The Anti-Big Tech Drumbeat 📧
The headlines are big and bold around the potential of a Google breakup in their antitrust fight, but is that really all that likely? Almost certainly not. And I suspect all parties know that. This will all still play out over years and the world will probably look quite different by then. But without question, the anti-Big Tech drumbeat continues to swell – and that's not great for any of these companies...
Some Thoughts...
₿ An HBO Filmmaker Thinks He Found Bitcoin's Creator – Peter Todd, a Canadian developer long associated with the Bitcoin movement, says he is not Satoshi Nakamoto – which is such a Satoshi Nakamoto thing to say. But seriously, having not yet watched the documentary, the evidence as explained here is clearly circumstantial. But just as compelling as anything else we've seen/heard around the identity of the enigma – and the documentarian, Cullen Hoback, has some credibility thanks to his excellent QAnon documentary. Still, it does feel a bit dangerous to paint someone as Nakamoto – who, as such, would be in control of Bitcoins worth about $65B in today's value – without more definitive proof. I'll report back after watching. [WaPo]
🚕 Elon Musk Readies the Robotaxi He Is Betting Tesla’s Future On – This feels like the biggest "put up or shut up" moment in the history of the company. And while Musk hypes of everything he's involved with, he has been framing this as the future of Tesla, which is nothing if not an admission that selling electric vehicles is not the ultimate future that allows the company to live up to its stratospheric valuation. If Tesla truly is a "robot company" than this is the all-important step (self-driving tech is too loaded a term now with so many different variations and meanings – Musk needs a true answer for Waymo, the service). Will "Cybercab" with "butterfly wing" doors be that answer? Everyone will be tuning in tomorrow to the event on the Warner Bros lot to see! [Bloomberg 🔒]
📚 Can a Start-Up Help Authors Get Paid by A.I. Companies? – This will undoubtedly have many up in arms, and it would have been nice for the Times to speak to a dissenting voice here (obviously Walter Isaacson and Douglas Preston are going to endorse this model, as they put their money where their words are by investing in the company). But it seems like the startup Created by Humans did the right thing, at least optically, in getting The Authors Guild on board with their service – unlike, say, OpenAI, which the Guild is currently suing. Not a surprise given Trip Adler is the CEO here, as he was previously in charge of Scribd, an OG digital book/document sharing startup. I suspect other industries will be watching this marketplace model closely, as they should. What say you, Audible? [NYT]
Some Analysis...
M.G. Siegler
Some Links...
- There are many nice things about living in the UK during this particular US election cycle, I'm not sure having Stormy Daniels, Caitlyn Jenner, and Boris Johnson a commentators on Election Night is one of them, but sure, why not? Brian Cox though – into that, if he can swear. [Deadline]
- Also finally coming to the UK: Meta AI. [Engadget]
- OpenAI is asking a court to dismiss the latest Elon Musk lawsuit against the company, which I'm sure will settle the matter in light of their latest $6.6B funding around at a $157B valuation. [Bloomberg 🔒]
- Christopher Nolan's next film? Well, we have a studio: Universal. A star: Matt Damon. And a date: July 17, 2026. Oh, and a format: IMAX. No other details yet though – too much to hope for an Interstellar prequel? [Deadline]
- Another day, another AI-related Nobel Prize. This time, Demis Hassabis and John Jumper from Google DeepMind were awarded for using the technology to map and unmask proteins – including all human proteins, and 200 million or so other proteins from Earth's organisms. (They split the award with split the award with David Baker at the University of Washington, who separately was able to design a new protein without AI – which he now uses.) Not the last AI-related Nobel Prize, me thinks. [NYT]
- That mysterious Nintendo hardware turned out to be... an alarm clock? "Alarmo" lets you think you're waking up in a video game with music and sounds that respond to your movement in bed. Sort of an odd thing to build, but I absolutely would have been all about this 30-some years ago! I just hope it didn't delay the 'Super Switch' at all! It's $100. Who am I kidding? I'm totally buying this for my desk. [The Verge]
- And amazingly, Nintendo isn't the only Japanese company unveiling an alarm clock today: sadly, the supersized Casio A158W is only available in that country. [The Verge]
- One of the first jobs actually eliminated by AI? The line umpires at Wimbledon. Starting next year, "out" and "fault" calls will be handled by solely by technology. Is baseball next? [Canadian Press]
A Golden Oldie...
M.G. Siegler
And I Quote...
"He said, ‘Hey, you know what you should do next?’ I was like, ‘Don’t say Satoshi.’"
-- Cullen Hoback, the documentarian, relaying a conversation he had with producer Adam McKay, on what his follow-up project should to Q Into the Storm, the 2021 documentary he made which dove deep into the background of the movement, and those likely responsible for it.
His ultimate follow up, Money Electric: The Bitcoin Mystery, which premiered on Max yesterday, naturally is an attempt to discover who Satoshi Nakamoto is – something which is especially hard given how much the community now pushes the idea that it shouldn't matter who Satoshi Nakamoto is – and everyone sort of claiming there are in a Spartacus sort of manner – including, naturally, the subject of Hoback's investigation...