Twitter 2.0 emerges

Plus: Welcome to Fusion City, USA

In Today’s Edition

  • An Interview with Marc Andreessen about AI and How You Change the World

  • Reddit is telling protesting mods their communities will not stay private

  • Virgin Galactic spaceflight updates: First paying customers set for space in key step for tourism

  • YouTube tests disabling videos for people using ad blockers

  • Welcome to Fusion City, USA

🚀Startups Nuts

Marc Andreessen, co-founder of a16z, has authored three seminal essays: 'Why Software is Eating the World', 'It's Time to Build', and 'Why AI Will Save the World'. This article contains a transcript from an extensive interview with Andreessen about these essays, with a particular focus on the most recent one about AI. There was also some discussion of a16z-related topics. A link to the audio is available.

Twitter's new CEO Linda Yaccarino is preparing a series of measures to bring advertisers back. The plans include introducing a video ads service, attracting more celebrities, and increasing headcount. Twitter's new ad format, which focuses on video, is still in a beta stage. Yaccarino, known as the 'velvet hammer' in the ad industry due to her tenacity in dealmaking, plans to make commerce easier on Twitter and will seek to mend relations with partners.

🏭Business Nuts

Reddit has given its moderators deadlines to lay out plans for reopening. Subreddits will not be allowed to remain closed. The company claims that moderators are violating the Moderator Code of Conduct, which says that they need to be active and engaged. Many subreddits have switched from private to restricted, so while content can still be viewed by the community, only certain users are allowed to post or comment.

Virgin Galactic completed its first commercial spaceflight on Thursday. Galactic 01 took off from Spaceport America in New Mexico with a pair of pilots, four passengers, and 13 research payloads. The company plans to fly its spacecraft once a month after a second mission in August. It currently has a backlog of about 800 passengers, many who bought tickets for between $200,000 to $250,000 over a decade ago. Ticket sales reopened two years ago, with prices starting at $450,000 per seat.

📱Tech Nuts

YouTube is running a small global experiment that prompts users with ad blockers to allow ads or try YouTube Premium. Some users have reported that video playback is being cut off after viewing more than three videos when an ad blocker is active. YouTube says that users will receive multiple warnings before playback is disrupted. Users can dispute their bans if they feel that they have been falsely flagged as using an ad blocker.

🎁Miscellaneous

A prototype reactor in Everett, WA is already producing high-energy neutrons from nuclear fusion. Zap Energy's Fuze-Q prototype, which is an office-desk-sized device, is designed to reliably produce enough power for 30,000 homes all day and night, year-round. The system has no cryogenics, no superconducting coils, no auxiliary heating, and no magnets. Zap believes that gargantuan systems are unnecessary, undesirable, and impractical for fusion power. The company is betting that it will be easier to produce practical amounts of power by stringing together short pulses of fusion activity rather than trying to create a continuous fusion reaction.

💡What else are we reading and seeing?

  • Silicon Valley is bracing for a 'Darwinian moment for startups' in late 2023

  • Global M&A plummets in 2023

  • Oracle spending billions on AI chips this year

  • The ad industry is going all-in on AI

😎Fun Fact

The shortest war in history lasted only 38 to 45 minutes, occurring between Britain and Zanzibar on August 27, 1896.

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