Silicon Valley May Never Learn Its Lesson | Iran Can’t Afford a Regional War | How to Capitalize on Generative AI | Can America’s weapons-makers adapt to 21st-century warfare?

View online | Unsubscribe (one-click). For inquiries/unsubscribe issues, Contact Us

� � � � � � Silicon Valley May Never Learn Its Lesson - The Atlantic    Over and over during Sam Bankman-Fried’s trial, lawyers showed pictures of the FTX founder living his best life. There he was at the Super Bowl flanked by Katy Perry and Orlando Bloom. There he was on a private jet, sleeping with his hands folded. There he was onstage, in shorts and a T-shirt, with Bill Clinton and Tony Blair. The very traits that made him a cause célèbre in Silicon Valley—his intellect, his obsession with scale, his story—turned into liabilities. This evening, after deliberating for just a few hours, a jury found him guilty of all seven charges he faced, including counts of wire fraud, and conspiracy to commit money laundering and securities fraud. Bankman-Fried’s charges together carry a maximum sentence of 110 years. Judge Lewis Kaplan, who oversaw the trial, is set to determine his sentence in March. Outside of the courthouse this evening, the U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York, Damian Williams, told reporters that “this kind of corruption is as old as time.” Mark S. Cohen, Bankman-Fried’s lawyer, said in a statement, “We respect the jury’s decision. But we are very disappointed with the result. Mr. Bankman-Fried maintains his innocence and will continue to vigorously fight the charges against him.” He will likely appeal. It’s a stunning turnaround for a man who sold a narrative that led his company, FTX, to be worth billions of dollars just one year ago. Stories undergird Silicon Valley, and Bankman-Fried was savvy enough to parlay his into what was, for a time, a wildly successful business. As a tech founder, “SBF” was straight out of central casting: unkempt, pedigreed, awkward in a way that has come to be a sign of brilliance. He replicated what investors, and the public, believed a founder should look like. But crucial to his narrative was the idea that he was a good guy, funneling his riches into causes such as effective-altruism that he believed would make the world a better place. Continued here � � � � � � Don't like ads? Go ad-free with TradeBriefs Premium Iran Can't Afford a Regional War - Foreign Policy    The IDF also struck a refugee camp for a second time, killing another Hamas commander and dozens of Palestinian civilians. Analysis: Iran Can’t Afford a Regional War Sign Up Continued here � � � � � � How to Capitalize on Generative AI - Harvard Business Review    Business leaders are struggling to understand how seriously they should take generative AI. It has already displayed breathtaking powers to create new content and is used to do things such as write software, transcribe physicians’ interactions with their patients, and let people converse with a CRM system. But it is far from perfect: It can produce distorted or entirely fabricated output and can be oblivious to privacy and copyright concerns. Is its importance being overblown? Are its risks worth the potential rewards? How can companies figure out where best to apply it? How should they go about taking their first steps? This article will provide guidance. Fledgling generative-AI systems have huge potential but also are prone to fabricate answers, invade privacy, and violate IP rights. Given the risks, are leaders best off taking a wait-and-see attitude? This new technology is akin to the steam engine, electricity, and the internet but with one big difference: Whereas those general-purpose technologies took decades to have a major impact on competition and the economy, generative AI will do so in a few years. Continued here � � � � � � Can America's weapons-makers adapt to 21st-century warfare? - The Economist    ARMING UNCLE SAM is a great business. America’s latest defence budget earmarks $170bn for procurement and $145bn for research and development (R&D), most of which ends up with the handful of “prime” contractors, which deal directly with the Department of Defence (DoD). So will some of the $44bn in American military aid to Ukraine and a chunk of the extra defence spending by America’s European allies, which account for 5-10% of the primes’ sales. Although those sums do not increase at the same rate as, say, corporate IT expenditure, leaving less room for spectacular gains, arms manufacturers are also shielded from eye-watering losses by huge, decades-long contracts. Thanks to a big shake-up at the end of the cold war, the industry is also highly concentrated. At a meeting in 1993, dubbed the “last supper”, William Perry, then President Bill Clinton’s deputy defence secretary, told industry bosses that excess capacity was no longer appropriate and that consolidation was in order. As a result, the ranks of the primes have thinned from more than 50 in 1950s America to six. The number of suppliers of satellites has declined from eight to four, of fixed-wing aircraft from eight to three and of tactical missiles from 13 to three. Guaranteed custom and weak competition have helped American armsmakers’ shares comfortably outperform the broader stockmarket over the past 50 years. A paper published by the DoD in April found that between 2000 and 2019 defence contractors did better than civilian ones in terms of shareholder returns, return on assets and return on equity, among other financial measures. An increasingly unstable world means more money going to the armed forces—and to their suppliers. Total shareholder returns, including dividends, at primes such as General Dynamics, Lockheed Martin and Northrop Grumman rose when Russia invaded Ukraine in February 2022 and when Hamas attacked Israel on October 7th (see chart 1). Continued here

�

�

�

� � �

You are receiving this mailer as a TradeBriefs subscriber. We fight fake/biased news through human curation & independent editorials. Your support of ads like these makes it possible. Alternatively, get TradeBriefs Premium (ad-free) for only $2/month If you still wish to unsubscribe, you can unsubscribe from all our emails here Our address is 309 Town Center 1, Andheri Kurla Road, Andheri East, Mumbai 400059 - 429852444