Meet Alicia Shapiro | CMO of AiNews.com

We had the good fortune of connecting with Alicia Shapiro and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Alicia, can you walk us through the thought-process of starting your business?
My business partner, Michael Mazzotta, had the foresight back in 2018 to buy the domain name AiNews.com, knowing artificial intelligence and getting AI news would be important & necessary one day. I met Michael in 2022 when I started managing his social media presence for his commercial real estate company, TenantReps. In 2023, Michael asked if I’d like to help him launch AiNews.com, and I immediately said yes! This was about 3-4 months after ChatGPT was released but I knew artificial intelligence was going to change the way the world works, just like the internet did back in the day, and I wanted to be a part of something big “from the ground floor”. Michael had experience in starting companies and investing in companies, and I had experience running my own social media marketing agency, so it was a perfect fit for both of us.

We decided to use our strengths as a starting point: Michael would make connections in the AI industry to get our name out there in front of those we wanted to learn from or collaborate with. I knew how to create social media content and could handle all the marketing tasks (growing an email newsletter, setting up a website, and create videos). We didn’t worry about what we didn’t know, we just dived right in and got a real world education in artificial intelligence learning things as we went along. I learned how to use different AI tools necessary for marketing, and we soon began collaborating with others to share our content & we shared theirs. Now, we have a pretty successful email newsletter that we offer for free to our subscribers, we created AI avatars (AI Alicia and AI Michael) who read the news stories, and started doing interviews with top AI leaders across different sectors that would give our audience insight to what people are working on in AI and how it’s being implemented.

Our business model is based on advertising & sponsorships because we believe the news should be accessible and free to our audience. In fact, here’s our mission statement:

At AiNews.com, our mission is to democratize access to artificial intelligence news and insights by providing timely, reliable, and free information. We aim to be the premier online destination for AI enthusiasts, professionals, and the curious public. Through our daily newsletters, AI avatar-hosted segments, and interactive content, we strive to keep our audience informed and engaged, fostering a well-informed community that is prepared to navigate and shape the future of AI. As we grow, we continue to introduce innovative ways to deliver AI news, including offering sponsorship opportunities and integrating AI technologies to enhance our reporting and user experience.

Alright, so for those in our community who might not be familiar with your business, can you tell us more?
Let’s be real for a moment….right now, there are hundreds of AI newsletters and companies out there who all have email newsletters and are trying to sell chatGPT prompts to those who don’t know how to use chatGPT. A lot of these people are just trying to make a quick buck off of AI and think this is the easiest way to do it, which it is. But it’s been about 1.5 years now since chatGPT was released and a lot of these companies/individuals are beginning to fatigue out, or they’ve moved on to the next big thing to try to make money in AI.

AiNews.com is different. We’re not trying to sell our audience anything. We’re a news agency and want to be the trusted source where people get their AI news. We make our money by selling ads or sponsorships promoting content because we want the news to be accessible and free to anyone who wants it. We’re in it for the long run.

Another thing that sets us a part from all those other AI newsletters, is that we created AI avatars, AI Alicia and AI Michael, who read the news stories. No one else that we’ve seen in the AI news space is doing that. The AI avatars help keep the news feeling fresh, interesting, and comes to them in easy to digest in 1-2 min video segments. It’s an innovative & fun way to use AI tools to bring the news to the people.

We also do podcast-style interviews with top AI leaders across different sectors in the artificial intelligence industry. We do this to bring even more value to our audience. Instead of only providing a boring newsletter like some of the other companies are doing, we’re hosting these interviews to show our audience what others are doing in AI right now and how their innovations or services are impacting those around them. It humanizes AI for people, I think. When you watch these interviews, you get a sense that AI isn’t just hype, that there are good people across the world that are trying to use AI for good and who are making a real difference. And you just might learn something too!

I’m excited that we’re presenting the news in an innovating & fun way all while making it free and accessible to anyone; I’m glad we’re doing things the right way, even if we’re not making a ton of money yet. We’re also self-funded and have zero debt, so I’m proud of that too. That means we may not get to do all the things we want to right this second, and therefore not growing as quickly as others, but we’re growing the right way, and that matters.

So, is it easy? Not always, but it’s rewarding and super fun. I actually like working on AiNews.com projects because it doesn’t feel like work. Of course there are days that feel like we’re not making a lot of progress, but when I look back and realize that we’ve only really began seriously promoting and working to grow AiNews.com since January 2024, we’re doing pretty well.

One big lesson I’ve learned since working with AiNews.com is that everyone who comes to you who wants to work with you might not be the best fit, and even though you’re eager to get people’s help or attention, it won’t work if that person or organization is not a good fit with your mission & values. So, take some time to get to know this person/organization before agreeing to anything. We found out quickly that because of our powerful domain name, that everyone wanted to be a part of our journey, but we also found out quickly that 90% of these people just wanted to make some quick money and thought that our domain name could be their big money-ticket. My advice is to stick to your values as a company and don’t try to chase big names or say yes to everything & everyone who comes along. You can’t go wrong that way.

I’d like the world to know that yes, we use generative AI tools to do our news & work, but we always have a human overseeing the process and who makes edits. I want people to know that we want to earn your trust and will always have our audience in mind when we create our content. I realize media companies can sometimes get a bad rap for their bias – just like AI – but we remain dedicated to the truth and to delivering the news in a fun and innovative way. We will never be political because we don’t report on politics; we only deliver the top AI news to our audience. We simply want to inform people what’s going on in the field of artificial intelligence, make it fun and engaging, and perhaps make AI less scary to some people. AI is here to stay, it’s not a fad or a bubble or hype, so might as well learn about it from a trusted source, like AiNews.com, so you don’t get left behind.

Let’s say your best friend was visiting the area and you wanted to show them the best time ever. Where would you take them? Give us a little itinerary – say it was a week long trip, where would you eat, drink, visit, hang out, etc.
AiNews.com and myself are in Ocean Beach, so we’d start there. There are so many good restaurants in OB; I enjoy Nico’s Mexican Food & Lighthouse Ice Cream the most, but The Joint is great for fresh sushi, Hodad’s for yummy burgers, Wonderland has some high-end bar food that is yummy, the BBQ House is good, Old Townhouse for breakfast, Luigi’s for amazing New York style pizza, Mad Munch for delicous gourmet grilled cheese sandwiches, and Ulivo for fantastic italian food! We usually take people who visit for a walk on our OB pier, but it’s closed right now because the storms damaged it so badly. The OB beach is fun too; a lot of great people watching, so we’d spend some time on the beach.

I also take visitors to Sunset Cliffs, the Point Loma Lighthouse and Old Town. Old Town has so many fun stores & things to see from a historical point of view. In Old Town, one of the stores I have to stop in is an old-school candy store which I love, and you can’t go wrong eating at any of the Mexican restaurants in Old Town. The Point Loma lighthouse is fun because sometimes you can go up in the old lighthouse; just a fun experience that you don’t get everywhere. And of course Sunset Cliffs is a beautiful way to see the ocean and sunsets.

We would probably also go downtown to the Midway museum (how often do you get a chance to tour a real ship?) and walk along the boardwalk. We would of course go to Balboa Park to show off it’s beauty and see some museums there, and the San Diego zoo.

The Shoutout series is all about recognizing that our success and where we are in life is at least somewhat thanks to the efforts, support, mentorship, love and encouragement of others. So is there someone that you want to dedicate your shoutout to?
Personally, I’d have to thank my husband, Jeff, for always supporting me & my business initiatives, whether that’s been starting my own social media agency in 2012, or jumping into a new business, AiNews.com, with a business partner in 2023. He may not understand why I do what I do, but he also knows that I’ve thought about the risks/rewards and have worked things through. I may not know everything when I start, but I believe in myself, my abilities to make it work, and my dedication to see it through. I truly believe that if you don’t ask, the answer is always no, so why not see what happens, why not believe in the part, what if it does work? Without my husband supporting me and believing in me, I’m not sure I could try new business initiatives, so I’m thankful for him.

Website: https://www.ainews.com/

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Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@AiNewsdotcom

Image Credits
None. We took these photos ourselves, and the ai avatars & ai leader interviews were screenshots from our YouTube videos