Defining virtual reality as being about hardware is to miss the point: virtual reality is AI, and hardware is an (essential) means to an end.
An Interview with Craig Moffett About Charter vs. Disney and the Path Dependency of the Communications Industry
An interview with Craig Moffett about Charter vs. Disney, the 1990s telecom bubble, the history of the U.S. TV and broadband markets, and why Google might win video.
Nvidia On the Mountaintop
Nvidia has gone from the valley to the mountain-top in less than a year, thanks to ChatGPT and the frenzy it inspired; whether or not there is a cliff depends on developing new kinds of demand that only GPUs can fulfill.
An Interview with Eugene Wei About Twitter, Threads, and Taylor Swift
An interview with Eugene Wei about Elon Musk’s critical mistake with Twitter, the questionable prospects for Threads, and what Taylor Swift and other communal experiences say about the commoditization wrought by technology.
Disney’s Taylor Swift Era
Not even Taylor Swift can fight the devaluation of recorded music, but she makes it up in physical experiences; Disney isn’t much different, but it looks much worse given the company’s old business model.
Meta Blocks News in Canada, LK-99, YouTube and TV Advertisers
Meta is blocking news in Canada after another law requiring Aggregators to pay for links; it’s still an upsetting idea. Then, a brief primer on LK-99, the potential superconducting material.
Streaming Residuals and Spotify, Llama 2 Open-Sourced, Llama’s License
Streaming residuals might end up looking like Spotify. Then, Meta makes Llama 2 open source — mostly.
Hollywood on Strike
The Hollywood strike is setting talent against studios, but the problem is that both are jointly threatened by the reality of the Internet and zero distribution costs.
Microsoft-Activision Updates; Reader Follow-Up; Free Speech, the Government, and Scale
An update on Microsoft-Activision, and then a response to a reader upset at my take, weaved in with commentary about free speech in the context of last week’s ruling about social media moderation.
Friction Follow-Up, Databricks Acquires MosaicML
More on the trade-offs (and benefits) of Amazon’s scale, and initial reactions to Databricks’ acquisition of MosaicML.