Author: EconLearner

nguyenthomas2708

What happens when artificial intelligence transforms a niche overnight?

Strategy

In 2020, Google DeepMind researchers presented AlphaFold2, an artificial intelligence model that tackled a major scientific challenge: Is it possible to determine the structure of a protein from its components alone? The ability to do this without slow and expensive laboratory experiments had the potential to revolutionize our understanding of biology and accelerate drug discovery. In an annual competition of scientists trying to solve this puzzle, AlphaFold2 became the first artificial intelligence model to perform as well as laboratory experiments. Over the next few years, he predicted structures for more than 200 million different proteins, a 1,500-fold increase over proteins…

Read More

With status symbols, let someone else do the bragging rights

Marketing

This practice, which he referred to as “conspicuous consumption,” has been going on for millennia. Studies of Neolithic societies, for example, show evidence of elaborate headdresses to mark their leaders. Medieval kings wore cloaks to show their nobility and class. In modern times, wealth and success are often presented through status symbols. Imagine someone arriving at an event in their new sports car or wearing a sweatshirt that shows off their fancy university. But how are others likely to judge or evaluate them? A consistent pattern, the researchers found, is that wearing a visible status symbol can have benefits, such…

Read More

Amazon Quick walks into the trap that killed WorkDocs

Innovation

Amazon this week developed Amazon Quick with a desktop app for Windows and Mac and Microsoft 365 extensions that put Quick in Outlook, Word and Teams, with PowerPoint and Excel extensions still in preview. The expansion arrives about six months after Quick’s October launch and signals an obvious admission. Quick needs to live where knowledge workers already live, and that place is Microsoft 365.This is the structural problem that Amazon has spent more than a decade refusing to solve. Quick is the latest effort to sell workplace productivity software to knowledge workers, following WorkDocs, Amazon Chime and WorkMail. Three of…

Read More

The quickest way to end the war in Iran is to resume hostilities

Policy

US naval blockade of Iranian ports near the Strait of Hormuz. (Handout photo by US Navy via Getty Images)Getty ImagesThe fastest way ending the war in Iran means resuming hostilities. The mullahs who run Iran still believe they can emerge victorious. For them, survival would be a resounding victory. These fanatics have no interest in the welfare of Iranians. If they are still in power when the war is over, they will go back to their evil ways, regardless of any deals that have been made. By repeatedly calling for an agreement, the US has given our adversaries and allies…

Read More