Four For Friday | April 4, 2025

LF167 | Longevity debate: science vs marketing, Contrast therapy, Accenture IT report, Hypercerts + Gemini 2.5

Welcome to this week’s Four For Friday. Four things that have piqued my interest this week, together with a bonus: AI Tip of The Week.

The longevity debate: science vs. marketing

A decent summary (apologies for the painful MSN viewing experience) of some threads of the current longevity debate, centered around MIT professor, longevity pioneer and entrepreneur, Leonard Guarente.

Longevity is a field where traditional validated scientific research often gets short-circuited, or sidelined. This isn’t that surprising given we have to wait decades for the result of longevity interventions. Plus it’s almost impossible to create effective randomized controlled trials, as you can’t hold everything else in people’s lives constant.

Guarente is most associated with the role of sirtuin genes in aging, which led to his NAD supplement company Elysium Health. However, critics question the evidence and see tension between science and marketing in an industry that's attracted investment of over $50bn billion, so far.

The So What? $50bn is real money - and that’s before the insurance and healthcare dollars start to flow for prevention. Expect more robust debate, and bust-ups, to come.

Longevity benefits of contrast therapy

Contrast therapy—alternating between hot and cold exposures—harnesses ancient Nordic traditions for modern longevity benefits. On a personal note, the three winters I spent in Helsinki gave me the taste for the sauna → hole-in-the-ice plunge; something that I’ve continued to this day, as it just makes me feel great.

Physiologically, contrast therapy creates a "pumping action" through vasodilation and vasoconstriction, which reduces inflammation, removes lactic acid, and improves circulatory health. It delivers a package of both cardiovascular and cognitive benefits, more effective than either alone.

The So What? Longevity doesn’t need to be about a pill or business model.

Accenture: Rethinking enterprise IT in the AI era

New report about how enterprises are rethinking IT models to account for AI. 86% of executives are increasing GenAI investment in 2025 and 63% plan to reinvent IT functions within three years. Organizations that embrace AI-reinvention are reporting 15% higher performance than peers.

Accenture's framework (below) reimagines IT through four lenses: amplified intelligence, dynamic skills, fluid boundaries, and adaptable structures.

The report suggest next actions for enterprises:

• Reimagine your business through technology: In other words, business and IT are now inseparable. IT needs to be aligned with business outcomes, ‘AI value points’ need to be identified, new product-oriented teams need to be created, and AI agents used .

• Flatten hierarchies with a tech-adept leadership and workforce: Create hybrid business-technical roles, build ‘ethical AI’ capabilities, establish tech fluency at all levels, ensure executive accountability, and incentivize continuous learning.

• Accelerate AI adoption with partnerships: Build strategic partner ecosystems to fill capability gaps, implement frameworks to measure value, create AI-focused platform teams, and develop joint innovation programs.

The So What? IT excecs need to learn business strategy, and vice versa.

Hypercerts - a way to fund public goods

Public goods are traditionally the preserve of governments, but are there pathways to have them funded by the private sector. ‘Hypercerts’ (explainer) represent one possible funding mechanism for them.

These digital certificates can be issued by mission innovators, linking their work with the project, and creating a way for governments or impact investors to pay for public goods.

Organizations can issue hypercerts to secure funding for initiatives that create positive social value as part of their work. The video below explains more:

The So What? Although rather abstract and geeky, this is an interesting exercise to encourage more investment in products with social benefit.

Bonus: AI Tip of the Week

Gemini 2.5 - Google’s new model is arguably better than all the others (for now) and it’s free (for now). And you can even grab the API to power your new apps.

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That’s all for this week. As always, feedback welcome. Feel free to share insights or links of interest.

- Stephen