The Mother Download, Democracy's Wins
“Tell me something about your child?” … OK, just give me a few seconds to ask my virtual assistant for some ideas. That may sound like a crazy exchange, but it’s a version of the future being sold by AI’s true believers. I love a lot about tech, but I wonder if we wouldn’t have been better off stopping our progress right around the time we got streaming movies to stop buffering. Marissa Mayer’s new company, Dazzle, uses AI to analyze your camera roll to become a sort of visuals-powered assistant. Potential customers can decide whether they see value in that offering, but what is most perplexing about the product launch is the first example of a use case. “Late last year, Marissa Mayer was struggling with what felt like an impossible task. Her daughter Marielle was turning 10, and Marielle’s teacher wanted three bullet points summarizing what made her special. Mayer — the former chief executive of Yahoo and a pioneer at Google, where she was the first female engineer — likes cracking a hard problem. But she felt overwhelmed by the range and complexity of potential answers. So Mayer asked her personal A.I. assistant, Dazzle. Within a few seconds, Dazzle delivered an answer.” NYT (Gift Article): Marissa Mayer Ran Yahoo. She’s Back With A.I. She Thinks Women Will Love. Women may love this product. But I’ll be shocked if they love this use case. I can see pitching a product that saves time on your busywork so you can spend more of it with your children. But a product that saves you the time you’d spend thinking of ways to describe your children by letting the machine describe them instead? This is an example of what I think is a broad and growing disconnect between what people want and what AI CEOs think people want. Necessity is the mother of invention. But that’s being reversed. Invention has become the mother of necessity. But do we really need to replace our humanity? We’ve seen generations of children grow up and eventually complain to their therapists about their parents. Will this generation of kids end up complaining to their therapists about the AI brand their parents chose to deploy? “ChatGPT never really loved me!” “Muse was always late for my violin recitals!” “Dazzle made me self-conscious about my appearance!” “I always felt like I needed more from Claude, but I ran out of tokens.” Actually, who am I kidding? By then, their therapists will be AI, too.
+ NYT (Gift Article): Why Some People Are Paying to Make Friends. “Fueled by a loneliness epidemic and increasingly online lifestyles, more people are paying start-ups to make new friends offline. And friend-matching companies such as Real Roots, 222 and Timeleft are exploding in popularity as a result, each one generating millions of dollars in revenue annually.” This is one of the more common trends of the digital age: Technology creates a problem, and the solution that gets offered is more technology. I’ve been writing about this issue for years. The idea that we need a technological solution for too much technology is the Internet era’s great placebo effect. We feel like we’re getting a little better, but it’s just part of the same addiction. Because it’s their business, tech companies really have no choice but to try to convince us that we’re just one more piece of technology away from the solution, but it’s like telling us we can use heroin to kick our methadone habit—when we all know deep down that the off switch is the only true killer app. I hope that view makes my AI mother proud.
Bols Out
“In a stunning political comeback, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva has been elected president of Brazil, according to official results from Sunday’s runoff election, with more than 96% of the votes counted. Lula secured more than 51% of the vote, defeating Sen. Flávio Bolsonaro, who received more than 48%.” Brazil rejected Trump’s favored candidate. But this could be a harbingerish headline. Lula is declared winner of Brazil’s election as Bolsonaro rejects results.
+ “Serbia’s populist strongman Aleksandar Vucic dominated the Balkan country’s politics for 14 years. Then came the students. The long-ruling authoritarian leader on Sunday conceded the defeat of his right-wing Serbian Progressive Party to a grassroots movement of university students in a parliamentary election. The students had led protests for almost two years before unseating him in a historic change of government.” This is a massive election week. Bolsonaro and Vucic went down. Are Bibi and MAGA next?
Thermostatic Pressure
“As fall sets in across the country, the bill is coming due for the hottest summer on record in the United States. The last three months were about three degrees above average, hotter than the Dust Bowl summer of 1936 and the heat dome of 2021, and tens of millions of people can’t afford to pay for the air-conditioning that helped keep them safe in the deadly heat. About one in six U.S. households is already behind on its utility bills, according to federal data. More than a dozen hot-weather states like Arizona, Georgia, Virginia and Oklahoma restrict shut-offs during the most dangerous heat, so disconnections tend to peak in October, when a climate crisis turns into a collection notice.” No one tells the American story better than Eli Saslow. Here, he shows how the combination of climate change and rising electricity prices is playing out in a single living room. This Is What America’s Utility Bill Crisis Looks Like.
+ It’s not a crisis for everyone. As Trump brags about U.S. oil and gas company profits, his stocks gained millions during Iran war.
Solar Nexus
“The grid serving Africa’s most populous nation is so weak that in order to keep the lights on and appliances running, most Nigerians produce power at home. Domestic generators powered by petrol and diesel have for many years been the go-to option. But increasingly, solar equipment is gaining ground. By the end of last year, small-scale solar capacity in Nigeria comfortably exceeded what the grid delivers.” And home solar is for sale everywhere and for every event. Bloomberg (Gift Article): In Nigeria, Solar Panels Are the New Wedding Gift. “High fuel prices and cheap Chinese technology are accelerating Nigeria’s shift to solar, transforming how people shop, spend and live.”
Extra, Extra
In Claude We Trust: “Ahead of what could be the largest public listing ever, Anthropic said revenue soared to $16.3 billion in the first half of the year, and it planned to spend $807 billion on A.I. infrastructure.” (Maybe it’s smarter to invest in the infrastructure companies…) Anthropic Reveals Skyrocketing Growth and Spending Plans in I.P.O. Filing. “Anthropic’s filing was unusual in that it warned its products could bring about disasters, including loss of control of the technology and authoritarian abuses.”
+ The Schlep Block: “When the going gets tough, the tough don’t get subtle. Yesterday, with polls casting doubt on his continuing as Israel’s prime minister after Tuesday’s election, Benjamin Netanyahu posted a closing argument on Instagram: an AI-generated image of Tel Aviv destroyed by a nuclear blast, with accompanying text that asked, roughly, Would you prefer to reelect Netanyahu, or be incinerated along with your family?” (Honestly, it’s a tossup…) Meanwhile, “tens of thousands of Israelis living abroad are flying back to cast votes in what many describe as the most pivotal election in the country’s history.” The Great Schlep.
+ When the Smoke Clears: Back in the day, the women’s tennis tour was sponsored by Virginia Slims, a cigarette brand. In the future, the embrace of gambling by major sports leagues will look just as crazy from a public health perspective. NBA announces partnership with prediction markets Kalshi, Polymarket. Meanwhile, Gambling Hotline Ex-Director Stole $1.5M to Feed Betting Habit.
+ Prized Position: “Venezuelan opposition leader and Nobel Peace Prize laureate María Corina Machado has returned to Venezuela after ten months abroad, announcing her arrival in a social media post.”
+ Campaign in the Butt: Dems closing argument: Reclaim affordability, end corruption, save democracy. Trump’s closing argument: Check out that ass.
+ Rolling in the Isle: “Kelly Green remembers the moment the world’s most remote inhabited island first came into view. From a distance, Tristan da Cunha looked like a dark triangle on the horizon. Up close, she saw the island’s tiny settlement spread below volcanic cliffs. Then it became her home.” NYT (Gift Article): Far, Far Away: Making a home on the world’s most remote inhabited island. (I wonder if they need a news curator…)
Bottom of the News
“Farmer Mike has been chiseling whimsical faces and comical creatures into big pumpkins for more than four decades. Wearing his trademark orange overalls and farmer hat, he’s sculpted hundreds of gourds into ghoulish faces, seaside landscapes, witches, dragons and pop culture figures such as Yoda and Charlie Brown.” ‘Picasso of Pumpkin Carvers‘ brings artistry to a Halloween tradition.
+ “In the past few years, as all facets of our lives are optimized, the suffix has become inescapable.” Maxxing is Dictionary dot com’s word of the year.
