And they survive by doing capitalism right. Not “right” as a lot of economists seem define it. They take care of their customers and they take care of their people. Without screwing over either in pursuit of a tiny fraction of a percent better numbers. And their executives don’t make tens (or hundreds) of thousands of times as much as their average employees.
I dunno, this sounds like that AI slop that I get all the time on facebook.
The CEO looked out the window and thought about his customers: all the athletes who actually cared about the planet they trained on. The company's mission statement, which prominently featured the word "sustainability," sounded like a cheap lie given the audit results. The boardroom fell silent waiting for his decision...
It’s not like there are some tiny companies, hidden in the shadows, that are somehow ‘doing capitalism right’.
Actually, I think there are. Not just tiny ones either; medium and moderately large ones, too.
The behemoths get all the attention precisely because they are so big. As you say, a handful of them make up half the NASDAQ. But by numbers, as opposed to simple market capitalization, the vast majority not only do more business, they employ, in aggregate, far more people.
And they survive by doing capitalism right. Not "right" as a lot of economists seem define it. They take care of their customers and they take care of their people. Without screwing over either in pursuit of a tiny fraction of a percent better numbers. And their executives don't make tens (or hundreds) of thousands of times as much as their average employees.
Say rather that the Chinese are a lot better at it than enormous Silicon Valley firms.
Given that the so-called 'Magnificent 7' account for half of the NASDAQ, I think I can get away with calling it American capitalism. It's not like there are some tiny companies, hidden in the shadows, that are somehow 'doing capitalism right'.
What kills me is that this is basically capitalism 101 and the Chinese are proving to be a whole lot better at it that the US.
Say rather that the Chinese are a lot better at it than enormous Silicon Valley firms. Which is to say, firms that so dominate their niche that they no longer have to pay much attention to competition. If you are Google or Microsoft or Amazon, you've got money to burn. So why not spend some of it on whatever shiny object has caught your biggest shareholder's eye?
Expect them to eventually, possibly sooner rather than later, discover why not. Although, if they can (apparently) afford to pay their CEOs hundreds of millions per year, maybe not.
This is a podcast I've been watching, it's a branch of Scott Galloway's podcast
https://youtu.be/K8b1An5Rpcs?si=z7cix2YBS4UDHNSf
China's lowcost open-source AI is suddenly everywhere in Silicon Valley. While the US is spending billions of dollars building ever bigger models and data centers and inflating what some analysts say looks like an AI bubble, China is doing the exact opposite, it seems. cutting prices, opting for open sourcing weights, and shipping models that are cheaper, lighter, and surprisingly competitive, and American companies are flocking to them. Airbnb CEO says his team ditched Chat GPT for Alibaba's Quen model because it's quote unquote fast and cheap. Venture firms are switching to Moonshot's Kimmy LLM, and developer data show nearly half of the most used models in the US last week were Chinese. Alibaba just slashed prices on its flagship model again as part of a full-blown AI price war and a sign that involution has come to Chinese AI.
What kills me is that this is basically capitalism 101 and the Chinese are proving to be a whole lot better at it that the US.
I have in the past dealt with AI hallucinated sources, and with AI suggested secondary sources that were either inappropriate to the paper at hand, or that were misrepresented by the AI synopsis...
This week, however, marks the first time I have had a student submit a paper where the AI has hallucinated quotations for the primary source and made up a new plot for the story. And this is also the first time the student turning in an AI generated paper has not recognized that AI has made up shit about a story that they had supposedly annotated, and that we had discussed at length in class.
Meanwhile, several of the students are writing projects that worry over the effects of AI on the fields that they are currently studying to become a part of, fearing that their future jobs may be transformed into something unsustainable by the time they get out of college despite it seeming like a good choice when they started.
College is a much bigger investment and a much bigger risk for them than it was for us. The cost has exploded, and the state governments are happy to allow that to happen so long as they can pass that expense on to students in the form of loans.
It's impossible for them to make an informed decision. People like Mr. Pichai are telling them that in order to prepare for the future they will need to learn how to use AI, but they are also worried that using AI will prevent them from learning the skills they will need to be able to adapt in a changing world. Not an easy bind to resolve for a brain in its early twenties. They lack the experience needed to make good judgments about these things.
At current valuations AI would have to bring in $400 per year per US resident for the AI companies to produce a decent return on investment. Which isn’t happening in the foreseeable future.
Individuals may not spend $400 on AI-based services. Employers may purchase much more than that on behalf of each of their (remaining) employees.
I wonder if there’s such a thing as MAGA fatigue. By that, I don’t mean the fatigue that I would guess most of the people commenting here feel after dealing with all the bullsh*t the MAGAts produce. I mean fatigue among the MAGA faithful.
I suppose they are more Heritage-faithful than actual MAGA-faithful. But quite a few of the negative rulings lately seem to be coming from judges who were appointed by Trump. Which probably mostly speaks to the level of incompetence of the new bozos at DoJ.
Josh Marshall thinks that the MBS/Khashoggi issue will play badly in the light of Vindman's intervention because it will demonstrate that Trump outright lied to the press and public in that oval office meeting. I hope he's right, but personally I doubt it. Trump's well established as an outright liar, and I can't see, even if the call were to prove that MSB conceded to him that he knew about the murder, that MAGA or Trump's base would give a damn. And it really looks like that's all that Trump cares about.
Even making the heroic assumption that the various fabs are not severely damaged or destroyed.
It seems insane to me, but if China were to decide that if they can't have 3nm chips -- and Biden certainly leaned on Taiwan and countries that might act as intermediaries to block access -- then no one can have 3nm chips... well, a dozen ballistic missiles with big enough HE payloads (and sufficient accuracy) puts TSMC out of that business. TSMC is building a very large campus and production lines in Arizona, but has consistently said they don't plan on ever locating their leading edge processes there.
They screw up and, in trying to fix or cover up their screw-up, they screw up even further. But I suppose it all starts with Pro Bono's "And, separately, the whole case is a crock," which is the original screw-up.
On another somewhat related subject, I wonder if there's such a thing as MAGA fatigue. By that, I don't mean the fatigue that I would guess most of the people commenting here feel after dealing with all the bullsh*t the MAGAts produce. I mean fatigue among the MAGA faithful.
Being in that state of mind has to be exhausting, doesn't it?
I guess what happened is that the Grand Jury indicated it had voted, narrowly, for two of the three counts, and Halligan assumed she could just replace the three-count indictment with a two-count one, without checking back with the whole Jury. If so, it's a procedural error rather than actual fraud. But still, I guess, sufficient to get the indictment thrown out.
It seems the indictment should fail also because Halligan misrepresented the law to the Jury. And, separately, because her appointment was invalid.
And, separately, the whole case is a crock.
There's a general sense that the Trump mob think they can do anything they want, and the far-right six on SCOTUS will make it work. Not, I think, this time.
Nvidia designs chips. All of their chips are fabricated by TSMC in Taiwan.
Another potential issue here. If China decides to forcibly reunite Taiwan, all that chip production is no longer secure. (Even making the heroic assumption that the various fabs are not severely damaged or destroyed.)
That would, I suspect, bring AI expansion to an abrupt halt. With obvious massive disruption to any business (not just AI providers) which has reorganized and restructured their operations to depend on it.
During a hearing in federal court in VA, prosecutors confirmed that the operative indictment in the case against James Comey was never shown to or voted on by the entire grand jury before it was presented in open court.
Defense counsel argued that’s a complete bar to further prosecution
Should have added, the various companies that have decided to design their own chips for AI -- Google, Amazon, Microsoft, Apple, probably some others -- also depend on TSMC for fabrication.
Nvidia, of course, manufactures the chips preferred by AI data centers.
Nit-picking... Nvidia designs chips. All of their chips are fabricated by TSMC in Taiwan. Earlier this month Nvidia's CEO said publicly that he had asked TSMC to increase their 3nm fab capacity because of the volume of new orders Nvidia was receiving.
the software industry as a whole is all-in on AI (LLMs in particular).
makers are trying to stuff it into every nook and cranny they can find.
As noted, the costs are enormous. So using AI everywhere is the only prayer of actually making any money from it.
And for non-AI software companies, it's a matter of not looking like they are less than cutting edge. It's folly, except in a few narrow cases. But here instinct is powerful in the industry.
the software industry as a whole is all-in on AI (LLMs in particular).
makers are trying to stuff it into every nook and cranny they can find. from Adobe using it so Photoshop can produce image content for you on demand (instead of you needing to use stock photos), to phones using it to automatically manipulate your photos in real-time, to audio apps using it to handle routine things like sound mastering all the way to vocal generation, to programming environments using it to analyze and correct your code for you, to apps like the one i work on using it to take over 'help' and data search/analysis features ("how many tables in this library use address data?"). if there's a place a company thinks people will want to type their desires in natural language, they're trying to use AI to make it happen.
YouTube recently rolled out a feature where, if you are already a content producer, it will look at your channel and try to figure out what kind of content you make. then it will suggest a list of related topics for you to produce new videos on. if you pick one, it will give you a list of 'hooks' to use to make the video sizzle. it will give you detailed outlines for a script. and it has AI-generated thumbnails ready to choose from. and at every stage, you can use AI prompting to fine-tune the suggestions. it's literally doing everything but speaking. and i don't see any reason why they haven't automated that part, too.
so, the big players are definitely over-inflated. but the whole industry is using their products now.
His Orangeness probably wishes that Epstein had de-filed all the evidence and sooner or later will try to get Bondi to do it for him (and then claim that Hillary did it).
On “Pop!”
And they survive by doing capitalism right. Not “right” as a lot of economists seem define it. They take care of their customers and they take care of their people. Without screwing over either in pursuit of a tiny fraction of a percent better numbers. And their executives don’t make tens (or hundreds) of thousands of times as much as their average employees.
I dunno, this sounds like that AI slop that I get all the time on facebook.
The CEO looked out the window and thought about his customers: all the athletes who actually cared about the planet they trained on. The company's mission statement, which prominently featured the word "sustainability," sounded like a cheap lie given the audit results. The boardroom fell silent waiting for his decision...
cf. Marx General Law of Capitalist Accumulation
"
It’s not like there are some tiny companies, hidden in the shadows, that are somehow ‘doing capitalism right’.
Actually, I think there are. Not just tiny ones either; medium and moderately large ones, too.
The behemoths get all the attention precisely because they are so big. As you say, a handful of them make up half the NASDAQ. But by numbers, as opposed to simple market capitalization, the vast majority not only do more business, they employ, in aggregate, far more people.
And they survive by doing capitalism right. Not "right" as a lot of economists seem define it. They take care of their customers and they take care of their people. Without screwing over either in pursuit of a tiny fraction of a percent better numbers. And their executives don't make tens (or hundreds) of thousands of times as much as their average employees.
"
Say rather that the Chinese are a lot better at it than enormous Silicon Valley firms.
Given that the so-called 'Magnificent 7' account for half of the NASDAQ, I think I can get away with calling it American capitalism. It's not like there are some tiny companies, hidden in the shadows, that are somehow 'doing capitalism right'.
"
What kills me is that this is basically capitalism 101 and the Chinese are proving to be a whole lot better at it that the US.
Say rather that the Chinese are a lot better at it than enormous Silicon Valley firms. Which is to say, firms that so dominate their niche that they no longer have to pay much attention to competition. If you are Google or Microsoft or Amazon, you've got money to burn. So why not spend some of it on whatever shiny object has caught your biggest shareholder's eye?
Expect them to eventually, possibly sooner rather than later, discover why not. Although, if they can (apparently) afford to pay their CEOs hundreds of millions per year, maybe not.
"
This is a podcast I've been watching, it's a branch of Scott Galloway's podcast
https://youtu.be/K8b1An5Rpcs?si=z7cix2YBS4UDHNSf
China's lowcost open-source AI is suddenly everywhere in Silicon Valley. While the US is spending billions of dollars building ever bigger models and data centers and inflating what some analysts say looks like an AI bubble, China is doing the exact opposite, it seems. cutting prices, opting for open sourcing weights, and shipping models that are cheaper, lighter, and surprisingly competitive, and American companies are flocking to them. Airbnb CEO says his team ditched Chat GPT for Alibaba's Quen model because it's quote unquote fast and cheap. Venture firms are switching to Moonshot's Kimmy LLM, and developer data show nearly half of the most used models in the US last week were Chinese. Alibaba just slashed prices on its flagship model again as part of a full-blown AI price war and a sign that involution has come to Chinese AI.
What kills me is that this is basically capitalism 101 and the Chinese are proving to be a whole lot better at it that the US.
On “Your quest begins now!”
the faithful remain observant
That Fox-viewing data doesn't support my speculation, but TV-viewing habits don't necessarily reflect whether motivation/enthusiasm has waned.
I continue to watch my favorite sports teams even when they aren't doing so well, but I don't care as much.
Still, I'd prefer that Fox viewership was dropping, so ... crap.
On “Pop!”
Side note from the AI front lines...:
I have in the past dealt with AI hallucinated sources, and with AI suggested secondary sources that were either inappropriate to the paper at hand, or that were misrepresented by the AI synopsis...
This week, however, marks the first time I have had a student submit a paper where the AI has hallucinated quotations for the primary source and made up a new plot for the story. And this is also the first time the student turning in an AI generated paper has not recognized that AI has made up shit about a story that they had supposedly annotated, and that we had discussed at length in class.
Meanwhile, several of the students are writing projects that worry over the effects of AI on the fields that they are currently studying to become a part of, fearing that their future jobs may be transformed into something unsustainable by the time they get out of college despite it seeming like a good choice when they started.
College is a much bigger investment and a much bigger risk for them than it was for us. The cost has exploded, and the state governments are happy to allow that to happen so long as they can pass that expense on to students in the form of loans.
It's impossible for them to make an informed decision. People like Mr. Pichai are telling them that in order to prepare for the future they will need to learn how to use AI, but they are also worried that using AI will prevent them from learning the skills they will need to be able to adapt in a changing world. Not an easy bind to resolve for a brain in its early twenties. They lack the experience needed to make good judgments about these things.
"
At current valuations AI would have to bring in $400 per year per US resident for the AI companies to produce a decent return on investment. Which isn’t happening in the foreseeable future.
Individuals may not spend $400 on AI-based services. Employers may purchase much more than that on behalf of each of their (remaining) employees.
"
Since no one else has posted it, Nvidia reported record revenue and profits up 65%. The stock is up 5% in after-hours trading.
On “Your quest begins now!”
I wonder if there’s such a thing as MAGA fatigue. By that, I don’t mean the fatigue that I would guess most of the people commenting here feel after dealing with all the bullsh*t the MAGAts produce. I mean fatigue among the MAGA faithful.
I suppose they are more Heritage-faithful than actual MAGA-faithful. But quite a few of the negative rulings lately seem to be coming from judges who were appointed by Trump. Which probably mostly speaks to the level of incompetence of the new bozos at DoJ.
"
Josh Marshall thinks that the MBS/Khashoggi issue will play badly in the light of Vindman's intervention because it will demonstrate that Trump outright lied to the press and public in that oval office meeting. I hope he's right, but personally I doubt it. Trump's well established as an outright liar, and I can't see, even if the call were to prove that MSB conceded to him that he knew about the murder, that MAGA or Trump's base would give a damn. And it really looks like that's all that Trump cares about.
On “Pop!”
It seems insane to me, but if China were to decide that if they can't have 3nm chips -- and Biden certainly leaned on Taiwan and countries that might act as intermediaries to block access -- then no one can have 3nm chips... well, a dozen ballistic missiles with big enough HE payloads (and sufficient accuracy) puts TSMC out of that business. TSMC is building a very large campus and production lines in Arizona, but has consistently said they don't plan on ever locating their leading edge processes there.
On “Your quest begins now!”
I wonder if there’s such a thing as MAGA fatigue
doesn't look like it: https://ustvdb.com/networks/fox-news/
the faithful remain observant
"
They screw up and, in trying to fix or cover up their screw-up, they screw up even further. But I suppose it all starts with Pro Bono's "And, separately, the whole case is a crock," which is the original screw-up.
On another somewhat related subject, I wonder if there's such a thing as MAGA fatigue. By that, I don't mean the fatigue that I would guess most of the people commenting here feel after dealing with all the bullsh*t the MAGAts produce. I mean fatigue among the MAGA faithful.
Being in that state of mind has to be exhausting, doesn't it?
"
Pro Bono: FYLTGE
"
I guess what happened is that the Grand Jury indicated it had voted, narrowly, for two of the three counts, and Halligan assumed she could just replace the three-count indictment with a two-count one, without checking back with the whole Jury. If so, it's a procedural error rather than actual fraud. But still, I guess, sufficient to get the indictment thrown out.
It seems the indictment should fail also because Halligan misrepresented the law to the Jury. And, separately, because her appointment was invalid.
And, separately, the whole case is a crock.
There's a general sense that the Trump mob think they can do anything they want, and the far-right six on SCOTUS will make it work. Not, I think, this time.
On “Pop!”
we need a mega-sized-CHIPS Act, not a Trump-branded one.
https://www.msn.com/en-us/money/other/what-is-the-chips-act-why-does-trump-want-to-change-it/ar-AA1C7yH1
"
Another potential issue here. If China decides to forcibly reunite Taiwan, all that chip production is no longer secure. (Even making the heroic assumption that the various fabs are not severely damaged or destroyed.)
That would, I suspect, bring AI expansion to an abrupt halt. With obvious massive disruption to any business (not just AI providers) which has reorganized and restructured their operations to depend on it.
On “Your quest begins now!”
speaking of reckless prosecution:
https://bsky.app/profile/did:plc:t4x2ruk2qmob2b2cx55h4v7r/post/3m5yoqty6k22w
DOJ straight up lied to the court about what the GJ said
On “Pop!”
Should have added, the various companies that have decided to design their own chips for AI -- Google, Amazon, Microsoft, Apple, probably some others -- also depend on TSMC for fabrication.
"
Nvidia, of course, manufactures the chips preferred by AI data centers.
Nit-picking... Nvidia designs chips. All of their chips are fabricated by TSMC in Taiwan. Earlier this month Nvidia's CEO said publicly that he had asked TSMC to increase their 3nm fab capacity because of the volume of new orders Nvidia was receiving.
"
the software industry as a whole is all-in on AI (LLMs in particular).
makers are trying to stuff it into every nook and cranny they can find.
As noted, the costs are enormous. So using AI everywhere is the only prayer of actually making any money from it.
And for non-AI software companies, it's a matter of not looking like they are less than cutting edge. It's folly, except in a few narrow cases. But here instinct is powerful in the industry.
"
the software industry as a whole is all-in on AI (LLMs in particular).
makers are trying to stuff it into every nook and cranny they can find. from Adobe using it so Photoshop can produce image content for you on demand (instead of you needing to use stock photos), to phones using it to automatically manipulate your photos in real-time, to audio apps using it to handle routine things like sound mastering all the way to vocal generation, to programming environments using it to analyze and correct your code for you, to apps like the one i work on using it to take over 'help' and data search/analysis features ("how many tables in this library use address data?"). if there's a place a company thinks people will want to type their desires in natural language, they're trying to use AI to make it happen.
YouTube recently rolled out a feature where, if you are already a content producer, it will look at your channel and try to figure out what kind of content you make. then it will suggest a list of related topics for you to produce new videos on. if you pick one, it will give you a list of 'hooks' to use to make the video sizzle. it will give you detailed outlines for a script. and it has AI-generated thumbnails ready to choose from. and at every stage, you can use AI prompting to fine-tune the suggestions. it's literally doing everything but speaking. and i don't see any reason why they haven't automated that part, too.
so, the big players are definitely over-inflated. but the whole industry is using their products now.
On “Your quest begins now!”
His Orangeness probably wishes that Epstein had de-filed all the evidence and sooner or later will try to get Bondi to do it for him (and then claim that Hillary did it).
"
Why not simply call him a girl defiler?
*Comment archive for non-registered commenters assembled by email address as provided.