NewMR Archives - SOFTOFFICEPRO

The Pew Study Is Interesting, But It Does Not Settle Whether Synthetic Data Works – NewMR

October 3, 2026

Ray Poynter, 2 October 2026Note, this is written in my personal capacity and may not reflect the views of any other organisation. A valuable study, read too broadly Pew Research Center’s new report, Can AI Stand In for Human Survey-Takers? Not Really, published on 30 September 2026, is one of the most careful public tests… Read More »The Pew Study Is Interesting, But It Does Not Settle Whether Synthetic Data Works – NewMR

The other existential risk for market research – NewMR

September 13, 2026

Ray Poyner, 12 September 2026 Market research is debating whether AI will replace researchers, research agencies, panels, and much of the work people currently do. This is an important question. Jobs, businesses, professional identity, and the quality of insight all matter. However, another existential-risk question is more fundamental: could advanced AI threaten human life on… Read More »The other existential risk for market research – NewMR

Open-weight AI: four ways to use it and why access matters – NewMR

September 11, 2026

Ray Poynter, 1 August 2026 Open-weight AI is often discussed as though releasing the model automatically makes AI accessible. In practice, access depends on the interface, the computing power required and what the user is trying to achieve. In this post I will tell you about open-weight AI and the four main ways it is… Read More »Open-weight AI: four ways to use it and why access matters – NewMR

AI Update – 3 August 2026 – NewMR

September 10, 2026

Ray Poynter, NewMR The past week’s AI coverage points to three connected themes: increasingly capable frontier models, a shift from prompting chatbots to managing autonomous agents, and the rapid embedding of AI-led interviewing into mainstream research platforms. 1. Product update: Claude Opus 5 raises the performance bar Everyday AI’s Claude Opus 5 Takes the Crown… Read More »AI Update – 3 August 2026 – NewMR

What Is So Worrying About Recursive Self-Improvement? – NewMR

September 9, 2026

Ray Poynter, 5 August 2026 Recursive self-improvement, or RSI, sounds like science fiction. RSI is when AI improves itself, then the improved AI improves itself again, and the loop speeds up. But it is not science fiction; it is here and beginning to reshape what AI is and how quickly it develops. In this post,… Read More »What Is So Worrying About Recursive Self-Improvement? – NewMR

When several AI services fail at once: the continuity question for insights teams – NewMR

September 8, 2026

Ray Poynter, 4 September, 2026 Several leading AI services ran into trouble within the same few hours on Thursday this week. OpenAI’s status page recorded elevated errors across ChatGPT and Codex for roughly two hours before the incident was resolved. Anthropic separately reported errors affecting several Claude models, with the main incident closing after nearly… Read More »When several AI services fail at once: the continuity question for insights teams – NewMR

The Future of Qual | NewMR

May 22, 2025

Ray Poynter, 22 May 2025 Last week, I had the honour to be invited to attend the QRCA International Qualitative Conference in Berlin on behalf of ESOMAR. It was a fantastic event with leading-edge, innovative, and sometimes challenging presentations from North America, Africa, India and Europe. I also had the honour of being allowed to… Read More »The Future of Qual | NewMR

Draft Synthetic Data Manifesto | NewMR

October 1, 2024

Ray Poynter, 30 September, 2024 In this note I set out what I believe to be Synthetic Data, why we need to define Synthetic Data, and some guidelines that I think vendors and buyers should adopt. I have been involved in a wide range of discussion with a wide range of organisations, but these views… Read More »Draft Synthetic Data Manifesto | NewMR