How Big Tech ‘Borrowed’ Your Content To Build AI. The World According To The World’s Biggest Banker. Curing Cavities? Plus More! #205
Grüezi! I’m Adrian Monck – welcome!
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1️⃣ How Big Tech Got The Big Data To Build #AI
They had a unique method...
Britain’s Agricultural Revolution began with rich people fencing up common land and kicking out peasants.
Depending on where you stand, a necessary pre-cursor to modernity, or a brutal disenfranchisement of the poor. Or both.
Today it’s not snaggle-toothed aristocrats but avaricious tech execs and the #AI revolution that is coming not for your land but for your thoughts.
Except it doesn’t want to pay a penny for them – according to an NYT investigation:
OpenAI transcribed over a million hours of YouTube videos. Google didn’t make a big deal about it.
Because Google also transcribed YouTube videos to harvest text for its AI models, which may have violated the copyrights of the people it encouraged to become video creators.
Google also changed its T&Cs in 2022 to allow it to use data from Google Docs and other consumer apps for AI products. The changes were made quietly over a holiday weekend.
Meta (Facebook) execs and lawyers discussed transcribing copyrighted books, essays and other works from the internet without permission, even if it meant facing lawsuits.
Meta hired workers in Africa to summarize fiction and non-fiction works, including copyrighted material, without paying for licenses.
The companies justification? It would take too long to properly license the data from creators and rights holders.
And if you have a problem?
Long story short? What you say and think online is not digital free speech, it’s meat for the content grinder.
⏭ AI keeps going wrong. What if it can’t be fixed?
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2️⃣ What The World’s Biggest Banker Can Tell You
TL;DR It isn’t where to put your money.
In the 1920s, Joe Kennedy became worried about markets when his shoe shine boy offered him stock tips.
In the 2020s, I get worried about the world when a bank CEO offers me politics.
Jamie Dimon’ is not just any bank CEO. JPMorgan Chase & Co. has over 10% of US deposits. It is a behemoth.
But Dimon’s letter to shareholders?
It’s the kind of ‘policy meets homily’ package that – until recently – you might have expected from a political candidate.
Dimon’s letter reflects three things:
Unassailability. This is what you write when no one can tell you not to.
Ambition. Dimon still has it. Reads like kite-flying for a post-business role.
Uncertainty. This is his 2007 letter, the beginning of the Financial Crisis. No one knew how it would unfold but no one questioned the system that underpinned it.
⏭ How did Jamie Dimon build America’s Biggest Bank? Answer here.
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3️⃣ 🇮🇳 India’s Crossroads: The Battle for Its Future
Is India poised for greatness?
As India’s 2024 elections approach, two fascinating commentaries – one from Ravi Agrawal, one from Andy Mukherjee.
Under Prime Minister Narendra Modi, India is emerging as a global power – albeit one that defines itself through Hinduism, puts Hindu culture and religion into state affairs, and puts a powerful ‘presidential’ executive over parliamentarians.
That plays well in the populous north. Less well in the prosperous south.
Still, Modi has an incredible 78% approval rating, and his BJP party is almost guaranteed to win a third term.
Modinomics
🏗️ Infrastructure Transformation: Modi’s government has upgraded India’s transport, power, and telecoms, making it more attractive for manufacturing and investment.
🌱 New Welfarism: Targeted programmes have improved sanitation, water and more.
🏢 Services Boom: Skill-based service exports increased their global market share by 1.1% in 2022. Goldman Sachs’ largest office outside New York is in Bengaluru.
Two Indias?
It comes with ‘buts’:
😔 A child in northern Uttar Pradesh has a worse chance of making it to their fifth birthday than in Afghanistan. In southern Kerala, childhood survival odds beat the US.
🎓 Fewer than a fifth of northern Bihar’s youth are in higher education – it’s almost half in southern Tamil Nadu.
💼 South India is the heart of the modern economy, with Tamil Nadu alone accounting for 30% of electronics exports.
⏭ Is India really the next China?
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4️⃣ Social Media’s Stock Tipping Sharks
Finfluencers – more dismal than dorsal.
“Finfluencers” – not indoor aquarium advisers but social media accounts with big followings sharing stock tips and investment strategies.
How good are they? About as much good as a dead goldfish according to a new study which looks at platforms like StockTwits to uncover the truth about their advice.
Of 29,000 finfluencers, over half (56%) of influencers had terrible returns, leading their followers to lose 2.3% per month on average.
These also tended to be the most popular finfluencers with the largest followings.
Want a strategy? Simply doing the opposite of what the most popular “finfluencers” recommend could earn you 1.2% per month...
⏭ The WaPo profiles of some of the finance influencers whose stocks are rising.
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5️⃣ Is China is “screwing” Tesla?
Separating fact and fiction in the electric car IP wars.
Industrial espionage is real. Brits stole the secrets of silk weaving from Italians to build the first factory.
But is China’s electric car industry built on deviousness and IP theft? Glenn Luk has a good look at the facts:
1️⃣ First those impressive “Gigapresses”? The kind that used to make kids’ toys. They’re not a Tesla’s breakthrough, but custom machines from specialists like Italy’s Idra Group. 🏭
2️⃣ When it comes to die-casting, Chinese firms ARE the industry leaders, with unparalleled expertise and human capital. China’s Hai’tian is a powerhouse in the field. 🎓
3️⃣ That’s just the tip of the industrial iceberg. China dominates the entire advanced manufacturing supply chain, from robotics to machine tools. 🤖
4️⃣ The secret sauce lies in seamlessly integrating hardware and software, an art mastered by Chinese companies. 🇨🇳💻
5️⃣ Truth is Tesla NEEDS Chinese suppliers to bring cutting-edge ideas to life efficiently. Clinging to outdated “IP theft” narratives helps no one. 🤝
China is providing the world-class manufacturing muscle behind Tesla’s success.
The question for other advanced economies? What are they prepared to do to rival it?
⏭ How did China come to dominate the electric car industry?
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6️⃣ New Yorkers Felt the Earth Move This Week
Japan gets shaken but not stirred by quakes – its lessons.
⏭ More on how Japan improved its resilience in the face of tremors.
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7️⃣ Finally A “Cure” For British Teeth?
The internet strikes again...
Cavities are on the way out. That’s if you believe social media users shilling for a “cure” for tooth cavities.
Here’s Yishan Wong, ex-Reddit, Inc. CEO, also an investor...
https://x.com/yishan/status/1777925961927082426
And another...
https://x.com/cremieuxrecueil/status/1777846760892686771
Are they right?
Without spending $250 on a “probiotic supplement” to find out, my advice? Just look after your teeth.
⏭ Here’s a story on this treatment from ... 2004.
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If you enjoy this newsletter – please recommend it!
Best,
Adrian
