Notices by Dare Obasanjo (carnage4life@mas.to), page 2

About 25% of Harvard’s students are international. Every week there is new damage being caused to America’s institutions and reputation.

Increasingly some of this damage will be irreparable.

Google has unleashed all of the AI talent it’s been hoarding for years and it’s a sight to behold. I am most impressed that with AI Overviews & AI Mode, it’s pulled an Apple and is willing to cannibalize itself.

Apple on the other hand looks over the hill. A rent seeker losing to Epic as Siri flounders and Jony Ive plots the iPhone killer.

https://www.macworld.com/article/2790350/after-google-ios-big-ai-reveals-my-iphone-has-never-felt-dumber.html

Sam Altman describes a generation gap in how people use ChatGPT. Older people in their 30s and above use it as a Google alternative while younger people use it as a friend that helps them with life decisions.

I’d noticed this difference and assumed it was techie versus non-techie not age related.

https://www.pcgamer.com/software/ai/they-dont-really-make-life-decisions-without-asking-chatgpt-openai-boss-sam-altman-thinks-young-people-turning-to-chatbots-for-life-advice-is-cool/

Is there a stronger recession signal than Klarna having 100 million active users?

https://www.pymnts.com/earnings/2025/klarna-marks-100-million-customers-as-losses-nearly-double/

Tesla sales may be tanking but US government connections have helped Musk secure more Starlink and Neuralink deals.

The symbiotic relationship between Trump and Musk is still going strong despite many believing a clash of egos would break up the friendship.

They need each other.
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/05/20/world/middleeast/gulf-deal-making-spree-also-benefited-elon-musk-and-his-family.html

He campaigned on doing both.

In these dark times, it’s great to come together and find something we can all take joy in.

The majority of people in Washington fired by Microsoft this week are software engineers. This is reverberating through the ranks as it challenges the idea that SWEs are the most valuable class of workers that would be least likely to get cut.

Ironically, they are the easiest to replace with AI.

With sales tanking because its CEO went full “Roman Salute”, the stock price can only defy gravity for so long. So Tesla is already making changes to stave off the inevitable shareholder lawsuits.

https://www.cnbc.com/2025/05/16/tesla-limits-investors-ability-to-sue-over-breach-of-fiduciary-duties.html

A friend asked why I think profitable big techs are doing layoffs. I asked what do you think Google believes maintains their search dominance?

1. Being the default search in Chrome/Safari/Firefox.

2. Buying lots of GPUs to power AI overviews.

3. Having smart employees that build innovative features.

That’s why.

Multiple people seem to think this is cryptic so I’ll spell it out.

Google Search has been objectively getting worse over the past few years. Yet they keep making money due to the inertia of being the default search in OSes & browsers. Their only threat has come from ChatGPT so they meed to invest in a bunch of GPUs.

All of the explosive employee growth of the past 5 years didn’t create a better product. Instead it got worse.

The employees aren’t their secret sauce or most valuable asset.

How it started vs. How it’s going (big tech edition)

This industry is ridiculous.

If someone kills me in a road rage incident, please do not make an AI version of me that says I forgive them for murdering me at their trial.

What is going on?

https://www.404media.co/email/0cb70eb4-c805-4e4e-9428-7ae90657205c/?ref=daily-stories-newsletter

So many people have grown up to be the villains of our stories.

You can’t outrun Father Time. Film at 11.

Working on a CEO speak translator. So far I’ve got

1. We’re ending remote work and returning to office to improve collaboration = stealth layoffs

2. We are an AI first company and you don’t get more resources until you can show why you can’t do the job with automation = hiring freeze

Any others?

We really went from AI means you’ll only have to work 3 days a week to AI is going to take your job unless you work harder, faster and more efficiently in the blink of an eye.

The CEO of Fiverr sent out the following email warning to employees that AI is coming for their jobs

“It does not matter if you are a programmer, designer, product manager, data scientist, lawyer, customer support rep, salesperson, or a finance person - Al is coming for you.”

Shopify, Duolingo and now Fiverr.

This doesn’t sound like a great defense strategy because I can easily see the Biden administration saying “You’re right, we’ll ban them too”.

There’s already talk about tightening the under $800 loophole that avoids tariffs on imported goods which both Temu & Shein depend on.

https://www.wired.com/story/tiktok-defense-china-ban/

Snap plans to charge $99/month ($1,188/year)to developers who want to build apps for their 5th generation spectacles.

So developers can choose between paying $99/year to Apple to develop for 1.3 billion iPhone users or $1,188 to Snap to target what is currently 0 users on Snap’s future smartglasses platform.

Tough choice.

https://www.theverge.com/2024/9/17/24245572/snap-spectacles-ar-developers-evan-spiegel