ben townsend

See below for a selection of writing I have done for advertising and marketing campaigns.

This is an ad spot I co-wrote for Google’s Search On campaign as part of freelance work for the agency 1st Avenue Machine.

blog posts I wrote for AI startup Sorcero to market their technology:

• Overcoming The Challenge Of Life Science CRMs: How NLP-Powered AI Can Turn Insights Into Action
  Companies throughout the life science industry are facing a thorny logistical challenge in how to best collect valuable insights from their Medical Service Liaisons and incorporate them into their strategic goals. While MSLs regularly engage in meaningful interactions with Key Opinion Leaders (KOLs), the technology used to keep track of what happens during those interactions… Read more: Overcoming The Challenge Of Life Science CRMs: How NLP-Powered AI Can Turn Insights Into Action
• Beyond Big Data and Chatbots: Natural Language Processing and the Potential for AI in Insurtech
  In the last few years, companies within the insurance industry have been looking to the growing field of Insurtech to remain competitive and better serve customers. Much of the interest is focused on the ways in which Artificial Intelligence can foster greater efficiency in how those companies do business. A recent survey of senior insurance… Read more: Beyond Big Data and Chatbots: Natural Language Processing and the Potential for AI in Insurtech
• A “Human In The Loop” AI Solution That Empowers Experts
  Certain types of AI struggle to adjust to unexpected change. An investigation in Nature notes that many scientists view AI systems as “fundamentally brittle,” describing them as “brilliant at what they do until, taken into unfamiliar territory, they break in unpredictable ways.” While the technology may someday reach a point where it can seamlessly incorporate sudden deviations… Read more: A “Human In The Loop” AI Solution That Empowers Experts
• Language Intelligence Understands Domain-Specific Content
  One field where Language Intelligence can prove particularly useful is the insurance industry. All insurance companies deal in large volumes of unstructured content, where Language Intelligence can serve as an important tool for navigating a business landscape that is undergoing significant upheaval. The scale of uncertainty that insurance markets are currently experiencing is nearly unprecedented.… Read more: Language Intelligence Understands Domain-Specific Content
• How Language Intelligence Is Transforming Business Operating Models
  Last week, Sorcero CEO Dipanwita Das joined Cainon Coates of Alumni Ventures Group for a discussion on AI for Good and Language Intelligence. In their wide-ranging conversation on AI’s past and present role in our society, Das focused on how AI that processes and writes human language has the potential to transform industries that are critical to the global… Read more: How Language Intelligence Is Transforming Business Operating Models
• VIDEO: Easily Ingest PDFs into an AI-Native Format
  Watch Sorcero Integrations Engineer Juan Pablo Ugarte demo DocMeta, an editor for the pipelines used to ingest unstructured text and other content from PDF files into the Sorcero Language Intelligence platform. With the interactive DocMeta tool, developers select areas in a PDF to which they want to apply Language Intelligence capabilities. Then with a click… Read more: VIDEO: Easily Ingest PDFs into an AI-Native Format

blog posts I wrote for the e-cigarette company Bedford Slims:

• Why Banning E-Cigarettes In National Parks Is America’s Stupidest Idea
  This post originally appeapred on the shuttered Bedford Slims blog The National Parks Service this month proposed a ban on vaping and e-cigarette use in National Parks. It’s not really anything new. NPS is just making permanent an earlier order clarifying that vaping is not allowed in all areas designated non-smoking. Ken Burns’ documentary on National Parks referred to them… Read more: Why Banning E-Cigarettes In National Parks Is America’s Stupidest Idea
• Horrifying Accident Reveals The Danger Of Police Crack-Downs On Vaping
  This post originally appeapred on the shuttered Bedford Slims blog Andrew Hall, a 30-year-old car salesman from Pocatello, Idaho, was severely injured this week when his vaping rig exploded in his mouth. According to a series of posts on Hall’s Facebook page, he was standing in his bathroom getting ready for work when it happened. The explosion blasted… Read more: Horrifying Accident Reveals The Danger Of Police Crack-Downs On Vaping
• Why Vaping Could Get More Expensive In New York This Year
  This post originally appeapred on the shuttered Bedford Slims blog New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo last week issued his annual budget plan, which includes a proposal to tax vaping in the state for the first time. Specifically, the budget (were it to become law) would impose a tax of 10 cents per millimeter on the liquid or gel… Read more: Why Vaping Could Get More Expensive In New York This Year
• What Will Trump’s New FDA Commisioner Mean For Vaping?
  This post originally appeapred on the shuttered Bedford Slims blog The U.S. Senate last week confirmed President Trump’s nominee to lead the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), Scott Gottlieb, M.D., a physician and venture capitalist investor. As with all things Trump, the choice of Gottlieb was controversial. Democrats were not happy about Gottlieb’s financial ties to dozens… Read more: What Will Trump’s New FDA Commisioner Mean For Vaping?