First Derivative [48]
US intelligence—bots — platform governance — North Korea — Apple Watch — anti-Semitism — abortion — USD bear — Amazon Health — Amazon AI
The “Grand Bargain” at Risk: What’s at Stake When the President Alleges Politics in Intelligence by Jack Goldsmith and Benjamin Wittes (Lawfare): A very fair and cogent analysis about the current fight and its larger implications. Highly recommend if you’re having a hard time keeping track of what’s going on. — TK
The Follower Factory by Nicholas Confessore, Gabriel J.X. Dance, Richard Harris, and Mark Hansen (The New York Times): Strongly recommend to understand the importance of bots to our culture, politics, and economics — TK
The politics of platforms by Mark Bunting (Medium): “ From the platforms’ perspective, many of these issues are externalities; from a civic perspective, they raise profound concerns.”
White House Wants Pentagon to Offer More Options on North Korea by Mark Landler and Helene Cooper (The New York Times): “the Pentagon, they say, is worried that the White House is moving too hastily toward military action on the Korean Peninsula that could escalate catastrophically.”
Apple Watch Is a Bridge to the Future by Neil Cybart (Above Avalon): “Apple Watch is giving wearers a glimpse of the future by introducing new ideas around how artificial intelligence, voice, digital assistants, and smart sensors can come together to produce a new kind of experience.”
How Anti-Semitism’s True Origin Makes It Invisible to The Left by John-Paul Pagano (Forward): “this failure of the left is less a result of malice rather than unconscious wiring. As I will argue, the left is doomed to erase anti-Semitism because it’s ill-equipped to understand it.”
The Abortion Memo by David Brooks (The New York Times): “But do we want late-term abortion so much that we are willing to tolerate President Trump?”
The U.S. dollar bear market is confirmed. What are the implications? (13D Research): “Crude oil, oilfield services, metals and mining, materials and industrials could all experience faster growth relative to their recent trends. Emerging market economies are likely to benefit from a growing influx of capital as the dollar weakens”
Amazon Health by Ben Thompson (Stratechery): “What would make more sense to me is that, having first built an interface for its employees, and then a standardized infrastructure for its health care suppliers, is that Amazon converts the latter into a marketplace where PBMs, insurance administrators, distributors, and pharmacies have to compete to serve employees.”
Inside Amazon’s Artificial Intelligence Flywheel by Steven Levy (WIRED)
