Down Round

Anyone who lives in Australia would be aware of Foxtel's new streaming box Hubbl, thanks to an absolutely overwhelming ad campaign pitching it. We talk about the Hubbl, and use it as an excuse to dive into streaming more generally, and what's been going on since the last time we talked about it.

Links

• Foxtel faces its streaming apocalypse – AFR
• Down Round on X
• Down Round on Instagram
• Down Round on TikTok
• Sign up for Down Round Premium

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Well, it happened: the US passed legislation to force ByteDance to divest TikTok in the country. Now, the company technically has 12 months to make it happen. But is that the end of the story? In this episode, we discuss how we arrived at this point, what avenues TikTok has left, and who or what might acquire TikTok if it comes down to that.

Links

• TikTok could soon be sold. Here's how much it's worth and who could buy it. – CBS
• Byte-Dance was told to sell TikTok or face a ban. There are legal complications – NPR
• Down Round on X
• Down Round on Instagram
• Down Round on TikTok

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Everything is chatbots now. Every company must become a purveyor of bespoke chatbots.The latest cab off the rank is Meta, which just unveiled Llama 3, the latest version of its open source LLM. But this time they have integrated it deeply into Facebook, WhatsApp and Instagram, whacking a big nasty chatbox over the searchbar in all these apps.

In this episode, we talk about Meta's strategy in AI, and what Zuck might be cooking.

Links

• The Dwarkesh pod with Zuckerberg
• Down Round on X
• Down Round on Instagram
• Down Round on TikTok

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This is a free preview of a premium episode. To subscribe to Down Round Premium and get access, head here.

As Downies will know well, one of the themes we're keeping an eye on is the number of products and product categories that are trying to replace the smartphone, which has been lagging in sales and hype of late. Two devices which pitched a bold new path forward are the Humane AI Pin and the Apple Vision Pro.

Based on reviews, neither of them are looking very good at all. We discuss.

Links

• Humane AI Pin review: not even close – The Verge

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Over the past few weeks, there has been a surprising amount of movement in the AI music space. Suno and Udio are two lavishly funded AI music generation startups which just launched new models, which allow you to make songs in a wide range of genres from prompts. While not perfect, they both sound pretty good.

At the same time, Spotify is trialling AI-generated playlists, seemingly laying the groundwork for their own generative music. In this ep, we talk about the new models and what they might be used for.

Links

• AI-Music Arms Race: Meet Udio, the Other ChatGPT for Music - Rolling Stone
• Former Google DeepMind researchers launch AI-powered music creation app Udio

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This week, we're joined by Kyle Harrison, who is General Partner at Contrary, a US venture capital fund. As well as investing, Kyle writes the newsletter Investing 101 2.0, where he shares his various insights into the VC ecosystem – including where, in his view, it's all gone wrong.

Kyle joins us to chat about the state of VC after the end of the tech boom, why he doesn't think anyone has learned their lesson, and what he thinks will happen with AI on both the tech and the investment side.

Links

• The Puritans of Venture Capital – Kyle Harrison

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This is a free preview of a premium episode. To subscribe to Down Round Premium and get access, head here.

Sometimes a company merges with or acquires another, and it turns out to be a bad idea. That's OK. We all make stupid decisions. There's nothing to be ashamed of, even when we're talking about multibillion-dollar deals.

Some of these bad acquisitions aren't just about a culture mismatch or poor due diligence, though. Some of them speak to executives making a bet on the future of the economy – and betting wrong. In this ep, we go through some of the worst tech acquisitions of all time, and why they're interesting.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

One of the great turnarounds in 21st century was the tobacco industry's shift toward a so-called 'smokeless' future – agreeing that cigs are pretty bad for you, and that a range of hi-tech vapes could be a less bad replacement. Of course, it hasn't actually worked out that well, with public health bodies and governments around the world cracking down on vapes for targeting kids with flashy influencer marketing campaigns and cool flavours.

In this ep we talk about the rise of vapes, the changing tobacco industry, and new trends (Zyn, etc)

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This is a free preview of a premium episode. To subscribe to Down Round Premium and get access, head here.

This week, we're back on Apple. There are two big reasons: one, they're being sued by the United States on antitrust grounds. And secondly, multiple news reports suggest they are looking for a partner in the generative AI space – which might be Google, or Anthropic, or any number of others.

We dig into these two stories, and what they say about the current state of tech – and why AI might be at a low point of the hype cycle.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Last week, it was reported that Elon Musk's Neuralink had successfully allowed a patient to play chess with his mind. It represents a small – and maybe a tad overhyped – step towards the company's goal for a full brain computer interface.

In this ep, we discuss Neuralink, brain-computer interfaces, and exactly what Musk and others in the space are trying to achieve. Also, the big question: who is the market?

Links

• Elon Musk wants to merge humans with AI. How many brains will be damaged along the way? – Vox
• Elon's tweet about 'Blindsight'

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.