Finished reading: Playing to the Edge by Michael V. Hayden 📚
Finished reading: Careless People by Sarah Wynn-Williams 📚
Finished reading: The Sirens' Call by Chris Hayes 📚
A Quick Conversation about Apple's AI & Siri Problem
Saturday, March 15, 2025
In the technology sector, if you aren’t innovating, you’re falling behind. This is no different for Apple, who is not used to being behind on features. Generally, Apple waits until they’ve perfected a technology before introducing it to the public. Recently, this isn’t the case when we consider the cutbacks of the Apple Vision Pro, and this past week, AI features. Famous Apple watcher, Mark Gurman, who is usually correct on Apple predictions published a scathing blog post about Apple falling behind with respect to LLMs and AI as a whole in his Daring Fireball post entitled, “Something is Rotten in the State of Cupertino”.
Finished reading: The Gutenberg Parenthesis by Jeff Jarvis 📚
Finished reading: From Cold War to Hot Peace by Michael McFaul 📚
Interview with Stephen Wolfram on AI and Machine Learning
Friday, February 28, 2025
I don’t normally share clips from podcasts I listen to, but in this case, it’s well worth it. On Intelligent Machines, Episode 808, the creator of Mathematica and founder of Wolfram Alpha, Stephen Wolfram, shares his views on how he sees AI progressing from here. He brilliantly discusses how AI will augment humans, not completely replace them in the workforce (something I’ve been advocating for a while); including why AGI is not what we think of it today.
Finished reading: Hit Refresh by Satya Nadella 📚
Finished reading: The Genesis Machine by Amy Webb 📚
Finished reading: Play Nice by Jason Schreier 📚
Finished reading: Autocracy, Inc. by Anne Applebaum 📚
The Strategic Shift: Why UPS is Rethinking its Amazon Partnership and What it Means for Last-Mile Delivery
Sunday, February 9, 2025
We’re well in the middle of earnings season, but something stood out to me regarding a firm in particular. UPS revealed a significant shift in its strategy: a reduction in its delivery volume for Amazon by 50% by the end of next year. This move, while surprising to some, is a calculated step aimed at improving UPS’s profitability and streamlining its operations. Let’s delve into the reasons behind this decision and what it means for the future of last-mile delivery.
Finished reading: The Big Nine by Amy Webb 📚
One of my goals going into 2025 was to talk less and listen more. In this goal, I’m attempting to become more knowledgeable and a more well-rounded person. Self-improvement is important to me for my personal and professional lives. In this endeavor, I’ve been reading and listening to more eBooks and audiobooks, respectfully. You’ll see me post more about what I read and less about what I believe.
The next titles I plan on consuming (in no particular order) are as follows:
- "The Sirens' Call" by Chris Hayes
- "America's New Map" by Thomas P.M. Barnett
- "Autocracy, Inc." by Anne Applebaum
Finished reading: Chip War by Chris Miller 📚
DeepSeek's Surprise Entrance into the AI Arena
Thursday, January 30, 2025
DeepSeek, a Chinese AI startup, has rapidly become a major disruptor in the AI landscape with its new AI model, R1. This model has gained global attention for its ability to compete with models like OpenAI’s ChatGPT, but at a significantly lower cost. The emergence of DeepSeek has caused ripples across the tech industry, impacting stock markets and sparking debates about data privacy and the future of AI development. DeepSeek was founded in mid-2023 by Liang Wenfeng, a Chinese hedge fund manager.
Ditching Instagram: Focusing on Meaningful Connections
Friday, January 24, 2025
Yes! You heard it here first. Like all of you, I was excited for Instagram when it first hit the scene back in late 2010 and still had my original account from that time. Meta (formerly Facebook) famously purchased the business for $1 billion and successfully integrated it into its ad network and social graph, but I'm not here to relive or debate history -- we can save the positives and negatives for another post.
LLMs will Augment Employment; Not End it.
Sunday, May 28, 2023
LLMs, such as GPT-3.5 & 4 developed by OpenAI, possess impressive language processing capabilities. However, despite their remarkable abilities, LLMs are not poised to replace human workers. In this blog post, we will explore how LLMs will augment employment rather than supplant it, providing evidence to support this claim. Contrary to the doomsday predictions of job losses due to automation, LLMs are not designed to replace human workers entirely. These machines excel at processing and generating human-like text, but they lack the cognitive abilities, creativity, and emotional intelligence that make human workers invaluable.
Divestiture Debrief: The Kellogg Split
Tuesday, June 21, 2022
Earlier this morning before the bell, Kellogg announced that it would be splitting itself into three-separate tax-free spinoffs: the slow growing cereal business, a snacking business, and an unnamed plant-based food business mainly consisting of Morningstar Farms. In the press release, the company said splitting these businesses will unlock shareholder value. During the past year, we've seen a number of larger, slower-growing business attempt to divest to grow. Kellogg itself was unlikely to be sold due to its slowly growing cereal business, such as what Post and General Mills have previously announced.
On this Day in 2001: The Robert Hanssen Case
Wednesday, March 23, 2022
Yesterday, I was reminded on LinkedIn that yesterday in 2001, the State Department notified the Russian government that four of its diplomats were considered persona non-grata and immediately jetted from the country (National Counterintelligence and Security Center, 2022). This is an older piece I wrote on Robert Hanssen, in particular. During the transition period from the Soviet Union into the Russian Federation, an FBI agent, Robert Hanssen was handing over top secret, and code word clearance intelligence to the Russian authorities at the KGB and its successor, the SVR (FBI, 2017).