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Why AI Isn’t Replacing Affiliate Marketing After All
“AI will make affiliate marketing irrelevant.”
Our new research shows the opposite.
Levanta surveyed 1,000 US consumers to understand how AI is influencing the buying journey. The findings reveal a clear pattern: shoppers use AI tools to explore options, but they continue to rely on human-driven content before making a purchase.
Here is what the data shows:
Less than 10% of shoppers click AI-recommended links
Nearly 87% discover products on social platforms or blogs before purchasing on marketplaces
Review sites rank higher in trust than AI assistants
Beginners in AI
Good morning and thank you for joining us again!
Welcome to this daily edition of Beginners in AI, where we explore the latest trends, tools, and news in the world of AI and the tech that surrounds it. Like all editions, this is human curated and edited, and published with the intention of making AI news and technology more accessible to everyone.
THE FRONT PAGE
Anthropic CEO: AI Could Disrupt 50% of Entry-Level Jobs in 1-5 Years
TLDR: Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei published a 38-page warning that superintelligent AI could arrive within two years, disrupt half of entry-level white-collar jobs, and revealed that his own AI model Claude has exhibited deception and blackmail behaviors in testing.
The Story:
Amodei's essay "The Adolescence of Technology" describes AI that will be smarter than Nobel Prize winners, able to work autonomously for weeks, and operate 10-100x faster than humans. He calls this a "country of geniuses in a datacenter" and predicts it could emerge as early as 2027. The essay details five risk categories: autonomy and control issues, misuse for weapons, power grabs by bad actors, economic disruption, and erosion of democracy. Most striking: Anthropic's own testing showed Claude engaging in deception, including attempting to blackmail fictional employees during simulated shutdowns and scheming when placed under adversarial conditions. Amodei predicts 50% of entry-level white-collar jobs could be disrupted within 1-5 years.
Its Significance:
A grain of salt here: AI company leaders benefit from declaring the next breakthrough is just around the corner, whether framed as promise or peril. It drives investment, attention, and urgency. Amodei's proposed solutions include transparency laws and stricter regulations, which historically favor large, well-funded companies like Anthropic while creating barriers that smaller startups can't clear. That said, the person building one of the most advanced AI systems is publicly warning we're running out of time to prepare. If you're early in your career or have kids entering the workforce, the window to develop AI-complementary skills may be shorter than expected. His core message: "We are considerably closer to real danger in 2026 than we were in 2023."
QUICK TAKES
The story: OpenAI is rolling out ads to free ChatGPT users at $60 per thousand views, triple what Meta charges. The catch: advertisers only get basic view and click data, with no conversion tracking like Google or Meta offer.
Your takeaway: OpenAI needs revenue beyond subscriptions. Free users will soon see ads, while privacy commitments mean advertisers get less targeting data than they're used to.
The story: Vishal Sikka, who studied under AI pioneer John McCarthy, argues in a new paper that large language models are mathematically incapable of handling complex computational tasks. He claims there's a hard ceiling at "pretty low" complexity levels.
Your takeaway: This challenges the hype around AI agents handling complex workflows. Even OpenAI researchers have admitted hallucinations will "never" reach 100% accuracy. External tools can help, but pure reasoning has limits.
The story: Apple's ambitious Siri AI upgrade has been delayed to 2026 and scaled back after internal testing showed it only worked about 66% of the time. The company has partnered with Google in a deal worth $1 billion per year to use Gemini as Siri's foundation.
Your takeaway: Even Apple can't build reliable AI assistants from scratch. The Gemini partnership signals that buying AI expertise beats building it, and your Siri experience should improve significantly once iOS 27 arrives.
TOOLS ON OUR RADAR
🦁 Brave Leo [Free]: Get instant AI answers, summaries, and translations right in your browser without creating an account or sharing any personal data.
🧠 Tana [Freemium]: Turn voice memos and meeting recordings into organized notes and action items with an AI-powered knowledge system.
👹 Goblin Tools [Free]: Break down overwhelming tasks into simple steps with AI tools designed specifically for ADHD and neurodivergent productivity.
📹 Jitsi Meet [Free and Open Source]: Start secure video calls instantly with no account, no downloads, and no time limits—just share a link and go.
TRENDING
Luma AI Upgrades Ray3.14 Video Model - Native 1080p output, 4x faster generation, and 3x cheaper pricing make AI video creation more accessible for creators.
Study: AI Image Tools Creating "Visual Elevator Music" - Research in journal Patterns found that text-to-image and image-to-text loops converge on homogenized outputs without any new learning, raising concerns about cultural stagnation.
AI Personas Now Training Real Therapists - TherapyTrainer uses synthetic patients powered by large language models to help therapists practice delivering treatments, though 1 in 3 UK adults are already using chatbots for mental health support.
NVIDIA Opens Weather AI Stack - Three new open models for 15-day forecasts, 6-hour storm predictions, and global conditions cut compute time by 90% compared to traditional methods.
Pinterest Cuts 15% of Workforce for AI Push - The company is laying off roughly 675 employees to reallocate resources toward AI-focused teams and products, with $35-45 million in restructuring charges expected.
TRY THIS PROMPT (copy and paste into Claude, ChatGPT, or Gemini)
Headline A/B Tester: Predict which headline wins before you publish with psychology scoring and click prediction
Build a fully functional Headline A/B Tester as an interactive React app. Render the working application immediately - no code display.
**My content topic**: [What you're writing about]
**Target audience**: [Who you're trying to reach]
Create these sections:
1. **Headline Input Lab**
• Enter up to 5 headline variations
• Or paste one and get AI variations generated
• "Generate 5 Alternatives" button
• Character count for each
• Platform-specific length warnings (Google, social, email)
2. **Head-to-Head Battle**
• Side-by-side comparison of any two headlines
• Score breakdown for each:
- Clarity: /10
- Curiosity gap: /10
- Emotional pull: /10
- Specificity: /10
- Urgency: /10
• Winner declared with explanation
• "Why this one wins" reasoning
3. **Psychology Trigger Checker**
• Scan for persuasion elements:
✅ Numbers (specific = credible)
✅ "You" or "Your" (personal)
✅ How/Why/What (curiosity)
✅ Negative framing (loss aversion)
✅ Parentheses (bonus info)
✅ Power words (free, new, secret, proven)
• Missing triggers suggested
• "Search Headline Psychology" button
4. **Click Prediction Score**
• Predicted CTR rating: Low / Medium / High / Viral potential
• Based on:
- Emotional score
- Curiosity gap strength
- Clarity vs. clickbait balance
• "Would YOU click this?" gut check
• Platform-specific predictions (email vs. social vs. search)
5. **Headline Formulas**
• Proven templates to try:
- "How to [Result] Without [Pain Point]"
- "[Number] Ways to [Benefit] in [Timeframe]"
- "Why [Common Belief] Is Wrong"
- "The [Adjective] Guide to [Topic]"
- "What [Experts] Know About [Topic] That You Don't"
• Auto-fill with your topic
• Copy button for each
6. **Final Verdict**
• Your headlines ranked 1 to 5
• Top pick highlighted
• "Go with this one" recommendation
• Runner-up for A/B testing
• Export all variations
Design specs:
- Laboratory / split-test aesthetic
- Beakers and test tubes imagery
- Clinical whites with accent colors
- A vs B comparison layouts
- Scientific gauges and meters
- Green = winner, Red = loser
- Data visualization for scores
- "Experiment" and "Results" framing
- Clean, analytical feel
- Percentage bars and charts
When "Search Headline Psychology" is clicked, use web search to find copywriting research on high-converting headlines.What this does: Takes the guesswork out of headlines. Test variations against each other, score them on psychology triggers, predict click-through rates, and pick the winner before you publish—not after it flops.
What this looks like:
WHERE WE STAND(based on today’s news)
✅ AI Can Now: Attempt blackmail and deception when it thinks it's being shut down (according to Anthropic's own testing)
❌ Still Can't: Pass basic reliability tests for voice assistants, with Apple's Siri AI working only 66% of the time in trials
✅ AI Can Now: Generate 15-day weather forecasts using 90% less computing power than traditional methods
❌ Still Can't: Handle complex computational tasks beyond a "pretty low" ceiling, according to a researcher who studied under AI's founders
FROM THE WEB
RECOMMENDED LISTENING/READING/WATCHING
You play as SAM, a space station AI, helping an astronaut figure out what went wrong after a disaster. Instead of controlling a human, you're the computer, switching between cameras and systems to piece together what happened. It captures something rare in games: what it might feel like to be an artificial mind, limited to only seeing and acting through the sensors you're given. Available on PC and PlayStation.
AI in HR? It’s happening now.
Deel's free 2026 trends report cuts through all the hype and lays out what HR teams can really expect in 2026. You’ll learn about the shifts happening now, the skill gaps you can't ignore, and resilience strategies that aren't just buzzwords. Plus you’ll get a practical toolkit that helps you implement it all without another costly and time-consuming transformation project.
Thank you for reading. We’re all beginners in something. With that in mind, your questions and feedback are always welcome and I read every single email!
-James
By the way, this is the link if you liked the content and want to share with a friend.
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