u/callmebaiken

August 15th Amodei made his statement:

https://x.com/search?q=Amodei%20Cancer&src=typed_query&f=top

Today Moderna and Merck announce a new cancer drug "AI played a role in producing":

https://x.com/search?q=AI%20Cancer&src=typed_query

X is now full of accounts making the same snarky point, that if you are opposed to Data Centers you are blocking cancer cures:

https://x.com/search?q=Data%20Center%20cancer&src=typed_query

Seems like a case for some digging and debunking. Also seems a bit coordinated.

Mark Walter sold the team suddenly this weekend, after only owning it for a year, and the NBA quickly and quietly approved the sale with no opposition. This all comes amidst a backdrop of a DOJ investigation into undisclosed related-party loans from insurers he controlled to buy the team (and possibly the Dodgers, which he still owns).

This shines a light on life insurance companies using policyholder annuity capital to fund private credit and infrastructure plays, rather than running a traditional bond portfolio. Life insurance annuity capital is suspected to make up a large portion of the private credit being lent to Data Center SPVs, (whose tenants are two broke startups).

Worth also watching the lawsuit brought by California AG to halt the Paramount WB merger. If it forces the Ellisons to pay a daily "ticking fee" that could be the straw that breaks Oracle's back.

What started in Silicon Valley could be killed by Hollywood.

I've been making the point for a while that what's being called "circular financing" isn't actual "round tripping", which is outright fraud, and it isn't necessarily even "vendor financing" which is legal and the way most people buy a new car. This video makes a similar argument.

When Nvidia invests in an AI lab, and the AI lab uses a portion of the funds to purchase Nvidia GPUs, Nvidia has both booked a sale, AND purchased an equity stake in the lab.

The cynical view is this is a short term ruse to book revenue. But there's also a long term reason for Nvidia to do this: The two AI labs have to stay in business for the hardware companies to maintain their value. They're wedded at the hip already.

As the AI economy continues to become bifurcated into compute companies (Google, Amazon, Microsoft and Meta) and software companies.(OpenAI and Anthropic), the compute companies are going to continue investing in the software companies for this reason. They need them to survive.

The more interesting financial relationship, to my mind, is the one between the lenders to the labs and the lenders to the Data Center SPVs (leaving aside the contribution from G, A, M and M). Literally the former are paying the latter, until user subscriptions explode or subscription prices increase or some combination of the two happens. One wonders how much communication is taking place between these two groups and what they think of each other's position.

If you only send someone one Ed interview, make it this one. Ed comes out of the gate on fire and hits almost every one of his main points in a very well organized fashion. The interviewer prompts him and then shuts up and let's him cook.

Not sure how significant this order from the Texas Governor will turn out to be, but it's notable.

Just an observation, no big insight.

Reading about a new series of Data Centers being built in Central Texas I noticed that there are actually four companies involved.

There's the GPU manufacturer, which is almost always Nvidia unless its a Google project.

Then there's the construction company. For Stargate Abilene that was Crusoe; in Central Texas it's a less known company called EdgeConneX.

Then there's the day-to-day manager, in Abilene it's Oracle, in Central Texas it's CoreWeave.

Lastly there's the final client: in Abilene, it's OpenAI; in Central Texas, it's probably Anthropic or maybe Microsoft.

Everyone usually asks when their favorite NDSP plug-in for PC is coming to the Quad Cortex.

My question is: When will the software that runs the Quad Cortex be available for PC?

If the answer is never, my follow-up question would be: Is that due to a technical reason or a sales-related concern?

Total fluke appearance. Had no business being there

Can anyone recommend a good VST3 plug-in that emulates a guitar pedal board (and isn't part of a suite that also includes amps and other modules)?

A year ago we were talking about the AI build out as being a huge bet on a future technology which the frontier labs hoped to bring about through massive scaling up in their training of models at their remote, massive data centers, like the one being built in Abilene.

At that time, every dollar invested in AI was not an investment in the existing LLM models, but a bet on the promised "room full of PhDs working 24-7". The financial plan was to create AGI and ask it how it could make money.

But lately that seems to have changed. We're seeing a public reckoning on the cost of the current models, and their underwhelming abilities. Gone from the public discussion is the bright eyed futurism of just a few months ago.. In fact, OpenAI's Futurist on staff just resigned.

Is the story here not really one of dollars and sense, but of a promised technology that never materialized, and never will?

Good podcast about Count Jean de Breteuil

I know John has never played a Bloomfield Drive model Two Rock, and he has his own plug-in with Neural DSP, but I wonder if John Mayer fans, who have use for an in-the-box amp sim, know just how good the Mixwave plug-in is.

When I say "how good it is", I mean just how good the sound coming out of your DAW is, not necessarily whether you would buy a Bloomfield over another Two Rock or a Vibroverb or even a dūmble in the world of actual amps.

I mean, accepting that we're only comparing plugins in a DAW, this plug-in from Mixwave is easily the best sounding digitally modeled guitar sound I've heard, and that's in comparison to the JMX, UA PGS, Fractal's Fender collection, or STL Tones.

The only reason I could see for this not being #1 is it doesn't do high gain stuff. But within the niche of Mayer guitar fans, that's not really an issue. And it does the vibey soulful clean thing better than anything on the market. And just the sound quality is amazing!

Anyone else try it and have thoughts?

Great discussion with two economists and a WSJ reporter on how AI Companies have only 10% of the "free cash flow" as they claim, because they aren't properly accounting for the massive amount of employee stock compensation. Yet another hidden financial issue with the "hyperscalers".

YouTube has been feeding me this guy's videos as of late and I think they're actually pretty good. He's not as entertaining as Ed, but I think he potentially breaks things down in a way those who are new to the subject would be able to grasp rather easily. In this video he makes a good point about how scale is the magic formula all of Wall Street has been sold on. Literally a money glitch. Scale = AGI = infinite money. If that were true the insane valuations might even be conservative. But it isn't. Scale has already hit diminishing returns a year or more ago. As Ed says on his recent pod it's just sci-fi fan fic at this point. What do you think of this guy's approach? I'd recommend his video on the WeWork comparison from a week or so ago as well.

I can't stand it.. Am I the only one whose app pauses slightly ten seconds after starting playback? And it surprises me every time which is the most annoying part. I wonder if I uninstall and reinstall if it would go away ...

Leaving aside the performances and songs, strictly based on sound quality, which may or may not even be in John's hands, here's my ranking:

​

1. Paradise Valley

2. Room For Squares

3. The Search for Everything

4. Sob Rock

5. Continuum

6. Battle Studies

7. Born And Raised

8. Heavier Things

Good article.. Nothing this sub doesn't already know, but brings in the private credit aspect nicely (although the author doesn't understand how banks really work; very few do)

Good article with quotes that really explain how HOAs operate