As you well know, AI is often rubbished as a threat to our jobs.

You might call it the devil in the church.

But does it deserve the bashing it endures?

Here’s a podcast that makes a dark view of technology seem shortsighted.

It’s Tyler Cowen talking to a celebrated writer and thinker who has been dead 279 years.

That’s Jonathan Swift, master of irony and satire with works like A Modest Proposal and of course, in 1726, Gulliver’s Travels.

Swift speaks again.

Thanks to ChatGPT you’re treated to something with more than a little bit of charm.

 Have a listen: https://conversationswithtyler.com/episodes/jonathan-gpt-swift/

As this use of AI is fascinating and an education unto itself, it makes you think about the possibility of future hosts and their guests.

You could have someone currently at the top of Ogilvy, like Rory Sutherland, interview David Ogilvy on why so many ads today are monochrome, slapdash and lacking in verve and polish.

What a wonderful troublemaker Ogilvy would be in trying to reverse mediocrity.

Mark Ritson could interview Bill Bernbach on the role marketing played in crafting DDB’s 1959 VW campaign.

What was true then about marketing fundamentals carries weight now –  because when you allow yourself to be swamped with data you tear the humanity out of ads like “Think small”.

You could have Steve Harrison host David Ogilvy and Bill Bernbach together, talking about why the main purpose of advertising is to sell.

You’ll remember Ogilvy once said, if it doesn’t sell it isn’t creative.

That should be a welcome thought for CMOs who are befuddled when facing demanding sales managers.

With ChatGPT a whole new take on education will be waiting for you.

Because, as with long gone movie stars who are resurrected to appear in TV commercials, nobody’s dead anymore.