Nicholas Carr: “Unlike carpentry or calculus, learning is not a skill that can be “mastered.” It’s true that the more research you do, the better you’ll get at doing research, and the more papers you write, the better you’ll get at writing papers, but the pedagogical value of a writing assignment doesn’t lie in the tangible product of the work — the paper that gets handed in at the assignment’s end. It lies in the work itself: the critical reading of source materials, the synthesis of evidence and ideas, the formulation of a thesis and an argument, and the expression of thought in a coherent piece of writing. The paper is a proxy that the instructor uses to evaluate the success of the work the student has done — the work of learning. Once graded and returned to the student, the paper can be thrown away. Generative AI enables students to produce the product without doing the work. Rather than reading and making sense of difficult source texts, they can ask a chatbot to gin up simplified summaries. Rather than synthesizing various ideas and perspectives through concerted thinking, they can ask the chatbot for a generic synthesis. And rather than expressing (and refining) their thoughts through the composition of sentences and paragraphs, they can get the bot to spit out a first draft or even a final one. The paper a student hands in no longer provides evidence of the work of learning its creation entailed. It is a substitute for the work.”
SaaStr: “When only enterprise companies could afford sophisticated sales intelligence, it created a competitive moat. The Fortune 500 got smarter about their sales conversations while SMBs winged it with spreadsheets and gut instinct. That asymmetry just collapsed. Now every startup, every mid-market company, every independent consultant has access to enterprise-grade conversation intelligence. The playing field didn’t just level—it tilted toward whoever adopts fastest.”
WSJ: “Revamped navigation systems will plan your ideal route, make hotel reservations and even teach you about the surrounding geography. Car interiors could transform into a mobile movie theater. And lie-flat massaging seats will activate during endless highway stretches. As self-driving cars become more of a possibility, companies are exploring vehicles that break design convention, sans forward-facing seats, steering wheels or dashboards, allowing for enhanced in-car travel experiences.”
Business Standard: “Indian startups are being held back by a lack of adequate domestic investment due to restrictive regulations of the government, according to industry veteran and Aarin Capital Chairman Mohandas Pai, who called for policy reforms and R&D investments to strengthen the ecosystem. Despite India being the world’s third-largest startup hub, Pai cautioned that the country risks falling behind in global innovation unless these challenges are addressed. “We have 165,000 registered startups, 22,000 are funded. They created $600 billion in value. We got 121 unicorns, maybe 250-300 soonicorns. “The biggest issue for startups is the lack of adequate capital. For example, China invested $835 billion in startups and ventures between 2014 and 2024, US invested $2.32 trillion. We just put in $160 billion, out of which possibly 80 per cent came from overseas. So local capital is not coming in,” Pai said.”
