Caracal Daily | May 22
ASML + TSMC, Joe Biden, Salad, Dining, Mauricio Pochettino, plus 1,000 more actionable insights.
Caracal Daily is geopolitical business news + intelligence for comms pros.
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Happy Wednesday.
Here’s today’s Caracal Daily:
*** Globalization + Geopolitics ***
Klaus Schwab is stepping down as chairman of the World Economic Forum, the organization behind the annual Davos conference.
Reuters: Google invests 1 billion euros in Finnish data centre to drive AI growth
Europe sets benchmark for rest of the world with landmark AI laws: Reuters reports Europe's landmark rules on artificial intelligence will enter into force next month after EU countries endorsed on Tuesday a political deal reached in December, setting a potential global benchmark for a technology used in business and everyday life. The European Union's AI Act is more comprehensive than the United States' light-touch voluntary compliance approach while China's approach aims to maintain social stability and state control.
European Council approves 'risk-based' AI regulations: UPI reports the European Council on Tuesday gave final clearance new measure implementing a "risk-based approach for regulating the use of artificial intelligence. Under the Artificial Intelligence Act the bloc will gauge the use of AI with higher risk implementations facing stricter rules, in what it described as a "first of its kind" standard which it said will encourage "safe and trustworthy" AI systems across the European Union market in both the public and private sectors.
Frontier AI safety commitments, AI Seoul Summit 2024: The UK and Republic of Korea governments announced that the following organizations have agreed to the Frontier AI Safety Commitments. Release
World is ill-prepared for breakthroughs in AI, say experts: Governments have made insufficient regulatory progress, ‘godfathers’ of the technology say before summit. Guardian
Iran will hold an emergency presidential election on June 28.
Revealed: Meta approved political ads in India that incited violence: Guardian reports ads containing AI-manipulated images were submitted to Facebook by civil and corporate accountability groups.
Indian voters are being bombarded with millions of seepfakes. Political candidates approve: India’s elections are a glimpse of the AI-driven future of democracy. Politicians are using audio and video deepfakes of themselves to reach voters—who may have no idea they’ve been talking to a clone. Wired
The Democratic Republic of Congo’s government said it killed the leader of an attempted coup and arrested several other people hours after gunfire erupted on Sunday in Kinshasa, the mineral-rich central African country’s capital.
Zimbabwe is in talks with China Railway to help modernize the state-owned National Railways of Zimbabwe.
China is winning the minerals war: Western efforts to make a dent are languishing; ‘China is not just standing still waiting for us to catch up.’ WSJ
‘Are you better off?’ Asking Reagan’s question in Xi’s China: Unlike his reform-era predecessors, Xi Jinping can’t count on rapid gains in prosperity to underpin support for Communist Party rule. Bloomberg
Bloomberg: Taiwan’s new president calls on China to end threat of war
+ Lai Ching-te repeats status quo promise in inaugural address
+ Beijing rips Lai’s speech, saying it sent ‘dangerous signal’
Lai Ching-te aims to strengthen Taiwan but maintain the status quo: The new president won’t find it easy. Economist
Bloomberg: ASML, TSMC can disable chip machines if China invades Taiwan
+ Firms can remotely shut off advanced EUV chip-making machines
+ US officials concerned over risk of conflict to chip industry
Vietnam asks Foxconn to voluntarily cut power usage: Vietnamese officials have called on Apple supplier Foxconn to voluntarily reduce power use by 30% at its assembly plants in the north of the country where there were electricity outages last year.
Macron will make surprise visit to New Caledonia amid riots: Le Monde a government spokeswoman announced that the French president will leave on Tuesday evening in an attempt to soothe raging tempers and protests in the French territory.
No 10 neglecting Rishi Sunak’s more popular colleagues, laments minister: A memo by Johnny Mercer, a cabinet minister, and seen by The Times shows frustration with the prime minster’s hogging of the campaign spotlight. The Times
Why we really do need to talk about Brexit: Both parties plan to ignore our most consequential postwar decision during the election — that won’t help the country. Daniel Finkelstein
Poland's great economic catch-up, 20 years after accession to the European Union: Despite a certain amount of Euroscepticism in politics and some people being left behind, the country has recovered thanks to European funds and the single market. However, the next two decades are likely to be more difficult. Le Monde
EU and Moldova sign 'security and defense' partnership: Le Monde reports the European Union said similar agreements with other 'selected partners' were also currently in the works.
How Putin is turning Serbia into a ‘little Russia of the Balkans’: Kosovan prime minister warns that the Kremlin is using Serbia to spread disinformation against allies of Ukraine. The Times
Bloomberg: Argentina has really fallen out with its No. 2 foreign investor
+ Spain spat worsens as Madrid yanks envoy and Milei digs in
+ Libertarian leader says socialist PM has ‘inferiority complex’
Mexico’s drug cartels are thriving: The outgoing president said he would tackle gangs with ‘hugs not bullets’. Five years on, violence is worse than ever. FT
AP: Now armed with AI, America’s adversaries will try to influence election, security officials warn
Bloomberg: Washington wants to ensure no Chinese EVs ever reach the US
The US raised tariffs on China. Now it wants Europe’s support. Washington is trying to wrangle its European allies into a united front against a surge in Chinese exports. WP
*** US Politics + Elections ***
AP: Biden releasing 1 million barrels of gasoline from Northeast reserve in bid to lower prices at pump
‘I ran into her yesterday’: RFK’s strange non-relationship with his VP pick: Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and his running mate, Nicole Shanahan, are on the same ticket. Getting on the same page is taking a bit more time. WP
Trump tops Biden in April fundraising, but Biden keeps cash advantage: WP reports the Trump campaign and RNC reported that they jointly raised about $25 million more than the Biden campaign said it raised across all its committees in April.
A Reuters/Ipsos poll found President Biden’s public approval rating at just 36% — its lowest level in almost two years and tying the lowest reading of his presidency in a warning sign for his reelection effort.
Here are the key dynamics in a new batch of Biden-Trump polls: A deep dive on key new findings as we enter a crucial juncture in the race. WP
+ The prevailing sentiment on Wall Street is that the election is Trump’s to lose.
Election officials are role-playing AI threats to protect democracy: The job has never been harder, and the threats have never been stranger. The Verge
What can be done to stop AI from damaging the 2024 election? Democrats and Republicans are racing to figure out how to handle artificial intelligence. Alexi McCammond
The AI ‘safety movement’ is dead: Public pressure to rein in artificial intelligence may be waning, but the work of making these systems less risky is just beginning. Tyler Cowen
New Commerce strategy document points to the difficult science of AI safety: The Biden administration seeks international coordination on critical AI safety challenges. Fed Scoop
A lawmaker held an AI roundtable with scholars. Most had industry ties. WP
Vermont’s data privacy law sparks state lawmaker alliance against tech lobbyists: Politico reports state lawmakers from Maine to Oklahoma say the lessons they learned from battling industry over privacy bills can provide a new playbook to fight back.
*** Disruption + Innovation ***
The Scarlett Johansson-OpenAI dispute is straight out of ‘Her’: The actress says her voice was copied for ChatGPT. Spike Jonze’s movie says a lot about how we got here. Sonia Rao
Exactly how stupid was what OpenAI did to Scarlett Johansson? We ranked it on our list of the 7 most boneheaded self-owns by technology companies. WP
OpenAI promised 20% of its computing power to combat the most dangerous kind of AI—but never delivered, sources say Fortune
200%: The year-on-year revenue growth that Nvidia is expected to announce today.
How Wall Street lenders are betting big on the AI boom: Some of the largest-ever private-debt financing deals are being backed by the GPU chips powering the tech revolution. WSJ
Alibaba + Baidu slashed prices of large-language models used to power generative artificial intelligence products, as a price war in the cloud computing sector heats up in China.
Anthropic hired Instagram co-founder Mike Krieger to be its new product chief, part of a broader push to bring its AI services to more users and businesses.
A French artificial intelligence startup, simply called H, has raised $220 million in initial financing from a slew of billionaires and venture capitalists on the promise of building the next generation of powerful AI tools.
UK employers are offering a 14% wage premium for jobs that require skills in artificial intelligence as booming demand for the technology reshapes the labor market.
Khan Academy and Microsoft are teaming up to give teachers a free AI assistant: FC reports AI assistant Khanmigo can help time-strapped teachers come up with lesson ideas and test questions, the companies say.
Microsoft’s Satya Nadella wants us to stop treating AI like humans: The chief executive wants people to remember that artificial intelligence is a tool, not actual human intelligence. Bloomberg
AI models can outperform humans in tests to identify mental states: Large language models don’t have a theory of mind the way humans do—but they’re getting better at tasks designed to measure it in humans. Rhiannon Williams
The big AI risk is not enough people are seeing: Beware technology that makes us less human. Tyler Austin Harper
AI’s black boxes just got a little less mysterious: Researchers at the AI company Anthropic claim to have found clues about the inner workings of large language models, possibly helping to prevent their misuse and to curb their potential threats. NYT
Google’s moonshot factory falls back down to Earth: Alphabet is ending an era of unrestrained invention, spinning off many projects into independent startups. Bloomberg
A new age of sail begins: By harnessing windpower, high-tech sails can help cut marine pollution. Economist
Nestle will market a new, $5 line of frozen pizzas and protein-enriched pastas in the United States which it says it designed specifically for people taking drugs such as Wegovy or Ozempic for weight loss.
How the $17 desk salad won: As food prices surge, fast casual has somehow landed in the sweet spot between expensive fast food and bloated restaurants. Bloomberg
*** Culture ***
The new dining reality: Smaller groups and shorter weeks: Restaurants are increasingly saying no to large parties of diners and are closing during the “dead” midweek, among other trends. Tom Sietsema
Francis Ford Coppola’s Megalopolis is a painfully awful labour of love — Cannes review: Another giant of 1970s cinema bites the dust with an over-ambitious camp sci-fi satire. FT
Loneliness is a problem that AI won’t solve Jessica Grose
*** Sport ***
NHL title odds via BetMGM:
Stars (+225)
Panthers (+225)
Oilers (+280)
Rangers (+320)
Out: Mauricio Pochettino and Chelsea part ways with immediate effect.
Liberty Media Corp., owner of the Formula 1 racing business, is seeking additional funds from the principality of Monaco as part of advanced talks for a new contract to extend the historic car race beyond 2025.
Enjoy the ride + plan accordingly.
-Marc
Marc A. Ross | Chief Communications Strategist @ Caracal
Caracal Daily | May 22
