Microsoft Taskmatrix.AI
Microsoft has introduced an AI API infrastructure called TaskMatrix.AI. It works by, “integrating foundation models with millions of existing models and system APIs, resulting in a “super-AI” that can perform various digital and physical tasks.” MORE | PAPER
Mild Layoffs?
Crunchbase says the massive layoffs of over 200K people in the last 14 months only add up to around 8% of the people hired after the pandemic. MORE
Computer Shipment Declines
Computer sales are way down, with Mac shipments down 22% and most PC makers slumping over 40%. Related to that, Foxconn also dropped 21% in March, and they expect further decreases. MORE
Langchain Raise
Langchain has raised a $10 million seed round led by Benchmark. It’s the tech powering a ton of the advanced GPT-based apps you’re seeing right now, and I think they’re crushing it. MORE
HUMAN NEWS
Goldman AI Loss
Goldman Sachs says 300 million jobs will be lost or degraded by AI. Sounds directionally correct, but the real questions are 1) how many will also be created, and 2) how quickly all these things will happen, and 3) how people and economies will respond. MORE | PAPER
NATO Finland
Finland is now part of NATO. MORE
SF Murder
A well-known tech entrepreneur, Bob Lee, was stabbed and killed in San Francisco last week. He had moved out of the city for safety reasons. As a former SF resident, this resonates strongly with me. I really do feel like the city is lawless, and as a liberal, this angers me. I was told by people growing up that you don’t want to live in liberal cities because they ruin everything. I didn’t believe them. I still don’t think that’s the case everywhere, but it sure seems true for San Francisco. Too much of it looks like a set for The Last of Us, and I feel uneasy whenever I’m there now. MORE
Hiring Older
Bosses need hard workers, so they’re hiring older people who have a different work ethic. MORE
America is Back in Manufacturing
The US spent $108 billion on manufacturing-focused construction in 2022, which is more than schools, healthcare facilities, or office buildings. The trend is tied to green efforts and a desire to secure our supply chains. MORE
JWST Neptune
The JWST telescope just caught a wicked photo of Neptune, showing its moons and its massive ice ring system. MORE
IDEAS & ANALYSIS
Mind the Font
If you’re blogging on a platform where the font looks the same no matter who’s writing—i.e., your content looks identical to everyone else’s—that means it’s their platform, not yours. When you read the New York Times, you’re not reading authors, you’re reading The Times. Maybe that’s ok if you’re building a career as a writer and you’re picking big names to establish credibility, like writing for the New Yorker, then The Atlantic, so you can make it to the New York Times. That makes sense. Or at least it did like a year ago (not sure about now). But as a new blogger that’s not your situation. Your goal should be broadcasting as yourself as purely as possible. And that means controlling the look and feel of your content. It should look and feel different than other people’s stuff. Blogging on Medium or Substack is like showing up to do a talk wearing a company uniform, covered in their logos. Again, not bad if it’s the best brand in the world, but probably not worth it if it’s not.
The End of Googling
We need a new word for Googling something. I’ve probably switched to GPT for 85% of my searches in the last month or so. Paul Graham said his 10-year-old doesn’t Google things anymore. He either uses GPT or Pokedex. Makes sense. So what’s the term? GPT’d? Too long. AI’d? Cumbersome. I wonder if it’ll just be called “searching”, and the Kleenex naming advantage Google had will just fall off. What are your guesses for the new verb?
NOTES
I’ve had my life elevated by a couple of utilities in the last week. 1) Espanso. It’s a Rust-based, YAML-configured text expansion system. It lets you run shell commands as well so I’ve integrated it with my AI APIs for doing quick little shortcuts like ;essay, ;correct, ;proofread, ;analyze-incident, etc. to get instant analysis within any text location, including in my terminal. 2) MacGPT. It’s a little utility that lets you call GPT directly from your Mac. You just call up the shortcut and a little window pops up and you type in your question. For whatever reason it’s lighting fast. The combination of these two things have accelerated my life greatly in the last couple of weeks.
My buddy Matt Jay has a new newsletter, and he’s on the sixth episode right now. It’s called Vulnerable U, and its focus is on how we can use vulnerabilities, and vulnerability, as a catalyst for growth. Matt’s content is spectacular, and I recommend you check it out. MORE
DISCOVERY
⚒️ The Lex Fridman Podcast ChatGPT Plugin
ChatGPT now has access to every episode of Lex’s podcast. MORE | BY RILEY TOMASEK
⚒️ A GPT-powered Poem Clock
Someone made a clock out of poems, using GPT to create the rhymes. MORE | BY MATT WEBB
Why I Blog MORE | BY DANNY GUO
Langchain as a ChatGPT Plugin MORE
🔥 OpenAPIEndpointChain — Wraps a single API endpoint in a natural language interface. MORE
Everything is a Practice MORE | BY DANNY GUO
How to create a podcast search tool using Lanchain Tools. MORE
Video is the next target for Generative AI, and things are already getting crazy. MORE
Midjourney has banned all images of Chinese President Xi Jinping. MORE
RECOMMENDATION OF THE WEEK
- Espanso for text expansion.
- MacGPT for immediate access to GPT-4.
- Constantly be thinking about the services you provide and where they sit in the hierarchy of ideas. What about what you do can be replaced easily, and what about what you do is resilient? Are you the SME? Are you creating AI tools? Or are you the polymath glue that solves problems with AI?
APHORISM OF THE WEEK
“To be yourself in a world that is constantly trying to make you something else is the greatest accomplishment.”
Ralph Waldo Emerson