Reading Digest, July #13
Hey there, my amazing readers! I hope you’re ready for another exciting edition of my daily reading digest. If you’re new here, buckle up and get ready for a wild ride through the fascinating world of online content. And if you’re a regular, thank you for your continued support — it means the world to me!
Today’s digest is a true smorgasbord of captivating topics, ranging from Trump’s plans for taxes, tariffs, and Jerome Powell to the shocking homicides of Daniel Langlois and Dominique Marchand on Dominica. We’ll explore the latest developments in AI, including the potential of TTT models as the next frontier in generative AI, how AI will change education, and the real meaning behind OpenAI’s 5 levels of AI.
But that’s not all — we’ve got some juicy pieces on the world of tech and business, including billionaire Sam Altman’s claim that his $27 million San Francisco mansion is a “lemon,” Apple’s embrace of Android’s chaos, and why the FTC needs to rethink tech regulation. We’ll also take a closer look at the decentralization of DevRel and why Megan Morreale thinks content marketing as we know it is dying.
For the curious minds out there, we’ll dive into the world of link exchange risks and benefits in 2024, the impact of AI on vertical SaaS, and the fascinating concept that everything we see is a computational process if we know how to look. We’ll also explore the silent battle and fight for life of three-time NBA dunk champion Nate Robinson, as well as how to cope with your partner’s frustrating travel habits.
But that’s just the tip of the iceberg, my friends. From the whistleblowers accusing OpenAI of “illegally restrictive” NDAs to the network of tech billionaires who helped J.D. Vance leap into power, this digest has something for everyone. We’ll even take a closer look at Meta’s multi-token model and whether it’s a new beginning for AI, as well as the blueprint for selling cookies, sex, and sweat.
So, grab your favorite beverage, get comfortable, and join me on this thrilling journey through the world of online content. I can’t wait to hear your thoughts and reactions in the comments below!
Happy reading, my fantastic friends!
Trump On What He’d Do With Taxes, Tariffs, Jerome Powell and More
The article discusses Donald Trump’s plans and views on economic policies if he were to be re-elected as president, including his positions on the Federal Reserve, inflation, immigration, trade, and the tech industry. It also explores how Trump’s return to the White House could impact the US economy, global businesses, and international relations.
Donald Trump’s Bloomberg Businessweek Interview: Complete Text
The article is a transcript of an interview with former US President Donald Trump, covering a wide range of topics related to the economy, trade, technology, immigration, and politics.
Everything You See Is a Computational Process, If You Know How to Look
The article explores the author’s personal perspective on how they perceive and experience computation, drawing parallels between the abstract nature of programming and the way the world can be viewed through a computational lens. It discusses the author’s innate sense of a “machine at work” in various phenomena, from coin flips to language translation, and how this computational mindset has shaped their research career.
Billionaire Sam Altman Claims $27 Million San Francisco Mansion Is A ‘Lemon’
The article discusses a lawsuit filed by billionaire OpenAI CEO Sam Altman against the developers of his $27 million mansion in San Francisco, alleging a cost-cutting scheme and shoddy construction.
Biden tests positive for COVID while campaigning in Las Vegas
The article discusses President Biden testing positive for COVID-19 while campaigning in Nevada, experiencing mild symptoms, and continuing to work while isolating.
Vance: Trump running mate vows to fight for ‘forgotten’ America
The article discusses Donald Trump’s selection of JD Vance as his vice-presidential running mate for the 2024 US presidential election. It highlights Vance’s speech at the Republican National Convention, where he vowed to fight for “forgotten” working-class Americans and positioned Trump as the “last best hope” for the country.
How a Strange New Substance is Set to Change Technology
The article discusses the discovery that the layered multiferroic material nickel iodide (NiI2) exhibits exceptional magnetoelectric coupling, making it highly suitable for use in high-speed and energy-efficient technologies such as magnetic memories and quantum computing.
TTT models might be the next frontier in generative AI | TechCrunch
The article discusses the search for new AI architectures to replace the dominant transformer model, which is facing technical roadblocks related to computational efficiency. It highlights a promising new architecture called test-time training (TTT) that claims to be more scalable and efficient than transformers. The article also mentions other alternative architectures, such as state space models (SSMs), that are being explored by various AI companies and researchers.
How AI Will Change Education
The article discusses how technology is transforming the education sector, which has seen little change over the past century. It explores the potential of AI to revolutionize education through personalized learning, teacher tools, and alternatives to traditional college. The article also examines the challenges and business models in the education technology space.
Apple is finally embracing Android’s chaos
The article discusses the author’s experience with customizing the iOS home screen, including the new customization features introduced in iOS 18. It covers the author’s desire for more customization options, the changes they made to their home screen, and their thoughts on the impact of these new features.
Interviewing Epic Games Founder/CEO Tim Sweeney and Author/Entrepreneur Neal Stephenson — MatthewBall.co
The article discusses the concept of the “Metaverse” and its technological and economic growth, featuring interviews with Tim Sweeney, Founder and CEO of Epic Games, and Neal Stephenson, the author who coined the term “Metaverse”. They share their definitions of the Metaverse, perspectives on its future, and thoughts on related topics like blockchain, AI, and the Apple Vision Pro.
Why FTC Needs to Rethink Tech Regulation
The article discusses the author’s skepticism towards government regulators, such as the FTC and DOJ, in their ability to effectively control and bring about meaningful change in the technology industry, particularly in relation to “Big Tech” companies. The author argues that the current regulatory system is not equipped to consider long-term implications in a rapidly evolving technology landscape.
Decentralizing DevRel
The article discusses the work of the DevRel (Developer Relations) team at Hugging Face, a community-centric company known for its open-source ML (Machine Learning) work. It covers topics such as the role of the Chief Llama Officer, the company’s community-focused approach, metrics for measuring DevRel success, and the strategies for prioritizing and organizing the various open-source projects.
After Tesla and OpenAI, Andrej Karpathy’s startup aims to apply AI assistants to education | TechCrunch
The article discusses the launch of Eureka Labs, an “AI native” education platform founded by Andrej Karpathy, the former head of AI at Tesla and a researcher at OpenAI. The platform aims to leverage generative AI to create AI teaching assistants that can guide students through course materials.
Why Megan Morreale Thinks Content Marketing As We Know It Is Dying (And What’s Next) (Interview) — Animalz
The article discusses the changing landscape of content marketing and the evolving role of content marketers. It features an interview with Megan Morreale, a former content marketing executive, who shares her perspective on the “death” of traditional content marketing departments and the need for content marketers to adapt their skills and career paths.
Link Exchange (or Link Swap) Risks and Benefits in 2024
The article discusses the topic of link exchanges, which are a popular link building tactic where one website links to another website, and the other website links back. The article covers different types of link exchanges, the risks and benefits of using them, and how to safely execute link exchange outreach.
AI & its Impact on Vertical SaaS: The Gates of Distribution have Flung Open
The article discusses the recent boom in vertical SaaS companies driven by advancements in large language models (LLMs) and AI capabilities. It explores the new capabilities that LLMs are unlocking, the impact on improving human efficiency, and the opportunities for distribution and defensibility for vertical SaaS companies.
Think Differently
The article discusses the importance of thinking differently to achieve ambitious goals, using the author’s experience at a company called CompStak as an example. It also covers recent funding news in Europe and Israel, as well as insights on the current state of AI and the software industry.
Cool Self
The article discusses the concept of “coolness” and how finding and living as one’s “cool self” can be a meaningful pursuit in life. It explores the definition of coolness, the balance between inner and outer coolness, and how coolness relates to ambition, relationships, and self-expression.
AI Optimism vs. AI Arms Race
The article discusses the debate around the pace and scale of AI infrastructure (CapEx) investment by major tech companies. It argues that this is not a simple choice between being an “AI bull” or “AI bear”, but rather a debate about the speed of infrastructure buildout, not the magnitude.
Make the Internet Fun Again
The article discusses the decline of the internet’s magic due to optimization and the rise of “slop” — mediocre content created solely to drive metrics. It argues that this is a natural process that comes for every new industry, as described by economists like Carlota Perez and Joseph Schumpeter. The article then introduces oncyber, a portfolio company of Not Boring Capital, as an example of a “toy” that could disrupt the current state of the internet by providing powerful yet easy-to-use tools for anyone to build immersive, interactive 3D experiences and websites.
Benchmarking results for vector databases — Redis
The article presents a comprehensive benchmark comparison of Redis 7.4 with various vector database providers, general-purpose databases with vector capabilities, and Redis imitators on cloud service providers. It highlights the performance advantages of Redis in terms of querying throughput, latency, and indexing times across different datasets and use cases.
SmolLM — blazingly fast and remarkably powerful
This blog post introduces SmolLM, a family of state-of-the-art small language models with 135M, 360M, and 1.7B parameters, trained on a new high-quality dataset called SmolLM-Corpus. The post covers the data curation process, model evaluation, and usage details of these small models.
What happened to BERT & T5? On Transformer Encoders, PrefixLM and Denoising Objectives — Yi Tay
The article discusses the evolution of language model architectures in the era of large language models (LLMs), covering the three main paradigms: encoder-only models (e.g., BERT), encoder-decoder models (e.g., T5), and decoder-only models (e.g., GPT series). It explores the relationships between these architectures, the role of denoising objectives, and the gradual phasing out of BERT-like models in favor of more flexible and unified autoregressive models.
Apple, Nvidia, Anthropic Used Thousands of Swiped YouTube Videos to Train AI
The article investigates how AI companies have used material from thousands of YouTube videos to train their AI models, despite YouTube’s rules against harvesting materials from the platform without permission. The investigation found that subtitles from 173,536 YouTube videos, siphoned from more than 48,000 channels, were used by major tech companies like Anthropic, Nvidia, Apple, and Salesforce. The article discusses the concerns of YouTube creators whose work was used without their consent, as well as the legal implications and debates around the use of such data for training AI models.
Whistleblowers accuse OpenAI of ‘illegally restrictive’ NDAs | TechCrunch
The article discusses allegations made by whistleblowers against OpenAI, accusing the company of placing illegal restrictions on how employees can communicate with government regulators. The whistleblowers have filed a formal complaint with the SEC, alleging that OpenAI’s severance, non-disparagement, and non-disclosure agreements prohibited and discouraged employees and investors from communicating with the SEC about securities violations.
Inside three-time NBA dunk champion Nate Robinson’s silent battle — and the fight for his life
The article tells the story of former NBA player Nate Robinson’s battle with kidney failure and his journey to find a kidney donor. It highlights the challenges he faced in navigating the healthcare system and the importance of raising awareness about kidney disease, especially among the Black community.
How to Cope With Your Partner’s Frustrating Travel Habits
The article discusses the challenges and differences that couples often face when traveling together, and provides strategies for addressing these issues through communication and compromise.
Daniel Langlois, Dominique Marchand’s Shocking Homicides on Dominica
The article explores the double homicide of Canadian special-effects pioneer Daniel Langlois and his partner Dominique Marchand on the Caribbean island of Dominica, and the subsequent arrest of American businessman Jonathan Lehrer as a suspect. It delves into the complex history and tensions between the expat communities on the island, the legal dispute over a road running through their properties, and the broader context of Dominica’s Citizenship by Investment program. The article paints a nuanced picture of the case, raising questions about the motives and evidence behind the alleged crime.
The Real Meaning of OpenAI’s 5 Levels of AI
The article discusses OpenAI’s recently released framework for their future AI work, which the author finds suspicious or highly calculated.
Middlemen without enshittification
The article discusses the concept of “enshittification” — how online platforms can go bad and how the internet itself can go bad, as it is made up of these platforms. It explores the reasons why people flocked to these intermediary platforms, and the problems that arise when these platforms gain too much power over their users and creators. The article argues that the issue is not with intermediaries themselves, but with powerful intermediaries that can exploit their position. It highlights the importance of reinstating competition law to keep these intermediaries small and prevent them from becoming dominant gatekeepers.
Nvidia’s Growth: An Extinction-Level Threat.
The article discusses the potential extinction-level threat posed by the rapid growth and development of artificial intelligence (AI), particularly the risks associated with Nvidia, Microsoft, Apple, and OpenAI’s involvement in AI technology.
Storytelling
The article discusses the importance of storytelling and its impact on various aspects of life, including personal relationships, social change, and the business world. The author emphasizes that the ability to tell compelling stories is a valuable skill that can lead to greater cooperation, attractiveness, and success in various domains.
Meta’s Multi-token Model, A New Beginning for AI?
The article discusses a new training paradigm for Large Language Models (LLMs) proposed by Meta, which involves predicting multiple tokens at once instead of just the next token. This approach is claimed to make the models smarter and faster, with potential benefits for tasks like coding.
Okay, Kids, Here’s the Blueprint for Selling Cookies, Sex and Sweat
The article discusses how the last couple of decades have become the age of branding, as exemplified by the lives and careers of David Liederman, Dr. Ruth Westheimer, and Richard Simmons, who all died within eight days of each other. It explores how these individuals were able to create and market a product tied to themselves, leveraging the power of personal branding in the age of television, the internet, and social media.
The Coprophagic AI crisis
The article discusses the challenges faced by science fiction (SF) writers in distinguishing between science fiction as a thought experiment and making predictions about the future. It highlights the tendency of some SF writers and tech billionaires to treat SF as prophecy, leading to the creation of technologies that may not be beneficial. The article also delves into the issue of “botshit” — the proliferation of inaccurate or fabricated content generated by AI systems, and how this can undermine the quality of information on the internet.
Meta is training its AI with public Instagram posts. Artists in Latin America can’t opt out
The article discusses the concerns of Latin American artists regarding Meta’s (Facebook and Instagram) use of their publicly shared content to train its artificial intelligence (AI) models. While Meta gave users in the EU and UK the option to opt out of this practice, most Latin American users were not provided the same opportunity. The article highlights the lack of comprehensive data protection laws in many Latin American countries, leaving artists vulnerable to Meta’s practices.
How a Network of Tech Billionaires Helped J.D. Vance Leap Into Power
The article discusses how a network of tech billionaires, including Peter Thiel, David Sacks, and Elon Musk, helped J.D. Vance, a former tech executive, rise to political power. It highlights how Vance’s connections and funding from these tech leaders were crucial to his political ascent, particularly his campaign for the Ohio Senate seat and his selection as Donald Trump’s running mate.
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