Tippets #190
AI optimism vs. doomerism, chip manufacturing, Jason Kelce and more. Enjoy!
A warm welcome to new readers getting this for the first time, and thank you for letting me be a small part of your week! As a reminder, I’m Rishi Taparia, Co-founder and General Partner at Garuda Ventures, a pre-seed focused fund partnering with founders to pull the future into the present. Tippets is a curated set of tidbits and snippets (get it…tippets…) from my reading around the web.
Tippets from Around the Web:
Something Like Fire
A thoughtful essay by Michael Totten on AI optimism vs. AI doomerism.
Humans are bad at predictions. Futurism is bloated with false utopias and doomsdays that never arrived. Even the smartest people can’t help but extrapolate linearly, projecting that trends will continue at their current pace and on their current trajectories, making the future just like the present, only more so. But history turns corners constantly. As Lenin once supposedly said, “There are decades where nothing happens, and there are weeks where decades happen.”
So what do we actually know? That AI is coming faster than almost anyone realizes, that the pace of change will accelerate, and that nobody—not computer researchers, not economists, not historians, and definitely not me—knows where we’re heading. But for what it’s worth, I see artificial intelligence as something like fire: it will warm us, and it will burn us
(19-minute read - City Journal)
The GPT-4 barrier has finally been broken
Speaking of the speed of AI advancements, four new models were released last month, seeking to dethrone GPT-4 as the most capable model.
Not every one of these models is a clear GPT-4 beater, but every one of them is a contender. And like I said, a month ago we had none at all.
(4-minute read - Simon Willison)
Inside the miracle of modern chip manufacturing
A very cool visualization and primer on how chips are manufactured, their costs, and where the technology is heading.
(9-minute read - FT)
Chinese National Residing in California Arrested for Theft of Artificial Intelligence-Related Trade Secrets from Google
Linwei Ding, a Chinese national and resident of Newark, California, has been charged with four counts of theft of trade secrets related to artificial intelligence (AI) technology from Google. Ding allegedly transferred confidential information from Google's network to his personal account while secretly affiliating himself with two companies in the AI industry based in the People's Republic of China. As the AI race continues to take on importance at a nation-state level, expect to see more of these incidents come to light.
(4-minute read - Justice Department)
Jason Kelce’s retirement speech, annotated and explained
Jason Kelce, center for the Philadelphia Eagles, future NFL hall-of-famer, and Taylor Swift’s boyfriend’s brother, retired this year after 13 years. As an Eagles fan, I admit to spending far too much time watching and reading videos and tributes to one of the best to play the position. But football fan or not, Eagles fan or not, I strongly recommend reading/watching his retirement speech. It is exceptional writing by an all-around legend.
(24-minute read - The Philadelphia Inquirer)
Quote I'm thinking about: “I think one of the best things a person can be in this world is a father. A father who is present, loving, devoted just might be the greatest gift a child could ask for in our society.” - Jason Kelce
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