ITK Daily | March 27
India, Nicole Shanahan, Krispy Kreme, Marc Jacobs, NFL, plus 1,000 more actionable insights.
ITK Daily is geopolitical business news + intelligence for comms pros.
ITK Daily will be on hiatus starting Thursday, March 28, and will return Tuesday, April 2.
Always Be Communicating.
Happy Wednesday.
Here’s today’s ITK Daily:
*** Globalization + Geopolitics ***
Chinese hackers: China state-affiliated hacking group APT31 has been sanctioned by the UK and US for orchestrating a global cyberattack.
Forty-one percent of Americans name China as the United States' greatest enemy today, making it the top perceived US adversary for the fourth straight year.
China is trying to woo top Western CEOs: The CEOs of multinational corporations, including Apple's Tim Cook and Pfizer's Albert Bourla, attended the China Development Forum in Beijing on March 24 and 25, against a backdrop of Chinese-American tensions. Le Monde
India's chipmaking ambitions shadowed by infrastructure concerns: Nikkei reports 3 new hubs approved this year, but unstable power persists.
Japan has agreed to sell fighter jets which it is jointly developing with the UK and Italy to other countries.
Japan to take another shot at a homegrown airliner, eyeing hydrogen: Nikkei reports the public-private project will heed lessons from failed Mitsubishi jet.
Julian Assange has been granted a temporary reprieve over his US extradition case.
Senegal has announced opposition leader Bassirou Diomaye Faye as the country’s next president, just two weeks after he was released from prison, after incumbent Macky Sall conceded electoral defeat.
Inside the shadowy global battle to tame the world's most dangerous technology: Can anyone control AI? Politico
+ If 2023 was the year AI lobbying burst into the political mainstream, 2024 will decide who wins.
Bloomberg: EU warns election deepfakes start to surface in member nations
+ European Commission VP Jourova spoke in Bloomberg interview
+ Platforms risk hefty fines under EU digital content rules
AFP: France's Macron heads to Brazilian Amazon in three-day trip to restore ties
WP: Ship lost power before crashing into bridge; 6 still missing
+ Biden says federal government will pay to rebuild Baltimore’s Key Bridge and work to reopen port
Bloomberg: Baltimore bridge fallout to extend coast-to-coast in cargo shift
+ Expect logistics snarls, no major economic hit, analysts say
+ Ports along US East Coast stand ready to help absorb shock
*** US Politics + Elections ***
The Trump machine: The inner circle preparing for a second term: In 2016, Donald Trump was the ultimate political outsider. If he wins this year’s election, he will be backed by a group of experienced former officials eager to apply his ideas. FT
Trump isn’t reaching out to Haley and her voters. Will it matter? Republicans are debating the wisdom of the former president’s decision to bypass any reconciliation with Nikki Haley. NYT
Biden has gained ground against Trump in six of seven key swing states, and significantly so in at least two of them, according to a Bloomberg News/Morning Consult poll.
Biden aims to make North Carolina a top battleground — but Trump isn't worried yet: NBC News reports Trump won North Carolina by the narrowest margin in 2020. Now, Biden believes he can win it based on the changing demographics and bomb-throwing GOP nominees.
Joe Biden’s weakness among Latinos threatens his re-election: In Arizona, a growing Hispanic electorate should help Democrats. Yet Donald Trump is gaining ground. Economist
Obama, fearing Biden loss to Trump, is on the phone to strategize: The former president and the current one are now on the same page about Joseph R. Biden Jr.’s political future. It was not always that way. NYT
Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is tapping philanthropist and technology entrepreneur Nicole Shanahan as his running mate, a move that could boost his independent presidential bid among women and Democratic voters.
Qatari royal invested about $50 million in pro-Trump network Newsmax: WP reports before and after the investment, senior newsroom leaders urged Newsmax staff to soften coverage of Qatar, current and former employees said.
NBC News plans to drop former RNC-chair Ronna McDaniel as a paid contributor following on-air revolt from the network’s anchors, Puck reports.
Instagram + Threads are now filtering political content out of your feed.
The little-known AI group that got $660 million: Powered by a massive cash infusion from a cryptocurrency mogul, the Future of Life Institute is building a network to fixate governments on the AI apocalypse. Politico
+ The Future of Life Institute has only around two dozen employees spread across the US and Europe. But its previously unreported war chest puts it on par with famous nonprofit powerhouses like the Brookings Institution and the American Civil Liberties Union Foundation.
Sen. Mark Warner (D-VA) is preparing legislation that would put standards emerging from President Biden’s Oct. 30 executive order on artificial intelligence into statutes as companies hurriedly compete to deploy the technology.
DeSantis signs social media bill barring accounts for children under 14: NYT reports a new Florida law also requires apps like TikTok and Snapchat to obtain a parent’s consent before giving accounts to 14- and 15-year-olds.
California Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) has issued guidelines for state agencies on purchasing and using generative artificial intelligence products as the state continues to work on developing landmark procurement rules to be issued in 2025.
*** Disruption + Innovation ***
8 Google employees invented modern AI. Here’s the inside story: They met by chance, got hooked on an idea, and wrote the “Transformers” paper—the most consequential tech breakthrough in recent history. Wired
How AI could explode the economy: And how it could fizzle. Dylan Matthews
40%: The share of global fund managers who think that artificial intelligence stocks are in a bubble.
AI is putting the silicon back in Silicon Valley: A new startup called MatX from former Google engineers reflects a renewed enthusiasm for chipmakers. Bloomberg
Mitre opens lab to test US government’s artificial intelligence: Bloomberg reports that the government-backed nonprofit organization Mitre opened a lab Monday to test AI systems used by federal agencies, aiming to discover and fix security flaws and other risks.
+ The lab will assess the systems for everything from data leaks to explainability — the ability to see why AI technology is making certain decisions — according to Miles Thompson, a robotics engineer who will head the lab.
Where’d my results go? Google Search’s chatbot is no longer opt-in: ARS Tech reports the search chatbot used to be opt-in, but now Google will try it on normal users.
Here’s why AI search engines really can’t kill Google: The AI search tools are getting better — but they don’t yet understand what a search engine really is and how we really use them. The Verge
Bloomberg: Apple set to unveil AI strategy at June 10 developers conference
Meta’s efforts to compete for artificial intelligence researchers reportedly include extending job offers without an interview and Mark Zuckerberg personally writing emails to employees of rivals.
Microsoft’s Inflection AI grab likely cost more than $1 billion, says an insider: Meanwhile, many Inflection investors will see merely nominal gains from a company that had been valued at $4 billion, a document shows. FC
Bloomberg: AI will suck up 500% more power in UK in 10 years, grid CEO says
+ Fast-developing technologies require increased data-center use
+ Grid upgrade is one option for the future, John Pettigrew says
Ericsson will cut 1,200 jobs in Sweden.
WSJ: Visa, Mastercard agree to lower swipe fees
Reuters: Krispy Kreme shares jump after partnership with McDonald's goes national
Reuters: Toyota plans to mass produce battery Hilux pickup truck by 2025, official says
Bloomberg: Adam Neumann and partners offer more than $500 million for WeWork
+ Co-founder left the company after its failed IPO attempt
+ WeWork filed for bankruptcy with $19 billion in liabilities
In this coworking space, only the cappuccino isn’t classified: Secure facilities available for short-term rental are cropping up in DC and other major cities. Bloomberg
*** Culture ***
Marc Jacobs — master of reinvention: He is a true fashion maverick, constantly changing tack in unexpected ways. Yet his motivation remains the same: to be an entertainer. FT
*** Sport ***
NFL owners delayed a vote on whether to allow PE firms to acquire stakes in teams.
NFL owners approved a massive revamp of the kickoff play Tuesday, opting for a format that originated in the XFL.
The NFL tightens its grip on Christmas, adds Peacock game: WSJ reports the league said it wouldn’t schedule games on Dec. 25 this year because it fell on a Wednesday. But the success of last season’s Christmas lineup prompted it to call an audible.
Brazil's football in crisis: No longer 'the beautiful game': DW reports experts have long been warning that a sell-off of Brazilian talent is seriously damaging domestic football. Restoring "the beautiful game" will be difficult, if not impossible.
Portugal's huge waves attract surfers from around the world: DW reports Portugal is a surfer's paradise. The highest documented wave surfed there was over 26 meters tall. And the waves at Nazare, a town off the Atlantic coast north of Lisbon, are supposed to be the most spectacular.
Enjoy the ride + plan accordingly.
-Marc
ITK Daily | March 27
