What we’re reading (6/23)
“Can The Dollar Stay On Top?” (The Week). “‘The big threat to dollar dominance is American dysfunction,’ Steven B. Kamin and Mark Sobel said at Financial Times. The dollar gets its strength from the size of the American economy, which produces 25% of global GDP. That could all go away, though, if "U.S. political dysfunction continues to run amok’ and politicians continue to add to the national debt at unsustainable rates. ‘If the U.S. doesn’t keep its house in better order, dollar dominance will be the least of our worries.’”
“Apple, Meta Have Discussed An AI Partnership” (Wall Street Journal). “In its hustle to catch up on AI, has been talking with a longtime rival: Meta. Facebook’s parent has held discussions with Apple about integrating Meta Platforms’ generative AI model into Apple Intelligence, the recently announced AI system for iPhones and other devices, according to people familiar with the matter. Meta and other companies developing generative AI are hoping to take advantage of Apple’s massive distribution through its iPhones—similar to what Apple offers with its App Store on the iPhone.”
“Evidence Of A Log Scaling Law For Political Persuasion With Large Language Models” (Hackenburg, et al.). “Large language models can now generate political messages as persuasive as those written by humans, raising concerns about how far this persuasiveness may continue to increase with model size…Our findings are twofold. First, we find evidence of a log scaling law: model persuasiveness is characterized by sharply diminishing returns, such that current frontier models are barely more persuasive than models smaller in size by an order of magnitude or more. Second, mere task completion (coherence, staying on topic) appears to account for larger models' persuasive advantage. These findings suggest that further scaling model size will not much increase the persuasiveness of static LLM-generated messages.”
“AI Is Exhausting The Power Grid. Tech Firms Are Seeking A Miracle Solution.” (Washington Post). “The mighty Columbia River has helped power the American West with hydroelectricity since the days of FDR’s New Deal. But the artificial intelligence revolution will demand more. Much more. So near the river’s banks in central Washington, Microsoft is betting on an effort to generate power from atomic fusion — the collision of atoms that powers the sun — a breakthrough that has eluded scientists for the past century. Physicists predict it will elude Microsoft, too.”
“After Almost 30 Years, Amazon’s Original Book Business Is Booming, Leaked Document Shows” (Business Insider). “Amazon got its start in 1994 by selling books. Decades later, this original business is thriving and massively outperforming its digital cousin, e-books. This is according to a detailed internal document obtained by Business Insider that discloses a host of new information and insights about Amazon’s book business and the broader publishing landscape.”
