Roundup: Peter Thiel wants a new frontier

Is anyone else tired of the AI hype cycle? When Sam Altman pushed out the Sora video generator this week all I could do was roll my eyes and ask whether we were seriously going to go through this mini-cycle again where all the tech boosters (and clout chasers) say how incredible the shitty videos they generated are, while plenty of other people point out the flaws and wider consequences.

Chris Person of Aftermath identified the two key questions people (but especially journalists) should be asking: how much energy is used to churn out this sludge (my words) and what dataset is the model trained on? I doubt Altman will be very forthcoming with those answers, if the right people even ask them.

Anyway, in this roundup I’m commenting on some dumb stuff Peter Thiel said about cities recently, and giving you the usual recommended reads, labor updates, and other news you might have missed!

Before we get into that, I was interviewed on Radio New Zealand’s Saturday Morning show about why technology won’t be enough to save us from the climate crisis. Over on Tech Won’t Save Us, I spoke with Zachary Kaiser about the importance of user interface design and how it shapes the relationship we have to technology. Some really fascinating insights in that conversation!

Have a great week!

— Paris