C_NCENTRATE 912: Breaking bad, wrong ChatGPT, food and robots, cultured meat, China social news, +++
NOTE: Next issue of C_NCENTRATE will be in early January! Happy holidays!
HAVE WE MOVED TOO FAST AND BROKEN TOO MUCH?
There are a lot of terrified execs out in ‘Move Fast and Break Things’ Land as we move into 2023. Meta’s advisor and ex-Oculus CTO isn’t happy, Elon wants to get other people to jump into his new money pit whilst banning journalists, Apple now doesn’t want to show the NFL, and crypto, well, crypto is just a boat with no oars and a bucket that people can’t help but do things they get indicted for. Aren’t these geniuses in control? What’s going on?
In a word, ‘consequences’. A lot of what big platforms created (could also read: gotten away with) is breaking. While they aren’t all doing terrible things, many face the consequences of their decisions and, in some cases, the business models they employ. Inflation, loans being due, over-hiring, bad bosses, poor choices and bad leadership are all waves of shocks across sectors and industries. A lot of this can be fixed, but not without sacrificing growth, profits and risking things. Previously such companies experienced little downside for moving fast and breaking things; that’s not the case today. When economics and pandemics come along, systems get jolted, and things don’t work for everyone. Issues are noticed, and regulatory bodies begin to twitch. While many want things to go back to how they were, many have better scenarios now, and a rush back to oppressive offices and regimes isn’t going to go down well.
The consequences, or reckoning, won’t be easy; a lot of the issues have highlighted how much political and governmental systems need to change to cope with the issues being thrown up by the moves these companies made, make and will continue to try to make to keep the money presses running. Expect more issues in 2023 and 2024, and inflation, strikes and inequalities continue to rise. Both sides have much to lose, so expect to see and hear fireworks before this scenario comes close to rectifying itself.
SO WHAT?
__ DO __ Keep aware of what’s changing by reading quality news sources and make sure you curate your Twitter experience. // __ DON’T __ Think everything is lost and big business being all big businessy is the only way things can (and will work). The EU is forcing companies to make radical changes from chargers to moderation, and competitiveness to delivery. This will have big effects in the US and cause further innovation from China and RoW.
HOW TO HANDLE ANYTHING THAT COMES YOUR WAY: You can pre-order the new version of ‘Disruptive Technologies’ Jan 2023 containing the TBD framework. There will be rewards for pre-orders, so keep the receipt!
If you’re in e-commerce, retail, FMCG, healthcare, technology or content, you need to subscribe to ‘What Did Amazon Do This Week?’. Everything Amazon does, every week. Featured in the Wall Street Journal and called ‘Obsessively detailed’. Subscribe now (£15pm/£100pa) and tell a friend; they’ll thank you.
/// WATCH: ‘Wednesday’ by Tim Burton - superb 8-parter. [Netflix]
/// READ: ‘Why has no-one told me this before?’ by Dr Julie Smith [Amazon]
/// LISTEN: The 7 things you shouldn’t talk about. 5 stars. [TAL]
Dropbox has launched a cloud-based service for creating, editing, and saving business and legal documents. /5 mins
What’s next after this week’s particle fusion breakthrough? /6 mins
China just announced a new social credit law. /8 mins
This is how ChatGPT can go wrong. /3 mins
Tome is the latest smart contracty-type bot that automates…VC money?! /5 mins
The post-Roe baby bump may have a devastating effect on the middle states. /7 min
Scientists have created a vaccine against Fentanyl. /5 mins
How small businesses can attract customers during a downturn. /5 mins
Waymo’s driverless taxis are now doing airport runs. /5 mins
UberEats has launched a robot food delivery service in Florida. /6 mins
The world’s largest cultured food factory is being built in the US. /6 mins