More on the China chip ban, including the AI motivation, and how China might interpret things differently. Plus, Apple gets a reminder that there are more considerations than costs.
2022
Meta Meets Microsoft
Meta’s new hardware is more impressive than expected, and the Microsoft partnership makes a lot of sense. The question is if Meta will capture enough value to outweigh their costs.
An Interview With Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg and Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella About Partnering in the Metaverse
An interview With Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg and Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella about partnering in the Metaverse
The China Chip Ban; The Logic of the Ban; Chinese Retaliation, or Not
The Biden administration released wide-ranging limits on the exports of chips and chip-making technology to China; it is a position that makes logical sense, even as it makes the status quo more fragile.
An Interview With Daniel Gross and Nat Friedman about the Democratization of AI
An interview with Daniel Gross and Nat Friedman about the decentralization of AI, the story of GitHub CoPilot, where Stable Diffusion came from, and why software will finally become truly deflationary.
Musk Re-Commits to Twitter; Meta, AITemplate, and Nvidia; Facebook Shutters Bulletin
Notes on Musk’s latest Twitter about-face, then Meta open-sources an AI library that is a big threat to Nvidia. Plus, another example of a failed paid product from an ad-supported company.
DALL-E Open to All, OpenAI and Openness, OpenAI Opportunities and Threats
OpenAI opened up DALL-E 2 to everyone; the biggest driver was probably competition from open alternatives, .which highlight the extent to which OpenAI’s promises of openness have always been relative.
Google Kills Stadia; Why Stadia Was a Bad Product; Microsoft, Activision, and Antitrust
Google Stadia is, predictably, dead: the company never had the business model to match. Microsoft is showing just how hard it is to get that business model off of the ground.
An Interview With Instacart CEO Fidji Simo About Big Ambitions
An interview with Instacart CEO Fidji Simo about Instacart and why she believes it is a generational company.
Spotify Audiobooks, Audiobook Business Models, Limitations and Skepticism
Spotify is now selling audio books, but with an analog business model that is further hampered by Apple. The limitations aren’t Spotify’s fault, but do limit upside.