Something Big is Happening #2

Quantity isn't quality; cash is being burnt at unprecedented rates; trillion-dollar companies can't afford to buy books, and a couple of positive notes to cheer us up!

Welcome to the May issue of Something Big is Happening.

This is a recurring space trying to decrypt what is going on in the (Gen)AI space once you remove all the hype, vibe reporting and abundant marketing material we are bombarded with.

In each issue I share interesting findings from independent researchers and/or journalists and usually add my own perspective and reading on the facts presented.

All articles in the Something Big Is Happening series¹ are for supporting subscribers who have opted in for the paid tier. Thanks to all of them, I’m able to publish most of my content for free. If you like this content and would like to support my work, please consider upgrading to paid.

For today’s issue we have a lot of topics to cover.

#1 GenAI is causing an increase in quantity but a decrease in quality of humans’ artefacts in at least two disciplines.

We’ll look at how Linus Torvalds had to raise the issue in the Linux kernel mailing list twice in recent weeks, highlighting a worrying trend. In case you don’t know it, the Linux kernel is one of those wonderful pieces of open-source technology the entire tech industry relies on to exist. Without it, no internet, no Google, no cloud providers²...

We’ll also look at what is going on in the academic publishing industry, where a recently published article has uncovered very interesting results: AI usage in paper writing is directly correlated with an increase in volume and a decrease in quality.

#2 Everybody is freaking out about the costs of GenAI adoption in their engineering teams.

Following up from what we mentioned in last month’s issue about Uber and NVIDIA, we’ll look at more recent statements and revelations on the topic from both Uber (again) and Microsoft.

We’ll also look at the insane trends in free cash flow burn among the major public companies heavily investing in AI infrastructure.

#3 Do trillion-dollar companies really need to engage with piracy? And what does that say about them?

A quick look at what’s going on with one of the key lawsuits accusing NVIDIA, the stock market poster child, of committing massive copyright violations. Is that how they’re trying to capitalise on efficiency gains through AI, by not paying authors?

#4 Two positive topics to close the issue on a high note:

• How the most compelling argument for AI turned into the most embarrassing internet moment of the month

• The latest initiative from Karen Hao, the author of Empire of AI, which is really worth following.

Before we jump into the meat of the article, a bit of housekeeping. I’ve initiated the move away from Substack and to Ghost. The first step has been registering the makemeacto.cc domain, which is now the official one for this newsletter. In the upcoming weeks I’ll be operating the actual migration. As a reminder, that will come at a cost, and if you want to support this newsletter, it’s a great way to contribute!