🤖 AI Evolution, Tech Giants' Moves, Social Media Spotlight
Today’s pick
Almost an Agent: What GPTs can do. Many people think the future of AI lies in “agents” - a fuzzily-defined term that refers to an autonomous AI program that is given a goal, and then works towards accomplishing it on its own. There has been a lot of buzz about agents over the past few months, but not much technology that actually works well. By Ethan Mollick via One Useful Thing
𝕏: I’ve been playing with OpenAI’s GPTs for a couple weeks. In their current form, they are a good solution to problems holding back AI use in firms, organizations & schools And they give us hints about what the near future of autonomous AI agents might mean - Ethan Mollick (@emollick)
The OpenAI Keynote. In 2013, when I started Stratechery, there was no bigger event than the launch of the new iPhone; its only rival was Google I/O, which is when the newest version of Android was unveiled (hardware always breaks the tie, including with Apple's iOS introductions at WWDC). It wasn’t just that smartphones were relatively new and still adding critical features, but that the strategic decisions and ultimate fates of the platforms were still an open question. By Ben Thompson via Stratechery
𝕏: Why design matters more as we create more in any particular area: What is an amazing user experience today, is table stakes tomorrow. Only way to keep being a great product, is to keep pushing the experience forwards. - Karri Saarinen (@karrisaarinen)
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TikTok tells advertisers #Israel is trending, but not #Palestine. TikTok is currently telling advertisers that #Israel is the top trending news-related hashtag in the U.S., as it faces pressure in the country to explain why pro-Palestinian content is so popular on its platform. While the hashtag #Palestine goes unmentioned on TikTok’s list of trending news and entertainment tags, users globally have created more than twice the number of videos tagged #Palestine than those tagged #Israel over the last several weeks, according to the app’s own publicly available data. By J.D. Capelouto via Semafor
𝕏: Scoop from @lmatsakis and me: on TikTok's "Creative Center," where advertisers and marketers can browse trending topics, #Israel is listed as the No. 1 news hashtag. The tag #Palestine isn't on the list, likely because it's not categorized as news - J.D. Capelouto (@jdcapelouto)
Supreme Court says White House may continue requests to tech companies. The Supreme Court on Friday temporarily allowed the Biden administration to continue its efforts to get social media companies to remove posts from their platforms that the government says are misleading. The administration had asked the justices to put on hold a lower-court ruling that found top officials likely violated the First Amendment by improperly pressuring tech companies to take down what they saw as problematic posts about public health and election-related disinformation. By Ann E. Marimow via Washington Post
𝕏: One small add to this - CISA has NOT been in contact with social media companies about today’s election, an agency official said. Notable given that SCOTUS gave Biden admin a reprieve on a lower court’s social media contact ban - David DiMolfetta (@ddimolfetta)
Mark Zuckerberg Taps the Strengths of WhatsApp. When Facebook bought WhatsApp for $19 billion nearly a decade ago, Mark Zuckerberg made a promise: The Facebook chief said he wouldn't meddle often with the messaging app so as not to mess with a good thing. Mr. Zuckerberg stuck to that philosophy as WhatsApp amassed more than two billion users globally — until 2019, when he began tapping the app’s growth and business potential. By Mike Isaac via The New York Times
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