Posts by lucidcapitalism

(Bloomberg) It’s a bargain-hunter’s dream, and for sellers it’s sometimes the only good option left. Secondary markets — where backers of closely held startups can sell their stakes to other investors — are drawing increasing interest from venture capital funds and other money managers seeking to snap up chunks of private companies on the cheap.…

(Financial Times) Advocates of more environmentally and socially responsible models of capitalism have had the upper hand in recent years. In the US, however, they have run into a serious backlash: red-state politicians have sought to blacklist banks and asset managers they deem to be boycotting fossil fuels, brands including Bud Light and Target are…

(The Verge) A few months after graduating from college in Nairobi, a 30-year-old I’ll call Joe got a job as an annotator — the tedious work of processing the raw information used to train artificial intelligence. AI learns by finding patterns in enormous quantities of data, but first that data has to be sorted and tagged…

(The Verge) A few months after graduating from college in Nairobi, a 30-year-old I’ll call Joe got a job as an annotator — the tedious work of processing the raw information used to train artificial intelligence. AI learns by finding patterns in enormous quantities of data, but first that data has to be sorted and tagged…

(TechCrunch) Smaller venture funds are finding a way to manage in the midst of a conservative market. As with all bear markets, the appetite for risk drops, and although emerging fund managers are often noted to outperform their more established counterparts, some limited partners are weary of bringing on new venture partners. Instead, they retreat to…

(NYT) The European Union took an important step on Wednesday toward passing what would be one of the first major laws to regulate artificial intelligence, a potential model for policymakers around the world as they grapple with how to put guardrails on the rapidly developing technology. The European Parliament, a main legislative branch of the…

(Bloomberg) As tranquil instrumental music plays over gauzy images of nature, a woman’s voice-over begins. “Isn’t it a paradox,” she wonders aloud, “that the love for this world that gets us out in it, sometimes leaves behind the things that can harm it? Flight by flight, we broaden our views. We gain new perspectives. And…

(The Guardian) Meredith Whittaker is the president of Signal – the not-for-profit secure messaging app. The service, along with WhatsApp and similar messaging platforms, is opposing the UK government’s online safety bill which, among other things, seeks to scan users’ messages for harmful content. Prior to Signal, Whittaker worked at Google, co-founded NYU’s AI Now Institute and was an adviser to…

(WSJ) The pace of startup shutdowns, fire sales and sharp business-strategy changes is picking up.  Fresh capital from venture investors and bank loans is scarce and expensive. Going public is nearly impossible. Some business models that worked when cash was cheap are unsustainable now. That means venture-backed startups are running out of money and facing hard…

(New York Times) Over the last year, state legislators concerned about a mental health crisis among the nation’s young people have passed a raft of children’s online safety measures. A new Utah law would require social networks to obtain a parent’s consent before giving an account to a child younger than 18 while a new California law would require…