Notices by M.G. Siegler (mgs@me.dm)

“I’m not screaming, ‘aliens!’ But I always reserve my right to scream ‘aliens!’” 👽 https://www.nytimes.com/2025/04/16/science/astronomy-exoplanets-habitable-k218b.html

What I wrote a few days ago, as the trial was kicking off, versus what Zuckerberg said in court on Day 3... https://spyglass.org/without-instagram-meta-is-screwed/

https://www.nytimes.com/2025/04/16/technology/zuckerberg-meta-antitrust-trial.html

Before we get too far into the Day 3 headlines, I think this is a pretty good step-back summary of the opening of the Meta antitrust trial… https://spyglass.org/meta-trial/

To put it bluntly, if Meta were forced to sell-off, spin-out Instagram, they're fucked. (They won't be.) https://spyglass.org/without-instagram-meta-is-screwed/

The chaos continues to swirl round and round with Apple back as a $3T company today as Wall Street clearly has no idea what to believe re: tariffs -- but *probably* that they're not going to screw over their good friend Tim Apple... https://spyglass.org/apple-china-tariffs-exemption/

Congrats to Donald Trump on his decisive trade war victory over Donald Trump.

Is it strange that the EU — the EU! — is focused on the real prize while the US and China have a tariff pissing match? I find it strange. https://techhub.social/@Techmeme/114307501393904443

People willing to do crazy things often get what they want because most people aren't willing to do crazy things. https://spyglass.org/trump-tariffs-deal/

At this rate, we’re about two weeks away from Christmas being cancelled…

Here’s to the crazy LLMs… https://spyglass.org/artificial-iconoclasts/

Did I go overboard on the maritime analogies here? You decide. ⚓️

But really, I'm less worried about Apple blowing it with regard to AI than I am about *why* they are -- and what that might ultimately mean for the company... 🏴☠️ https://spyglass.org/apple-is-the-navy/

It's 2025, Siri still sucks, with no sign of the sucking stopping, and we can't wait until 2027 for what is now already table-stakes technology. https://spyglass.org/apple-siri-chatgpt-openai-swap/

Man who wears tie like a clown gives suit fashion advice to former comedian.

Sort of wild that it has already been two years since the AI ‘Sydney’ situation with Bing — Bing! — also sort of wild that it also feels like it was *20 years ago*. So much has come to pass since then… https://spyglass.org/early-provocative-ai-chatbots-revisited/

@WarnerCrocker what could possibly go wrong? ;)

So what is the point of the iPhone 16 with the iPhone 16e? You're paying a lot more for a slightly better camera system? If you want colors?

Beyond the technical aspects, it's little wonder that Amazon and Apple are having trouble upgrading Alexa and Siri for the Age of AI. The burden of yesterday's successes (and failures). https://spyglass.org/the-ai-will-come-out-tomorrow/

@anildash Yeah but let's not conflate those things. If she was trying to break up government corruption, I'd be all for that. (lol)

@anildash it is of course not *easy* to create a new AI startup, but there's nothing stopping any of them from doing essentially what DeepSeek did other than this weird mental model that you needed billions of dollars (which this causes a re-think of, in a good way). If anything, she seemed *more* aligned with Zuck here? Arguing for open source (open weight), so she was presumably cool with Llama...

I knew I wouldn't agree with Lina Khan's recent NYT op-ed, but basically every word of it was wrong, or exactly backwards. https://spyglass.org/earth-to-lina-khan/