Inklings #017 📧
The trailer just hit so the take is especially hot, but I'm fairly concerned about where The Social Reckoning – the sequel/"companion" to The Social Network – is going to go. I'm worried no one was around to check some of Aaron Sorkin's worst instincts that often surface in some of his more charged work. And this seems to be especially charged. I'm mildly surprised he didn't title this "Fuck Facebook".
Truly great voice work out of Jeremy Strong though. Will it be enough to make us forget Jesse Eisenberg? And a nice call-back to the original's soundtrack in the title card – ruined by "she's disrupting". Some interesting wardrobe choices too... Aside: where's the trailer for Artificial – aka the OpenAI movie, which wrapped filming months ago?!
Thoughts On...
☁️ Apple's Models in Google's Cloud on NVIDIA's Chips – The biggest surprise out of WWDC may have been the acknowledgement by Apple that they're not only using Google Cloud to run their larger models (i.e. those that can't fit on device), but that they're doing so on NVIDIA chips (which had been rumored, but no one expected Apple to confirm directly). This is sort of wild both because Apple and NVIDIA have a contentious history going back years. Something which may or may not have played a role in Apple not getting into the AI arms races to begin with... But also because given the Google partnership already in place, why not just use TPUs? Especially since Apple went out of their way to train their models on TPUs – again, bypassing NVIDIA GPUs – in the past. This new set up is clearly about inference, but still, Google has TPUs built just for that! The answer seems to be in a feature called 'Nvidia Confidential Computing' and "ambiguous confidential compute" which Apple specifically called out in their Q&A after the keynote. Clearly, this was the way Apple felt most comfortable extending their Private Cloud Compute initiative (and branding) beyond their own servers. And it's a nice way to diversify a bit from the pure Google reliance, I suppose. Still, you can bet Apple would prefer to do this all on their own servers with their own chips. Perhaps someday... For now, another Big Tech AI Infinity Stone for Jensen. [CNBC]
🇪🇺 No Siri AI for EU – Perhaps the most unintentionally funny moment of the WWDC keynote was when Craig Federighi was trying to keep a straight face while announcing during his walk & talk that sadly, all of the new AI features that Apple had just unveiled would not be coming to the EU at this time. Why? The DMA of course. No one will be surprised that I side firmly with Apple here because it's both ridiculous to think that a government body should pre-regulate product feature development, but also because in this particular matter, the entire world is currently worried about the AI security nightmares starting to happen while acknowledging that they're completely unprepared for what is to come. Meanwhile, the EU would seemingly like to pour gasoline on such concerns. Obviously, that's not their intent but they're also obviously not smart enough – years into the DMA – to recognize what the second-order effects might be of say, allowing any AI provider to have deep and full access to all the content of your iPhone. EU to OpenClaw: hold my lobster. So while EU politicians think they look great as the competition police standing up to Apple, I just see a bunch of smug, naive fire starters. The bloc is constantly complaining that they don't have their own tech companies to rival those from America and Asia and yet they can't quite understand why that might be. Or worse, they do, but they'd rather take some lame political victory laps without realizing that they're running backwards and taking 450M people with them. (China is another matter, of course, which will now fall firmly at the feet of Tim Cook in his new ambassador-in-chief role at Apple.) I'm sure this blurb will inspire those living with acute cases of Stockholm syndrome in Europe to respond conveying their happiness in regulation slavery. May you enjoy the pop-ups forever and ever. [MacRumors]
📽️ 'Scary Movie' Screams, 'Masters of the Universe' Bombs – This latest box office battle seems quite different on the surface than the whole Backrooms/Obsession phenomenon. But actually, it may not be all that different. While by most accounts Masters is actually pretty good and Scary is actually pretty bad, one key driver here may have been demographics once again. That is, a younger group had nostalgia for the Scary Movie franchise, which is about 20 to 25 years old, while the Masters nostalgia is calling back more like 40 years. One cohort showed up, the other didn't. There are other audience variables as well here – horror movies, pure satire, R-rated, black audiences, etc – still, it feels like we're going to see a fast shift to cater to those younger demographics since the olds seem to being staying home. Personally, I'm right in the Masters demo – it was my favorite toy and cartoon when I was a kid – as I've somewhat embarrassingly written about a number of times! So I rushed out to see the movie, right? Well, no. I want to, but well, now I have kids! And I suspect a lot of the Masters demo is in that boat too – it's just a lot of time and effort (and money) to coordinate going to a movie that solely for my enjoyment. That said, I did take my oldest to go see The Mandalorian and Grogu, but in week three of release for similar reasons. We liked it! But not something we needed to rush out to see... [NYT]
I Wrote...
M.G. Siegler
I Quote...
"It may be a while because there are things we want to do that are likely easier as a private company. But it’s a complicated set of trade-offs, and this gives us the option to go public sooner if that ends up being best."
– OpenAI's official statement given to The New York Times alongside the news that they had confidentially filed for an IPO. Normally, such events are a cause for celebration, but this must be the most timid such announcement of all time.
It obviously suggests that the company doesn't actually intend to go public any time soon and clearly would prefer not to. But they've been sort of backed into a corner by their main rival, Anthropic, filing. And if the IPO of another rival, xAI (by way of SpaceX) founded by one of their co-founders (who just got done suing them), goes well, it might be the most prudent thing to tap the market now before any such window comes crashing closed.
At the same time, the best thing for OpenAI to do may be to wait a bit, to distance themselves from Anthropic which will clearly be going out with better metrics, certainly on the business-front. And perhaps to give them time to morph the products and get the ads business working and built out. It's a very complicated tension, obviously.
Below, members of The Inner Ring will find thoughts on:
• OpenAI's 'Third Phase'
• A Stargate Reborn in Ohio