The Inner Ring
The Spyglass Paid Tier
Members of The Inner Ring receive a column in their inbox on a daily basis (on weekdays) as well as full access to all previous columns and analysis below.
Appleās āFaster Horsesā Fallback Strategy
The Vision Pro and iPadOS may be going down this pathā¦
M.G. Siegler
Terminating the AI vs. Hollywood Tropes
James Cameron has some interesting ā and some refreshing ā and some controversial ā thoughts about AIā¦
M.G. Siegler
A Call to AI
Shopify goes all-in on AI ā other companies are sure to followā¦
M.G. Siegler
March 2025
The Debt of Damocles
A sword hangs over Elon Musk, CoreWeave, and OpenAIā¦
M.G. Siegler
Artificial Iconoclasts
A foil might be needed for artificial intelligenceā¦
M.G. Siegler
The Case for Twitter Going Public ā Again
It takes some squinting, and quite a bit of adjusting, but itās there ā thanks mostly to xAIā¦
M.G. Siegler
My God, Itās Full of Stargates
xAI and NVIDIA join another $100B AI data center initiativeā¦
M.G. Siegler
Hollywood vs. AI: The Movie
My god, the open letter is full of stars -- especially Cate Blanchett
M.G. Siegler
The Curious Case of Amazonās Anthropic Stake
Using Googleās stake to back into Amazonās likely much larger stakeā¦
M.G. Siegler
WeaveWork
CoreWeave stumbled upon a model that works well in a certain type of marketā¦
M.G. Siegler
Bing When Youāre Winning
Microsoft had a window to win consumer AI ā and perhaps the future of search
M.G. Siegler
Thin Is In Before a Foldable Is Out
Gaming out some āiPhone Airā and āiPhone Foldā optionsā¦
M.G. Siegler
Is Amazon Writing Checks that Alexa+ Canāt Cash?
Thereās a lot of vagaries and obfuscation around this launchā¦
M.G. Siegler
February 2025
OpenAIās EQ Upgrade to Hold Us Over to the IQ Upgrade
Theyāre clearly angling GPT-4.5 as being an emotionally intelligent update about getting the āvibesā right
M.G. Siegler
Alexa, Iām Skeptical
Alexa+ brings a lot of table-stakes stuff to the table in 2025ā¦
M.G. Siegler
ESPN Balks, MLB Walks
And itās partially Appleās fault!
M.G. Siegler
Oh, the Humane-ity
Humaneās bad strategy exacerbated their bad timing with the Ai Pin
M.G. Siegler
Amazon & ESPNās Sports Streaming Collision Course
With Netflix drafting behind themā¦
M.G. Siegler
Liquidity Now
A new standard model for VCs and secondariesā¦
M.G. Siegler
Observations About Sam Altmanās Observations
Heās seeking for something deepā¦
M.G. Siegler
Appleās Elegantly Expressive Pixar Lamp
Forget glasses, Appleās Next Big Thingā¢ may be a robotā¦
M.G. Siegler
FaceFeed
How Mark Zuckerberg might rejuvenate Facebook with a feed of Meta content, a Fediverse twist, and a splash of AI
M.G. Siegler
January 2025
Appleās Record-Breaking Quarter Was SO BORING
Apple wins as the AI tortoise in a field of scared hares -- for nowā¦
M.G. Siegler
Post-Explosion, Seeking the DeepSeek Fallout
A guess: DeepSeek itself will matter less than the reaction to itā¦
M.G. Siegler
Should Apple Switch Off Siri?
In our Age of AI, Siri continues to embarrass Appleā¦
M.G. Siegler
Metaās March to Make the iPhone āThe Thing That Gets Us to the Thingā
The company will build anything and everything to end the smartphone eraā¦
M.G. Siegler
May Your First Startup Be A Masculine Startup
Mark Zuckerbergās heel turn this past week has been all sorts of fascinating.1 For one thing, I donāt think itās all an act. I think itās likely a short-sighted and misguided maneuver born out of years of various frustrations, but I donāt think itās just to curry favor with
M.G. Siegler
$1M Knee Pads
Thereās a cost to be the boss -- and to bend the kneeā¦
M.G. Siegler
December 2024
Being for the Benefit of OpenAI
OpenAIās shift to a for-profit is messy, complicated, conflicted, and yet necessary
M.G. Siegler
America Has Been Acquired
This has felt less like an election and more like a dealā¦
M.G. Siegler
Apple Made the Right Call and a Stupid Decision with āWolfsā
The movie would have flopped in theaters but stillā¦
M.G. Siegler
Intel Inside, Gelsinger Outside
Dealt a bad hand by a board who wouldnāt give him enough time, Intelās next leader needs full control to think different
M.G. Siegler
November 2024
Forget the Fate of Chrome, Focus on the Fate of the Browser
In debating what undoubtedly wonāt happen, weāre looking past some key things that are -- and mightā¦
M.G. Siegler
Has Apple āFinally Cracked Itā?
Apple Television... now, thatās a name I havenāt heard in a long timeā¦
M.G. Siegler
The Vision Pro Starts to Come Into Focus
Weāre starting to cook with fire. Iām writing this about the Vision Pro, in the Vision Pro. Which I really only did for a post or two for the novelty of it right after the deviceās initial release. But now Iām doing it because itās actually a good way to
M.G. Siegler
The Race for AI Independence
Amazon, Apple, Google, Meta, and Microsoft all wish to break away from each other. As does OpenAI. With everyone needing to break free from NVIDIA.
M.G. Siegler
Apple Admits the Obvious
Thereās no topping the iPhone. As a business, there may never be.
M.G. Siegler
PaidPals
Elon Musk will battle with Trump eventually. As Peter Thiel can attest.
M.G. Siegler
Tim Apple, Engage!
Apple seems poised to appeal to Donald Trump on their EU issuesā¦
M.G. Siegler
Can Barbie Break Netflix?
More pressure is applied to Netflixās anti-movie-theater stanceā¦
M.G. Siegler
Do You Feel In Charge?
On bending the knee to Donald Trumpā¦
M.G. Siegler
October 2024
Apple Claps Back
Apple Intelligence is about to be an āevery dayā product, so it needs to be the ābestā, fast
M.G. Siegler
The War of the AI Roses
Microsoft and OpenAI increasingly make strange bedfellowsā¦
M.G. Siegler
Microsoftās Awkward AI
Thereās a Copilot for thatā¦
M.G. Siegler
Apple Becomes the Pupil
Snap and Meta teach Apple a lessonā¦
M.G. Siegler
September 2024
The Art of the OpenAI Deal
Thinking through their numbers and those deal termsā¦
M.G. Siegler
Apple Knew Where the Puck Was Going, But Meta Skated There
Metaās āOrionā points to the vision of an Apple āVisorāā¦
M.G. Siegler
Should Microsoft Ride in to Save Intel?
Appleās old white knight can mount that steed againā¦
M.G. Siegler
Does Microsoft Have an AI Problem?
Itās early, but there sure is a lot of smoke billowingā¦
M.G. Siegler
Apple Should Sign Howard Stern and Launch āPodcasts+ā
They may not care about podcasting, but they *do* care about Servicesā¦
M.G. Siegler
August 2024
ESPNās Path to Be *the* Streaming Sports Bundle
Itās not exactly āclearā, as Amazon may battle them along the wayā¦
M.G. Siegler
Google Isnāt Lazy, Itās Timid. As It Sadly Must Be.
Provocative soundbites aside, itās obvious why Google isnāt OpenAIā¦
M.G. Siegler
Dear Zuck
This shit is embarrassingā¦
M.G. Siegler
July 2024
Never Tweet Your Heroes
Also maybe never tweet, period.
M.G. Siegler
Backing the Winner
Attention VCs: going for Trump is no longer the contrarian betā¦
M.G. Siegler
How to Scale Paramount
Can Skydance finally, actually bridge Silicon Valley and Hollywood?
M.G. Siegler
Almost All A.I. Investments are Going to Zero
Seemingly every investor I talk to these days is struggling with the same basic thing: they believe AI is going to be one of the most transformative technologies of the past several decades ā and perhaps ever ā but they have almost no idea how to invest in the space. And yet
M.G. Siegler
June 2024
Being Too Early Is Worse Than Being Late
Amazon owned the AI assistant space -- until the space changed
M.G. Siegler
Of Tadpoles and Tentpoles
A 10 step plan to save the movie theater business
M.G. Siegler
Can Microsoft Build āApple Intelligenceā in Reverse?
The countdown to āMicrosoft Intelligenceā feels on. Sorry, OpenAI.
M.G. Siegler
Did Apple Just End AIās First Era?
AIās performance arms race yields to the product arms raceā¦
M.G. Siegler
People at a Premium
AI will change Hollywood -- for the better
M.G. Siegler
Can NVIDIA Become Intel Faster Than Everyone Becomes NVIDIA?
As money pours into AI, can NVIDIA stay ahead?
M.G. Siegler
May 2024
Will OpenAI Bite the Microsoft Hand That Feeds?
A sense of tension between the two sides is inescapable
M.G. Siegler
Ready or Not, Here Apple AI Comes
Will slow but not fully steady win the race?
M.G. Siegler
The Overwhelming Chaos of AI is Underwhelming
The AI madness needs to settle to reach its potential -- and it will
M.G. Siegler
Without Real Time Information, Threads is Pointless
Unleash the feeds
M.G. Siegler
OpenAI Changes the Vocal Computing Game!
No sarcasm, just enthusiasm for GPT-4o
M.G. Siegler
Apple Invents a Laptop with a Touchscreen
The new iPad Pro is awesome. And a bit silly.
M.G. Siegler
Wonāt Get Fooled Again
Some decidedly unhelpful thoughts about investing in AI startupsā¦
M.G. Siegler
April 2024
Oh, the Humanity of Vision Pro
Apple really should have released the Vision Pro as a dev kit
M.G. Siegler
Is AI Spend the New Streaming Spend?
Wall Street loves to reward arms race spending -- until they donāt.
M.G. Siegler
The āGoing Directā Bullshit Debate
Itās driven by AI and itās all PR anywayā¦
M.G. Siegler