Kyle Chayka: “I think A.I. is already changing how artists survive, because the way that these A.I. models work and the reason that they exist is because they have hoovered up all of human culture that all artists ever made already. And we put it into digital form. And so it could be mashed into a machine and turned into a trained model. The models that exist now do not exist without all of the human art and writing and culture that came before them. And I think that in automating all of that stuff, it has kind of made it even more difficult for artists to survive. And the artists are not profiting from the way that their work was digested into these machines.”
ET: “With an import bill of nearly $1 tn – about a quarter of its GDP – India remains deeply dependent on external supply chains for its most fundamental needs…Nearly 85% of India’s crude oil requirement is met through imports. Natural gas imports, particularly LNG, have grown to almost 50%. Even in coal, where India has abundant reserves, imports remain substantial for high-grade coking coal required in steel production. India also has a huge import dependence for metals and minerals. More than 90% of its copper concentrates are imported. All its lithium, cobalt and nickel are imported. Even modern materials, ranging from plastics to packaging to paints to polymers, largely depend on petrochemical intermediates as primary feedstock. Here, too, India is directly or indirectly reliant on imports by up to 90%. While the country is food secure, underlying reliance on import-dependent fertilisers tells a different story.”
Andy Kessler: “Thanks to capitalism, we are living in unprecedented good times. Space launches. Weight-loss wonder pills. Happy-hour-friendly autonomous cars. AI bots that will meet our every imaginable need. A more peaceful Middle East on the horizon. A resurging middle class around the globe. But that’s nothing that a few commies—er, democratic socialists—couldn’t destroy in a generation. Socialism adoration comes from brainwashing. A recent City Journal survey of 120 “prominent colleges and universities” showed that a grand total of zero schools required economics courses to graduate. Only 15% required some U.S. government or history classes, while half required diversity, equity and inclusion-like courses. Ugh. So bye to jobs, hello socialism. We need to educate our youth with a full-throated defense of capitalism and free markets because for too many, the most intelligent thing they say coming out of college is, “It’s like, whatever.””
Theo Baker: “We are the first college class of the A.I. era — ChatGPT arrived on campus about two months after we did. When we graduate [from Stanford], this technology will have altered our lives in very different ways. For some, it has opened the door to staggering wealth. But for many who came to Stanford — just four years ago! — when a degree seemed like a guaranteed ticket to a high-paying job, the door has been slammed shut. For all of us, A.I. has permanently changed how we think and behave.”
