Adam Sweet

This week a16z posted a clip of two OpenAI people, James Sun and Ari Weinstein, talking about something I see every day: the gap between how San Francisco thinks about AI and how the rest of us actually use it. They said it plainly. In San Francisco, people think, "the labs can do everything, why doesn't everybody just install it and have it do stuff?" But for the average small business owner, they listed four hurdles: Understanding what the tools can actually do. Connecting them in a way that makes sense. Deploying them. Servicing them when something goes wrong. They're right about all four. Their answer is "computer use," AI that runs your programs the way a person would, clicking and typing, so it works with any software without anyone building a special connection. That's a real step forward. I use an AI helper that works that way, and it saves me hours. But it only solves one of the four Computer use fixes hurdle number two, connect...

Business Advice: Who I've Worked With The Keene Chamber Orchestra Keene, New Hampshire, under Eric Stumacher. The Keene Chamber Orchestra was founded in Keene, New Hampshire, in 1991 by the pianist Eric Stumacher, who led it as music director and conductor for more than thirty years. I worked with the orchestra under Eric. What they needed A website Bios of the principal players A way to share their concerts MP3s of their performances A place for all their other important information What I did I built the website and wrote up the bios of the principals, and set up a way to share the concerts and MP3s so people who missed a performance could still hear it. I also advised them on booking events and marketing their performances in the Keene and Monadnock region. An orchestra lives on its audience, and in a small region that means knowing the venues, the papers and the people who show up. Need a hand with your business or ensemble? Send me a note or reach me throug...

Business Advice: Who I've Worked With The Berkshire Batteria Samba drumming from the Berkshires. The Berkshire Batteria is a samba troupe from the Berkshires, playing Brazilian rhythms on traditional Brazilian percussion. They've been at it since 1994. How we met I met them on the airplane, on the trip to Cairo in 1999. What they needed A website Social media profiles A way to share their videos, before YouTube was around Help marketing the ensemble to get more gigs What I did I set them up with a website and social media profiles, and found them a way to get their performance videos in front of people back when that took real work. Then I helped them market the group to the people who book that kind of act. A samba band is something you have to see and hear. The job was getting it in front of the rig...

Adam Sweet, Granby, Massachusetts

  Local stories need local outlets. Finding the door is the hard part. Notes from a Granby songwriter on getting the word out in the Pioneer Valley These days I write songs about real western Mass stories: a Hadley witch, a fire chief on a gray Percheron, a WWI sergeant from my own family, and a freylekhs for Valley Light Opera's Fiddler on the Roof . Songs like these belong in local papers and on local radio. So this fall I set out to tell the people who cover the Valley about them. It has been an education. I want to share what I've learned, with respect for the people on the other end, because I think it helps musicians, small businesses, and the outlets themselves. The newsrooms are stretched thin When I emailed my Fiddler song to local writers and arts contacts, most of the replies were automatic out-of-office notes. I don't take that personally. Western Mass has fewer reporters covering more towns than it did when I started playing out. The people who are left are ju...

  "You can't be mystified by AI. You cannot be terrified by it." Jensen Huang, CEO of Nvidia Celticado on Stage Nearly every musician I know is afraid of AI. I wrote about that recently, and then Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang said it plainer than I could: "You can't be mystified by AI. You cannot be terrified by it. You have to find a way to activate yourself to take advantage of it." He calls this the beginning of a new industrial revolution. Not in the production of energy or food, but the production of intelligence. We've been here before I've played fiddle since 1966. I've watched musicians fear the drum machine, the synthesizer, home recording, MP3s, and streaming. Each time, the players who did best weren't the ones who hid. They learned the new tool, kept what made them human, and got back to work. What AI can't do, and what it can AI won't sit in a kitchen and hear your grandmother's story. It won't know why a tune makes you...