WSJ: “Many modern farms already use GPS-guided tractors and digital technology such as farm-management software systems. Now, advances in artificial intelligence mean that the next step—the autonomous farm, with only minimal human tending—is finally coming into focus. Imagine a farm where fleets of autonomous tractors, drones and harvesters are guided by AI that tweaks operations minute by minute based on soil and weather data. Sensors would track plant health across thousands of acres, triggering precise sprays or irrigation exactly where needed. Farmers could swap long hours in the cab for monitoring dashboards and making high-level decisions. Every seed, drop of water and ounce of fertilizer would be optimized to boost yields and protect the land—driven by a connected system that gets smarter with each season.”
SCMP: “With the December 2024 launch of DeepSeek’s free-for-all V3 large language model (LLM) and the January release of DeepSeek’s R1, an AI reasoning model that rivals the capabilities of OpenAI’s o1, the open-source movement started by Chinese firms has sent shock waves through Silicon Valley and Wall Street. The trend has not only unleashed a wave of AI applications in China, but also redefined the global AI landscape, winning the support of developers worldwide. Chinese open-source models present a viable alternative to the closed-off systems championed by US tech giants like OpenAI and Google.”
NYTimes: “For a certain slice of tech start-up, cultivating a reputation as the “best of breed” — a term that’s been around for at least a couple of decades — is the goal. Such companies, in their early days, focus on dominating a niche. Think: Zoom, Dropbox, Slack and other product leaders that created software meant to be used alongside other specialized applications. These companies exist in contrast to the Googles and Microsofts and Adobes of the world, which sell product bundles. Best-of-breed companies often make bold attempts to grab market share from a dominant incumbent in an established industry, according to Andy Wu, an associate professor at Harvard Business School who focuses on strategy. Positioning oneself as best of breed, he explained, is “an entry strategy” that can serve start-ups. But because it can be tough for such focused companies to sustain long-term growth, the marker is almost by definition temporary. Eventually, if a company integrates with a larger platform, or matures into a sprawling software firm, it will lose its best-of-breed bragging rights.”
Bob Higgs: “A nation that contains firms that are operating (as a whole or to some extent) only because they are protected by tariffs from competing foreign sellers is a nation that is misallocating its productive resources and impoverishing itself. This is not really a debatable proposition; it’s as basic as basic economics can get. Using resources to produce outputs that have a lesser free-market value than the outputs that could have been produced by those same resources in an alternative use sacrifices wealth; the opportunity cost is greater than the value created. That’s waste.” [via CafeHayek]
