Posts by lucidcapitalism

(The Markup) The current frenzy around artificial intelligence has spread like a shockwave.  It started among engineers inspired by a 2017 research paper. Next came venture capitalists eager to profit from a new boom. They were followed by government officials racing to impose regulations. Now it’s labor’s turn. More than 200 trade union members and…

(Financial Times) Investors have poured record amounts of money into a fund that spreads its assets equally across the S&P 500, as concerns mount that Wall Street’s returns have become overly reliant on a handful of technology titans. The Invesco S&P 500 Equal Weight exchange traded fund took in about $14.4bn in the second half…

(The Verge) Decentralized social network Mastodon has announced plans to transfer its ownership to a new nonprofit entity. Ownership of Mastodon will move away from the control of CEO Eugen Rochko, in contrast to the power exerted by other social media CEOs like Meta cofounder Mark Zuckerberg and X owner Elon Musk. “Simply, we are…

(Platformer) Days after surrendering to the right on speech issues and issuing new guidelines allowing for dehumanizing speech about trans people and racial minorities, Meta said on Friday that it will end its diversity, equity, and inclusion practices. “The legal and policy landscape surrounding diversity, equity and inclusion efforts in the United States is changing,”…

(TechCrunch) Last year, police surveillance startup Flock Safety hired the mayor of a California city with over 200,000 residents to promote its products. But the mayor, Ulises Cabrera of Moreno Valley, now claims Flock wrongfully terminated him, partly because he refused to use his position as mayor to benefit Flock, according to a lawsuit Cabrera…

(Wall Street Journal) Social-media companies never wanted to aggressively police content on their platforms. Now, they are deciding they don’t have to anymore. Mark Zuckerberg’s announcement that Meta META 2.20%increase; green up pointing triangle Platforms will end fact-checking and remove speech restrictions across Facebook and Instagram shows how Donald Trump’s presidential election and the U.S.…

(TechCrunch) For several years now, technologists have rung alarm bells about the potential for advanced AI systems to cause catastrophic damage to the human race. But in 2024, those warning calls were drowned out by a practical and prosperous vision of generative AI promoted by the tech industry — a vision that also benefited their…

(Financial Times) The number of active venture capital investors has dropped more than a quarter from a peak in 2021, as risk-averse financial institutions focus their money on the biggest firms in Silicon Valley. The tally of VCs investing in US-headquartered companies dropped to 6,175 in 2024 — meaning more than 2,000 have fallen dormant…

(Euro News) The tech giant says it “strongly disputes” the allegations after the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) filed criminal complaints in France and Belgium. The Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) has filed criminal complaints in France and Belgium against subsidiaries of Apple, accusing the tech giant of using conflict minerals. Lawyers representing the…

(TechCrunch) Generative AI may look like magic, but behind the development of these systems are armies of employees at companies like Google, OpenAI, and others, known as “prompt engineers” and analysts, who rate the accuracy of chatbots’ outputs to improve their AI. But a new internal guideline passed down from Google to contractors working on…