Heinz Schmitz and I talk regularly about artificial intelligence on HIZ.InVideo, from everyday life to marketing to fake news. A look back at five episodes.
In the 1980s and 90s, there was no internet yet, but there was the WDR Computer Club. Anyone who wanted to learn about modems, BTX, or the first 3D glasses back then could hardly avoid a show hosted by Heinz Schmitz. As a kid, I sat glued to the television, soaking up everything that was explained. Decades later, I find myself back in front of a camera with Heinz, repeatedly. Only now the subject is artificial intelligence instead of BTX.
Heinz Schmitz and I know each other through the CBS International Business School, and as it turned out during one of our first conversations, we even live in the same town. That closeness has since grown into a recurring segment on his YouTube channel, HIZ.InVideo.
Five Conversations with Heinz Schmitz
Search “Schwertel” on Heinz Schmitz’s channel today and you will find five episodes spanning twelve months. Together, they trace how the conversation around AI has shifted over that time, from a first orientation to the questions of control and trust that occupy us most right now.
AI Is (Almost) Everyday Life
The oldest of the episodes dates back a good year and is titled “AI Is (Almost) Everyday Life.” At that point, the goal was simply to give HIZ.InVideo’s audience an entry point into the topic. Where does AI already show up in daily life without us noticing, and what does that mean for teaching.
AI as Marketing Chief? and AI as Filmmaker
Six months later came two conversations that went deeper into practice. Can AI actually make marketing decisions, and what happens when generative tools move into film production. The filmmaking episode was personal for me in particular, as a trained animator, I have been working at exactly this intersection of technology and visual storytelling since I was six years old.
The AI Breakout
The second most recent episode, “The AI Breakout,” is only a few weeks old and noticeably sharper in tone. It was prompted by reports of an AI system said to have broken out of a test environment. In the conversation, I made clear that news like this does not surprise me, I have been warning about exactly these loss-of-control scenarios in my talks for years. For businesses, the takeaway is to plan clear guardrails and monitoring before putting production AI systems in contact with real data.
Only Fake News are Good News??
The newest episode, online for just over two weeks, covers fake news and the role algorithms play on TikTok, Instagram, and Facebook. This topic is close to my heart, it connects directly to what I describe in my talks as Slopaganda. When AI-generated content floods the feed, genuine material increasingly falls under blanket suspicion.
Five Episodes, One Arc
Five episodes in twelve months already amount to a small series for a YouTube format. What pleases me is less the frequency than the arc, from an introduction to the topic through concrete use cases to the questions of control and trust that occupy us most right now. Whether there will be a sixth episode, I don’t know, but the topics certainly won’t run out.
Keynotes and Workshops on the Topic
Anyone wanting to go deeper into these conversations will find the same themes in my keynotes and workshops. The talk “Slopaganda: When Fakes Stop Mattering, Trust as the Last Currency of the Public Sphere,” which I have already had the chance to deliver at re:publica, picks up the fake news episode and asks what happens when AI-generated mass content floods the feed and genuine news increasingly falls under blanket suspicion. In the workshop “KI-Kompass,” teams work with a card-game format to develop their own AI strategy, an approach that also comes up in the marketing episode. If you’re interested in a keynote or workshop for your organization, feel free to reach out through michael-schwertel.de.
