You can't trust Google

Plus: AI has poisoned its own well 

Author

Cash Nut
June 20, 2023

In Today’s Edition

  • Spactech startup Digantara Raises $10 Mn From Peak XV Partners, Others

  • BYJU’S Undertakes Another Round Of Layoffs Amid Debt Crisis

  • Tesla unveils new Giga Laboratory concept

  • Reddit hackers demand $4.5 million ransom and API pricing changes

  • AI has poisoned its own well

  • There's a Parasite That Triples Ants' Lifespans And It Sounds Pretty Great

🚀Startups Nuts

Digantara raised $10 Mn in its Series A1 funding round led by Peak XV Partners with participation from Kalaari Capital. Japan-based venture capital firm Global Brain, Campus Fund, and the founders of IIFL Wealth also participated in the funding round. Digantara said it would use the funding to develop further its Space-Mission Assurance Platform (Space-MAP), which intends to be a one-stop solution for all space operations.

Over 1,000 employees are likely to lose their jobs in the latest layoff round, which would largely impact ‘senior people’ who have worked with the company for more than two years. The layoffs will impact employees across departments such as mentoring, logistics, training, sales, post-sales, and finance. The development comes when BYJU’S is involved in a standoff with its lenders over a loan of $1.2 Bn.

🏭Business Nuts

Tesla's Giga Laboratory retail concept appears to showcase its manufacturing capacity. There are now 1,000 Tesla retail and service locations, more than double the three years ago. The announcement about the Giga Laboratory invites customers to come to the store to meet up with friends and experience the magic of building a car in 45 seconds. Pictures of the new store are available in the article.

A ransomware group that claimed responsibility for a hack on Reddit's systems earlier this year is demanding money and policy changes. BlackCat claims to have stolen 80GB of data from Reddit. It wants a $4.5 million payout and for Reddit to roll back its planned API pricing changes in exchange for the data. The attack occurred in February. Reddit says that the hackers hadn't accessed private user data.

📱Tech Nuts

Tech companies have essentially established a threshold for the maximum improvement of AI products as their early release will lead to model collapse, an effect where irreversible defects are created in models due to being trained on model-generated content - something that will happen once LLMs contribute to much of the content found online.

Google will eventually kill its services if it can't find a way to directly monetize them with ads at a scale of billions. The company is paid for advertising rather than for its products. Google's recent shutdown of Google Domains, a $180 million/year business servicing 10 million domains, is an example of this. People using Google products and services outside of the ad space should prepare a backup plan as the company is one major reorganization or promoted executive away from shutting them down.

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🎁Miscellaneous

Temnothorax nylanderi ants that contract Anomotaenia brevis tapeworms end up living up to over three times longer than their peers. Uninfected ants end up pampering the infected ants' and do their chores for them. The infected ants barely have to leave their nests. The tapeworms appear to pump antioxidants and other proteins into their hosts. Their goal is to eventually be eaten by a bird, so that might be why they keep infected ants young and plump.

💡What else are we reading and seeing?

  • Europe is getting behind America in economy, tech

  • Tokenization Could Be a $5T Opportunity Led by Stablecoins and CBDCs

  • A.I. will make having a lucrative side hustle or startup much easier

  • EV startups extend blistering rally

  • Intel to spend $33 billion in Germany in landmark agreement

  • How to Break into Web3

😎Fun Fact

The first recorded use of the word "bankrupt" dates back to ancient Rome, where a moneylender who couldn't pay their debts had their table (banca) broken (rupta) in public.

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