May 20, 2023

what we're excited about...

empowering you with insights and information from the edge of today’s headlines

Technology

AI goes Targeted: ChatGPT (and Bard, Claude, etc) continue to take the world by storm, and while governments spin around deciding how to regulate the new technology, AI firms are targeting deeper into specific industries. One such industry in the US which is definitely in need of a bot revolution — healthcare. Hippocratic AI wants to create a large language model and bot workforce to answer all of our healthcare needs including a “nutritionist, a genetics counselor and a health insurance billing specialist.” The biggest risk with healthcare and AI is that LLMs have a tendency to make things up and aren’t bound by ethics, like traditional healthcare workers. (Google also has a medical advisor called MedPaLM2 which scored very highly on medical exams.) Sounds to us like another Theranos in the making, but we’re happy for the upgraded WebMD.

Pavlov on the Ranch: Agriculture has gone high tech, so why not ranching. Ranchers have started installing virtual fences (similar to those used by dogs) to keep their cattle within the confines of their pastures. The cattle receive a warning beep and a light shock similar to a bee sting (according to one graduate student who tried the digital collar on himself) if they wander to close to the no-go-zone. One ranch did have a “Jurassic Park” moment when the power went out and a few bulls wandered off, but on most days the ranchers can monitor their herds on a laptop. Time for the cowboys put down the lasso and dust off their excel skills.

Trojan Tanks: We love a good inflatable, but we tend to prefer them in the form of a unicorn or simple inner tube. The Ukranians, however, have been replicating military equipment including tanks, field artillery, mortars, and machine guns as inflatables to use as decoys. The Czech company, Inflatech, specializes in inflatable armaments of the Soviet and Chinese variety, and has seen orders increase 30% since the start of the war. The decoys also deploy other techniques to fool heat sensors, radar and even drive a truck behind them to create the impression of tracks.

TikTok is Out: Montana cowboys won’t have to worry about TikTok when they are out hunting for their cattle: Governor Gianforte just became the first governor in the US to sign legislation to officially ban the app. The ban will take effect in 2024, and is meant to “protect residents from alleged intelligence gathering by China.” The legislation calls for fines of $10,000 per day for violations on the platforms that offer the app. Next move will either be a legal challenge on free speech terms by the ACLU or creators, a change in terms by Google Play or the App Store or a significant rise in VPN sales in Montana.

Social Media gone wild: If you have made an exodus from Twitter (or you’ve been banned from TikTok), and are looking for an alternative, you now have one more choice to throw on the pile: Instagram’s yet unnamed “text-based app for conversations.” The app is meant to launch in June and should be decentralized, which may allow users to search and interact with posts on other decentralized apps such as Mastadon and Bluesky. (we’re sadly still waiting for an invite). We’ve tried them all, including Post and Spoutible — it feels as if social media is splintering, and everyone will be moving to their own corners — we’re just waiting for someone to tell us where it is safe.

Business

Amazon goes East: Amazon announced a $13BN investment in India which will focus on its AWS cloud infrastructure. The latest investment should create 132k full-time jobs across engineering, telecommunications, and construction, and claimed it would add $23.3 billion to India’s GDP by the end of this decade. This is not Amazon’s first investment in India, and the US tech company is not the first to commit to the world’s second largest internet market: Google and Microsoft have also been expanding their cloud businesses, and Apple recently launched their first retail stores.

Fair Use: The US Supreme Court (7-2) has ruled that The Andy Warhol Foundation violated the copyright of photographer Lynn Goldsmith when it made and sold several prints based on her photo of the artist Prince. Goldsmith did have a licensing relationship with Warhol, but it was for a one-time use of the image, and she was paid only $400 (while the new prints sold for over $10k in 2016). “Original works, like those of other photographers, are entitled to copyright protection, even against famous artists.” The two dissenting justices claimed that the ruling will stifle creativity, but this lawsuit probably bolsters the case about whether or not art is transformative — we suspect this opens the floodgates for AI lawsuits because who or what draws that line.

Culture

Sinking for Apples: New York City may have had the weight of the nation on its shoulders during the pandemic, but the weight of its skyscrapers is literally causing the City to sink 1-2mm per year. While commercial real estate is widely empty in Manhattan (apparently 26 Empire State buildings worth) after the pandemic, the weight of the 8.4M people plus the infrastructure and climate change is causing the sinking effect. Did you know that the “Empire State Building and Chrysler Building, weigh a total of 1.68tn lbs, which is roughly equivalent to the weight of 140 million elephants?” Sounds like the perfect consulting interview question to us, if those still happen.

Getting Crabby: We aren’t from Maryland, and we are partial to stone crabs, so we really don’t understand why there was a line around the block for free tattoos of Old Bay. Old Bay, the McCormick Spices seasoning, hosted an event at the Baltimore Tattoo Museum offering free, permanent tattoos of the brand, and fans more than obliged. The “human billboards” came out to celebrate National Tattoo Day and Preakness, and we guess Maryland crab season.

Sour Challenge: Get your taste buds ready. FaZe Rug is launching a new “extremely sour” gummy with a Sour Gummy Challenge. 1UP Candy is asking brave tasters to try the ultra-tart flavor, but don’t worry, each six pack also comes with a complimentary “neutralizer” drink mix. The creators want you to re-experience the moment you “watched PopRocks dance on your tongue….[to let] Moments by candy.”

Divine Ice: If your tastes are a little more luxury, have a sample of the world’s most expensive ice cream. A scoop of Japan’s Cellato “Byakayu” flavor will cost you $6,696 per serving. The exorbitant price is due to the rare Italian white truffle in the dairy mix; the ice cream also includes Parmigiano Reggiano and sake kasu (a by-product of sake production). Of course, it is topped with edible gold leaf.

Leather and Chips: Lactose intolerant but in the mood to spend? Bottega Veneta has designed a leather cone to hold your fries. No word on whether it comes with salt and mayo.

— Lauren Eve Cantor

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