AI’s Uneven Arrival, TikTok’s Potential Departure, Xiaohongshu and the Delights of Cultural Exchange
Looking to digital advertising history for clues about AI’s impact on the economy, proposed frameworks for AGI and ASI, and why AI benefits are likely to be unevenly distributed in the near term. Then: The logic and continued uncertainty surrounding a TikTok ban in the United States, the delights of Xiaohongshu mania, and a word about TikTok and conflicting principles.
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1:09:35
(Preview) Meta’s Moderation Changes, Tech’s Evolving Political Calculus, The Importance and Difficulty of Maintaining Principles on the Internet
Meta’s new approach to moderation questions, the context for an apparent shift to the right among tech leadership, and lessons from the last several years of moderation challenges and mistakes. At the end: Mark Zuckerberg offers his assessment of Apple in the modern era.
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14:41
(Preview) What AI Could Mean for Aggregation Theory, o3 and Moore’s Law, More Questions Than Answers as Tech Enters 2025
Ben and Andrew return from the holidays to check in on the AI landscape. Topics include: Aggregation Theory and the return of marginal costs for hyperscalers, the architecture of OpenAI’s o3 model, the murky future for software engineers and SaaS companies, and whether Scarlett Johansson fumbled the bag. At the end: In praise of learning to ski as a middle-aged beginner.
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13:40
Holiday Mailbag: The Next Intel, Google’s AI Revival, Modern Sportswriting, TSMC Mugs, Tutoring Takes, and Lots More
Ending the year with a slew of great emails from listeners, including questions about the next U.S. flagship to fail, Google's advantages in AI, an iOS 18 autopsy, the classes that Ben and Andrew would teach as professors, AI for chip production, TSMC mugs, recommendations for X usage, and the return of the TikTot segment to discuss tutoring and children. Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays from the whole Sharp Tech family!
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1:40:09
(Preview) Google’s Willow Chip, Drones as a Platform and Anduril Follow-Up, Building Inside and Outside Silicon Valley
A high level read on Google's quantum computing announcement and Google's R&D efforts generally, a listener's question about drones as a platform, follow-up on last week's conversation about Anduril and the future of the U.S. defense industry, and questions on the near term concerns surrounding an AI Manhattan project, Clayton Christensen’s theory of integration and modularity as applied to Silicon Valley, and housing prices in the Bay Area.
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