Short takes on this week in tech.

Jennifer Pierce

Apr 30, 2024 — 2 min read

AI hangover

The AI party is over and the startup set has a hangover. The cost of running an AI system is in the billions. While the iPhone only cost 100 million to launch, AI start ups have to raise close to $2 billion and that has proven not to be enough. Could small language models provide an alternative? Either way it appears that no one is going to be able to compete with big tech who are resourced enough to work with billions per year and almost endless runway.

No more non-competes.

Singular XQ provides support services for people with barriers to gainful employment in tech. One of the more predatory practices we run into is the use of non-compete agreements, which can trick young people into what we call “catch and release” hiring practices. In these situations, the employers hire young talent for jobs that do not actually exist. The goal is to hire them and get a non-compete agreement. Then they fire them and their competition can’t hire them. More commonly, however, when you hire an employee on a non compete, it makes retention strategies and professional development unnecessary since the employee literally cannot leave their role without also leaving the field. In a big win last week, non-competes were overturned by the FTC.

Can we go after NDAs next?

Animals still beat robots hands down.

In case you are worried about a robot army coming to take over the planet, we still have a lot of work to do before we can even get a cockroach robot to compete with a live roach in speed and agility. In 2003, I studied cockroach robots and autonomy. We haven’t progressed very far in that, either, not even in the past two decades. Could Musk be exaggerating about Tesla’s full self-driving capabilities? Facebook co-founder Dustin Moskovitz thinks so. He called Tesla the next Enron. Elon is not pleased.

Content authenticity advances.

One of the problems of gen AI proliferation is that it’s getting harder to distinguish gen AI from authentic content. NIST announced their assessment platform this week. If you’ve been building a small business practice from GAI content it might be time to rethink.

Clock tick tocking on TikTok.

The divest or ban bill on Tiktok was signed into law on Wednesday. Both China and the US judicial systems are fighting back. What outcomes one can expect are difficult to predict. This is the first legal action of its kind in human history. Want some of my popcorn? It’s nice and salty.

ChatGPT 4o, handwriting, fake science and a little optimism

confusing and stage-y demo with no testing, research, or safety documentation The big news on 4o (which isn’t the long awaited GPT5) demonstrated looking and emotional speaking capabilities. I call out the concerns and troubles with that highly theatrical and curated demo here. I will add one more concern

Houston, we have a problem: GPT plagiarism

You've been hearing a lot about hallucinations. Some people call them hallucinations or confabulations, but let's call them out for what they are. Bad results. Sometimes, terrible results. Calling it a hallucination is another way of personifying and using "anthropomorphic" language to persuade investors

Meet Sparkles. The cutest dang robot ever.

In a sea of overhyped car-salesmen technology pseudo-innovation, Boston Dynamics may be the most underhyped research firm doing the most interesting and useful automation research. They aren’t trying to sell to a populist market so you won’t hear about them unless you are looking. Check it out. Google

Apologies.

"Any intelligent fool can make things bigger, more complex, and more violent. It takes a touch of genius — and a lot of courage — to move in the opposite direction." --EF Schumacher, Small is Beautiful Lately, our newsletters have been sent out with strange formatting errors. We are aware