Custom kindle case

When you buy a brand new phone, you have two options; protect it from the world in a chunky, military-standard cover, or coat it in priceless diamonds, of course.

It turns out that some A-listers, like Kylie Jenner and Khloe Kardashian , have gone for the latter, and bought themselves some of the most luxurious iPhone cases around.

Plated with 24K gold, the stars of ‘ Keeping Up with the Kardashians ‘ spent $599 (£504) each on the cases from Golden Concept.

But these aren’t the only stars that own deluxe accessories, as the company also sells the world’s most expensive Apple Watch case.

This ‘Diamond Edition’ case is made from a single block of aerospace-grade titanium and contains 443 diamonds, putting its value at a whopping $15,000 (£12,500).

They are only owned by seven people in the world, including Middle Eastern royalty and a chart-topping American rapper – although the company’s CEO, Puia Shamsossadati, would not disclose exactly who.

‘We have had a few unusual requests over the years,’ he told MailOnline.

‘One asked for an iPhone case depicting the Hindu deity Ganesha cast in solid gold and encrusted with diamonds. It cost close to a quarter of a million dollars.’

He added that products have also been ordered by adult film companies for their talent, that had their autographs engraved.

‘We clearly have something for everyone!’ Mr Shamsossadati told MailOnline.

The businessman, based in Malmö, Sweden, claims the Golden Concept products are the modern day equivalent of owning a luxury car, and the ‘opposite of plastic accessory fast-fashion’.

All of the precious cases are shipped in recyclable, engraved wooden boxes.

Mr Shamsossadati said: ‘Items like a phone or a watch are used and looked at constantly, and they are what other people see you with as well.

‘It’s difficult to stand out when, with regards to the iPhone, hundreds millions of people have the exact same product as you.

‘We allow people to let their personalities show through their accessories.’

But the Kar-Jenners are not the only celebs flaunting some series bling on their gadgets, as Brazilian football player Neymar Jr owns at least three Apple Watch cases worth $1,999 (£1,653) each.

These are made from gold-plated stainless steel or titanium adorned with 200 Swarovski crystals.

Footballing legend Lionel Messi and hit-maker DJ Khaled also own iPhone cases plated with 18K gold, worth a whopping $5,000 (£4,142).

But some smartphone case designers put function over fashion, and one from Mous enabled an iPhone 14 to survive being launched during a bungee jump.

Mous CEO and co-founder, James Griffith, took part in the terrifying jump, during which he dropped Apple’s flagship smartphone from 60 feet off the ground .

Amazingly, both the smartphone and the smartphone case survived the test unscathed.

‘I’m not sure what’s scarier – jumping from that high or throwing a brand new iPhone 14!’ he joked.

However, both Mous and Golden Concept may have yet to cotton on to the next big trend in smartphone cases – artificial skin.

Scientists at the University of Bristol have developed a prototype skin that they say can wrap around devices such as smartphones to provide a ‘more natural interface’.

Designed to look like and mimic human skin, it responds to different forms of human contact such as tickling, caressing and pinching.

The researchers say their work opens the door for a possible future with ‘anthropomorphic devices’ – where gizmos have human characteristics.

The artificial skin was created using two layers of silicone – dubbed ‘dermis’ and ‘hypodermis’ layers – with an electrode layer in the middle made up of ultra-thin wires that act as sensors.

Two different types of silicone were dipped in pigment and moulded to give the creation a skin-like texture.

The researchers said their artificial skin allows devices to ‘feel the user’s grasp’ and has the ability ‘to detect interactions such as tickling, caressing, even twisting and pinching’.

What to Look For in a Water Cooling Kit in 2023

If your PC is running hot or you want to overclock your rig , you’ll want to look into liquid cooling. Liquid cooling, or water cooling kits, often use a reservoir and pipes to run liquid into water blocks, helping to keep the components the black is attached to cool.

Water cooling is often more efficient than air cooling, though it can seem complicated at first glance. But if you take things one step at a time, you can find a kit that works for your PC.

The most important thing you should pay attention to regarding water cooling kits is compatibility. Before you decide which kit to get, ensure that your PC case has enough room for the radiator and pump and that the included CPU water block is compatible with your CPU socket .

Radiators found in liquid cooling kits are usually 240mm, 280mm, or 360mm long. Aside from checking whether your PC enclosure can fit the radiator, you should also check the radiator’s thickness. Some chassis don’t support thicker radiators, so check out your PC case’s specs before pulling the trigger.

Next, you have the choice between soft and hardline tubing. If you’re a complete newbie to PC water cooling, we suggest you opt for soft tubing.

Rigid tubing looks better, but it’s also considerably more complicated to install since it requires a heat gun and mandrels to bend it and a saw or a pipe cutter to cut the tubing. Water cooling kits don’t include a heat gun, so ensure you have one beforehand.

If you’re dead set on using hardline tubing, try getting PETG instead of acrylic tubing since the former’s much easier to work with and won’t crack as soon as you look at it the wrong way, unlike acrylic tubing.

That said, if you’re using a cutting saw instead of a pipe cutter and are extra careful, you should be fine with using acrylic tubes.

You must also be accurate when measuring and cutting hardline tubes since being just half an inch off can make the tube too short to fit. We suggest bending the tube first and cutting it to the appropriate length later, so you don’t end up short.

On the other hand, soft tubing gives you much more breathing room since it’s soft and bendy, thus allowing you to easily measure the appropriate length before cutting it. If you’re still thinking about going hardline, check out JayzTwoCents’ guide on how to bend hardline tubing ; it’s very detailed and perfect for newbies .

You should also note that all liquid cooling kits only include a CPU water block. This is because GPUs come in all shapes and sizes, and manufacturers can’t make a single GPU water block compatible with all graphics cards. In other words, water-cooling your GPU will cost you extra.

Before we move on , let’s mention what components you can find in most water-cooling kits. They include a radiator and fans for it, a pump/reservoir combo, fittings and tubing, a CPU water block, and coolant liquid. Many water cooling kits also come with a coolant-filling bottle.

Best Hard Tubing Water Cooling Kit: Corsair iCUE XH305i RGB PRO

We’re starting with a high-end iCUE XH305i RGB PRO Custom Cooling Kit from Corsair that includes everything you might need to create a simple hardline tubing water cooling loop. You have all the components and tools required to cut and bend the provided acrylic tubing.

The included radiator measures 360mm in length, enough to cool down both the CPU and the GPU if you decide to expand the loop down the road. The kit also features RGB LEDs on the CPU water block, radiator fans, and the pump/reservoir combo.

The good news is that the XC7 CPU water block is compatible with the LGA 1700 and AM5 sockets, as well as the LGA 1200 and AM4 sockets—so it’s likely it will fit in your case. The only extra component you might need here is a drain valve, which you can get from Corsair for $20 .

We like that Corsair provides all the tools needed to bend and cut the tubing and a ton of acrylic tubes that will be more than enough for any custom loop. On the flip side, this kit is quite pricey and uses acrylic instead of PETG tubing, so be extra careful when cutting the tubes.

Best Soft Tubing Water Cooling kit: EKWB Quantum Power Kit Velocity² 360 Series

If you want the best but prefer soft tubing, check out the Velocity² 360 Series water cooling kit from EKWB. It’s sold for a similar price as our hardline tubing pick and features everything you need to create a custom loop.

You’ve got all the necessary components, cutting tools, and pump/reservoir brackets. We like that EKWB lets users pick a CPU water block compatible with their CPU and the fittings, radiator, pump/reservoir combo, and coolant.

This way, you can customize the coolant’s color and the looks of most components. You can also opt out of RGB parts if you don’t like having a light show inside your enclosure.

This is another kit with a 360mm radiator, which we always like to see. On the other hand, the kit lacks a drain valve, a convenient piece of equipment that makes draining the loop much more straightforward. EKWB offers a variety of drain valves , most of which are priced at or around $20. While it’s unfortunate the drain valve isn’t included in the kit, they’re very useful and worth the extra cost.

Best Budget Water Cooling Kit: Thermaltake Pacific C360 Hard Tube Water Cooling Kit

While this water-cooling kit is ‘budget’ compared to other options on this list, it doesn’t mean it’s super affordable. The Thermaltake Pacific C360 Hard Tube Water Cooling Kit will set you back $350, but this is still considerably less than many other kits.

Thermaltake’s kit is hardline, but this time, we’re looking at PETG tubes—making this kit an excellent choice for beginners who don’t want to work with brittle acrylic. The radiator is a 360mm unit, making this another water-cooling kit suitable for a future expansion to a loop encompassing your CPU and GPU.

Regarding the components included in the kit, you’ve got almost everything needed. The budget price point means you’ll have to pay extra for a pipe cutter and bending mandrels. We recommend buying this tool kit from Thermaltake , explicitly made for PETG tubing. And yes, this kit is missing a drain valve, so make sure you get one from Thermaltake .

Another downside is that you’ll have to spend extra for an LGA 1700 upgrade kit if you’re rocking a 12th or 13th gen CPU from Intel. Ryzen 7000 owners are simply out of luck because, while Thermaltake technically offers an AM5 upgrade kit, it’s nowhere to be found at the time of writing.

If you need to save more cash, you can get the soft tubing version of this kit . It costs about $30 less, and you won’t need to pay extra for the hardline tube bending kit.

Best AIO CPU Cooler Overall: ARCTIC Liquid Freezer II 360

If you do it right, a custom loop can look stunning. But not all of us want to pay the premium, spend hours assembling the loop, and pay extra for the tooling. If you want to liquid cool your CPU without the extra hassle, get an AIO CPU cooler instead. The best overall AIO we recommend getting is the ARCTIC Liquid Freezer II 360 .

This AIO cooler packs a massive cooling punch, enough to cool even the Intel Core i9-13000K while costing just a fraction of the price our budget water cooling kit recommendation. The Liquid Freezer II isn’t exactly a looker, but it does a stellar job at keeping your CPU at bay while also being very quiet to boot.

If you don’t own a flagship CPU, check out the 280mm or the 240mm version of the AIO. They’re both fine for parts such as AMD Ryzen 5000 and Ryzen 7000 CPUs and Core i5 and i7 processors.

And if you want the biggest model, there’s the Liquid Freezer II 420 with a 420mm-long radiator. If you opt for one of these, make sure it’ll fit in your case.

Best RGB AIO CPU Cooler: Corsair iCUE H150i Elite LCD XT

The iCUE H150i Elite LCD XT is the latest flagship AIO CPU cooler from Corsair that comes with an LCD on the CPU cold plate and tons of RGB LEDs on the radiator fans. As expected, the AIO does a fantastic job of cooling, considering its massive 360mm radiator and three excellent AF120 RGB Elite Fans.

On the flip side, it can be noticeably loud under heavy loads. That said, the cooling performance is so good that the fans rarely get to that point, even when combining the cooler with high-end CPUs.

The only major downside here is the price. The iCUE H150i Elite LCD XT costs almost $300, which comes very close to the pricing of your budget water cooling kit pick. If you aren’t ready to pay the premium for the LCD, check out the iCUE H150i Elite Capellix XT . This is the same cooler without the fancy screen on the CPU block.

Regarding RGB AIO CPU coolers, we also like the NZXT Kraken Z73 RGB . The Aer RGB V2 120mm fans and a stunning LCD make for a spectacular RGB light show. If you don’t need a 360mm radiator, you can get the Corsair iCUE H115i Elite Capellix or the NZXT Kraken Z63 RGB , both featuring 280mm radiators.

Frequently Asked Questions

I recently traveled to Pakistan after being invited to speak about personal branding with a group of entrepreneurs and business owners in Lahore and Karachi. I’d never been to that part of the world before, and I wasn’t at all familiar with the business, professional, or cultural scene there.

Delivering a workshop on the other side of the world where you’re unfamiliar with the language, culture, and local dynamics presents unique challenges for speakers whose job is to hold the attention of an audience for several hours. As someone who regularly gives talks to international audiences, I was confident I could host a valuable workshop, but acutely aware this specific assignment would be challenging due to my extremely limited knowledge of the region.

My days in Pakistan were eye-opening to say the least, both personally and professionally. Presenting in a completely different region illuminated some of my blind spots, and hosting these workshops there showed me I can always improve as a speaker. However, I was also reminded that sticking to seven presentation fundamentals can serve you well as a public speaker no matter where you are in the world.

1. Know Your Audience

The first, most critical step you must take as a speaker is to understand exactly who will be in the audience. For these workshops in Pakistan, based on my initial briefing with the client, I had originally understood most audience members were small family business owners focused on serving local communities there. I included specific case studies throughout my presentation of what I felt would be relevant, relatable, regional examples for this specific audience.

However, as I went through my workshop, it became apparent to me that many attendees were owners of larger-scale companies with larger footprints. In fact, during one of the breaks, one of the attendees said the examples I included were not “high profile” or international enough. Due to my misunderstanding of the audience, I’d intentionally taken out examples that more closely aligned with what he described.

Your audience profile should drive your presentation’s structure, content, and design. In this case, I misunderstood the dynamics and profile of the group and should have clarified this before it was too late to change my slides. I was reminded that you must ensure you’re crystal clear on the profile, attitudes, and ambitions of your attendees so your content is on point.

Tip: After an initial briefing and before you craft your content, re-articulate the target audience’s profile in writing with your client to double-check your understanding ’ s 100% accurate.

2. Arrive As Early As Possible

If you’re speaking at an event, you can never get to the venue too early, especially if you’ve never been before. Although most audio/visual (A/V) equipment is fairly standard, when presenting in a foreign country, you should be prepared to deal with slightly different setups, unfamiliar equipment, and of course language barriers. To further complicate things, these days you may be delivering a hybrid session, where you must consider how you and your presentation come across to both the in-person and remote audience.

A couple hours before I was set to host my workshop in Lahore, I received a message from the organizers informing me some attendees now wanted to join the session virtually via Zoom. As someone who’s hosted many hybrid sessions before, I knew shifting to a hybrid setup could introduce additional complexities in both the setup and delivery throughout, highly dependent on the room’s technical capabilities.

Typically, I try to arrive at least 1 hour prior to hosting a workshop at venues where I’ve never presented before. Unfortunately, in this instance, due to traffic and other causes beyond my control, I had only 30 mins to set up. A half-hour is typically more than enough time if things go smoothly, and the room is set up the way you want. However, if things don’t go smoothly, it’s not.

With some A/V setups, I can get all equipment up and running in under five minutes, even for some hybrid sessions. However, in this case, the setup with the hotel venue’s staff took longer, due in part to some language barriers, hybrid A/V limitations, and equipment I was less familiar with.

While I did manage to get everything up and running, I was not completely happy with the final setup. The room setup certainly did the job, and the issues were likely only noticeable to me. However, I would have ideally preferred a few optimizations, but no additional time was available for further tinkering. Because I’m very particular about these things, I do feel it affected me during my delivery.

When you’re in front of an audience, your room’s setup becomes part of your own personal brand, so the onus is on you as the speaker to ensure you have ample time to set up in a way you find works for you. You can never give yourself too much time buffer.

Tip: When presenting in an unfamiliar location, arrive on-site at least one hour in advance of your start time. If setting up only ends up taking a few minutes, simply use that extra time to connect with audience members who arrive early.

3. Do Your Best To Adapt

If you’re a regular public speaker, you know that creating presentations specifically tailored for each individual audience is critical. Although inevitably more time-consuming than simply reusing existing slides, making even a little bit of effort to customize your presentation can go a long way.

In Lahore, I spent some time before my session with the local individual who invited me. He was kind enough to have me over to his family’s house and even give me a tour of the city. I noted a few songs he chose to play on the car radio, and I also asked around to discover some popular music in Pakistan, which I eventually embedded into my final closing slide as exit music. The morning of my presentation, I also spent a bit of time with the hotel’s front lobby staff to learn a few basic phrases in Urdu.

Your effort to just go with the flow and adapt the best you can, especially when you’re not used to local customs, can go a long way with a foreign audience. If you’re presenting in a region where drinking alcohol is forbidden, don’t feature images of people drinking wine in your slides. If men and women there don’t typically shake hands during greetings, don’t feature those types of images in your presentation. Again, your content should relate to those in your audience.

Tip: Ask your client which common missteps foreigners make during presentations, and do your best to avoid those same pitfalls. Just asking the question alone can demonstrate your willingness to consider inevitable cultural differences.

4. Take Feedback On Board

Audiences can be scathingly critical. In a world of Google reviews, TripAdvisor comments, and app ratings, we’re practically programmed to share our subjective opinions about everything these days.

When you’re not the one actually delivering a presentation, it’s all too easy to call out what’s missing, critique any oversight, and suggest improvements. As someone who’s regularly invited to speak at over 100 events each year, I’m used to receiving audience feedback, and I not only welcome it but actively solicit it.

During one of the breaks in the middle of my workshop in Lahore, an attendee came up to me, initially complimenting me on the session, only to then share some suggestions for improvement on the spot. After my workshop, during the car ride back to my hotel with the person who originally invited me, he immediately shared mostly negative feedback and had almost nothing positive to say.

Ouch.

After investing many hours into crafting the content, flying across the world to deliver the session, and feeling quite confident in my abilities as a speaker, my initial reaction when hearing this negative feedback was confusion and disappointment. Did I miss something? Did I read the room incorrectly? Was I really not energetic enough?

I thought I’d precisely followed the content outline we agreed that laid out the exact sequence of interactive elements. I thought I was reasonably energetic (although I did intentionally pull back a bit to avoid coming across as an overly extroverted American). I thought I did go above and beyond what most speakers would do to customize the presentation content to their regional market. Turns out, I was off in my assessment.

Scheduled to deliver the same session to another group of entrepreneurs in Karachi 48 hours later, a part of my jet-lagged self just wanted to just stick with my existing presentation I’d already invested a lot of time into and not make any last-minute changes. However, upon further reflection, I felt these critiques were fair. I did notice the audience’s energy drop midway through my session. The content could have been more focused. The session could benefit from more interactive exercises.

So late into the night and throughout the following day during my journey to Karachi, I overhauled my presentation. When I arrived in Karachi, I had dinner with a few people planning to attend my talk there the next day and asked them for their thoughts on what would make my session work best. Afterwards, I made even more changes. When I delivered the revised session, I got a completely different response from the audience, and my session seemed to land better.

Receiving negative feedback is never fun, but in nearly every case when someone shared some tough feedback with me, my presentations got better as a result. Feedback is especially valuable when speaking with foreign audiences because you may simply be unaware of some important cultural considerations or blind spots you have.

Tip: Before swatting it aside, take a moment to consider all negative feedback, recognize its constructive merit, then optimize your presentation accordingly to make it more bulletproof.

5. Stand Your Ground

The counterpoint to taking on feedback is that you don’t always have to take it on board, even if coming from someone more knowledgeable about a region than you. As a speaker, I pride myself in being able to consider every single piece of feedback, even when feedback feels unfair, misplaced, or flat-out inaccurate. At least reflecting on all feedback helps me refine my content and make myself more resilient as a speaker in front of especially critical audiences. At the same time, you don’t have to make every single change people suggest.

For example, that same person who shared some feedback with me during the break also told me I “shouldn’t walk toward the audience” beyond the front lectern because it resulted in my back periodically facing toward those seated toward the front of the U-shaped seating arrangement of the room.

Interesting.

While I did nod and simply say, “okay” when he shared this to me, I immediately questioned his own level of experience hosting multi-hour workshops himself. In the hundreds of talks I’ve given to audiences from all over the world in a wide variety of seating arrangements, I’ve never had a single person comment that my walking pattern was “incorrect.”

On this point, I decided to stick with the advice from every single public speaking coach and presentation skills training I’ve attended over the past 20 years where the consistent guidance has always been to step away from a lectern, eliminate barriers, and reduce large physical distances between you and a listener where possible. The overwhelming consensus is that stepping beyond a lectern is one of the most effective ways of breaking the monotony of a long workshop to make more people feel engaged and included, especially those seated toward the back. Making use of the entire space within the center of a U-shaped seating arrangement is another way to more effectively connect with each audience member.

Not all feedback you receive will be grounded in real-world experience or come from someone who is necessarily credible themselves in that arena. When you feel your way of doing something as a speaker has generally worked well for your audiences, stick with it. While there could always be cultural and situational exceptions that result in you tweaking your approach accordingly, some universal speaking principles will still hold true. Remember that when you’re the one on stage, you decide on the rules of engagement. The stage is yours.

Tip: Consider all subjective feedback, but use your professional judgment to decide which points are valid and which you can safely disregard.

6. Always Be Gracious

When you’re invited to be a guest speaker, remember that you are there to deliver a service. Someone is paying you. Someone invited you. Someone is the client. You are the supplier. This principle is especially true for international talks where your host has likely managed a lot of logistics and stakeholders to get you there.

While I’m not one to stick my tail between my legs and just roll over when someone tells me something I don’t want to hear, I’ve found the best course of action in the spirit of collaboration is to always remember to be gracious and professional across every single presentation you have the privilege of delivering.

After my first workshop in Pakistan, a couple attendees mentioned to me that they felt the content could have been covered in three hours rather than four hours. Ironically and frustratingly, my originally recommendation to the hosts was to proceed with a shorter 3-hour workshop instead of their desired four hours. Regardless, the onus was on me to find ways to better manage the presentation flow so that the last hour could be more engaging for the workshop I was scheduled to deliver later in Karachi.

Sometimes, you have to just take it on the chin as a public speaker and demonstrate that in the face of critique or additional requests, you can take a professional approach that reminds people why they chose you as a speaker in the first place. Being invited to speak with a group in a part of the world you would otherwise not have the chance to see is a true honor and privilege. Remember to always thank your hosts afterwards and treat everyone with appreciation and kindness.

I’m certainly grateful to have had this opportunity to visit Pakistan, and I can’t thank the organizers enough for the time and belief they invested into me along with their incredibly kind hospitality throughout my first visit to their country. Giving 110% to deliver the best workshop possible is the standard I try to maintain with any speaking engagement, but especially those that require international coordination with the client.

Tip: Remember you’re the service provider as a speaker, especially when international travel is involved. While the client isn’t always right (as the saying goes), always act professionally and respect your client’s preferences, efforts, and opinions.

7. Believe In Yourself

Having confidence—both the confidence you feel internally and the confidence you project externally—is critical when you’re speaking on stage in front of an audience. That confidence can easily get shaken when you’re presenting in a region where you don’t speak the local language, know regional customs, or understand cultural nuances.

If you’re passionate about public speaking like I am, you’re probably never 100% happy with your performance because you always feel it could have been better in some way. Striving to be better is how you get better—by embracing an attitude of continual improvement. Across the hundreds of talks and workshops I’ve delivered over the years, I can’t remember ever feeling like one went exactly as I’d hoped or planned.

However, having a relentlessly perfectionistic attitude can result in you never feeling quite good enough. If you’re like me, you can also be a bit hard on yourself when a presentation you worked so hard to develop doesn’t land as well as you had hoped, which is more likely to occur when you’re speaking to an unfamiliar audience in an unfamiliar part of the world you’ve never visited before. I’m human, and a bumpy presentation can sometimes deal a blow to my own confidence, at least temporarily.

At the end of the day, no matter how unfamiliar your surroundings are, you have to just remind yourself that you were invited to speak for a reason. And that reason was likely something to do with your talents, skills, and capabilities as a speaker. Don’t ever forget that.

Tip: Even when speaking in a different region where you’re far outside your comfort zone, you must first trust yourself so others can also trust you too.

Embrace Your Opportunity To Have A Unique Impact

When speaking to an audience in a foreign country, your job as a speaker will be exponentially more complicated. There’s no way around it. On top of delivering an engaging talk, which is no small feat, you’ll need to navigate different cultural norms, expectations, and dynamics.

However, presenting to a completely different audience also gives you the opportunity to stress test the quality of your content and ability to effectively connect with a wide range of audiences. Just as you’ll learn and grow as a speaker when working outside of your usual environment, you also can share a unique perspective your audience may never get a chance to otherwise hear.

Being able to have a positive impact on someone’s life is the reason why I enjoy public speaking so much. Having wrapped up this engagement in Pakistan, I now know that presenting abroad, although challenging, is also an enormous privilege, especially when you couple your work with the unique opportunity to temporarily immerse yourself in an entirely different culture to yours.

Speaking with an overseas audience ultimately helps you hone your skills in ways you simply cannot unless you push yourself to present in different environments. If you can embrace the challenge of speaking with an international audience, the experience will be unforgettable. More importantly, you’ll have the opportunity to make your own unique mark with a whole new audience and give a talk they’ll hopefully never forget.

Alex Kreger, UX Strategist & Founder of the financial UX design agency UXDA, increases banking and fintech products’ value in 36 countries.

In just two months after its launch, GPT-3-powered ChatGPT reached 100 million monthly active users, becoming the fastest-growing app in history, according to a UBS report ( via Reuters ). ChatGPT is a language model that uses natural language processing and artificial intelligence (AI) machine learning techniques to understand and generate human-like responses to user queries.

I compare GPT’s appearance with the launch of the internet in terms of its impact on the future of humanity. It enables machines to understand and generate language interactions in a revolutionary way. GPT (generative pre-trained transformer) AI could disrupt how we engage with technology much like the internet did.

It’s only been about two months since the launch (as of the time of this writing), but we can already see how much ChatGPT impacts our experience. The internet is full of examples of crazy prompts to which ChatGPT and other large language models (LLMs) often provide accurate and competent answers. People are rapidly adopting ChatGPT and similar models for uses such as content creation, programming, teaching, sales, education and so on.

The main question for me, as a financial UX strategist and founder of a company with services including conversational banking, is how such technology will impact the banking and financial customer experience: because customer experience is key to business success in the digital age.

According to a North Highland survey ( via Consulting.us ), 87% of leaders surveyed perceived CX as a top growth engine. Emplify research found that 86% of consumers would leave a brand they were previously loyal to if they had just two or three bad customer service experiences. An Accenture study from 2018 found that 91% of consumers are more likely to buy from brands that recognize, recall and provide relevant offers and recommendations.

To secure a primary competitive advantage, the customer experience should be contextual, personalized and tailored. And this is where I think AI will become the breakthrough technology that supports this goal. According to a survey from The Economist Intelligence Unit , 77% of bankers believe that the ability to unlock the value of AI will be the difference between the success or failure of banks. In a 2021 McKinsey survey , 56% of respondents report AI usage in at least one function of their organizations.

I forecast that LLMs and AI will impact the user experience in the banking industry in multiple ways.

First, they can analyze customer data to understand their preferences and needs and use this information to provide personalized customer service and support to users by addressing their queries and concerns in real-time. Banks could also use AI models to provide customized financial advice, targeted product recommendations, proactive fraud detection and short support wait times. AI can guide customers through onboarding, verifying their identity, setting up accounts and providing guidance on available products.

Second, AI can automate many routine tasks, such as account balance inquiries and password resets, freeing customer service representatives up to focus on complex issues. It could increase efficiency and reduce costs for banks while providing faster and more accurate customer support. And all of this would be available 24/7, making it easy for customers to get help by answering questions, resolving issues and providing financial education outside of regular business hours.

Third, companies could leverage AI to provide a conversational banking experience by integrating models with banking applications to provide a single point of contact for users to make transactions, view account information and receive alerts through the chat or voice interface in multiple languages. It could simplify the user experience and reduce the complexity of banking operations, making it easier for even nonnative speakers to use banking and financial services worldwide.

So, what are the obvious use cases for AI and LLMs in banking?

1. Account Inquiries

Banking users can employ chatbots to monitor their account balances, transaction history and other account-related information.

2. Money Transfers

Users could potentially make fund transfers to other accounts or to pay merchants through a chatbot.

3. Loan Applications

Banks can deploy chatbots to assist users in applying for loans and to guide them through the application procedure.

4. Credit Score Monitoring

Companies can develop chatbots to assist users in checking their credit ratings and provide advice on how to improve them.

5. Financial Advice

Banks could train chatbots to provide investment information and assist users in making informed investment decisions.

6. Fraud Prevention

Banks could explore ways to use AI to prevent fraud by monitoring user transactions and spotting unusual activity.

7. Customer Service

Banks could train chatbots to provide rapid and effective customer care by answering common questions and fixing simple issues.

8. Account Management

Banks could train AI models to assist users in managing their accounts by arranging automatic payments, changing personal information and more.

9. Insurance Claims

Banks could also create chatbots with the capability to submit insurance claims and get information about the claims procedure.

10. Financial Planning

Chatbots could assist users with financial planning tasks, such as budgeting and setting financial objectives.

Challenges And Considerations For Banks

Despite the inspiring prospects that AI technology opens up for improving the customer experience in banking, implementing it into banking products can pose some challenges. One of the main challenges is safeguarding the security and privacy of customer data. Banks should ensure that their chat interface is secure and that sensitive data is protected from unauthorized access or disclosure.

Another challenge is training an AI model to understand the language and terminology specific to the banking industry. Banks should provide relevant training data and integrate the model with their existing systems to ensure that it can provide accurate and appropriate responses to user queries.

And one more challenge is customer adoption. Banks should ensure that customers are aware of the chat interface and its benefits and that they are comfortable using it. This will require them to make additional product UX design considerations and invest in education efforts to provide an easy-to-use chat interface.

Natural language-processing capabilities and an understanding of customer data mean AI could become an excellent solution to provide a more personalized, efficient and convenient user experience in banking and financial services.

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Chinese customs has uncovered someone trying to smuggle SSDs into the country inside an e-scooter. Now I know what you’re thinking, there’s not much space for anything inside an e-scooter’s compact frame, but you’d be wrong. And it’s that sort of thinking that the smugglers thought would get them across the border home-free. Alas, it didn’t.

Qingmao Customs seized a scooter with 84 M.2 SSDs stored in the upright between the scooter’s handlebars and front wheel, in an attempt to bypass Chinese import duty or restrictions at the Zhuhai-Macao Cross-Border Industrial Zone (via WCCFTech (opens in new tab) ). The scooter was spotted as it was pushed through an X-ray scanner.

“At about 13:00 on March 3, a mainland passenger pushed an electric scooter to enter the country through the ‘non-declaration channel’ at the special port of the cross-border industrial zone,” a release (opens in new tab) says. “It passed the electric scooter through the machine for inspection, and the passing machine image showed that there was a massive unknown object on the front bumper of the electric scooter.

“After dismantling the front bumper, 84 Kingston brand solid-state drives hidden in the axle tube were seized, and the case has been further dealt with in accordance with regulations.”

You can actually watch a clip of the would-be smuggler making the attempt to get the SSDs through customs before getting caught red-handed. The SSDs are removed from the scooter right before their eyes.

The drives are manufactured by Kingston, however, it’s tough to make out the exact model due to the quality of the images.

The Zhuhai region of China surrounds Macao, which is a Special Administrative Region of the People’s Republic of China. This zone is noted as a busy spot for import and export into the area and wider country, and it neighbours the other major trade hub of Hong Kong via the Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macao Bridge. It was actually in Zhuhai where customs officials found a smuggler attempting to bring 200 CPUs into the country (opens in new tab) under the guise of being pregnant, stuffing them under a prosthetic.

Chinese customs have found all sorts of hardware smuggled into the country in weird ways. Last year one man tried to walk 160 CPUs into the country (opens in new tab) taped to his body, but was busted for his abnormal walk. You’d think that’d be the first thing you’d master before attempting to smuggle goods. Another case saw $3 million worth of AMD GPUs (opens in new tab) attempted to be brought into the country, but rather than strap 5,840 GPUs to some poor soul these were just mislabelled on the box they were sent in.