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The AI Content Strategist Big Tech Calls First

Overview

Shownote

Highlights

Transcript

Chapters

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The AI Content Strategist Big Tech Calls First

Media and the Machine

Feb 12
Media and the Machine

Media and the Machine

Feb 12
OverviewShownoteHighlightsTranscriptChaptersPins

Shownote

My guest is CJ Chilvers. CJ has written three books — Principles for Newsletters, A Lesser Photographer, and The Van Halen Encyclopedia. By day, he’s Senior Content Strategist at StudioNorth.  His job is simple: get the most ROI for every word. Since ...

Highlights

In this episode, CJ Chilvers—a writer, content strategist, and AI practitioner—shares hard-won insights from ghostwriting for tech giants and building audience-first projects like *The Van Halen Encyclopedia*. He reflects not on AI hype, but on what actually moves the needle: human judgment, curation, and the quiet power of direct connection.
09:11
Editing—not writing—will be the more desired skill in the AI era
12:18
AI can do research easily and knows effective strategies from published testing results, but people, especially business people, may not prefer the truth and often mistake branding for strategy
31:05
Newsletters offer human-curated value amid rising AI-generated content
43:05
Humanized content outperforms personalized and automated content in the AI era
52:15
Employees are restricted from using external LLMs for work
1:01:07
Creators have little control over AI scraping — focus instead on building relationships with human readers
1:06:52
AI should augment production processes—not replace human creativity—in building meaningful viewer relationships
1:12:40
One person can make a big difference in life
1:18:48
Tags act as a smart filter for managing large content vaults
1:24:28
One speaker is a realist and excited about AI in app processes
1:27:46
Schools should let students use AI as a tool, as it's useful for those who struggle to start tasks
1:30:42
AI is increasingly seen as a viable conversational companion for users seeking engagement and support

Chapters

Why small teams move faster—and why big companies get stuck in cost-cutting mode
00:00
How AI helps with research but fails at closing real B2B deals
12:18
Will AI tools go ad-supported? And what would keep them ad-free?
24:42
Why hyperlinks and email newsletters are quietly winning the attention war
37:00
How top B2B companies build custom AI tools—without leaking sensitive data
49:08
What happens when your life’s work gets scraped—and why some creators don’t mind
55:12
Can AI make authentic connections? (Spoiler: It needs human direction)
1:06:52
What if you only needed *one* true fan to change your career?
1:10:00
How constraints—like tags and markdown—actually fuel creative momentum
1:18:48
What 'Live Without a Net' teaches us about realism, craft, and AI
1:24:28
Building something meaningful when your job might not exist in five years
1:27:46
How to launch a podcast—or any project—when attention is the real bottleneck
1:30:42

Transcript

Rob Kelly: I'm Rob Kelly, and this is Media and the Machine, a show about the biggest technology shift of our lifetime and how to profit from it. Each week, I talk with the founders and CEOs closest to AI and content, the ones figuring this out in real tim...