Tue. 07/16 – A VC VP Pick

The first of the Strawberry models is here. YC plans to have four cohorts a year, but each one is getting smaller. Waymo is already ready to expand to more pretty big markets. And in the long reads, a deep dive look into the options Intel has at this point in time.Sponsors:HensonShaving.com/ride code rideLinks:OpenAI releases o1, its first model with ‘reasoning’ abilities (The Verge)Notes on OpenAI’s new o1 chain-of-thought models (Simon Willison's Weblog)OpenAI's new models 'instrumentally faked alignment' (TransformerNews)Apple AirPods Pro granted FDA approval to serve as hearing aids (TechCrunch)Silicon Valley’s Y Combinator to Double Number of Cohorts Per Year (Bloomberg)Weekend Longreads Suggestions:Intel Has Only Tough Options After Its Long and Stinging Fall From Grace (Bloomberg)Link to the twitter poll about adsSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

As expected, OpenAI is in talks for a new capital raise at a $150B valuation. More layoffs in Microsoft’s gaming division. More holes poked in our creaking internet infrastructure. The tiny SpaceX competitor who’s stock has been soaring lately. And a look at what Apple’s recent AirPods announcement could do to the hearing aid industry.Links:OpenAI Fundraising Set to Vault Startup’s Valuation to $150 Billion (Bloomberg)The AI Spending Spree, in Charts (WSJ)Microsoft Lays Off Another 650 Staff From Its Video Game Workforce, Xbox Boss Phil Spencer Sends Memo to Staff (IGN)Rogue WHOIS server gives researcher superpowers no one should ever have (ArsTechnica)Adam Neumann’s Climate Company Is Issuing Refunds After Failing To Launch Crypto Token (Forbes)SpaceX’s Tiny Rival Soars 1,300%. Now Comes the Satellite Launch (Bloomberg)Apple turning AirPods into hearing aids underscores effort to crack massive health market (CNBC)See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Mistral goes multimodal for the first time. Meta admits to scraping the data of every adult Australian. The details on the new PS5 Pro. Wouldn’t it be wild if, through stablecoins, crypto BECOMES the banking system instead of replacing it. And a weird mystery in AI land.Sponsors:Promevo.com/techmemeLinks:Mistral releases Pixtral 12B, its first multimodal model (TechCrunch)Facebook admits to scraping every Australian adult user's public photos and posts to train AI, with no opt-out option (ABC News)The $700 PS5 Pro doesn’t come with a disc drive (The Verge)Exclusive Hands-On: I Played Sony's All-New PS5 Pro (CNET)Americans used record 100 trillion megabytes of wireless data in 2023 (Reuters)Payments in Singapore With Stablecoins Rise to Almost $1 Billion (Bloomberg)Reflection 70B model maker breaks silence amid fraud accusations (VentureBeat)See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Apple loses its longest standing regulatory battle in the EU. Some drips and drabs from yesterday’s iPhone event. Would a phone you can fold three times be more enticing than a phone that folds two times? And are we about to see that new Strawberry AI model from OpenAI by the end of the month?Sponsors:Timeline.com/rideLinks:Apple must pay 13 billion euros in back taxes, EU’s top court rules (CNBC)iPhone 16 battery life: How much better is it? (9to5Mac)Huawei launches $2,800 trifold phone hours after Apple debuts iPhone 16 (CNBC)Oracle’s Missteps in Cloud Computing Are Paying Dividends in AI (WSJ)New Details on OpenAI’s Strawberry; Apple’s Siri Makeover; Larry Ellison Doubles Down on Data Centers (The Information)Audible to Start Generating AI Voice Replicas of Select Audiobook Narrators (Bloomberg)JPMorgan Plans to Report Customers Who Exploited TikTok ‘Glitch’ to Authorities (WSJ)See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

All the headlines from today’s iPhone event. It IS interesting the degree to which Elon’s various businesses have potential synergy. The Times digs into the content on Telegram and says, it ain’t pretty. And e-bikes seem to be back. In London, at least, anyway.Links:Apple Announces iPhone 16 Pro and iPhone 16 Pro Max with Larger Displays, New Camera Control, and More (MacRumors)Apple announces iPhone 16: camera button, new colors, AI features (9to5Mac)AirPods Pro 2 adds ‘clinical grade’ hearing aid feature (9to5Mac)Musk’s xAI Has Discussed Deal for Share of Future Tesla Revenue (WSJ)How Telegram Became a Playground for Criminals, Extremists and Terrorists (NYTimes)London e-bike boom leads to clashes with councils (Financial Times)See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Pavel Durov speaks, and Telegram blinks, both for the first time since the French arrest. Are XR glasses tethered to smartphones the next big product category? What if your smartphone could cure your vision problems? And in the longreads, if Waymo is about to scale, what, exactly, is the business model, long-term?Links:Pavel Durov: Telegram founder says France arrest is ‘misguided’ (The Guardian)Exclusive: Qualcomm explores acquiring pieces of Intel chip-design business (Reuters)Qualcomm says it’s working on mixed reality smart glasses with Samsung and Google (CNBC)Review: Honor Magic V3 (Wired)Exclusive: Honor's latest devices use AI to try to reverse nearsightedness (Android Central)Weekend Longreads Suggestions:Waymo’s Robot Taxis Are Almost Mainstream. Can They Now Turn a Profit? (NYTimes)When the Bitcoin Scammers Came for Me (The Atlantic)Among the Idlers (Curbed)See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

The DOJ says it has taken down a big election influence campaign allegedly directed by Russia. The Internet Archive loses a big case. Android 15 is here. And two really interesting new gadgets, one I probably need to buy and one I want to buy but probably won’t.Sponsors:LinkedIn.com/rideLinks:Biden administration announces major actions to tackle Russian efforts to influence 2024 election (CNN)The Internet Archive Loses Its Appeal of a Major Copyright Case (Wired)Android 15 will be available on supported Pixel devices in the coming weeks (TechCrunch)DJI Neo hands-on: A powerful and lightweight $200 drone (Engadget)The Remarkable Paper Pro is as outrageous as it is luxurious (The Verge)See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

SpaceX has agreed to block access to X, in Brazil, on Starlink. Looks like YubiKeys are hackable. Who is the mystery platform looking to expand AI datacenters at an historic scale? And the Catch 22 that Intel is in. They need CHIPS Act money, but can their troubles mean the CHIPS Act money shouldn’t be spent on them?Sponsors:Ramp.com/techmemeLumen.me/rideLinks:Starlink backtracks, complies with order blocking X in Brazil, says regulator (Reuters)No X in Brazil? No problem, Brazilians say. (Washington Post)Microsoft to announce ‘next phase of Copilot’ on September 16th (The Verge)YubiKeys are vulnerable to cloning attacks thanks to newly discovered side channel (ArsTechnica)Nvidia Gets DOJ Subpoena in Escalating Antitrust Probe (Bloomberg)Two AI Developers Are Plotting $125 Billion Supercomputers (The Information)Exclusive: Intel manufacturing business suffers setback as Broadcom tests disappoint (Reuters)Intel’s Money Woes Throw Biden Team’s Chip Strategy Into Turmoil (Bloomberg)See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

We missed a pretty big story this weekend. X getting banned in Brazil. I’ll try to catch you up on all the contours of this. Canva’s raising prices and it’s pissing people off because, I mean, they are REALLY raising prices. And the two pretty big success stories in crypto this year that we haven’t spoken about yet.Sponsors:DataTribe.com/challengeHims.com/rideLinks:Brazil’s Most Powerful Judge Is in the Spotlight—Again (Americas Quarterly)How Brazil’s Experiment Fighting Fake News Led to a Ban on X (NYTimes)Canva says its AI features are worth the 300 percent price increase (The Verge)HP to Pursue $4 Billion Damages After Mike Lynch Yacht Death (Bloomberg)Pump.fun surpasses $100 million in revenue as Polymarket outshines NFTs in August (The Block)See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

At this point it would be quicker to name the big tech company that’s NOT investing in OpenAI’s latest round. Amazon’s new Alexa service is just going to be Anthropic’s Claude in drag disguise I guess. I’m starting to get really worried about Intel y’all. And, of course, The Weekend Longreads Suggestions.Links:OpenAI Funding Round Tempts Nvidia as Big Tech Leans on ChatGPT (Bloomberg)Apple, Nvidia Are in Talks to Invest in OpenAI (WSJ)Ask Claude: Amazon turns to Anthropic's AI for Alexa revamp (Reuters)ChatGPT’s weekly users have doubled in less than a year (The Verge)Intel Weighs Options Including Foundry Split to Stem Losses (Bloomberg)Weekend Longreads Suggestions:Sunk cost (the Open Sea story) (The Verge)The secret inside One Million Checkboxes (eieio.games)I Watched Footage of Jerry Lewis’s Unreleased 1972 Holocaust Film (The New Republic)End of the Road: An AnandTech Farewell (AnandTech)See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.