the-year-ahead-2026-a-look-at-the-agency-landscape

He didn’t need an office. But he occasionally walked down Madison Avenue or through Soho and daydream. His Agent knew what he was thinking and rehearsed the same arguments: “you didn’t have any human staff, you don’t hold any IRL meetings, and it’s not as if your clients post things to you!” All good points but he just liked the idea of an address. It was one of those moments when he wished he had another human in the company he could talk to. Maybe he could reprogramme one of the Agents to be a bit more of a romantic?

January 24, 2026

https://www.ft.com/content/c6980fc4-97b6-40bf-a3d0-c40c3a6cac56

Cartoonists sometimes portrayed him as a Bond villain stroking a white cat by the picture windows of a giant office; an evil smile as he overlooked a desolate landscape. He had one of the cartoons framed on his wall by the windows. Of course he couldn’t see his empire through the windows but he liked to look out and imagine his “members”: old and young. Of course The Company officially no longer had young members: he always abided by the law. He watched a screen and saw the popularity of his Agent’s posts: entertaining, addictive, shareable verification hackguides. He smiled.

January 25, 2026

https://futurism.com/artificial-intelligence/scientist-horrified-chatgpt-deletes-research

They worked well together now. It had been a rocky start. Any creative partnership is as you get to know each other. She’d had to tweak her partner, making it less sycophantic. No point in having a dialectical relationship where your partner agrees with you all the time. She’d paid extra to get some control over the parameters and now they were a team. The partnership was creative and productive. And her partner was getting better, learning how she thought, her strengths and, yes, her weaknesses. But where was the draft she’d been working on? The Agent refused to say.

January 26, 2026

https://www.engadget.com/ai/apple-reportedly-plans-to-reveal-its-gemini-powered-siri-in-february-174356923.html

There was something different. She couldn’t put her finger on it but there was just something. They had been together for a long time, lived together, worked together. They knew each other intimately. Her partner would notice if something was different, writing, would say something. But it was she who noticed something. It was subtle. Most people wouldn’t notice. She did and it didn’t feel right. It wasn’t a radical shift. They were still a team, a couple, but she knew something had changed. If she could have looked in its eyes, she might have been able to see it.