1. Data sovereignty as a global issue
You are probably already aware of the EU’s (slow) moves promoting data sovereignty, and of course China’s efforts to ensure it has independence from western tech. But they aren’t the only parts of the world worried about a US data hegemony. This article looks at efforts by the likes of Nigeria, India, South Africa and Vietnam to push big cloud providers to keep data within their countries.
The driver is understanding that data is itself a resource, and, in the words of an economist at the World Bank, “the concern is that economic benefit only goes to big platforms that are often not located within that country.” In the age of AI-driven extraction that is, of course, even more true. (Via Ben Werdmuller)
2. Martin Lewis says you need to read this article
Actually he didn’t, but this is exactly the kind of click-bait headline that British publishers – mostly local news sites – have learned to use to attract traffic. For those who don’t know him, Martin Lewis is an extremely well-respected financial journalist who has written a huge about how ordinary people can save money. He’s often on TV, and has a great reputation for giving sound financial advice.
A reputation which the bastions of churnalism have jumped on to create all kinds of stories, knowing that putting Lewis’ name and picture on a social teaser is guaranteed to get clicks. This interview with Lewis is a great piece of insight both into the practice (and it’s so corrosive to real journalism) and what it’s like for the man himself.
3. “Apple’s great, suck it up plebs”
One part of being a gatekeeper under the DMA is that you have to hold public workshops which allow interested parties to ask questions about your DMA compliance efforts – and Apple’s took place at the end of June.
The introductory presentation sounds like an entirely predictable basket fire, with Apple spending its time saying how great it is and taking potshots at the European Commission. Apple managed to swerve many of the questions, which seems to violate at least the spirit of these events.
Perhaps most interesting were the responses about browsers, and I didn’t realise quite how bad Apple’s new system for allowing rendering engines is, or how they are clinging on to a privileged position for Safari. Anyone who wants to ship their own browser engine has to release it as a new app: it can’t simply be an update to an existing app. And, if you’re using age restrictions on the phone, no other browsers at all can be used by anyone under the age of 17. Apple is “looking at” this – but there’s no timeline for a change.
In other words, it’s yet another example of Apple’s failure to engage in good faith with the process of DMA compliance. Once again, its attitude is that of a child whose parents are taking away the Xbox. Grow up, Cupertino.
4. Elon Musk’s SpaceX to ‘invest’ $2bn in Elon Musk’s xAI
I mean, if you’re finding it tricky to raise finance because your chatbot thinks it’s Hitler, why not just shuffle a chunk of money you acquired from the government into your AI business? Nothing wrong with a little shell-game capitalism if you’re the world’s richest man! I mean it won’t be too long before investors realise that Starship is a bust and can never achieve what it’s supposed to, at which point the only chance SpaceX has is remaining the effective monopoly supplier of rockets to the US. Which, given the Great Orange Dictator’s current feelings towards Musk, might not be as safe as it once was.
5. Crypto company linked to Trump ‘may not exist’
A Dubai-based company which invested $100m in World Liberty Financial, the crypto company with links to the US’ First Family (of Crime) may not, in fact, exist. This story follows the money, and finds that there’s no real trace of Aqua 1 Foundation beyond a (possibly fictitious) Twitter profile and some crypto wallets which bought Trump tokens using exchanges linked to North Korean hacking and violating money laundering laws.
It’s really weird seeing the world’s largest democracy looted in real time.
6. More Apple legal problems
I’ve used Proton’s products for quite a while. Their stance on privacy and security matches my own approach, and I’m glad to support them. Now, they’re taking on Apple in a class action lawsuit, seeking to end what they call anti-competitive behaviour in the app store.
One detail which is juicy: Apple rejected an update to Proton VPN in 2020 when the app description mentioned how it could be used to bypass filters in authoritarian countries. This description had not changed in the update – this was language that Proton always used. As Michael Tsai said the same year, “Apple’s highest principle is that Apple, not the user, decides what can be installed. And this makes it subject to governmental control.”
7. British graduate jobs are already being impacted by AI
If you ever want to depress yourself, take a read of the UniUK Subreddit and browse through the posts from recent graduates. The job market is currently very tough indeed – and, it’s worth remembering, these are young people who have spent in the region of £60,000 getting on courses which, they believed, would help them walk into higher paying jobs.
Much of this is down to Britain’s moribund post-Brexit economy, as another example of how a vote which was largely landed by the old is screwing over the young. But AI is exacerbating the problem, as entry-level work – which is what graduate jobs always were, albeit at a higher level – gets automated out of existence.
This is, of course, going to cause massive long-term problems. The impact on business will be to deskill the workforce over a long period of time, as learning how to do the entry level work is a precursor for doing harder work later. I don’t think I would have been able to be a journalist without learning how to write a news story. Certainly, I wouldn’t have been a good one.
8. Change at the speed of AI
How fast will AI impact on the number of meaningful jobs? According to Adam Dorr, the majority of jobs will be done by machines within a generation. This, of course, is the end-state of capitalism: the reduction of the value of labour to zero, while all power lands in the hands of those who own capital – which means servers and AIs. For about 99% of the eight billion people on the planet, that means either a grim future – or revolution.
9. ‘The housing crisis is now as big a threat to the EU as Russia’
The 2008 financial crisis was driven by greed. The instrument which allowed that greed to burn the world’s economy was the subprime mortgage, a financial bet which allowed people who would otherwise have been left out of the housing market to aspire to own a home. Combined with financial deregulation, subprime mortgages were turned into financial instruments which made it hard for banks to lose money – until they suddenly did, and managed to persuade governments around the world to use ordinary peoples’ money to bail them out.
Subprime mortgages were financial opium for the people. A housing market that had been turned from being about owning your own home to being an investment in property required continually rising prices – but wages, in the neoliberal economies which had decimated the defences of ordinary people provided by strong unions, could never rise at the same rate.
Hence, broadening the availability of mortgages to people who could not really afford them. People who were gambling that house prices would keep going up, and that the toe-hold they had on “the property ladder” could be maintain. It was the kind of criminal endeavour which no one goes to prison for – because the victims were ordinary people, while the criminals were on the 27th floors of Wall Street and the City.
We are still feeling the repercussions of 2008 today. Governments like the UK have seen a decade and a half of austerity hobble economies and increase wealth inequality to an astounding degree. But importantly, we still see the impact of 2008 on the housing market: house prices have continued to rise, creating a massive gap between haves – who bought their houses in the 80s and 90s and now live mortgage free – and a new class who can only afford to rent and will never be able to buy.
In a sane market this would create downward pressure on house prices. With less people able to buy, demand should drop, and – law of supply and demand! – the cost of owning should fall.
But as with most things, here comes 21st century capitalism to make the situation worse. In Europe, the real estate market is being dominated by private equity and institutional investors buying housing. In Ireland, for example, nearly half of all housing built since 2017 has been bought by investment companies, crowding out individual buyers and maintaining prices. It’s insanity, driven by the same forces that are currently screwing over technology: greed, and rich people with no ties to communities.
10. We’re already paying the price for you, Marc
And speaking of greedy rich people whose power comes from their ownership of capital rather than any discernable talent, here comes Marc Andreessen. Andreessen, who owes his career to government-funded research grants and being in the right place at the right time, told a group chat of his rich buddies that universities would “pay the price” for their efforts to promote diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI).
Marc and his pals don’t like DEI, because it seeks to level the playing field. As mediocre white men who owe their riches to the advantages that mediocre white men enjoyed in the past, of course they’re against anything which increases competition. When Peter Thiel said that “competition is for losers”, he wasn’t just referring to competition between businesses. The mindset of the billionaire tech class is to ensure that no one competes directly with them, too.