Rest of World: “A key driver behind the success of Chinese apps is that they have integrated e-commerce into their platforms, blending entertainment and networking with sales to monetize their famously addictive algorithms, according to Chinese social media experts and marketing firms. The platforms also continually surface fresh, engaging content, not only fueling binge-watching but also exposing users to new trends and shopping opportunities…“I think it’s just a matter of priorities,” Broderick said. “American social platforms were born as extensions of our TV or newspaper industries. Chinese tech platforms seem much more influenced by e-commerce. They’re playing different games.””
Ben Thompson: “Distillation is a means of extracting understanding from another model; you can send inputs to the teacher model and record the outputs, and use that to train the student model. This is how you get models like GPT-4 Turbo from GPT-4. Distillation is easier for a company to do on its own models, because they have full access, but you can still do distillation in a somewhat more unwieldy way via API, or even, if you get creative, via chat clients.”
Reid Hoffman: “Superagency is much more about the question around how, actually, our human agency gets greatly improved, not just by superpowers, which is obviously part of it, but by the transformation of our industries, our societies, as multiple of us all get these superpowers from these new technologies. The general discourse around these things always starts with a heavy pessimism and then transforms into — call it a new elevated state of humanity and society. AI is just the latest disruptive technology in this. Impromptu didn’t really address the concerns as much … of getting to this more human future…Part of what the book was trying to do, part of Superagency, is that people tend to reduce this to, “What superpowers do I get?” But they don’t realize that superagency is when a lot of people get super powers, I also benefit from it. A canonical example is cars. Oh, I can go other places, but, by the way, when other people go other places, a doctor can come to your house when you can’t leave, and do a house call. So you’re getting superagency, collectively, and that’s part of what’s valuable now today.” From the WSJ review of the book: “Better to share technology broadly, in bite-size increments, than to smother it with regulation from the start, prompted by our worst fears.”
WGSN: “Experience at the heart of connection. The experience economy shows no sign of slowing. 2026 will see the rise of ‘fantailing’ (fan-retailing) as consumer spending is driven by entertainment, events and cultural passions. With 75% of global transactions still expected to occur in-store by 2027, it’s crucial for brands to transition from transactional to transformative retail experiences. Consumers are likely to spend more intentionally in an increasingly polarised market, with ‘choiceful’ emerging as the new buzzword among CEOs.”
NYTimes: “The World Bank, African Development Bank and others are pledging at least $35 billion to expand electricity across a continent where more than a half-billion people still don’t have it. About half of the money will go toward solar “minigrids” that serve individual communities. The loans will come at below-market interest rates, a crucial stipulation as global lenders usually charge much higher rates in Africa, citing higher risks.”
