What we’re reading (6/1)
“Will Google’s AI Plans Destroy The Media?” (Intelligencer). “For publishers, however — of news, how-to content, reviews, recommendations, reference material, and a range of other content one might describe as existing to “distill complex information and multiple perspectives into easy-to-digest formats” — it [Google’s AI-augmented search engine] looked like nothing less than an existential crisis. Google was getting into content, automating the work of its partners, and dramatically altering the terms of its informal deal with publishers that has sustained digital media for years: You make content; we send traffic; everyone sells ads. If this wasn’t a threat to journalism directly, it was certainly a threat to the journalism business. Google, it seemed, was eager to cut the publishers out.”
“Banks Raise Roadblocks To Small-Business Loans” (Wall Street Journal). “Some entrepreneurs are finding it more difficult to get a new loan or have had existing credit lines cut. Others report stricter terms, higher borrowing costs, longer waits and tougher questions from their bankers. ‘They are definitely being more conservative,’ said Brock Hutchinson, chief executive officer of Big Frig, a maker of coolers and drinkware in North Sioux City, S.D. ‘Things have tightened up.’”
“Short Selling Makes Markets Work Better. So Why Do Banks Want To Outlaw It?” (Los Angeles Times). “The very human instinct to seek scapegoats for every crisis is playing out again on Wall Street. As so often happens, this time the target is short selling, which supposedly is helping to drive banking stocks lower. As so often also happens, the loudest cries for relief are coming from the people most responsible for the stocks’ decline — in this case, banking executives themselves.”
“Do We Really Need An App For Everything?” (Vox). “It really does feel like there’s an app for everything these days — often for things where they’re not really needed. We all managed to do business with each other for years and years without having to pull out our phones at every corner.”
“Elon Musk Is Accused Of Insider Trading By Investors In Dogecoin Lawsuit” (Reuters). “In a Wednesday night filing in Manhattan federal court, investors said Musk used Twitter posts, paid online influencers, his 2021 appearance on NBC's ‘Saturday Night Live’ and other ‘publicity stunts’ to trade profitably at their expense through several Dogecoin wallets that he or Tesla controls.”
