The one about elegant design, a taxonomy of AI abuse, the CDK attack, anti-prime day, and why tech names everything after fruit.
If design isn't how a thing looks than what is it?
Steve Jobs famously said it's not how it looks but how it works. We also know that he would rather die than produce something ugly; we agree. How it works is the most important thing and perhaps the most challenging but when how it looks and how it works combine in a perfect harmony that brings what Singular XQ strives for: wonder. It's one thing to go after profit quickly and 10xs the investment, but taking the long slow and sometimes winding path has an amazing lasting payoff that leaves a mark long after your investors have died and their wealth is dispersed among ungrateful family members or the wind. Take a look at this 500 year old hotel in the Black Forest in Germany. Its innovative use of renewable energy sources, including solar panels, biomass boilers, and a hydroelectric power plant match its beautiful design--and has a thematic and historic alignment with the Black Forest itself.
Did Deep Mind actually produce a useful taxonomy of GenAI misuse and abuse?
Our team was surprised to discover this extremely useful taxonomy of the uses and abuses of GenAI tools. In some cases the uses and abuses pre-existed GAI but GAI enables it at a scale that is novel. Meanwhile, however, Google's existing ethical roadmap is under scrutiny and perhaps questionable. Still, a useful resource with some pretty charts.
How much money did the CDK cyber attack cost the automobile industry?
More than $1bn, according to this piece in the Detroit Free Press. We wonder if now that businesses and investors start feeling the pain if they will start to do something about the deep infrastructural problems causing this and do root cause analyses? It doesn't seem that private citizens' personal data really matter much to anyone anymore. Maybe this will lead to something aggressive and proactive?
What is anti-prime day?
Our partner bookshop.org is offering free shipping and free shipping if you order from them instead of...the place that's named after an endangered rainforest. Word on the street amongst our network of technologists is that some employees are getting extremely vocal about mistreatment in the workplace. Maybe its time to look for more verdant jungles elsewhere? By the way, bookshop.org is a nonprofit that shares its profits with independent bookstores. We have a virtual one there and you can choose to direct your funds to us. We have plans for a brick and mortar book store in the our roadmap. Help us get there!
Why is Big Tech obsessed with naming things after fruit?
Darned if we know. This week Open AI announced their new "reasoner" model named Strawberry. The same time the Washington Post revealed an exclusive letter from whistleblower employees at OpenAI who filed a complaint against them with the SEC stating that their NDAs were restrictive and designed to block them from talking to Federal regulators. Chris Baker, a San Francisco lawyer told the Post:
“Employers have learned that the cost of leaks is sometimes way greater than the cost of litigation, so they are willing to take the risk,” Baker said.
As the disparity between the capital inside the tech industry and the rest of the globe deepens the pattern of "strategic noncompliance" is behind many of our current problems including the way large companies have paid ransoms to cyberattackers rather than drawing regulatory scrutiny and patent and IP theft.
Singular XQ endeavors to be a nonprofit public facing education, research, and development incubator for emerging technology. We meet our mission through content, rigorous support and educational opportunities for those with barriers to employment in technology, research, development, and consulting. You can support us by singing up for our podcast Patreon or by upgrading to a paid subscription here.
