NYTimes: “From game theory to incels, how everything got ‘-maxxed’…There was a time when most of our new slang came from standbys like Black culture — for years, any non–credit-card-related use of “maxxing” was apt to be followed by “and relaxing” — but, wow, how that has changed. Heaps of today’s slang comes from online cloisters: gamers’ private servers and chats, seamy imageboards, crypto-obsessed subreddits, meme-soaked far-right circles. Incels are especially prolific creators of in-group jargon, huge amounts of which seep into mass internet-speak — alphas and betas, mewing and mogging, Chads and Staceys. But all across the board, the language that comes from this layer of the internet has a mechanistic, gamelike aura, as if life were mostly just a web of tactics and hacks and mutual manipulation.”
WSJ: “A 10-year study of a large multinational firm found that the best bosses steer their employees into just the right roles.”
Nathan Lambert: “My most striking takeaway is that the AI 2027 sequence of events, from AI models automating research engineers to later automating AI research, and potentially a singularity if your reasoning is so inclined, is becoming a standard by which many debates on AI progress operate under and tinker with. It’s good that many people are taking the long term seriously, but there’s a risk in so many people assuming a certain sequence of events is a sure thing and only debating the timeframe by which they arrive…To reiterate, the most important part of automation in the discussion is often neglected. To automate someone you need to outcompete the pairing of a human with the tool too.”
FT on how China could pull ahead in the AI race: “It has the advantage on both energy and practical application…AI is not a simple “race”. What matters is not just creating the technology but what each country does with it. Silicon Valley has been obsessed with superintelligence, as if it were possible to build God in a box. Beijing has been interested less in treating AI as a supernatural goal, and more as a technology to be harnessed — Chinese academics and policymakers consistently talk about AI as a practical tool for enhancing existing industries.”
SaaStr on comments by Orlando Bravo: “While AI startups are burning through billions at unsustainable valuations, established enterprise software companies are positioned for a renaissance. The logic is straightforward: “You’re selling your customer an important solution, a workflow solution, a system of record, something that’s deeply embedded in that customer’s process. And now with AI, you have so much more to sell them.” Agentic solutions. Easier customer engagement. Enhanced workflows. These aren’t theoretical benefits — they’re live in the market right now. The death of SaaS was greatly exaggerated. Remember the panic a few months ago when software stocks cratered over fears that AI would disrupt traditional SaaS? “It’s becoming clearer and clearer that it’s a big, big tailwind for software,” Bravo said. “The software industry together with AI is going to provide a new growth curve to it.””
