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TikTok Ban Watch 2024 Mar 12, 2024

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Well folks, it's happening again. The US is threatening to ban TikTok. A bill is currently worming its way through Congress which would ban the app unless it fully divested itself from ByteDance, its Chinese parent company. This led TikTok to engage battle stations, and launch probably the stupidest PR campaign in recent history.

In this episode, we talk TikTok, make predictions about a ban, and pontificate on its effect on politics and culture.

Links

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Why Apple Scrapped Its Car (PREVIEW) Mar 07, 2024

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This is a free preview of a premium episode. To subscribe to Down Round Premium and get access, head here.

The fabled Apple car – also known as Project Titan – is no more. After working on it for the last 10 years and blowing $10 billion, the company internally announced that it would scrap the project and reassign many of its staff to generative AI.

In this ep, we talk about the Apple car project: why it was originally imagined, what it sought to do, and why it ultimately didn't work out.

Links

How Apple Sank About $1 Billion a Year Into a Car It Never Built – Bloomberg

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The AI Girlfriend Experience (feat. Tom Cashman) Mar 05, 2024

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One less discussed angle of the rise of AI and widely available LLMs is the relationship dimension. From ChatGPT's personalisation features to AI chatbots on Meta platforms, through to porn and sexbots, many people are using AI for companionship. It's big business too, with The Information reporting that pornbot providers are one category of AI company which are growing without the need for external investment.

To unpack the weird world of AI companionship, some of the rising companies in the space, and what it means for society, we're joined by comedian Tom Cashman. (You can watch his brand new special here.)

Links

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The Nvidia Earnings Blowout (PREVIEW) Mar 01, 2024

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Nvidia, the graphics card company turned into AI chip powerhouse, posted its earnings at the end of last week. Surprising no one, they were huge – propelling the company even higher up the charts of the most valuable companies on Earth.

In this ep, we unpack the earnings and what they mean, as well as talking about Nvidia's future, and even incompetently attempting to put forward a bear case.

Links

Nvidia posts revenue up 265% on booming AI business – CNBC

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Unpacking the Reddit IPO Feb 27, 2024

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Reddit is going public. After a false start a couple of years ago, the online message board is undergoing the IPO process, setting markets up for the biggest social media IPO since Pinterest in 2019.

The company has filed its S1, which for the first time lets the world peek into Reddit's books, also revealing what it thinks are its biggest risks and opportunities. Join us as we pick through the document for revealing nuggets.

Links

Reddit S-1

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The Great Xbox Surrender (PREVIEW) Feb 23, 2024

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This is a free preview of a premium episode. To subscribe to Down Round Premium and get access, head here.

The gaming world was ablaze over the past few weeks over reports that Xbox was throwing in the towel and letting some of its biggest exclusive titles go to its eternal rival, the PlayStation. It riled up the Xbox ultras and raised questions about how committed Microsoft is to console gaming – despite its monster $75B acqusition of Activision-Blizzard.

It ended up being a little less dramatic than anticipated. But it still raises questions about Microsoft's strategy in gaming, and how the world's biggest company is approaching the rapidly growing -- and increasingly unstable -- gaming market.

Links

Microsoft is slowly building to a future where ‘every screen is an Xbox - The Verge
Microsoft: four Xbox-exclusive games are coming to PS5 and Nintendo Switch – The Verge
Sony’s value reportedly dropped by $10 billion following ‘disappointing’ PlayStation financials

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Sora: Watch out, Hollyweird! Feb 20, 2024

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Last week, OpenAI announced Sora, its text-to-video model. Only a few people have their hands on it, so all we have to go off are example videos provided by OpenAI. But it looks good – and like a leap forward for AI video creation.

This has raised lots of questions. How does it work? How much crap is about to flood our internet feeds? And is Hollywood doomed? All these questions and more are answered to a base level of satisfaction in this episode.

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Why Is OpenAI's Sam Altman Raising $7 Trillion? (PREVIEW) Feb 15, 2024

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The word on the street is that Sam Altman, the once embattled and now seemingly fine CEO of OpenAI, is currently out in the market trying to raise money for a new microchip-related venture. The amount of money he's raising? Seven trillion dollars, which is about 10% of global GDP. In this episode, we discuss the insane computing requirements of a company like OpenAI, and why Sam might be looking to find a new friend other than Nvidia.

Links

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23andme: 30% Irish, 30% English, 30% Scottish, 100% cringe Feb 13, 2024

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One of the big crazes of the last few years was consumer genetic testing. Through services like 23andme and AncestryDNA, regular punters could find out their ethnic background, link up with distant cousins, and find out what mysterious blood illnesses they were genetically predisposed to get.

But there is trouble in paradise. 23andme has lost a staggering 98% of its value from its peak, and it has people asking: can you build a real, sustainable business from someone spitting into a tube and mailing to to a lab? We dive in.

Links

23andMe’s Fall From $6 Billion to Nearly $0 – The Wall Street Journal

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Google Search: Why it sucks now, and what's coming next (PREVIEW) Feb 08, 2024

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This is a preview of a premium episode. We're currently running a sale on Down Round Premium – head here to score an annual membership for $49 instead of $70. Only until Sunday Feb 11.

Let's face it: Google Search sucks now. We've talked about it on many episodes, along with the broader conversation about how AI might disrupt it.

In this episode, we dig a little deeper. What are the factors that made Google Search so successful, and what are the factors making it no longer fit for purpose? We look at new challengers, like Perplexity, and what Google is doing to prepare for the deprecation of its core business – whenever that may be.

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