Let's talk about AI
A personal, open letter from the CEP, the creator of Cuppi Home, talking about AI usage and the future of the company
From the CEP (Chief Executive Pooter)
AI is a very controversial topic and I wanted to be -very- open about the usage both in marketing and in production, as well as the vision for the future.
No one can deny that AI has already fundamentally changed the internet and the way some of us work. Realistically looking at the pace, reliability and reputation of the entire industry, I’m just patiently waiting for the bubble to burst. This makes me both happy and mostly nervous at the same time. Let me explain this further.
AI as a tool is extremely exciting. For years, I’ve been doing things on steroids: building advanced After Effects, Photoshop etc scripts and expressions for my daily job, learning and understanding (at a very fast pace) how to harden security of our backend, how to build with all the tools I’ve been using for 15 years in a more advanced way, understanding mortgages or how our 1895 house was built… and I can keep adding to the list.
The tool
If we look at Cuppi, the sheer amount of work I’ve been able to do has tripled compared to 2024. But not without consequences: just this year, I’ve had multiple burnouts as I was pushing myself to the limit (now I’m much better at drawing the line).
You would think, it’s just coding with a pinch of marketing. On top of all this, you're running a limited company, follow GDPR and ICO rules, write help articles, keeping them up-to-date, extensive documentations, including the average 6-8 pages long change logs for Apple reviews, testing, breaking, patching, thinking-thinking-thinking, spotting hallucinations... I’m both blessed and cursed with AI.
The industry
Where should I even start… I probably spend a good 2 hours daily reading and watching updates about how much our planet is on fire and how our pensions will implode within 12 months due to the trillions committed/poured into hyper-scaling data centres.
Sca.., sorry Sam Altman at OpenAI, a short-lived-meme-trillionaire and other billionaires being freaks and fear-mongering about super intelligence, while dividing people, exploiting workers, destroying every little corner of the internet and lobbying for hundreds of millions just to have a terrifying amount of control in the promise in the AI. The pushback, therefore, is incredible for all the right reasons. Which is also sad, as it’s genuinely a good tool to improve your work if you use it wisely. But you know… greed.
Enough of the dread, time to do something
JackiePoot Creations and Cuppi Home are proudly anti-corporate, pro-human and pro-community driven. I cannot tell you how much I hate the current state of the internet and how creativity is on life-support. When my 59-years-old mum picked a clearly AI prompted designer tote bag, I was unable to convince her why it’s so important to ditch this sh*t and support REAL art.
“But you just used AI in your recent ad!! And all your images are prompted on your website!!” - true, but I’m also not a millionaire. Right now, it’s the only way a guy with a laptop and huge ambitions can compete with multi-million-pound marketing budgets. There is NO way I would be able to communicate my vision, emotions and the value of Cuppi without using these generative tools (no, I’m not the type of person who can sit down, talk funny things into a camera and share it on TikTok… I’m way too introverted for that).
My bad habit is that I can’t stay in my lane and I always dream big.
Art is precious. This is why Cuppi is “hand-designed” by me, spending hundreds of hours planning and drawing in Figma. For this exact reason, in the future, Cuppi will be an absolute champion and promoter of human-made art. This includes ALL commercials, photos, graphics WHEN the company has the budget to do so. I worked in marketing for 10+ years, I have a Director Assistant qualification and hundreds of creative motion works. Creativity is in my blood which will never be replaced by any AI. I have a deeply trusted circle of people with the same ambitions, who built some of the best banking and high street brand commercials, winning big at festivals.
Let’s summarise
AI-generated content in Cuppi is temporary, hating on Big Tech (at least in its current state) is forever. Cuppi is a project for the community, sprinkled with loads of passion, care and zero-greed. Keeping the app as accessible and free as possible.
JackiePoot Creations will also start applying AI-generated content labelling, following the EU Code of Practice announced recently. As the UK is out of the EU (booo), we will do this completely voluntarily.
https://digital-strategy.ec.europa.eu/en/policies/eu-icons-labelling-ai-generated-content
The future goal is to hire the best, junior and senior, fund art, bring people closer - cause middle finger to division, its giving me a headache, - and make life easier. Have more breathing room. Declutter our purposely overwhelmed brains. It’s so bloody complicated, I have NO idea how others are keeping up with anything anymore. Getting out of my comfort zone and talking to people made me realise that we are sharing the same struggles.
So yeah, this is the Cuppi vision. Sacrifices in the beginning to create something new and helpful. Even if it’s just a handful of people using it for now, receiving Bin Day notifications will make my day. Building something that is the opposite of creepy Meta glasses.
Love, Jack