(The Day After) Field Notes 

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The chatbots-as-search paradigm encourages us to just accept answers as given, especially when they are stated in terms that are both friendly and authoritative. The chatbot interface invites you to just sit back and take the appealing-looking AI slop as if it were “information.”

Emily Bender, Prof, Linguistics, UW

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By The Numbers

• In its earnings release, Apple said that there are only 2,500 native apps for Apple’s Vision Pro platform.
• Google says Waymo is doing 150,000 paid trips per week. I personally account for 0.0067% of those trips. Zoox, backed by Amazon, is about to launch self-driving robotaxi service in San Francisco before the end of the year.
• 58% of US youth (aged 16–25 years) are worried and heightened state of anxiety about climate change and its impact. [Study]
• 94% of cars sold in Norway are electric. Model Y has 18.8% of the market. [Link]
• 76% of Americans want the federal government to cap the cost of broadband access. [Link]
• OnlyFans has paid out $20 billion to its creators. [Link]

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Worth Reading 

• Drew Breuing tries to answer the question “what AI actually does (and doesn’t do)” in his short essay. He uses Gods, Interns, and Cogs as vehicles to explain AI. A short essay that is worth reading.
• Why has the Internet of Things failed? Pete Warden explains.
• The GLP Gold Rush is on, Stat News reports.
• The untold story of Lore Harp McGovern, the entrepreneur behind Vector Graphic. Every
• 150 years apart, two luxury yachts – the Mohawk (1876) & Bayesian (2024) – met eerily similar fates. This is the best thing you might read today, thanks to my former boss and mentor, David Churbuck.

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R.I.P 

• Ward Christensen, BBS inventor and architect of our interactive age. [ArsTechnica]
• Lillian Schwartz, pioneer in computer-generated art. [The New York Times.]

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November 6, 2024. San Francisco