2026-10-28 23:44:12
Amazon and Apple both held "events" today to unveil new hardware. It's interesting to watch the convergence there – almost like watching the convergence of the MacBook and iPad. Read on for thoughts on...
2026-10-28 05:05:25
Two things can be true at once: newfangled AI personal assistants can be insanely powerful, and yet most people still have absolutely no idea what to do with them.
This is the inherent tension I feel in the discourse around the latest wave of AI capabilities currently sweeping over the land – well, at least the US (more on this in a minute). I hear from people – both online and in person – who have read my mostly positive writing about these new tools and still seem unsure what to make of all this. Is it just a fad or the next great leap in consumer technology?
One generally positive sign for it not being a fad is just how much everyone wants to talk about the trend – from people in Ohio (where I grew up) to The Economist (where I gave some thoughts for an article last week). Yes, that happens with fads too, but fads fade. Meta's Muse shows little sign of letting up as it's still atop the App Store now six weeks after launch. For as fun as Sora was, it didn't have this staying power. You know what has? ChatGPT.
Speaking of, while OpenAI chose not to launch their own stand-alone app for Dots, you can bet that if they did, it would be right there alongside Muse right now. Even GrokBot is moving up those charts. Copilot isn't far behind. And now Anthropic is moving fast to answer the proactive assistant call with Duet...
My bet would be that this is not all some flash in the pan but is instead the start of a real change in the way we live and work, both online and offline. And while the digital graveyard is filled with the bodies of AI personal assistants past, the difference is the actual technology here. LLMs, augmented by real-world training data, are now proving capable of handling such tasks – our tasks!
Still, capabilities don't always equal killer products – just ask Segway. The key here, for me, is the proactive nature of these services. Per my quote in said Economist article:
The big shift from earlier generations of digital assistants, explains M.G. Siegler, an investor and blogger, is that these new bots can work proactively, rather than reacting only to what users explicitly ask for. Instinct “really just works in the way I believe we all want AI to act”, says Noah Shinn, the startup’s 24-year-old founder.
Instinct, in a way, kicked this latest wave off. Sure, OpenClaw gets a lot of credit too, but again, beyond the capabilities, it's the proactive interaction that is going to be the key to this working, this time. And Instinct seemingly recognized this out of the gate, actively pinging users from the start to let them know what the service can do for them.
This is the jump start that many people need to get going – overcoming the "blank page" problem of not knowing where to begin – but just as importantly, it's also the key to keeping them going. A lot of people will come to these services with one idea to try, perhaps something a friend told them they were doing with such a service, but once that's done, they're often left with little more than a demo. And unlike the Alexa and Siri of old, thanks to the LLMs that now underpin these services, you can literally ask anything, which is a problem in and of itself – more of the "boil the ocean" variety. If you can ask for anything, you may be overwhelmed and not ask for anything.
Again, the proactivity is key here. Muse's 'Feed' is one clever way to get around these cold start (and cold continuation) issues, but the service more explicitly nudging you on certain things is far more powerful.
Obviously, these services have to be careful. If they're too proactive, it will likely annoy users and push them to turn the service off. Or if they're too "creepy" with their suggestions based on what they know about you, it will also likely turn people away. But there is a balance here, and in my early testing of both Muse and Dots, I think they straddle the line well.
But there's another key thing that people need to overcome in making all this work and that is being comfortable hooking in your email, calendars, reminders, etc., into these services. A lot of ink has already been spilt around Meta's trust issues (which is exactly why they doubled and then tripled down on security features at launch), and startups like Instinct and OpenAI (insofar as a $1T+ company can be a startup) will inherently lack such trust from users.
This is why I found it crazy that Google wasn't the first mover here. You don't have to trust Google in linking up all this data because they likely already have it! Apple is in a similar, and arguably better, camp thanks to the iPhone, and it's one of the reasons they're now seemingly situated pretty well in AI despite myriad stumbles.
Anyway, trust is an ongoing question in the space. And one breach of it could mean game over for any single service. But assuming that hurdle can be overcome, it's pretty wild what these services are capable of. They monitor your inbox and calendar and to-dos and figure out what they should nudge you about – and in some cases suggest actions they may take on your behalf. Permission is key, but you can already clearly see a future where certain tasks are trusted and done automatically in the background. Many early adopters are already doing such things – rather, they're having their agents do such things.
This is likely the future of email. The output won't be yet more email – which has long been the compounding problem at full internet scale – but it will be an actual to-do list, curated by your AI assistant.
There isn't a day that goes by now where I'm not sort of amazed by the proactive pings I get from one of these agents. The interactions range from as simple as reminding me to respond to something by a stated deadline in a message to finding linked emails related to a question in a thread in a way that would take me many minutes to do – if I could at all given the state of Gmail search.
That's one key to understanding all of this. It's not that what these AI agents are doing is impossible for me to do, it's that it's often tedious, to the point where I put it off as long as possible – often too long, and sometimes until it's too late. Even if you're the most on-top-of-it person, you're never going to be on top of everything and these assistants can actually help you save time with many tasks. I'm seeing it every day. Even if it's just 5 minutes per task, this time adds up quickly in aggregate. And it's time literally saved in your limited time of life.
Is that worth the money you have to spend on some of these tools? That's going to be a different equation for everyone. But there's also going to be a line for everyone. And I suspect that at least one of these services will cross it for pretty much everyone at some point. Even if it's just the built-in Siri AI capabilities of the iPhone.
I'm just a few weeks into daily usage here and my habits are already changing, fast. I'm now constantly getting pinged about new messages in my inbox by Muse or Dots ahead of me actually reading them. And they're far better about telling me what I need to know, or do, or watch out for in those emails. They're like a guardian angel of my inbox – it's sort of great. And it actually has me checking email less often, which is amazing.
Yes, that takes some level of the aforementioned trust, but it's slowly being established with every "aha" moment these services are proactively pinging me about. And it obviously goes far beyond the inbox.
Tracking pre-sale tickets for Dune 3, tracking iPhone Duo inventory, proactively creating reminders that I don't have to create myself, suggesting ideas for things to do while traveling based on previous calendar entries, sending me summaries of sporting events I missed due to conflicts in my calendar – the list literally goes on, growing daily.
To some, this will sound a bit exhausting. But again, the key is the timely pings about certain things – yes, just like a human assistant would do. But 99.9% of people don't have a human assistant, and this assistant happens to be one that may actually know more about you thanks to said service connections paired with essentially infinite memory and time to do tasks. It will take some getting used to – in a weird way, it's more about letting go of the way you used to do things, which will be the hardest part. But people will slowly get used to these new ways, and then they won't be able to imagine how they functioned without such things.
Bee, the AI wearable that Amazon acquired last year, is another tangential example of all this. When you turn it on, it just sits there and listens to any conversation and when it's over, gives you a summary of what was said and any action items required. It's honestly wild how well it works with just a single button press. And that simplicity and power could lead to a backlash because it's not clear the world is yet ready for this on a mass scale. And such functionality is about to come to the Apple Watch. But time and tweaks will alleviate those issues too.
I'm not suggesting that all of this will take over the world overnight – and hopefully not literally. For one thing, almost all of these services are US-only at the moment and they could very well be EU-never given the regulations there. Some will cheer this as they'll swear they don't want AI in their lives in this way. But even the story of the actual Luddites was less about the technology and more about the changes it wrought. There are obviously parallels here with the current AI backlash. The key to overcoming that starts with products that prove useful to people. With their proactive nature, personal AI assistants finally feel ready.
2026-10-26 07:26:00
I’m not sure people really understand what is coming with AI and wearables. I say that, in part, because it’s already here.
A couple weeks back, Amazon (re)launched the Bee AI device(s) with some fanfare, but not much. Certainly not as much as there should have been. Because the device is… pretty amazing? Definitely for a device that costs a mere $75.1
I had been tracking Bee since shortly before Amazon acquired it because I was interested in AI wearables but in particular, super simple AI wearables. To me, Humane clearly crapped the bed simply because it was roughly ten times too complicated — and yes, overhyped. The world wasn’t ready for laser projections on your hands. I mean, I’m not sure the world will ever be ready for that, but I digress… The Rabbit device gave good demo, but little else. The Friend pendant thing was closer, but also too cute (while also perhaps being too creepy). Limitless was perhaps the most promising (perhaps why Meta quickly acquired it). What we clearly needed was a super simple AI wearable, maybe with just a single button to invoke a chatbot.
That’s basically what the Bee device is. A wearable with one single button to rule them all. Only it’s even more simple than that. Because it’s not even a wearable you talk to,2 it’s just one that listens to you. And everyone you interact with. And then gives you a summary of what was discussed, and suggests some follow-up ideas and actions based off what it hears.
But the really crazy thing is just how well it works. I bought one almost on a whim because again, I’ve been watching this space and it’s $75 on Amazon. I’m honestly shocked just how good it is at what it does. There’s some lightweight onboarding to be able to recognize your voice, but once you do that, it’s off to the races.
The Bee quickly was able to deduce my various family members — even though I didn’t explicitly input their voices — including their names and ultimately, their wants and needs. This sounds a bit creepy because it is a bit creepy. And it’s going to creep the fuck out of some people. But it’s also sort of awesome just how far this technology has come in just a few short years.
And so I’m torn. I can't decide if this is a device that every single Big Tech and Big AI company is going to need to copy ASAP, or if it’s going to garner an immediate backlash and be banned everywhere. The latter bit may be why Amazon seems to be underplaying the Bee at the moment. It’s a big deal because it’s so good at what it does. And what it does is listen to all of your conversations.
Amazon, of course, says all the right things about privacy and data protection, but that may not end up mattering as much as the societal pushback here. Meta is already feeling it with the Ray-Ban smart glasses. And even Apple, the most trusted brand in tech, has gotten some blowback against products that leverage this type of surveillance. And that’s before such products and features are even live yet!
Recording capabilities or not, people clearly don’t like the notion of wearables that can be always-on and always listening or watching. Hence, the “PervPods” nickname. And actually, it sure sounds like an upcoming feature of the Apple Watch is very similar to what the Bee offers.
Meanwhile, beyond their Ray-Ban smart glasses, Meta has their forthcoming Muse Charm device which could offer some similar functionality to the Bee. And then there’s OpenAI’s device made in conjunction with Jony Ive and his team. These latter two devices sound more robust — like actual AI agentic devices beyond simple listening tech.3 Still, they’re all clearly dancing around similar ideas.
And at the highest level, those ideas are: why type to an AI chatbot when it can just always be listening and figuring out what you need before you explicitly ask for it? Given just how good Amazon is at this with Bee, you have to wonder how killer of a product an Anthropic wristband would be? And an OpenAI one. And a Meta one.
Again, a super simple wearable with a single button to turn its capabilities on and off. No screen. No laser projectors. Hell, not even a speaker to output responses back to you. Those can be found in your app. The key is the input and the backend smarts to do something interesting with it. It’s sort of mind-blowing.
Here’s a fun real world use case I had in my first few days: I actually had a hotel dispute this week where they charged me for a drink at the bar that I didn’t order. The Bee caught the entire conversation with the bartender and confirmed my recollection. It wasn’t a recording but it was a summary of the interaction. Is that legal? I mean, depending on the state, almost certainly not in a court of law. Is it interesting? Obviously! Can it be manipulated in ways? Probably!
There is an indicator light when the device is active; it's super tiny and green. And if you're wearing long sleeves, the Bee will likely naturally sit underneath your shirt, likely hiding the indicator. (It comes with a clip too, if you'd prefer to wear it that way.) But the Bee isn't technically recording, says Amazon (and soon, Apple) – though that definition is certainly going to be challenged in said court of law!
Again, I just can’t believe how well it works. It ingests, does some processing, and the summaries and bullet points (and suggested action items) are so good. Maybe not 100% accurate, but close enough for the purposes of aiding recall.
And given the Amazon ownership, and price point, it feels like the start of a new state of surveillance tech. That sounds creepy, and it is in some ways. But it also feels inevitable. The question now is if this early tech is embraced or shunned. It could go either way…
1 I'm clearly focusing on the Bee Frontier device here, not the slightly more expensive Bee Eclipse, which is meant as a phone attachment. ↩
2 There is a way to speak directly to it, either to record voice memos or speak to a Bee-powered AI assistant, though neither feature seems all that useful at the moment... ↩
3 There's actually agentic Bee capabilities currently in beta testing behind a waitlist in the app. And their desktop app hints at broader ambitions here... ↩
2026-10-24 05:39:00
I was there Gandalf. I was there 19 years, 3 months, and 24 days ago. Or 7,056 days ago, if you prefer. June 29, 2007. The day the iPhone launched to the world.
I've told this story many times before, but basically I was a relatively new Apple enthusiast (after being a PC/Windows diehard as a teenager) who was iPhone-curious post Steve Jobs' reality distorting keynote in January of that year. But I was also certain the iPhone wasn't for me. I was a happy Motorola Razr flip phone user. I had waited long enough for that device to come to Verizon. And the iPhone, of course, was AT&T-only. I wasn't about to pay $500, fully subsidized, for a phone!
Or so I thought...
On that Summer day nearly 20 years ago, I found myself back in my hometown of Cleveland, Ohio. On a whim, I went into the local Apple Store, knowing it was iPhone launch day, just to see how much fuss there actually was. I went to a table and held the iPhone... Roughly 30 seconds later I was $500 poorer.
It was the most no-brainer purchase I've ever made from a first-use perspective (thanks to a credit card). And in hindsight, despite an eventual price drop (thanks to a shift in the subsidy model), it remains the most no-brainer purchase of all time.
Anyway, I was reminiscing about that day earlier today when I once again found myself in an Apple Store. Today, of course, was the launch of the iPhone Duo. The device is, without question, the most interesting twist on the iPhone formula since that original iPhone all those years ago.
And today, just like all those years ago, I only wandered into the Apple Store (this time in New York City, where I happen to be visiting) out of curiosity. Because I already pre-ordered an iPhone Duo, but like seemingly millions of others, my order – despite being placed within minutes, if not seconds, of the pre-orders going live – failed to make it in time for day one. So I must wait until November.
Still, I was curious to see what all the fuss was about. So I wandered into the Apple Store and... Honestly, if they had any iPhone Duos in stock, I would have bought one. Upon usage for 10-15 minutes (to try to be courteous to other Apple Store guests – of which there were many) it wasn't quite the no-brainer that the original iPhone was, but it seems interesting in new and different ways.
I've been avoiding reading the reviews so as not to encroach upon my other thoughts before I can actually jot them down, but I know that at a high level it's divisive. And I can obviously see why. But I also still think it will end up being a great form-factor with some tweaks and time. Perhaps even the ultimate form factor – the mythical Westworld tablet? – as technology does its thing and trims and slims the iPhone Duo into a sort of "regular" iPhone that also happens to be able to spread out into this big screen iPad mini-like device when needed.
Again, I'll have more thoughts when I actually get my hands on the thing to use day-to-day, which sadly was not today. But the parallels between today and that day all those years ago was fully on my mind in the Apple Store.
And it also took my mind to the other major new device Apple announced recently: the HomeView. It seems to me that the divide between the public reaction to the two could not be any more stark. I'm sure it's unfair, but also not – it just seems like no one really cares about the HomeView. Because no one is really sure if they need it. It's undoubtedly also unfair to judge it by pre-order wait times, especially because this particular device was perhaps sitting in warehouses for months – if not years – as it waited for Siri AI.
Still...
One device you can still order today and pick it up in stores when it launches in a few weeks. And this is weeks after the pre-orders went live. The iPhone Duo, on the other hand, again, sold out of day one inventory seemingly within seconds. This was undoubtedly also Apple's fault in not having nearly the inventory needed to meet demand. Still, judging just by what I saw in the Apple Store today, it stands to reason that demand is fairly massive.
Case in point: I don't recall ever being at an Apple Store – and I've been to many Apple Stores on many launch days before – where almost all of the products where constantly out of battery. This was because they were being used so much, being demoed in users' hands, that they weren't in their chargers in the displays long enough to recharge. It was wild. I would guess that out of 15-20 demo units, 13-15 were without charge. This was not an Apple Store employee problem, it was a demo demand problem, clearly.
And several people I overheard when they found a working device seemed genuinely blown away. These were not professional tech reviewers, they were "regular" folks who could not believe the iPhone could suddenly unfold to have this massive screen. There was a real energy in that room that did remind me of the original iPhone launch in ways. People – regular people – were buzzing.
To be clear and fair, I predicted the iPhone Duo would be a massive hit in my predictions for 2026 at the end of last year. I also predicted the device that became the HomeView would not be a hit – and actually I predicted that for 2025, when again, the device was supposed to launch.
I state that to note my bias here, but also because I'm pretty sure I'm correct.
The iPhone Duo, despite costing $2,000+ is going to be a massive hit for Apple. The HomeView, despite costing $300 – a good price, certainly for Apple, all things considered – will not. Again, more thoughts to come when the iPhone Duo actually hits my hands for daily usage. But quite the dichotomy – and parallel – with other Apple devices.
It was the best of times...
2026-10-23 04:17:48
After months – years! – of endless rumor and speculation, it sounds like we're in the home stretch for the next actor to play James Bond. As Justin Kroll reports:
The process to find out the next James Bond has been long and thorough, but all signs are pointing to the search hitting the homestretch as Amazon MGM Studios is setting its final auditions over the next week.
Sources tell Deadline that screen tests for the Bond role could begin as early as Friday and go through the next week for its final group. At least four test offers have been given out, and while unconfirmed, insiders tell Deadline that three of the four expected to test are Jack Lowden, Callum Turner and Josh O’Connor.
Jack Lowden has been considered the front-runner for a few months now, when he replaced Callum Turner, who held that position for several months himself. So both of those make sense in the "finals". But Josh O'Connor would be a pretty big wild card here as while his name was floating around, it seemed to be more along the lines of inclusions in roundups of British man in the right general age range – all three of these actors are 36 years old.1
Even more interesting may be the names not included here – most notably, Jacob Elordi, who has been getting a lot of buzz in the pastweek or so, seemingly largely driven by a report by Jeff Sneider of The InSneider stating his belief that he was the pick. Then a report by Jordan Ruimy of World of Reel yesterday also had the race boiling down to Lowden, Elordi, and a "mystery actor" – more on that in a minute.
But another report today by Borys Kit of The Hollywood Reporter seemingly confirms both these final screen tests and two of the names: Lowden and Turner. But:
It is unclear who else may be testing. Sources said at least three actors are part of the action but another source says up to five may be putting on the tux to see how it fits. Jack O’Connell (Sinners) was rumoured to initially be in the mix but that is apparently not the case, according to sources. And despite some reports, Euphoria and Frankenstein star Jacob Elordi is not testing.
So is Elordi out? Sneider still isn't so sure, but again, even more interesting may be that mysterious fourth actor. Obviously such reports are going to rev the internet meme engines. But there is at least one interesting actual name out there... Here's Caroline Peacock for The Daily Mail:
Richard Madden has emerged as a shock contender to become the next James Bond as his odds are suddenly slashed by the bookies.
The Scottish actor, 40, shot to fame playing Robb Stark in the HBO fantasy drama series Game of Thrones.
Now, he is hotly tipped to be named as the new 007, as speculation over which actor will be offered the coveted role continues to grow.
Now, the British tabloids don't exactly have the best track record with such reporting, but we don't really have to trust them here – just the betting public:
According to bookies William Hill, Richard could be replacing Daniel Craig, with the actor being slashed from 40/1 to 14/1 in William Hill's betting.
To be clear, that still puts Madden's odds in fifth place (at this bookie), behind Lowden (4/6), Turner (3/1), O'Connell (who again, is said to be out of the race), and O'Connor (both at 12/1). But the huge slash in his odds overnight is... interesting. Especially given the talk of the fourth "mystery" actor in the running!
Then again, perhaps this is just my own bias getting worked up. I've been on the Richard-Madden-for-James-Bond train since at least 2018. And I doubled-down on the notion five years ago when actual speculation about the next Bond started to ramp. This is not about Game of Thrones, but rather his other roles post-Robb Stark. He's both a good actor, has the right look, and happens to be Scottish (Lowden is also Scottish, though technically born in England), like a certain other most-famous Bond actor...
That said, he is also older than the other three would-be competitors. He's 40 right now, and he may well be 41 by the time the next Bond film is in production. He'd probably be 42 when it's released. Assuming he signs up for at least four movies, that puts him past 50 at the end of those – perhaps well past given movie production schedules these days... Daniel Craig was 53 in his last Bond role (and the last Bond film to date), No Time to Die in 2021. So it's not out of the question, especially given the general better shape of the modern man, but it's pushing it.
For what it's worth, Kalshi's money is now pretty significantly on Lowden – with Turner currently falling and O'Connor now rising fast (Madden is only starting to get some action, but way down the list). And I think of the three 36 year olds, Lowden is clearly the right call. But remember that Daniel Craig was a dark horse too twenty years ago...
‘Bodyguard’ seems like the perfect Bond tune-up for Richard Madden. Just as ‘Layer Cake’ was for Craig and ‘Remington Steele’ was for Brosnan. And ‘The Driver’ BMW shorts should have been for Clive Owen...
— M.G. Siegler (@mgsiegler) October 26, 2018
Longer shot next Bond that I’m feeling right now: Richard Madden. 0️⃣0️⃣7️⃣
— M.G. Siegler (@mgsiegler) November 6, 2021
1 With Lowden almost exactly two weeks younger than O'Connor and Turner as the wise old man of the bunch with a birthdate of February 15, 1990. My god, all of these guys were born in the 90s. Come on Madden, make it happen for us 80s babies. ↩
2026-10-17 05:39:03
Happy iPhone Duo Pre-Order Day to those who celebrate. Which is apparently almost no one because either Apple's inventory is comically low or demand is comically high – or both. Personally, I teed up my pre-order the moment the Apple Store came back on line and I still got stuck with a November delivery date. I'm really not sure how I possibly could have done it any faster. I even tasked Muse with backing me up (mostly as a test) and sadly, Moneypenny struck out too.
Current ship dates are in late January. Yes, of 2027. That should be about seven months before the next iPhone Duo is announced. Ouch.
So instead I'll choose to celebrate this as You Can See Everything Release Day. I saw a screening last night and it's as good as you're undoubtedly reading about. There's almost nothing of interest I can say about it that won't spoil elements, so I'll hold my tongue for now. But I sort of knew what to expect and yet I found it quite different and unexpected in many ways...
Inklings is a newsletter featuring links and commentary from M.G. Siegler on timely topics found around the web.
🤝 Apple and Meta Ternus the Page – What is in the water in Cupertino these days? First, Apple teams up with Google, their old "thermonuclear" enemy over Android, now their core AI model partner. Then, Apple signs up to use chips from NVIDIA, their adversary for even longer (a relationship once perhaps soured to the point of falling behind in AI) to help with Apple Intelligence (in Google's Cloud!). Now they're working with Meta, which has been the most heated of their rivals (though OpenAI is quickly moving up those ranks!) in the past several years. I mean, this is great and is providing great quotes from Alexandr Wang, "We're excited for mommy and daddy to be playing nice again." Wang credits Daniel Gross (who of course worked on Apple's early AI efforts and now is at Meta), but presumably the change atop Apple helped too. Who is next, Epic?! Anyway, this is a clear win/win. Apple gets to showcase how good their hardware is at running local models (just as that narrative is under assault from Microsoft) and Meta gets to showcase how well their "open" models (but not their flagship models) can work on local machines. As Ina Fried points out, AI is creating quite a few strange bedfellows, but this one has actually long made some sense. [Axios]
🐝 Will Amazon's 'Bee' Sting? – I'm sort of surprised Amazon is pushing forward with their always-on device explicitly for listening to conversations. Yes, they bought the company because of the product, and yes, it could very well be a useful use case for AI, but as backlash builds against the Meta Ray-Bans for their cameras and as even Apple takes pre-emptive heat for a future future AirPods with cameras – "PervPods" – and a future Apple Watch feature that can yes, listen to conversations to later summarize with the help of AI, it just seems like there are a lot of signals that the mass market might not be quite ready for this product. Sure, Amazon is also saying all the right things with regard to not storing conversations, and encrypting any data, etc, but I'm just not sure it matters right now. All people see and hear with these devices is "surveillance". That will change with time, but it's early in the cycle. And as Amazon should know better than anyone, being early can bee a problem... $75 is a pretty good price though! [Verge]
🍿 Netflix Shakes Itself Up – After losing out on Warner Bros while increasingly losing out to YouTube, Netflix clearly was in need of a shake. Sadly, this was in the form of mass layoffs, but also major changes at the top with Chief Content Officer Bela Bajaria out "immediately". Ouch. Of course, as all the stories on this news paint clearly, such firings are the name of the game, sort of like swapping head coaches in sports. Bajaria came to Netflix after she was fired from NBC. And she rose to the top of content after Netflix fired Cindy Holland. Holland, meanwhile, was just pushed out again from the newly-merged Paramount. And while Peter Rice seems like a great get for Netflix to take over this role, remember that he too was fired from Disney (though for what some viewed to be an internal power move by – now fired – CEO Bob Chapek). I've long argued that part of Netflix's (literal) growing problem was simple: their content, especially movies, simply weren't very good. While the algorithm still made many of them popular, this kind of bad build-up lingers in peoples' minds in terms of perceived quality (and the awards circuit stumbles don't help). Could Rice, who helped Fox and Disney merge, also signal a plan to expand through an acquisition of, say, NBCUniversal, as Matt Belloni (who scooped this news for Puck, though there were previous whispers) throws out there? [Variety]
"A lot of investors have no clue what they are investing in. They set very extreme expectations only to find out that it’s almost like they are in a casino."
– Hock Tan, the boss of Broadcom, with the boss quote – which may or may not have led to the recent nosedive in the stock market.
A literal spy! Speaking of surveillance... I mean, there are several layers of the OpenAI Spy story that are almost beyond belief. A Saudi national, who had worked as an engineer at OpenAI for well over a year – and at Meta for five years before that – (allegedly) uses ChatGPT on his wife's computer to try to conceal his queries for how best to spy on his company... the company which makes the product he's querying. He (allegedly) hides his makeshift eavesdropper behind a TV and somehow there's a surveillance camera back there which captures the most perfect picture of him (below) doing the (alleged) deed. He has (allegedly) wrapped his contraption in toilet paper. Like a fucking pro. And OpenAI quickly figured out it was (allegedly) him by using ChatGPT to look at the evidence – which they're clearly bragging about in the stories about this situation. What. The. Fuck.
🎶 Listening to "Isabelle Fly" by The Lumineers
🍺 Enjoying a Sierra Nevada Pale Ale
🇬🇧 Sent from London, England