Even though I was mostly offline, I did up tweeting occasionally this past week. In a typical week, these would have become a proper blog post. Nevertheless, here they are!
When I read the ludicrous profile of known criminal and master manipulator Elizabeth Holmes in the New York Times, I felt that the Times had changed its tagline to, “All the sociopaths we can fit and resurrect.” When I tweeted that, Charles Fitzgerald, a friend, tweeted back, “The NYT is the halfway house for Forbes 30 Under 30 laureates 😜.” Offering so much space and time to someone who has shown no remorse about her crimes makes you wonder if The Times has lost its moral compass.
Apparently, “LinkedIn is working on an AI-powered assistant that get you started with a first draft for your next post!” This is business as usual for LinkedIn being the first to “use AI to create self-promotional generic filler content posing as posts.” I wasn’t the only one to feel that way. David Lieb, the cofounder of Bump and Google Photos, wished they used AI to make sense of the connections on the network.”Today I have to troll through mutual connections and deduce which are deep and which are “met once at a dinner.” I’d pay a lot more for this!,” he replied on Twitter. Think of it as an AI-powered connection score.
Washington is populated with a cadre of career politicians who don’t know how to use FB or email properly. The technical incompetence is so extreme & it is why we don’t have smart laws around data, and privacy & can’t imagine the future. But everyone will weigh in on stuff. They want to posture and get publicity to show their base that they are doing stuff & are on top of things that change the social/world order. What a bunch of baloney! The latest episode of The WhiteHouse Dwellers wanting to talk to Google & Microsoft leaders about AI is just another example of this. (#1, #2, #3)
As a matter of rule, I have stopped responding to people who embed Superhuman into email as part of their workflow. If you think the personal email you send me is a transaction, then I will ignore it because it isn’t personal & thus urgent. #
First Facebook. Then Instagram. Then Google (Gmail) – their offering premium blue check marks show that the only real innovation in technology is copying others, especially when it involves some bold/controversial decision. None of these guys have the guts to be original! #
So, starting a “climate” VC fund is the Silicon Valley equivalent of being “born again” after having made your millions from helping destroy the fabric of civic society & democracy. #
Using Siri and Shazam is like dating someone who doesn’t speak your language using Google Translate. Except Google does get you a smile and a laugh. Siri, just makes you angry. #
May 8, 2023. San Francisco