Alex Banks

The Signal

Writer & Founder

GrowHub

Founder & CEO

Harley

Co-Founder & CEO

DataCamp

Instructor

Tribescaler

Co-Founder

Building a better future with AI

Alex Banks is a founder, creator and investor. He reaches over 1 million people on social media each week with insights into the world of artificial intelligence (AI).

He is the founder and writer of The Signal, a weekly newsletter that cuts through the AI noise to over 50,000+ readers.

Alex is also an active early-stage investor and advisor to startups across the AI and technology landscape.

👉 All partnerships, enquiries and speaking engagements: contact@noisemedia.ai

Writer

Google's AI broke the language barrier.

Live phone call translation in your own voice.

The Pixel 10 handles everything on-device for complete privacy.

→ Nearly instantaneous conversation flow
→ Real-time translation across 11 languages
→ No subscriptions or additional costs required
→ Recreates the speaker's actual voice characteristics

How it works:

1. Open Phone app
2. Go to Call Assist settings
3. Enable Voice Translate
4. Select the other person's language
5. Start talking naturally

The Tensor G5 chip handles all processing locally meaning your conversations never leave your device.

Real-world applications:

→ Business calls with international clients
→ Travel conversations with local contacts
→ Family calls across language barriers
→ Emergencies in foreign countries

My takeaway:

I've never been more tempted to switch to a Google Pixel than now. 

I've forever been a die-hard iPhone user, however, these recent capabilities are becoming too good to ignore. 

The language barrier just became optional.

And I suspect it won’t be long before live translation becomes automatic on AirPods/Pixel Buds.

Follow me Alex Banks for daily AI highlights and insights.

If you liked this post, you’ll love the newsletter.

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ChatGPT-5 just launched Connectors.

Here's how to connect email, Calendar, and your entire ecosystem.

Step 1: Navigate to Settings
↳ Go to Profile Icon > Settings > Connectors

Step 2: Grant Permissions
↳ Sign in and authorise ChatGPT to connect with your desired apps

Step 3: Start Chatting
↳ Ask questions naturally - GPT-5 automatically uses relevant connectors

What you can connect:

→ Google: Gmail, Drive, Calendar, Contacts
→ Microsoft: Outlook, OneDrive, SharePoint, Teams
→ Work tools: GitHub, Linear, Notion, HubSpot
→ Storage: Box, Dropbox, Canva

Pro users get the full experience, Plus users can access deep research, and Enterprise teams get admin controls with custom connectors.

Rolling out globally (EU, Switzerland, UK coming soon).

My takeaway:

You can now operate your entire work tools stack from one ecosystem.

Gone are the days of having to switch back and forth across apps.

AI unifies everyone under one roof making context switching invisible.

What’s positive for users: The content retrieved from the Google connector is not used to train OpenAI’s models.

I’ll be exploring this update more in my newsletter this week.

I cover the most important AI developments each week.

Subscribe here: https://lnkd.in/ePSZP6KF

And follow me Alex Banks for daily AI highlights and insights.

The $100 trillion question.

What happens when AI replaces every job?

Harvard Business School recently sat down with Anton Korinek.

He’s a leading AI economist at University of Virginia and believes we have 2-5 years to prepare.

Key highlights from the conversation:

1. Substitution crisis
↳ AGI will soon "do essentially anything that a human worker can do," making us "easily substitutable by AI."
↳ As AI gets cheaper, "our wages or our labour market value would also decline in tandem."
↳ Result: Wages driven toward zero across most jobs.

2. System breakdown
↳ Our economic system was built around human labour as the primary means of distributing resources.
↳ AI will drive the cost of intelligence and the cost of labour to near-zero.
↳ Result: Universal basic income or shared capital to distribute AI-created wealth.

3. Stability threat
↳ Failing to redistribute risks "massive labour market disruption."
↳ People "lose their jobs, will lose their source of income, will lose their livelihood."
↳ Result: Mass unemployment + political unrest.

The top skill to master right now?

Multiplying yourself with AI.

Stop competing with it. Start working alongside it.

Korinek highlights: “The ability to leverage AI systems and to use them as a force multiplier is probably the most useful thing we can possibly teach our students.”

My takeaway:

It’s clear AI will generate massive economic gains.

But those gains will initially concentrate with AI owners/companies.

If we don’t eventually redistribute that wealth (through something like UBI) then people lose jobs AND can’t access the benefits.

Ultimately this would create massive labour market disruption and political instability.

Artificial superintelligence is inevitable. How we build it and what we do with it will be all that matters.

Preparation for a world where human labour becomes optional remains critical.

Follow me Alex Banks for daily AI highlights and insights.

I cover the most important AI developments each week in my newsletter.

Subscribe here: https://lnkd.in/ePSZP6KF

This robot survives what humans can’t.

Unitree just dropped the A2 Stellar Explorer.

Meet the industrial robot built for endless missions.

Key capabilities:

→ Weighs just 37kg but carries 25kg continuously
→ 20km unloaded range / 12.5km with full payload
→ Hot-swappable dual batteries = unlimited runtime
→ Speeds up to 5 m/s across rugged terrain
→ Climbs 45° slopes like it's flat ground
→ Operates from -20°C to 55°C

Zero blind spots, maximum precision:

→ Dual industrial LiDARs (front & rear)
→ HD camera with front lighting
→ 360° environmental awareness
→ IP67 protection for core components

Real-world applications:

→ Industrial inspections in hazardous areas
→ Emergency rescue operations
→ Logistics in extreme environments
→ Security patrols with 24/7 capability
→ Mining and construction site monitoring

The game-changer? Hot-swappable batteries.

While one battery runs the mission, swap the depleted one without stopping.

No downtime. No interruptions. Just continuous operation.

My takeaway:

We're moving from robots as tools to robots as workers.

Seeing how advanced quadruped robots are becoming, my mind moves towards a “Metalhead” scenario from Black Mirror.

It will be interesting to see the guardrails that will be put in place to avoid someone creating an army of 100 of these to go about their business.

The robot race is on.

Follow me Alex Banks for daily AI highlights and insights.

If you liked this post, you’ll love the newsletter.

I cover the most important AI developments each week.

Subscribe here: https://lnkd.in/ePSZP6KF

Microsoft just dropped the =COPILOT() function in Excel.

AI is now built directly into your spreadsheets.

Key capabilities:

→ Natural language prompts in any cell
→ Auto-updates when your data changes
→ Works alongside existing Excel functions
→ Classifies and summarises data instantly
→ Generates content from simple instructions

Real-world examples:

=COPILOT("Classify this feedback", D4:D18) → Instantly categorizes customer comments
=COPILOT("Summarize", A1:A50) → Turns lengthy data into concise insights
=COPILOT("Generate airport codes for major US cities") → Creates lists on demand

What makes this different:

• Instead of switching between Excel and ChatGPT, everything happens in one place
• When your data updates, your AI analysis updates automatically
• No more copy-pasting between tools

Availability:

→ 100 calls every 10 minutes
→ Beta users with Microsoft 365 Copilot license
→ Live web data support coming soon
→ Enhanced date formatting in development

My takeaway:

The race to embed AI into every workflow is accelerating.

We're moving from "AI as a separate tool" to "AI as native functionality."

This is a smart distribution play by Microsoft.

Embedding AI where over a billion people already work vs getting them to adopt a new tool.

I feel this will also help bridge the skill gap for people starting to use Excel too.

Follow me Alex Banks for daily AI highlights and insights.

P.S. I’ll be covering this idea in my newsletter this week.

Subscribe here: https://lnkd.in/ePSZP6KF

AI just transformed manual documentation forever.

Here's how it creates step-by-step guides in 3 minutes instead of 3 hours:

I recently needed to document our customer support workflow for a new team member.

This normally takes me 30+ minutes of screenshots, annotations, and detailed explanations.

Here's how Scribe changed everything:

1. Install Scribe's Chrome extension → Takes 30 seconds
2. Hit record and work normally → AI captures everything automatically
3. Stop recording → Perfect step-by-step guide generated instantly
4. Share with your team → One-click distribution

What's possible now:

• AI watches you work and documents every step
• Automatic screenshots with smart annotations
• Real-time updates when workflows change
• Instantly distribute processes across your entire team

When Scribe automatically generates step-by-step guides, your team follows the same process every single time.

My takeaway:

You no longer have to bore your team members with 5-minute-long Loom videos.

Companies that master AI documentation will scale faster, onboard quicker, and eliminate the chaos of tribal knowledge.

When your SOPs write themselves, your team actually follows them.

The manual documentation era is over.

#ad #ScribePartner #ScribeHow

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