#it just makes no sense from a strategic perspective on the villains' part without further consideration

[deadboyswalking]

Not me writing an in-universe justification for why Muscular was where he was during the summer camp attack because putting a close-range brawler on the outskirts of the perimeter seems fucking stupid.

[4dorks-1windmage-1shadow]

The Links as D&D Characters, Part 4: Violet (Vio) Link

Inspired by a question I saw on @hauntinghyrule ‘s blog. My character analysis and thoughts on what character class the boys would be if they were D&D characters, and why.

Green / Red / Blue / Shadow / Vaati / FS Zelda

As a preface, there won’t be any doubles on classes except in the case of dual-classing, and in those cases the first class I talk about my justifications for will be the primary class (i.e. the class they would have chosen at level one). My choices will be based on the character theming and personalities, even though at a base level it would be easy to say “they’re all paladins, duh” because of the implied “holy knight chosen by the gods to eradicate evil” concept. Vio is a high Intelligence, high Dexterity, high Charisma character- or at least he is based on his depiction in the manga. You may be thinking: Athena, what do you mean Vio has high charisma? Isn’t he more known for his intelligence and strategic abilities? You’re right, and also, you misunderstand. He’s not using that high charisma for Persuasion or Performance or even Intimidation. Remember how Vio spends an entire story arc fooling Shadow into thinking they were friends and Vio was evil, and how he also fooled Green, Red, and Blue (up until giving Green the hint that he was a double agent)? That’s all going into Deception baby! There’s only two classes that I can think of where Intelligence, Dexterity, and Charisma (1 out of the two for CHA actually) are major players: Wizards and Rogues. My actual pick is Rogue, but we’ll go through Wizard just to see why I didn’t go with Wizard.  Vio’s demeanor lends itself well to the vision of a wizard- wizards are spellcasters that gain magic through intense study, and Vio is seen carrying a book around during the manga. This book somehow magically has the answers to whatever he needs (or it was just specifically written about Force Gems and I’m being dramatic), and Wizards have spellbooks that have their spells in it. Vio could be a really great wizard, but there’s three issues I personally found with that.  1. Wizards have low HP. Their hit dice is a d6 (a trait they share with Sorcerers), and Vio could go head to head with Green in melee combat. Of course, low health doesn’t usually matter if you don’t get hit, but the whole point of a wizard is to hide behind the beefier tanks and blast the big bad monster with meteor strikes and giant explosions and like a whole lot of psychic damage and pray to whatever gods might take pity on a poor arcane magic user that the big bad doesn’t just like. . .step on them. Vio may not be as much of a front line fighter as say, Green and Blue are, but he’s not squishy. 2. Wizard subclasses give tons of variety in terms of how you can play them, but I don’t see any of the wizard Arcane Traditions being worth the low health, complete lack of armor and complete lack of ranged weapons (meaning Vio wouldn’t have access to his signature bow). School of Abjuration isn’t a good fit, because Vio’s idea of protecting is to actually throw himself head first into danger (like when he dived in front of Stone Arrghus to save Red, or like the entire double-agent arc). School of Conjuration doesn’t have anything that really relates to Vio symbolically or in regards to his story arc. School of Divination could be a good fit for him, since he’s all about knowledge and anticipating what the enemy is going to do next, but then. . .Blue’s weird spidey-sense in the Erune & Rosie story could make him a contender for that if his intelligence stat were high enough. School of Enchantment is a no, because even though Vio has high enough charisma to deceive pretty much everybody in the double-agent arc, he’s not. . .ever really shown doing anything else charismatic, and it just doesn’t seem fitting for the type of character he is. School of Evocation is the magic of big explosions and elemental magic, which is great, but showing off is rarely Vio’s style. School of Illusion is really the only one that might fit, and only because of Vio’s deceptive and manipulative nature, but again he doesn’t get to have archery and if he doesn’t get to have archery what’s the fucking point. School of Necromancy is stereotyped as the “evil” option (which personally I don’t agree with but I didn’t write the rules) or at the very least taboo magic, which I don’t see Vio being in pursuit of knowledge enough to dip into that well. Finally, School of Transmutation symbolically works for his character arc: he transforms by learning that the world isn’t quite as black and white as he thought it was, and Shadow was not as evil as he seemed; however, that’s a bit of a stretch.

3. All of this was a very long-winded way of saying that I didn’t make him a wizard even though it would be a decent fit because I’m saving wizard for a different character and thank you for reading that long ass paragraph. So why does rogue fit better? Rogues are OP as fuck, that’s why. They get access to ranged weapons, and at first level you get to choose four skills. Four whole skills out of Acrobatics, Athletics, Deception, Insight, Intimidation, Investigation, Perception, Performance, Persuasion, Sleight of Hand, and Stealth. Vio then gets to take up to a max of 4 of those skills (or any of the skills he has proficiency with) and double how good he is at those things. Vio has the most potential to be a fairly stealthy, strike from the shadows type of fighter. Or rather, according to the rules of Sneak Attack (which does 10d6, or an average of 35 extra damage on a hit), strike from within 5 feet of Blue, Green or Red who are also fighting the same enemy. Rogue Vio gets to learn secret codes and how to pick locks, he can Dodge, Dash, or Hide without taking up his attacking action. He can reduce the amount of damage he takes as a reaction, he gets proficiency in Wisdom saving throws (thank god because he actually needs it), ignore enemy advantage and turn missed attacks into hits. He’s just so tactical! So strategic! And rogue’s Blindsense also means that he has fucking echolocation up to 10 feet. So we’re really hitting all of the marks on what makes Vio a better Rogue than he is a Wizard, and we still haven’t talked about Roguish Archetypes. In Xanathar’s Guide to Everything, there is a Roguish Archetype called Mastermind. It’s description reads “A master tactician, manipulates others”. That’s Vio. He’s in the book. Admittedly, Vio isn’t just manipulative, smart, a tactician, deceptive, etc.- there are times in the manga where he’s sensitive, foolhardy, bull-headed and just not the brightest. Like saying that all Blue is is an angry hot-head, saying Vio is just a non-emotional strategist is a disservice to his character. Vio has lots of book smarts, but he is not wise. Key example of this: the entire Shadow Link and “Evil” Vio arc. We see his perspective actually get challenged by the way Shadow acts and treats him. Prior to that story line he probably saw Shadow as a one-dimensional villain, but after. . .well, he learned not to judge a book by its cover. Mastermind Rogue is actually well-suited to this lesson- it focuses on learning the secrets underneath the exterior of a person. Granted that does come back around to manipulating and strategizing again, but the point is that he would learn to be more mindful of what a person could actually be like instead of what they portray on the surface. It gives him proficiency with the disguise kit, forgery kit, and a gaming set, as well as two extra language. Further adding to my personal headcanon: Vio is talented as shit. Jack of all trades, master of none. The Help action gets added to the Dodge, Dash and Hide list as tactics he can use without having to take up his attacking action, and the range of that Help action extends up to 30 feet. Insightful Manipulation grants him the ability to learn the INT, WIS, and CHA stats of a target that he interacts with or observes for a set amount of time, and as a reaction he can have an attack target someone else instead of him. At the highest level of Mastermind, his mind can literally not be read by telepathy or any other means, and in a Zone of Truth area of effect he can lie his ass off even if he failed the saving throw and no matter what he says he’s telling the truth according to the spell. He can bullshit a lie detector test and get away with it. Mastermind Rogue Vio. He’s like that one vine that goes “you better watch out, you better watch out, you better watch out, you better watch out-”. 

[ichigopanhpff]

BNHA Fic: Blink! Ch. 4

Read Ch. 3 | Masterlist

This part takes place near the end of season 3 in the anime. Once we start getting into spoiler territory in the manga (since s4 isn’t out until October), I’ll put a nice warning :D

--

“Whoa, Ren-Ren. You look tense?” Seri pointed out.

“Do I?” she replied with clenched teeth. Her back was slumped over and her hands were balled up in fists. From an outsider’s point of view, she looked like she was looking for a fight.

The two walked with the masses for the opening ceremony. Tomoe’s voice could be heard not too far back from them.

“Hey, I was calling and—Whoa.”

Tomoe was taken aback by the look on Ren’s face. A light outline of dark circles could be seen under her puffy lower lids.

“Did somethin’ happen?” she asked with a tone of concern.

“Rumor mill says two students from 1-A got into a fight last night,” Ito caught up to their pace and interjected.

“Goddamn it, Ito. You jinxed me,” she huffed out.

“Hey, not my fault the first years hero’s course are so unruly,” the boy swiftly replied in an uppity manner. “And weren’t you supposed to rope them in when stuff like this happens? Some R.A. you–”

She immediately turned around and swiftly grabbed a fistful of Ito’s shirt by the collar. At this point, she was glaring at him with the intent to knock him out cold.

“If you wanna keep your tongue, I suggest you stop using it,” she growled out in a low voice and released him with a shove of her hand before walking away.

“It’s been a while since she’s been in this bad of a mood, huh,” Tomoe noted to Seri, watching their friend walk on ahead by herself.

As the opening ceremony went on, Principal Nezu briefly mentioned the recent change in the hero world with All-Might’s retirement and the elective hero internship before giving the mic to Hound dog-sensei. All he could get out were guttural growls and howls, to which Vlad-sensei had to translate; as expected, it was about Midoriya and Bakugou’s fight last night.

Letting out a heavy sigh, Ren face palmed with eyes on both her and class 1-A. But in reality, it’s not herself or the class she’s worried about, it’s him.

Filing back into their respective classroom, the day went by as usual. When lunch break came about, she told her friends to go on without her. She wanted to be alone for a bit.

“You lookin’ glum there, Ren-chan.”

The girl turned to see a boy’s face phased on the wall. She could only stare at him blankly.

“Mirio-senpai...” she tiredly greeted. “What are you doing?”

“Practicing my walls have eyes joke. Is it working?” the boy happily replied.

“… Not really.”

Mirio’s face disappeared off of the wall and fully reemerged from the classroom through the door to the far right.

“Aw, man!” he sheepishly laughed aloud and came up to her. “Guess I gotta try harder.”

“It’s rare of you to be so free,” Ren casually brought up and placed her hands on her hips. “Don’t you have your internship today?”

“Sir told me to take a day off and go back tomorrow. It is my last year here, so I wanna make the best of it!” Mirio responded and casually flexed his right arm. “So why are you so glum?”

“I’m not.”

The tall blond boy bent down and started poking her on the cheek like a child.

“Yes you are. You’re not smiling.”

“I had a long night, is all,” Ren blurted out from annoyance, trying to swat his finger away in failure.

“Ah I heard you’re an R.A. for the first years’ hero course now,” he suddenly remembered and stopped poking her. “The two underclassmen who got into a fight were yours?”

“Unfortunately, yes.”

“Are they strong?”

Ren took in a breath to answer and paused. Her eyes slowly traveled up to Mirio’s usual unsuspecting happy and confident grin, catching onto his real intentions with that question. Her eyebrows immediately raised with suspicion.

“Mirio-senpai. No.”

“What?” he asked innocently.

“I mean it.” She warned again and emphasized it with a pointing finger. “Don’t.”

“I just wanna get to know them.”

“No.”

“But–”

“They’re not on campus, so you can’t see them anyway,” she blurted out to get him to stop talking.

“So that means they’re at the dorms,” he concluded with his trademark smile. “Okay, bye!”

Before she could stop the phasing senior, he ran down the hallway and turned the corner. She growled and gripped her hands to her hair out of frustration and yelled in English, “What the fuck is wrong with everyone today?!”

All could be heard were the dropping of some books further down the hall. Ren slowly turned to meet the shocked face of Present Mic.

“Ah! … S-Sorry, Mic-sensei,” she meekly apologized in Japanese.

“Holy… shit,” was all U.A.’s English teacher could say.

Never in her life had she felt so physically, emotionally and mentally exhausted. The moment class finished for the day, her entire form slumped over her desk. If she had the energy, she would teleport back to the dorms. She was just tired of everything and wanted to curl up in her bed. Heaving a drawn-out sigh, her classmates surrounding her slowly teetered away.

“Rough day for you,” Seri hushed out sympathetically and patted her elbow.

All Ren could do was sigh again. There were literally no words that could be said to comfort her. Dragging her sorry state off her desk, all she muttered out was, “I’m going to the library to study...”

“Damn…” Tomoe let slip. “She really is going through it.”

She could’ve gone back to the dorms and locked herself into her room to do work, but she knew herself best: no work would be done at all, knowing the two delinquents were there. En route to the building, a familiar man’s silhouette wearing a wraparound gray scarf around his upper body could be seen walking toward her.

“Takahiro, just the person I was looking for,” Aizawa greeted. “Come with me for a sec.”

Letting out a heavy breath through her nose, she knew she had no choice in the matter. The two spoke of nothing en route to his office; Ren knew what they were about to discuss isn’t for anyone else to hear. It was also one thing 1-A’s homeroom teacher appreciated her discreet nature. Naturally entering the now empty 1-A classroom, the door silently slid close by the teacher. The girl looked around with a small sense of nostalgia.

“Oh you replaced that seat back there,” Ren noted. “I remember when it got scorched by Hideyuki’s quirk.”

“Right, that happened...” Aizawa recalled, scratching this scruffy chin. “You already know what I want to talk about.”

“Bakugou and Midoriya’s fight at Ground Beta.”

“Can I ask where you were when it happened?”

Not wanting to lie to someone who trusts her, Ren told the truth on her whereabouts last night and summarized it for him.

“This could’ve been done within the dorms. So why didn’t you?” the brooding man asked, clearly annoyed.

“While that’s true, there was something there I needed to show Todoroki for perspective and to help better guide his way to being the hero he wants to be,” she defended.

Aizawa heavily sighed and scratched the back of his head, looking at his former student. Knowing vaguely of Todoroki’s hang-ups about his left side, he could give little sympathy for the road she took to resolve his problems. Quietly analyzing Ren, she looked like she barely had any sleep, obviously stressed about the whole situation with Midoriya and Bakugou. She was the type to take her responsibilities seriously.

As temperamental as she was today, judging by her friends and classmates reactions, he could only assume one thing on what she’s feeling: guilt.

“While I understand your frustration in not being able to help, I hope you won’t do something like this again,” he sighed. “The responsible parties already have their punishments and they’re reflecting on it. And honestly, I don’t think you could’ve done much either without taking down Bakugou.”

“His quirk is exceptionally powerful based on the videos I’ve seen from the Sports Festival. But if he is to be an efficient and reliable hero in the future, he needs to keep his temper and ego in check.”

Ren sighed heavily and threw her head back in exhaustion.

“Is this why you picked me to be their R.A., sensei?” she blurted out. “Other than making me confront close-range fighters to improve my offense?”

“That’s what you thought?” he answered with a tone of surprise. “Well… you’re not completely wrong.  The way you strategize fights can help the first years develop their quirks and abilities way beyond what they are now. And to improve your own fighting skills.”

“You think my current style isn’t suitable,” she assumed. “You having Snipe-sensei keep tabs on me?”

“It’s incomplete,” Aizawa corrected. “You’re only using the long range fighting you’re so used to doing. It makes you predictable. You’re copying Togata.”

“It’s only natural since we trained together last year.”

“But the difference is he’s physically stronger to pull off the execution; you let too many chances slip by playing the long game,” Aizawa argued. “It may work as a defensive tactic for rescue missions, but–”

“Depending on the situation, that’ll end up being my disadvantage with a villain,” Ren concluded. “Fair point.”

“Just keep that in mind when you have your next practical. You’re dismissed.”

As Ren grabbed her bag to head out, the black-haired teacher called for her once more.

“If you’re gonna go to your spot, at least do it during school hours. Otherwise, I’ll have to put you on house arrest too.”

“Yes sir,” she sighed and closed the door behind her.

What a day.

–

Three days passed since Beta-gate, as majority of U.A. students dubbed it, Midoriya was now a free boy. During that entire time, he had been lifting weights to keep his body in shape for One For All while fulfilling his cleaning duties and thinking about his written apology to Aizawa-sensei. But what went through his head on repeat were Ren-senpai’s words.

“You’re the ones who have to earn back their trust.”

Those words were like a dagger to his heart. Not only did he and Kacchan act selfishly, they basically threw everyone’s trust out the window. He realized just because he got a little better at controlling One For All, it didn’t mean he could get overconfident about it. It’s a borrowed power, after all. And it’s not like he’s gotten a full understanding of it yet either. He’s still in the midst of his second step. Not only did he need to get physically stronger, his emotional and mental state needed to evolve with it. And he was going to start with putting his all with his fellow classmates.

While he thought today was going to be another day of school, 1-A got the pleasant surprise of being greeted by the Big Three. Ren nearly choked on her lunch when she caught wind of it. As if by instinct, she looked up to see the defeated and sullen faces of the first years filing into the cafeteria.

Abandoning what’s left of her food, she jumped out from her seat and ran out, her friends calling after her. It didn’t take her long to find the Big Three sauntering down the hallway.

She immediately teleported from her spot and launched a surprise air attack at Mirio, her fist ready to connect to his face. Being the way he is, he caught it just in time as he was saying hi to someone else and then turned around to see a disgruntled pink haired girl dangling from his grip. She looked like a rag doll being held by a limb.

Hadou bursted out belly laughing; Amajiki simply stood stationary and face palmed.

“Did you see that?! Did you see that?!” she cried aloud in between her laughter, smacking Togata’s bicep in the process. “She was gonna punch you and you just took her down instantly!”

“You should’ve known this would happen, Takahiro,” Amajiki blurted out, staring at your vulnerable form. “His sixth sense is monstrous.”

“Hello, Tamaki-senpai. Nejire-senpai,” Ren flatly greeted, still soaking in the flavor of defeat while swinging loosely from Mirio’s grip. “You guys look well.”

“Ah, Ren-chan.” The tall blond boy lifted his arm up so he was face to face with her. “Why were you gonna punch me?”

The vicinity of his face was so close to hers, she couldn’t help but let out a light blush with widened eyes.

“Probably because you beat up the class she’s in charge of,” Nejire deduced. “And she wanted to ask you why you didn’t hold back.”

“Took the words right outta my mouth as usual, Nejire-senpai,” the hanging girl agreed. “Mirio-senpai, if you wouldn’t mind, I’m losing circulation to my arm...”

“Oh! Sorry, sorry.”

Mirio chuckled and set his small underclassman back down on the floor. Rubbing her right shoulder to regain mobility in her arm again, she looked away with a look of grimace. “And to answer your question, I was holding back. No one was unconscious.”

She tried forming words, but none seemed to have come out with the way her mouth was moving. The fact that he used ‘no one was unconscious’ to defend his actions was okay? In a normal situation, that wouldn’t fly. But this was Togata Mirio we’re talking about here. The man who can be the next number one hero.

And the only thing she managed to get out was, “So, why were you guys even at 1-A today?”

“They wanted us to explain the hero internship to them,” the tall boy responded. “Even though it’s not required for them to take it. You’ve got a lively bunch to take care of this year, don’tcha Ren-chan?”

“That’s putting it lightly,” she sighed heavily and put her palm to her face. Her expression right now made her look more like Amajiki.

“Hey, hey. Have you applied to any agencies yet, Ren-Ren?” Nejire asked in her usual perky manner. “If you haven’t, you can always come to mine! I can put in a good word for you.”

She shook her head.

“I wanna make my quirk stronger first before I apply,” she solemnly answered. “I’m no good the way I am right now.”

“Ren-chan, you should still apply,” Mirio firmly stated, making her look up at him. “The practical experience you get is how you’ll get stronger.”

“I haven’t even nailed down a good offensive style and–”

“Are those just excuses you’re making for yourself?”

His honest but harsh statement jolted her head up to meet his blue eyes. Togata Mirio’s determination and resolve always got to Ren. It was also those qualities of his that made him admirable in the eyes of his peers and pro-heroes; she was no exception to that charisma. All she could do is stay silent.

“You’re more than good enough. So why are you holding yourself back?” he gently asked and placed a hand on her shoulder. “It doesn’t matter whether you’re strong or weak.”

“You can’t be a hero in-training forever and hesitate, Takahiro,” Amajiki added bluntly. “Doing that in the field means death. You of all people should know that.”

“Tamaki, that’s going too far,” Mirio pointed out and turned back to her. “But you know he’s right, don’t you?”

All she could do was nod, staring down at the floor and trying not to cry.

“The truth is, I’m scared...” She slowly brought her arms up to hug herself, her shoulders shaking from what she’s about to say. “Scared of what I’ll do when I find him. I… I don’t know if I’ll be able to control myself.”

The three could only look at their junior, trying to find anything to say that’d be helpful. All Ren could do was let out a wry chuckle.

“I came here to punch Mirio-senpai and I get a lecture from the Big Three,” she sniffled and wiped away the crocodile tears before facing them again with a lopsided smile. “Looks like I still got some growing up to do. And I’ll take some time this week to look into some agencies to apply.”

The school bell chimed to indicate lunch was almost over.

“Ah, crap! I held you guys up! And I left my bag with Seri and Tomoe! Gotta go!”

As their junior ran off, Mirio couldn’t help but wonder: what did she mean by ‘controlling herself’?

–

“So I heard you guys met the Big Three today,” Ren casually brought up at dinner time. Tonight’s menu was oyakodon* and miso soup.

“We totally got our asses handed to us,” Kirishima groaned out and winced at the lingering pain on his torso from being punched by Togata. “It was so lame.”

“None of us could even react,” Tokoyami added with a sense of defeat. “We all went down before we knew it.”

“No one except Midoriya,” Todoroki commented and took a bite of his food.

“Seriously?! No way!” Sero exclaimed.

The hetero-chromatic boy turned to their R.A. and asked, “Have you fought any of the Big Three before, Ren-senpai?”

“Well...” she hesitated and swirled her soup with her chopsticks. “Define ‘fight.’”

“When two or more people engage in a physical altercation caused by–”

“I-I was kidding, Todo-kun,” Ren immediately stopped him. “I was being facetious.”

“Oh.”

“’Todo-kun’?” Ashido pointed out with a sly grin, nudging her with her elbow. “Aren’t you two getting cozy?”

“Anyway, back to your question,” Ren ignored the pink girl’s comment and turned back to Todoroki, to which she got annoyed at and fumed. “I technically did.”

“Technically?” Midoriya’s ears perked up. “What do you mean?”

She let out long breath and knew she had no other way in explaining this.

“So Mirio-senpai has this habit of only phasing parts of his body through a surface,” she began. “When he was practicing his quirk to get better at it, he started with his face.”

Midoriya’s face suddenly grimaced, remembering he did the same thing to him a few days ago when he was taking out the garbage.

“I was walking down the hallway one day and he did that to me as I was passing. For some reason, he thought saying hi like that would be fine. And he did...To my right fist...On his face. And I kinda, sorta ended up giving him a black eye he had to nurse for three days.”

Iida, Ochaco and Midoriya faces drained of blood and could respond with a look of horror, mouths ajar and all; Todoroki remained stoic upon the reveal.

“Just how hard did you hit?” the green haired boy blurted out.

“It was a ‘scared to death plus adrenaline pumping in my body’ strength, so… pretty hard.”

Between the four of them at the table, she was sure they made a mental note to not scare their R.A. As dinner ended and everyone cleaned up after themselves, Ren suddenly remembered something.

“Ah, Todoroki-kun, Bakugou-kun,” she called out, prompting the two boys to turn their heads. “Come by my room in half an hour.”

“Why do I haveta go with this half-and-half bastard?” the ash blond boy barked out.

“It’s about your provisional lessons, so please kindly tolerate his presence,” Ren replied with an acidic saccharine tone and a matching smile. “Unless you don’t wanna be heroes, that’s fine too.”

“Whatever,” Bakugou scoffed and made his way back to his room.

With the day winding down, the R.A. sat at her desk, struggling with her Hero Law homework. No matter how many times she’s read the same passage, she couldn’t come up with a concrete way to explain the clause about full-fledged heroes turning vigilante. There were just too many loopholes!

Last time she turned in her assignment about the general dos and do nots of a hero within the word of law, she got chewed out for being too far-fetched with her theory of ‘in the event police are indisposed, the hero can take the law into their own hands and deliver justice.’

Groaning, Ren slumped over her desk and bumped her forehead at the edge of it. A soft rap at the door roused her back up and looked at her clock; it was time for the meeting. Prompting the person to enter, the door opened to show both boys showed up on time. This was the first time Bakugou had seen her room, second for Todoroki.

It was dimly lit with smaller and softer lights glowing from her desk and the shelf by her bed. Piles of school books stacked neatly on her desk with an open notebook with scribbled notes. Floating wooden shelves hung above her desk, holding random figurines, photos and books. Soft instrumental music could be heard playing from the laptop perched on top of an aluminum stand. A small, collapsible floor table separated the three.

She stood from her seat and turned on the main light with a pulling line. The ceiling lamp flickered on, making her eyes flinch from the sudden onslaught of brightness to her orbs and blinked a few times to readjust. Prompting the two boys to sit on the floor, she turned the music off and grabbed some papers from her desk before sitting down across from them.

“Aizawa-sensei gave me a copy of your evaluations from the exam,” she stated. “I’m not gonna repeat what’s already been said, so I want you two to tell me what you think you did right and wrong on and what you plan to do to improve on your shortcomings.”

Todoroki looked pensive while Bakugou had his arms cross, looking agitated as usual. The silence was thick and super uncomfortable.

“O...kay, I guess we’ll do this the hard way,” she sighed. “Bakugou-kun, you had zero compassion during the rescue phase of the test. Not only did you not reassure victims, your aggression towards them was what led you to failing. I get all you wanna do is blow shit up and beat up villains, but there’s a time and place for that.”

“That phase was fuckin’ garbage!” he huffed out and slammed his fist on the table. “If it weren’t for that, I would’ve gotten my license already.”

“But you didn’t, so here we are,” she pointed out tersely. “Let me ask you this: what if your parents were in that disaster zone? Would you still say the same thing?”

Her words suddenly made him look up straight up with widened crimson eyes, her expression unchanging. His anger was slowly stirring his insides. A vein could be seen slowly protruding from his temple.

“Look, you’re obviously not an idiot, but if you can’t do a simple search and rescue with a team, then what kind of hero would you be in the eyes of citizens?” she questioned. “You already have a reputation around U.A. for your shitty attitude and I’d like for that to not go beyond these walls for your career’s sake.”

The usual loud and proud boy was now quiet and reflective; his usual scowling lips formed a small pout. Thinking back on his internship with Best Jeanist and how everyone else had gotten further than him during that one week, he knew he had to change his ways; it was his fragile ego that veiled his eyes and heart from accepting that part about him, the part that’s awkward with approaching things in a non-violent way.

Being used to the status quo, things that made him step out of his comfort zone really scared him. He doesn’t like being taken for a fool or messing things up.

Bakugou Katsuki doesn’t do either one of those options.

“Sorry. I didn’t mean for that to come off lecture-y,” Ren let a short breath out of her nose and rested her arms on the table. “Just… keep that in mind and make baby steps, okay?”

“… Fine,” he muttered, not making eye contact with her and rubbed the back of his neck.

Shocked at his sudden change in demeanor, she quietly thanked him for listening before turning her attention to Todoroki.

“Todoroki-kun, you’re already aware of where you went wrong...”

The bi-coloured hair boy nodded and stared at a random spot on the table, unable to look at her directly.

“Because of my inability to cooperate with Inasa from Shiketsu due to personal reasons, we put the disaster victims and other heroes in jeopardy with our quirks,” he confessed. “Had I realized this sooner and worked with him, we could’ve suppressed the villains and then assist with evacuating the rest of the injured much more efficiently. I will do my best in remedying this during the supplementary classes and work on building a better relationship with everyone. I’ll definitely get my license this time.”

“That’s the spirit,” Ren encouraged with a small smile. “Don’t get me wrong: you’re both capable heroes. You two have really strong, compatible quirks with your bodies and you have full awareness of its power and limitations. But. You need to learn to rely on others,” she emphasized the last sentence.

“There’s only so much you can do by yourself. Everyone thinks heroes are all about the one-on-ones, flashy moves and taking down the bad guys with it. That’s not what makes a hero; they’re heroes because they also do the little things that make a bigger impact.”

The two boys listened intently to their R.A.’s constructive criticism, absorbing what knowledge she could bestow upon them. Even though she was only a year older, the words she spoke made her sound like a sage who’s trained many heroes before them. The clacking of Ren straightening the stack of paper in her hand brought his attention back to the present.

“Okay, I think we’ve covered everything,” she finalized. “Aizawa-sensei just wants me to do small follow ups with you two after each class. Just come on by whenever you can for that.”

Bakugou and Todoroki nodded and stood up, excusing themselves out of the room. The moment her door click closed, she let out a long sigh and leaned back.

“That was easier than picking an agency to intern at,” she said to herself aloud.

--

*Chicken and egg rice bowl.

Read Ch. 5

[butabitconfused]

whew

I caught up to episode 36 of Fairy Tail: Final Series, and I gotta ask what the hell has this season been so far.

So, where do I start? How about the horrendous animation. FT isn’t known for spectacular animation quality, but at least its fights were entertaining. However, this is a massive downgrade. I know people have said it before, but it’s like watching a colored slideshow. They put up a shaky picture, add in some sound effects and some screaming. That’s what the fight scenes constitute of. Compared side by side with the manga, there is almost no difference in how the “action” plays out. The flashbacks padding run time aren’t helping, either. Plus, any flashback containing fight scenes just reminds me of how much better the action used to be -_-

So, Spriggan 12, am I right? I think FT did a good job at emphasizing the danger S12 posed as these massive powerhouses compared to anything before, being that they’re as powerful as Ishgar’s strongest wizard. Discovering that God Serena has joined them only escalated the situation further. The future seemed bleak, and our heroes would have to struggle in a monumental effort in order to defeat even one.

Then the Spriggans did jack shit. For FT’s final villains, most of these guys were disappointing pushovers. Maybe it has something to do with the messed up powerscaling. If a single wizard can win against a Spriggan, then how is said-wizard not as famous as the four great wizard saints? Whatever the case, it crushes me to think about what S12 could’ve been like at their fullest potential both combat wise and as characters.

A thing I’ve noticed about FT is that it wants you to take it serious despite nothing rational really happening. I don’t really know how to explain it, but take the end of the first Natsu vs Zeref fight for example. Happy drags Natsu away before he can deal the presumed finishing blow on Zeref because he doesn’t want Natsu to die. From the characters’ perspective, Happy just sabotaged Ishgar’s one and only chance at killing Zeref for a selfish reason (yes I’m calling it selfish). The characters should have no reason at this point to think that a sure-fire way of killing Zeref is even feasible. Yet, Happy thinks he can afford to stop Natsu because he’s “muh frend”. Of course, Natsu thinks Happy makes perfect sense that there’s obviously gotta be another way, even when they have no evidence that an alternative solution exists. It’s like the characters know they have plot armor at this point.

Another thing is with Brandish. Her allergies are literally why she didn’t destroy Fairy Tail in the blink of an eye, and how Lucy was able to get her on their side. Plain old allergies. For some reason, I’m more willing to excuse this one than the Happy example simply for how ridiculously hilarious and stupid it is.

I haven’t gotten to the conclusion of Irene and August yet, though I’ve heard bad things about them. Same thing with Acnologia. Either way, I won’t talk about them because I’m not there yet.

What I can talk about is imo the Spriggan that disappointed me the most: Invel. It hurts having to watch his character potential destroyed as Gray basically ORA ORA ORA’d him to victory.

For most of the war, he was the Spriggan accompanying Zeref. Although Irene and August are stated to be the strongest, there should be something special about the Spriggan who’s always standing by the emperor’s side. They even gave him the epithet of the Winter General for his...wait, “cunning use of ice magic”? Despite what he’s built up to be, I didn’t see him do a single strategical action as a commander nor as a fighter, unless freezing Gray’s ice magic is supposed to count, but that sounds like bullshit to me. Also, he’s pretty dumb for a general. He probably caught a case of plot-induced stupidity, which is why he went out onto the battlefield when his magic was the only thing restraining Mavis. And on a side note, when Zeref teleported to Natsu in their first fight, how did Invel follow him to the front of the army? Did Zeref drag him along, or...?

(I’m lowkey certain that at least half my salt over Invel comes from him giving off the same vibes as one of my favorite OCs, so to see him get crushed on screen without doing anything hurts me more. Oh well, at least he’s hot.)

Alright, what else is there? Oh, right. LARCADE. Seriously, what the actual hell was that fight? You’re telling me that while Sting and the literal fuck boi were duking it out, every non-virgin was orgasming to death? And he was supposed to be Zeref’s plan to defeat Acnologia? That’s gotta be a joke.

Of course, you can’t talk about the final season without mentioning the fake out deaths. I can’t believe anyone would defend this blatant, atrocious writing of killing off characters for cheap shock without having any actual consequences. Yes, I know that Juvia’s “death” was supposed to be the catalyst for Gray to fight END, but there are other ways for that to happen that don’t involve death and are just as emotional. What makes matters worst is that she was revived in the next fucking episode, which completely absolves any emotional impact her “sacrifice” may have had. At least Gajeel didn’t come back until Universe One, but Juvia’s “death” was so dirt cheap I can’t even—

Not only is reviving the characters cheap, it means that I can’t trust the show to actually go through with killing its characters. I’m referring to Makarov dying in order to use Fairy Law. It’s supposed to be a sad moment, but after Gajeel and Juvia, I’m just expecting him to come back to life somehow by the end of the season. This means that even if he’s actually dead, all I can do at this point is shrug my shoulders because the emotional part has already come and gone.

On the flip side, the OST still rocks. I’m gonna go read FT City Hero because it looks like the fan fiction I didn’t know I needed.

Edit: FT: CH was a good salt cleanse

[thisdaynews]

The Lull in Hostilities Between Iran and the U.S. Is Just Escalation in Disguise

New Post has been published on https://thebiafrastar.com/the-lull-in-hostilities-between-iran-and-the-u-s-is-just-escalation-in-disguise/

The Lull in Hostilities Between Iran and the U.S. Is Just Escalation in Disguise

The current lull after the initial exchange of fire is not surprising. Both sides appreciate the need to slow or reverse the rapid cycle of escalation unleashed by Soleimani’s killing. Iranian leaders have had a front-row seat for the demonstration of U.S. conventional military superiority in Iraq and elsewhere across the region, and they are sufficiently prudent to steer clear of making themselves the next target. That prudence was clear in Wednesday’s ballistic missile attack on Iraqi military bases at Ain al-Assad and Erbil. The rapidity, scope, and apparent precision of the Iranian response highlights the muscular principles of the Islamic Republic’s security doctrine, which holds that the regime’s survival depends on its strength and its readiness to go on the offensive. The imagery of Iranian firepower surely satisfied a domestic audience primed for vengeance after massive, nation-wide funeral processions.

However, Tehran’s prior warning to Iraqi counterparts seemed designed to minimize or avoid American casualties, as Brigadier General Amir Ali Hajizadeh asserted on Thursday. In this sense, the early Iranian response was consistent with the theocratic state’s calibrated, incremental escalation against U.S. interests and partners in Iraq and around the Persian Gulf over the past six months, when Washington ratcheted up economic pressure on Iran to unprecedented levels. In a series of mostly small-scale, precise attacks that culminated in September with a more consequential strike on Saudi oil infrastructure, Tehran sought to raise the costs to Washington and the world without placing itself in the cross-hairs of American firepower. The recent skirmishing gave Iran’s savvy strategists an accurate read on Trump’s aversion to further entanglements, and their calculation that a limited strike, with no fatalities, would avoid U.S. reprisals proved correct.

However, the recent track record only underscores why the U.S.-Iran confrontation is likely to escalate once again. Iran’s objective in its steady escalation since May—to compel an end to the Trump administration’s grueling economic sanctions that wreaked havoc on its economy—remains as pressing as ever, especially after massive protests rocked major cities around the country in November. And now, the regime’s determination to end the American siege is magnified by an ideological and strategic zeal to settle scores for Soleimani’s death, to preserve or even expand the footprint that he achieved for Iran across the broader Middle East, and ideally emerge from this crisis with some big strategic gain, such as durably eroding U.S. presence and influence in the broader Middle East. Tehran is also ramping back up its nuclear program, announcing shortly after the Soleimani strike new breaches of the 2015 nuclear deal that was first abrogated by Trump in 2018.

For that reason, it’s a virtual certainty that Wednesday’s missile barrage was not the end of the Iranian reprisals. Tehran’s next steps will likely continue the hallmarks of its playbook developed over the course of its 40-year campaign to entrench its own influence at the expense of its adversaries—purposeful rather than wanton projection of power, conscious of the balance of costs and benefits, opportunistic in exploiting openings or weakness, inventive in the application and wide-ranging in scope. This is a regime that has orchestrated terror attacks from Buenos Aires to Bulgaria; it wields considerable cyber capabilities as well as a network of semi-autonomous proxies. At least some of these groups, especially in Iraq, will be eager to avenge their own grievances against Washington, irrespective of any Iranian restraint. Faced with an American visegrip on their economy and advantageous unconventional capabilities, nothing will be off the table as Tehran assesses its next moves against the United States.

For its part, the Trump administration is not immune to the temptation of escalation, as was demonstrated vividly over the past 10 days. In principle, the president doesn’t want to initiate another costly, protracted American military intervention in the Middle East. He correctly read the war weariness of Americans long before it became an accepted political fact, and he has only disdain for investing in the development of a more peaceful or prosperous international system.

However, his Iran policy has been consistently aggressive since the earliest days of the administration, across the rotating cast of his senior national security advisors. This reflects a calculus with broad support among the Republican national security establishment that confrontation rather than engagement represents the most effective way to deter the threats posed by Iran. In a mirror image of the worldview in Tehran, the White House is driven by the conviction that American reluctance to use force to deter or punish Tehran and its proxies has only invited Iranian expansion and empowered its regional posture. From this perspective, Washington can only prevail if we are prepared to risk blowback and take the fight to them in the arena of our own advantage—conventional warfare.

This, not an intemperate Powerpoint slide or an obsession with the 1979 embassy seizure, is what drove the decision to take the momentous step of taking out Tehran’s most capable regional military commander. And so far, the Trump administration sees the logic of its get-tough approach validated. The fallout has been bearable, the domestic economy remains unscathed, and the administration’s base is energized by the perception of a big foreign policy victory against a notorious villain, timed at an opportune moment as his reelection campaign gets underway. Especially in the absence of any serious framework for durable de-escalation or negotiations, the administration’s perception that its risky Soleimani strike paid off will tempt them to meet future Iranian provocations with further confrontation. And with the nuclear agreement on the verge of collapse, the White House will be inclined to embrace an even more assertive posture as Iranian stockpiles of enriched uranium accumulate and reduce Tehran’s breakout time to nuclear weapons capability.

The crisis has abated for the moment, but there should be no illusions. Washington and Tehran are now locked into a long, unpredictable conflict with Iran where the propensity for miscalculation is high. Finding a persuasive diplomatic exit ramp that can circumvent the risk of future conflict needs to be the highest priority.

Read More

[yhteong]

The Past, Present and Future of AI in Marketing

"If a machine can think, it might think more intelligently than we do, and then where should we be? Even if we could keep the machines in a subservient position, for instance by turning off the power at strategic moments, we should, as a species, feel greatly humbled.” – Alan Turing, the father of modern computing, in a 1951 talk on BBC Radio

IBM’s artificial intelligence (AI) platform, Watson, is loquacious; it can tell jokes, answer questions and write songs. Google’s AI can now read lips better than a professional and can master video games within hours. MIT’s AI can predict action on video two seconds before it begins. Tesla’s AI powers the company’s innovative self-driving car. All seem to propel us closer to Turing’s world of machines with more intelligence than humans.

If Turing’s words now ring true, should we feel humbled or anxious? For many marketers, the anxiety and existential fear has given way to hope and excitement for a new tomorrow.

“It’s exciting, isn’t it?” says Doug Dome, who has been studying data’s impact on marketing for 30 years. Dome, who works as a marketing consultant and adjunct professor at University of Chicago’s Graham School, grows excited as he talks about the possibility of AI: the time it could save marketers, how it can bring companies closer to consumers and its potential to catch customers in stride, saving effort on the business and consumer side. As an integrated marketing communications professional, his excitement about the potential of AI has given way to the belief that AI will completely change branding, marketing, advertising and perhaps the world.

“Just think about all the innovations, all the promise of technology,” Dome says. “Is your life now really that much more convenient? Is it easier? I don’t know that it is. … I think in order to be able to fully benefit from a data-driven marketplace, marketers will have to take a broader perspective on problem resolution, and the tribal approaches that Pedro Domingos has articulated are the solution.”

Dome is referring to Pedro Domingos’ book​, The Master Algorithm. This is the future of marketing, he believes. Dome animatedly spins his fingers around a circular chart within the book that explains the need to bring unique tribes—or philosophies—of machine learning together, each with their own algorithm.

So certain is Dome that AI is the future of marketing that he has banked his time and money on it with Core7, what he calls his “entrepreneurial sabbatical.” Core7 is, in theory, a marketing platform that applies AI to marketing ecosystems via a “master algorithm.” The algorithm would be licensed to brands and agencies, which he says would create a hyper-speed version of a fully integrated marketing ecosystem. However, Dome has been unable to get the company off the ground; investors have not yet been on board with the idea. It’s an ambitious goal, he admits, and when he first started pitching the idea two years ago, it was downright audacious. The Core7 team was developing the platform and algorithm and ready to go further, but thus far, Dome has been left to study AI from the outside.  

Dome still believes he’s on the path to finding marketing AI’s master algorithm. “It may not be me, but it will be somebody like me that will ultimately develop an applicable master algorithm in marketing,” he says. “I’m disheartened to some degree, but at the same time I know I am on the cutting edge of where the marketing industry is headed. I know that philosophically, I’m there.”

What Is Marketing AI?

For many marketers, terms like AI, machine learning and master algorithm may seem akin to a foreign language. In Domingos’ words, the “master algorithm” would work much like a key that could open every lock. A professor of computer science at University of Washington, Domingos says this is the big difference between the machine learning he writes about—which functions as the limitless key—and traditional programming. To keep the comparison consistent, new keys must be created for every lock in traditional programming; if marketers want to track a certain subsegment of customers, they must create a new algorithm for each.

“The beauty of machine learning,” Domingos says, “is you don’t have to program the computer to do any of these things. The same algorithm will learn to do all of them depending on the data you give it.”

Domingos describes AI as a subset of computer science, in which computers can undertake reasoning and common sense tasks—such as vision and knowledge—which were formerly only undertaken by humans.

Stuart Russell, professor of computer science and Smith-Zadeh professor in engineering at University of California, Berkeley, describes AI a bit differently on his website: “It’s the study of methods for making computers behave intelligently. Roughly speaking, a computer is intelligent to the extent that it does the right thing rather than the wrong thing. The right thing is whatever action is most likely to achieve the goal, or, in more technical terms, the action that maximizes expected utility. AI includes tasks such as learning, reasoning, planning, perception, language understanding and robotics.”

Machine learning is a subset of AI that allows computers to learn the same way people do, only faster, without being explicitly programmed, Domingos says. Machines can rapidly change, grow and create when new data is inputted into the system. In theory, this means a program might be able to do years of work in the span of days or even moments. It is, Domingos says, the fulcrum of AI and what gives computers potential to learn, hold conversations, seem human and potentially create their own marketing algorithms.

“AI is the goal; AI is the planet we’re headed to,” says Domingos. “Machine learning is the rocket that’s going to get us there. And Big Data is the fuel.”

The central idea for Domingos’ “master algorithm” is to take algorithms from the five machine learning schools of thought (Bayesians, Evolutionaries, Connectionists, Symbolists and Analogizers) and meld them into one. The Core7 concept would shrink this down to an industry-specific basis, Dome says. For example, the automotive industry could have a single master algorithm, as the customer journey is essentially the same at each company. This master algorithm would, in theory, add efficiency, increase ROI and allow brands to develop a customized relationship at the consumer level that would revolutionize branding. While Dome’s dream has yet to be fulfilled, Domingos already sees an entryway within the marketing industry. He believes that in five to 10 years, machine learning will be used beyond marketing and across entire companies.

“The first can be segmentation … but then it spreads to everything else,” he says. “When you look at companies like Amazon and Google—the most advanced in machine learning—they use machine learning in every nook and cranny of what they do.”

In fact, Amazon has become so good at machine learning that a third of its business comes from a machine learning-powered function: recommended purchases. Similarly, Domingos says approximately three-fourths of movies watched on Netflix come from the company’s recommendation system, which also runs on machine learning.

“The recommended system is very famous at Amazon, but it’s one of many,” he says, calling this “quintessential machine learning.” “They’ve become good enough at this that they’re starting to roll out what they call ‘predictive delivery,’ in which they send you stuff before you even order it. They’re so confident you want it that they just put it on the truck. I’ve asked them, ‘What happens if I get this and I don’t want it?’ They say, ‘Well, we’ll just let you have it for free.’ This is how confident they’ve become in their ability.”

While Domingos says Amazon has yet to pinpoint exact future purchases, the company is adept at stocking items on the delivery truck with the knowledge that someone will order that item within hours.

This concept could solve a real challenge marketers have: hitting the customer “in stride,” not just having them come to you, but knowing when they stop and start, where they travel and what they need. Knowing their desires, more or less, and having the ability to communicate with them via AI chatbot programs or automated messages without wasting employee time. The potential of AI allows companies to use data already at their disposal to measure in real time, learn more about the customer and anticipate what happens next.

“Today is very much a race to who can develop the master algorithm first,” Dome says.

Marketing’s Quest for Singularity

“Our technology, our machines, are part of our humanity. We created them to extend ourselves, and that is what is unique about human beings.” - Ray Kurzweil, futurist, computer scientist and inventor

When Markus Giesler was a child, he was floored by the idea of the profoundly villainous HAL 9000, a conceptual AI from Stanley Kubrick’s “2001: A Space Odyssey.” He was so titillated by the idea that he and a friend tried to recreate a good-natured version of HAL in his own home. For weeks, Giesler would videotape his parents as they entered and exited rooms. He analyzed their language and noted their moods, realizing his AI would have to be tailored to his parents’ experiences to deliver the realism of HAL.

“About a month or two later, we had finally established a constellation that worked: every time our parents entered the room they were able to have a one-minute conversation with a computer. Not really the most elaborate chat but enough to impress them—and the occasional guests,” Giesler writes on his blog.

Giesler, who is the chair of the marketing department at York University’s Schulich School of Business and director of the Big Design Lab, researches AI concepts further down the path of his childhood creation, such as smart homes and driverless cars. However, humans were interested in AI long before his adventures with HAL, all the way back to antiquity before the Middle Ages, he says. There has always been a longing for what he calls “technology with a spirit.”

“It’s surprising to me that we’re only now beginning to see AI as a marketing construct and as something to look into from a marketing and customer experience design standpoint,” he says. “It makes sense for it to become more mainstream now when you consider the influx of AI algorithms, apps and mechanisms coming into everyday consumption, but artificial intelligence is not necessarily a new thing.”

What has changed is the awareness of AI, particularly in marketing. This awareness seemed to begin with a bang in 2012 with the infamous story of Target accidentally figuring out a young woman was pregnant before her father did by automatically analyzing her shopping habits and sending her advertisements for baby necessities. Now, perhaps startled by the technology’s abilities, companies have convinced themselves of AI’s impact. In a June 2016 report, Weber Shandwick found that 68% of CMOs report their company is “planning for business in the AI era” with 55% of CMOs expecting AI to have a “greater impact on marketing and communications than social media ever had.” This change in awareness may go a long way toward marketing and other industries accepting AI. Giesler says a shift in the decision-making process takes as much change in humans as it does in technology.

“I am most fascinated with AI in marketing when it’s invisible,” he says. “It’s one thing to talk about AI as this [creation of] applications that totally immerse consumers into these extraordinary experiences. It’s another to see how AI has invisibly crept into some of the most taken-for-granted aspects of everyday consumption to shape who we are as individuals, who we are as families, how we think about safety, togetherness and all this. One level on which we see that is cellphones having become an extension of who we are.

“AI is dramatically reshaping and redefining not only the market and what companies can or cannot do with customer experience, but who we are as individuals and groups,” Giesler says.

Writer Robots

In a towering office building off of the Chicago River sits a notable example of AI’s current and potential capabilities. Narrative Science, a natural language generator, has become well-known by marketers for its ability to produce written stories within seconds based off analytics. The company’s AI can use data from Google Analytics, for example, and write sentences like: “New users spent 16 fewer seconds on your site than returning users did last month. This could indicate that your new users didn’t find the information they needed or came to the site expecting something else.”

Katy De Leon, vice president of marketing at Narrative Science, says she couldn’t believe the company’s claim when she first read the job ad four years ago. “It just sounded incredulous to me,” she says. “I needed to talk to someone about it because I just couldn’t believe it.”

After four years of seeing AI in action, De Leon is a believer in not just Narrative Science, but in the potential for AI in marketing. AI has come at the right time with the explosion of Big Data, she says, and her company’s capabilities are especially mind-boggling at first glance for those on the outside. Narrative Science, born at Northwestern University as a collaboration between a computer science class and a journalism class, received coverage early in its existence when journalists at The New York Times and other publications were awed by a tool that could put together sentences from raw data—in this case, reports from sporting events. Now, the most lucrative customers of Narrative Science are in the government and the financial industry—think Fortune 1,000—as well as web analysts and small to medium-sized marketers.

Eyes across the industry are on the marketing tech landscape, which even De Leon admits is getting crowded and noisy. However, with increasing access to data, it’s never been more important for organizations to make sense of the noise. AI is another tool marketers can have at their disposal with potential for saving money, increasing efficiency and improving business.

“When you have 20,000 customers and you want to communicate with them as if you know them very well and … communicate something relative to them—something they care about—we can enable them to get to that level of personalization at a scale that wouldn’t be possible with people,” she says.

Where is Marketing AI Going?

Marketers should expect quick changes with AI’s potential to build upon and grow itself, experts say. Businesses and marketing departments are already vigorously moving ahead with the adoption of AI technology, according to Meabh Quoirin, co-owner and CEO of the Foresight Factory & Future Foundation. They are eager to see its promised benefits come to fruition.

“It’s not just about automation for automation’s sake, but if we can go faster, there’s more money to be made,” she says of the average company’s mentality.

How humans view technology, especially in marketing, has progressed over the past five years, Quoirin says, and it’s likely to keep progressing at breakneck speed. There are many possibilities for AI in marketing, health, entertainment and business; the technology is just starting to bear fruit, she says.

One possibility sure to entice across industries is what Quoirin calls “beyond human” AI, which can be used to “cheat death,” as well as add human bio-enhancements, prosthetics or implants. This could work well in the medical field, of course, but she says it may also work from a customer experience perspective. Marketers could find interest in tools for performance improvements for the average person; ways to burn calories, eat well, work faster and move better, especially considering the success of gadgets such as the FitBit.

“Broadly speaking, we tend to find that as soon as people are using [technology] like this in a context where it helps them get things done faster, they adjust to that convenience very quickly,” she says. “What we see is that it is a question of ‘when’ rather than ‘if’ with AI. But it will happen bit by bit. A lot of the things we worry about will just gently recede as we get used to being better humans.”

AI advancements may also change the concept of who we are and how marketers interact with humans and their technological extensions. Giesler says how consumers represent themselves online, how machines become an extension of who we are and whether marketers should market to these technologies once they gain a certain kind of sentience are all concepts he actively studies. “That’s wicked, right?” he says with a laugh.

Gieseler has done his own research on where humans end and where machines begin, which he says is an unbelievably fascinating and terribly scary new frontier to study. This inevitably leads to questions about how people live, how their habits are measured and how they’re watched by government-run AI technology, such as facial-recognition software—another budding AI concept. This brings to light existential fears of society becoming a bit too similar to George Orwell’s novel 1984, causing many to demur at the thought of AI’s rapid progress. Through all of these possibilities and theories, Giesler believes marketers can take center stage in redefining and renegotiating the boundaries of where the human ends and where technology begins. It’s an onerous duty filled with opportunity.

“We are the ones who best understand the human technological interfaces and how to design markets that are truly better than the sum of their parts when it comes to these redesigned interfaces,” he says.

Apple is the best example of this thus far, Giesler says. He’s assisted in Apple’s research and says Apple TV—a recent advancement that Steve Jobs called simply a “hobby”—is reshaping in-home entertainment and branding with AI concepts.  

“For a long time, Apple adopted this top-box approach where you have the Apple TV box next to other cable boxes. That probably didn’t work,” Giesler says. “The difference came when Apple recognized that consumption is really more a matrix than an individual box with a person looking at a TV screen. If you want to conquer the living room, you really need to spread all through the home.”

By seeing the market as more of a matrix, he says Apple cleared the path for marketers to use interfaces that let consumers better navigate their lives. Enabled by AI, Apple and researchers made these advancements after looking through the lens of today’s technology-enabled world.

“AI leads to changes in the way we do marketing, not just in the tech space literally, but also metaphorically, in terms of how we understand brands, customers and market segments,” he says.

Will Marketing Jobs Be Safe?

Upon hearing about AI’s capabilities, many will ask, “What’s the catch?” There are the existential fears expressed by Bill Gates and Elon Musk that computers could become too smart and take over the world. There are fears that AI could occupy the citizenry’s space too heavily and be seen as an invasion of privacy. Then there are palpable fears of AI taking jobs away from marketing and many other industries. After all, robots and computers don’t make a yearly salary.

According to a June 2016 report from Forrester, AI, machine learning, robots and automation will mean a net loss of 7% of U.S. jobs by 2025. The technology will mainly eat away at office and administrative support staff. New jobs, such as content curators, data scientists and robot monitoring professionals, will be created, but the losses will be greater than the gains.

“I think there will be an impact on jobs; we call this trend de-pop in the sense that working at large is going to change,” Quoirin says. “There will be competition for jobs. Equally, the new jobs will create new demands … We do see a shift in that.”

Even with fears of job loss looming in marketing and across other industries, Domingos says humans will still be necessary due to a paucity of data scientists, or those who automate the work of computer scientists and create AI algorithms. These algorithms have potential to take jobs—a factor of 1 million, when you talk about automating the jobs of computer scientists, Domingos says—from many people, but there’s a lack of data scientist talent.

“The war for talent is really raging,” he says. “One reason the demand has exploded and the supply changed quickly is you need people with a Ph.D.; that takes five years. ... The irony is a lot of the professors are moving to the industry level, which is good in the short term but it’s actually eating the seed corn. There are not enough people to train the students.”

This may come as a breath of relief for marketers, but Quoirin says marketers should expect the necessity for a transition of skill set and talent management to more creative and conceptual endeavors, areas where humans thrive over machines.

“Let’s not be too vanilla on this: If we take a sector like finance or retail baking, there will be an eye on how many tellers can be replaced,” she says. “Those numbers of cost cutting will have been done already. But let’s face it, without even a hint of what’s to come in AI, those jobs were under threat. Simple computer processing and mobile banking have already threatened those kinds of things. Artificial intelligence is much beyond that level of cost cutting. People are mostly thinking about how they can rechannel mundane jobs.” Although Quoirin believes AI will be “unstoppable,” she says humans will still be needed to interpret AI’s signals and numbers.

AI is expected to keep growing. Neuroscientist and author Sam Harris, who presented a TED Talk on humanity’s potential to lose control of AI, said on his podcast “Waking Up” that AI’s growth will keep advancing unless something much worse happens to society first. For this reason, Quoirin believes menial jobs will eventually be replaced by the robots, which may mean an alternate solution, such as a minimum salary for all, needs to be considered.

“There is, of course, also the future where we just work less,” she says. “And we get longer weekends. Wouldn’t that be fantastic?”

The Way Forward: Excitement or Fear?

“Some people worry that artificial intelligence will make us feel inferior, but then, anybody in his right mind should have an inferiority complex every time he looks at a flower.” – Alan Kay, computer scientist

AI’s marketing moment may be coming soon, if it isn’t already here. Domingos says Silicon Valley had its AI tipping point five years ago but kept it to themselves as a “secret sauce,” of sorts, for competitive advantage. Now, the proverbial cat is out of the bag and he says CEOs of Fortune 500 companies demand AI. “I don’t know what it is yet, but I know we need it,” Domingos says, doing his best CEO impression. However, he believes adopting AI will be easier for digitally native companies—such as Facebook and Google—or industries like marketing or finance where data has been essential from the start.

“The companies furthest along also happen to be in sectors where they have profit margins large enough for them for afford machine learning efforts,” he says. “If you’re Google and you [essentially] print money, you can afford to spend money on machine learning and you do. If your profit margins [are 1% or 2%], then it’s harder. They can only afford to do it so much because they don’t have money to do more.”

For the Doug Domes of the world, this makes AI look that much more enticing. Dome believes AI has “limitless” potential for profitability and says the positives of the technology will be immense, even if there are some ethical and moral bugs to work out.

In Giesler’s view, the negative predictions of AI have always been around; he’s always heard that his beloved HAL 9000 would be created in real life. However, despite advancement, he thinks AI is still far away from the ability to snuff out humans.

“There is something about being human that is unique,” he says. “There are simple mechanisms we can use to unmask the technology as what it is: a stupid series of algorithms that doesn’t really get it. That’s still pretty much the reality of everything we have around us.

“All the beautiful things we associate with marketing, they are and will continue to be the human actors and the human participants, not so much the technology,” Giesler says. “The beauty of real technology is that it’s like a mirror: We look inside it and what we see is who we are as human beings. Markets are human. The technology helps us get closer to the beauty of that principle.”

The post was originally posted by American Marketing Association at https://www.ama.org/publications/MarketingNews/Pages/past-present-future-ai-marketing.aspx