Augmented Trust 📧
I can't believe it's October to the point where it's the second day of October and I didn't even realize the transition yesterday. Last month was a record month across the board around these parts so thank you to all who joined, signed-up, or are just reading along!
Today I thought a bit more about the new consumer-facing elements of Copilot that Microsoft unveiled yesterday and how much trust – in multiple ways and meanings – plays a critical role in what they're trying to do here. I have some longer thoughts coming on the various overlaps and awkwardness as well... I also, hopefully for now, closed out my many thoughts on the recent flurry of activity in the XR/AR/VR world and newfangled wearables – by thinking through what Google could do here in light of what Meta/Snap/Apple have done/are doing...
Some Thoughts...
💰 OpenAI Raises $6.6 billion in Largest VC Round Ever – At last, it's over. $6.6B. $157B valuation (technically $156.6B-post, no doubt). Thrive Capital, Microsoft, Nvidia, SoftBank, Khosla Ventures, Altimeter Capital, Fidelity, and MGX. No Apple, perhaps a bit problematic but as expected. And no Sequoia or a16z – also perhaps a bit problematic, also as expected – with the round closing comes news that one thing being asked (presumably more informally) of investors here is that they not invest in competitors, something which both firms have already done, multiple times – beyond xAI with the obvious Elon Musk issues there, both firms also backed Ilya Sutskever's Safe Superintelligence. Now it's back to work! Narrator... [Axios]
💼 Anthropic Hires OpenAI Co-Founder Durk Kingma – It's one thing that so many key people keep leaving OpenAI. It's another that most of them keep joining, or starting, rivals to OpenAI. It may not totally negate the narrative that "all startups have growing pains" but it makes it decidedly more complicated. To be clear and fair, Kingma left OpenAI in 2018, so this wasn't the fast "F You" that other moves feel like. But still, "Anthropic’s approach to AI development resonates significantly with my own beliefs" obviously just implies that OpenAI's work and approach does not. And that's clearly the case with many who are leaving or have left. Maybe that's okay, but it's not like Anthropic is taking the open source route – it's also a VC and Big Tech-backed organization, just one that is seemingly doing more than just putting words to some of the old notions of safety and alignment. (It's also, of course, actually a "normal" company, in that it's a for-profit B-corp – which OpenAI is working towards.) [TechCrunch]
💦 ‘Talk Tuah’ is Expanding the Conservative Podcasting Bubble – Look, it's a clever title, I'll give it that. But the fact that this 15 minutes of fame has been converted into 50 minute podcasts – which are increasingly popular – would just seem to be further proof of the Idiocification of America. And lest you think I'm just lazily taking a swipe here, I actually tried to listen to an episode – you know, for research! I'll just say there are better uses of time. Like listening to Joe Rogan's podcast if you can mute Joe Rogan. This article does feature two of the most amazing paragraphs ever used in a story about the media though. One features the use of "onomatopoeia" to describe where that title comes from. The other is around a spat with Laura Loomer over whether or not certain acts that will get newsletters flagged if named are political acts... [Fast Company]
🏀 Dikembe Mutombo, a Towering N.B.A. Presence, Dies at 58 – In my unfortunate run of obituaries yesterday – way too many of them recently – I can't believe I left out that of Dikembe Mutombo, who passed away way too young from brain cancer earlier this week. This obit focuses quite a bit on his signature finger wag, used to taunt and intimidate opponents on the basketball court, but it also paints a full story about how he smartly used it as a branding mechanism for his ultimate goal: sending money and resources back to the Democratic Republic of Congo, where he was born, when it was then called Zaire. While at first he would have preferred being a doctor or at least playing soccer, being 7 foot 2 had a way of directing one to basketball. Mentored by Patrick Ewing and Alonzo Mourning (all of whom went to Georgetown), he ended his career with the second-most blocked shots in NBA history, behind only Hakeem Olajuwon. "A walk in the cake." [NYT]
🗣️ Character.ai Abandons Making AI Models After $2.7bn Google Deal – Given the flurry of "hackquisitions", it's interesting to hear about the carcasses companies left behind. To be fair, it sounds like Character was left in much a better position than most – beyond the $2.7B for their troubles, it sounds like Google "only" hired 20% of their staff. Though, yes, sadly the founders. Still, better than an 80/20 split the other way, I suppose if you're actually going to try to keep operating. Which Character is, but no more models for them... the focus is just on products. And the money, after investors were paid out and the staff got a one-time payment, the leftovers will give them the standard 18 months to keep at it – undoubtedly not incidental. Though I'd be very curious to know what happened to the valuation given all the very fundamental changes here! [FT 🔒]
Some Analysis...
M.G. Siegler
M.G. Siegler
Some Links...
- Without rent relief, Cineworld, the largest movie theater chain in the UK (and owner of Regal Cinemas, the second largest chain in the US), says it will run out of cash – well, now. So the restructuring was granted. This follows Chapter 11 bankruptcy in the US in 2022 and the company being delisted from the London Stock exchange in August. Feels untenable... [Bloomberg 🔒]
- Speaking of movies, it sounds like Todd Phillips is done with the Joker franchise after the sequel coming out this week. The first movie was a sort of breath of fresh (yet putrid) air in the genre when it launched five years ago. This one seems decidedly more divisive. [THR]
- A new iPhone SE – 'SE' stood for "Special Edition" but it's not clear it should still be called this? How about just 'iPhone Lite' since 'iPhone Air' might soon be taken? – seems to be inbound. Of note, this will mark the official end of the home button, as that was the last model that had it. Aside from a larger screen, it will also apparently work with Apple Intelligence, which I assume means it will have 8GB of RAM... [Bloomberg 🔒]
- The most interesting element of Sony buying the rights to Pink Floyd's recorded music for $400M is that it also includes the artists "likeness" – while the article doesn't hit on it, presumably this includes the ability to replicate them through AI if Sony so desired? Holograms too? [FT 🔒]
- It may not just be Daniel Day-Lewis that is coming back to entertain us – the producer of the Benedict Cumberbatch/Martin Freeman-starring Sherlock series which last aired in January 2017, has said the show has an open window and "future" it seems. But perhaps as a movie? [Deadline]
- As predicted given the timing of a sudden CEO transition, Nike's earnings were once again not good last quarter, and they're suspending sales guidance for the year to give new boss Elliot Hill room to execute a turnaround. An early preview of that, a renewed focus on where it began: running. [Bloomberg 🔒]
And I Quote...
"It got insanely expensive to train frontier models...which is extremely difficult to finance on even a very large start-up budget."
-- Dominic Perella, the interim CEO of Character, talking about their move away from model-building alongside the deal which saw Google take away their founders (who happened to be interested in building AI models). Yes, it seems like the going rate that a startup needs to build models is now $6.6B...