Welcome back to This Week in Stratechery!
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On that note, here were a few of our favorites this week.
- Can Meta Focus? It’s risky, both as a technical person enthralled with new technology, and as an analyst in the midst of AI fervor, to claim that the next computing paradigm is truly here, but I do think that everyone will use agents, eventually. And, if they do, the impact on value chains will be enormous: something like Muse could aggregate Aggregators, which is to say it could be the most valuable product in the world. That was the bullish takeaway from Monday’s Article Apps, Agents, and Aggregation; then, a day later, Meta inexplicably announced Meta Enterprise Platform. Not only do I think this won’t work — who is the customer? — I think it’s a distraction from the biggest opportunity in consumer tech. — Ben Thompson
- What is OpenAI Doing? It was only a few weeks ago that it seemed like OpenAI had figured it out, was the clear leader on the frontier, and had settled on a coherent strategic direction. Tuesday’s Dev Day, though, brought a return to a bit of the chaotic messaging and branding that gave everyone pause about 12 months ago. Ben’s Update on Tuesday helped validate my confused reaction to what I saw — new pricing tiers, overlapping products, “dots” that look like they’re for mass market consumers but are only available to pro subscribers — but also included Ben’s valiant attempt to identify the methods underlying all this madness. — Andrew Sharp
- Mao or Media Day? On the way into the weekend, I have two great podcasts for you. First, Xi Jinping was in D.C. last week and on Sharp China we marveled at the pageantry, the absence of substance, and Beijing posture that looks an awful lot like Mao Zedong’s second phase of protracted war, strategic stalemate, and may be a prologue to phase three (counter-offensive). Second, if all that’s a bit too unsettling, we had a great time celebrating NBA media days on Greatest of All Talk, running down notes and quotes from about 15 different teams. Xi likes to say the world is undergoing changes unseen in a century; thankfully, the NBA remains a source of mirth in the meantime. — AS
Stratechery Articles and Updates
- Apps, Agents, and Aggregation — Agents are the ultimate Aggregators; they reveal apps as a means, not an ends, and providing them is tech’s biggest prize.
- One More Note on Agents, Meta Connect, Meta Enterprise Platform — Meta has the chance to own the consumer agentic space; going for enterprise is a big mistake.
- OpenAI Dev Day, Dot and OpenAI’s Product Transition, Sign In With ChatGPT — OpenAI’s Dev Day showcased a product that is, frankly, pretty confusing. However, there is more vision here than it might seem.
- An Interview with Jason Del Rey About Muse, Amazon, and Walmart — An interview with Jason Del Rey about Amazon versus Meta, which is a continuation of the oldest battle in retail between Amazon and Walmart.
Sharp Text by Andrew Sharp
- Super Intelligence Is Not Right, Either — A note on branding and our collective understanding.
Dithering with Ben Thompson and Daring Fireball’s John Gruber
Asianometry with Jon Yu
Sharp China with Andrew Sharp and Sinocism’s Bill Bishop
Greatest of All Talk
Sharp Tech with Andrew Sharp and Ben Thompson
This week’s Stratechery video is on Frontier Overhangs.