Mike McClintock

'Smart' Contracts must be the dumbest name in #web3. Why? Well, the coding architecture that bears this name isn't particularly 'smart'. Smart Contracts are predominantly found in the 'EVM Compatible' Ecosystem. What is it? It is a (centralized) 'community of cryptographic architectures' that revolve around Ethereum. 'EVM' stands for 'Ethereum Virtual Machine'. Some of these architectures are blockchains, some aren't. From those that are not, some are transparent they are not, while the open information some provide about themselves are less clear. Many of the 'EVM Compatibles' have a link to Ethereum itself, but some don't. They use a common coding system, and this assists with interoperability. For example, it is very easy for a wallet provider, like MetaMask or Coinbase, to adjust to accommodate new 'EVM Compatibles'. A wallet designed to accommodate HNS Coins, Handshake Names/Domains, Bitcoin Ordinals, Bitcoin Stamps, Dogenals, and many other types of Web 3 related assets can't. Different types of addresses, identities and codes related to 'EVM Compatibles' have a common indicator in that they begin with the two characters '0x'. Most promo spiel on 'EVM Compatibles' will champion interoperability as if it being 'a good thing' is a given. It is not. Interoperability is a gateway, and if that gateway is open for joint operation between two or more architectures, it is also open to intrusion by bad actors. 9ja Cosmos uses this phenomenon to great effect in the 'Sinosignia' project because the single asian alike character (example: 𨰏 ) integral to the Handshake #blockchain and the Sino Amazon (tokenized artwork) cannot both inhabit the same wallet. We also have the '.det0x' names tokenized to #optimism while the 'Root Zone' is on Handshake. (Aside: if something claims to be a Web 3 Domain, check that it's 'Root Zone' is integrated through a blockchain core rather than secured through a Smart Contract. Some are not secured at all! If a provider is unclear about how it's Root Zone is secured, or doesn't mention it at all, that's not a good sign). 'EVM Compatibles' are not useless. but they are not decentralized. They are dangerous to use on their own when attempting to secure or 'mint' something collectible, and/or of tradeable value. Securing these kinds of assets with Smart Contracts is very risky. It can lose you those assets, and/or contribute to your identity to be stolen. $12.3 BILLION IN LOSSES — THAT’S THE AMOUNT RECORDED DUE TO SMART CONTRACT VULNERABILITIES GRACIOUS JOHN

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There are doubts as to whether Tesla's AIbased Full Self Driving (FSD) feature can live up to its unique selling point. Will regulatory hurdles & lack of clarity on legal liabilities slow down its development & subsequent launch? #Tesla #AI #FSD

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Few AR apps will achieve product market fit in the next year and one reason is incorrect first principles regarding space. One memory that stands out to me is an AR gaming product panel at Meta Connect last year. There were a couple product leads and executives talking about making indoor AR experiences. The AR leaders talked about challenges associated with AR experience for their multi story and multi bedroom homes. The problem for consumer AR isn't designing around stairs in-doors. The problem is that many AR early adopters don't have that kind of open space in their homes. VR intrinsically requires less space. I think this is one fundamental reason why consumer VR apps are doing a lot better than AR apps on HMDs (Quest 3, AVP). Consumer AR requires more space. It requires hardware to be made for the outdoors. As long as it is indoors - it will be limited to enterprise use cases only. When you consider the space constraints of a lot of AR enthusisasts - you have to consider word of mouth and content sharing. People with limited space are going to be more self conscious about sharing footage of their homes. The way to eliminate this problem is to have hardware that is outdoor AR friendly. Otherwise the vast majority of people interested in consumer AR will never actually share content (and companies will never have viral distribution through content sharing). If you are an investor or publisher interested in XR - happy to catch up in-person if you are in LA this week for AWE and exchange ideas. If you are interested in strategy and emerging technology - subscribe to my Games of Strategy newsletter. You can participate in polls like the one I'm sharing here and interact with other emerging technology enthusiasts! #augmentedreality #AR #VR #spatialcomputing #games #videogames #AWE

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🚀 Big News from Anthropic: Revolutionizing AI with 'Computer Use'! I'm thrilled to share Anthropic's groundbreaking innovation—the Computer Use API in the Claude 3.5 Sonnet and Haiku models. This is more than a simple feature update; it's a transformative step in how AI interacts with our digital world. 🌟 Why This Matters: Anthropic is leading the charge by integrating advanced computer interaction directly into their AI model. Unlike previous solutions that relied on third-party tools, this native approach strengthens reliability and efficiency. 💡 Key Innovations: The "Computer Use" feature allows Claude to perform tasks just like a human—watching the screen, moving the cursor, clicking, and typing. This seamless integration promises to simplify and enhance enterprise workflows, offering reliable automation, enhanced security, and reduced dependency on multiple tools. 🔍 Evolution and Impact: Though still in its experimental phase, this innovation opens new doors for automation and testing. Additionally, the new coding prowess of Claude models, especially the Sonnet and Haiku, is noteworthy. The competitive edge in coding and reasoning tasks could redefine what businesses expect from AI. 🎯 My Thoughts: As an admirer of technological advancements, I believe this is a significant leap towards more autonomous AI systems. While there may be initial challenges, the potential for dynamic interaction and automation is immense. It’ll be exciting to see how this unfolds in various industries. For more details, check out Anthropic's full announcement: [Anthropic's announcement](https://lnkd.in/gXRBEsrj) and [Technical documentation](https://lnkd.in/gRMQ7j4B). #AI #Innovation #Technology #Automation #AgenticAI

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You need to be paying attention to Ohio tech. Here are some recent headlines... • Microsoft expands in Ohio with $420 million New Albany Data Center • Path Robotics raises $100 million Series D to drive AI-enabled robotic welding growth (h/t Andrew Lonsberry and Alex Lonsberry) • Over 100 Ohio CEOs unite to champion computer science education in new statewide initiative (Code.org, Julia Wynn) • Gifthealth's massive expansion to bring 751 new jobs to Columbus (h/t One Columbus) • Ohio invests $6.5 million in next-generation technology innovation (h/t Lydia Mihalik) • Ohio announces new funding round for tech startups through Third Frontier Program (Ohio Department of Development) • Transportation Research Center Inc. breaks ground on new Advanced Impact Laboratory (h/t Brett Roubinek) • Protecting Ohio: How local governments can better manage cyber risk and response (h/t Kirk Herath and Daniel Poliquin) • Augment Therapy partners with Niantic, Inc. to revolutionize physical rehabilitation with AR pets (h/t Lindsay Watson PT, MPT) • Ohio VC Fest 2024 sets new records, showcasing state’s growing startup opportunity (h/t Julie Jacono, JumpStart Inc.) • Toledo entrepreneurs create AI-powered, real-time support for mental health issues (h/t Sean Wheelock, Inner Peak AI (Techstars '24)) • Ohio Tech Day presented by Meta launches with immersive tech experiences for the next generation of innovators (h/t Tara Tenorio, Liz Morrison) • Ohio’s High School Tech Internship Program hits record numbers, expands for 2025 (h/t Geoff Smith, Keith Koehne) • Homeowner assist platform LiveEasy acquired for $80M by California firm • Demand for computer science graduates growing in Ohio • First ever Ohio AI Summit presented by Further is coming to Columbus on November 20th - and is now sold out (h/t Cal Al-Dhubaib) -- Link to each story in the comments. Follow OhioX and OhioTechNews.com for more tech news and events.

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LLMs are trained to do complex things and tokenize language strings for maximum efficiency. This is important to understand when you are writing prompts. This example with Gemini will show you what I mean. Keep this in mind if you are struggling with detecting hallucinations in your work.

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This is an excellent example of organizing your AI agents into graphs, enabling higher levels of functionality than the native LLM alone. Oh, it also demonstrates the future of attacks. Are you ready for this?

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All Hardware startups will resonate with this at some point in their journey. This is on point and needs to be shared with every hardware startup! #hardware #iot #startup

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7 RECOMMENDATIONS FOR HARDWARE STARTUPS It’s hard to understate the difficulty of the v1 launch of a consumer hardware company. I see a ton of new HW startups coming out. Here are some counterintuitive recommendations… 1) Target a small market for v1, not a large market. You need a small number of people to love your product and this will earn you the right to build a v2. You have to understand your v1 will not make you a successful company. Your v1 needs to prove that you deserve to exist in the first place. In the case of WHOOP, we started with pro athletes who were willing to put up with our v1’s short battery life and flaky Bluetooth connections because they so desperately needed Sleep and Recovery data. A broad consumer base would have rejected it. 2) Be great at no more than 1-3 things. If you try to be great at more than that, you will build a hardware that is mediocre at a wide range of things. You won’t think it’s going to be mediocre, but it will be. 3) You want a small launch. Not because you want small sales but because you want to have a steady ramp. It’s much better to do 100k of sales steadily over 12 months than in 2 months with a huge drop off. Keep in mind you need to manage your manufacturing partner and that there’s nothing better or more efficient than steady and predictable. 4) CAC is your enemy. Referrals are gold. The magic of referrals is that they signal high NPS and they help you grow steadily. Again everything that helps you have a steady HW manufacturing plan is good. Building a referral program for v1 launch is a good use of your time. 5) Be excellent at Software. Turns out being good at both Hardware and Software is a hard thing and something that your BIG COMPANY competitor is actually not great at (excluding Apple here). For some reason, there’s such a magnifying glass on the Hardware development, that Software is then overlooked by consumer startups. Don’t make that mistake. You can be great at both. 6) You should spend an unreasonable amount of time and money on ONE aspect of your Hardware. Could be the design or a technical breakthrough. But something needs to be SPECIAL. In our case, we designed a modular battery pack that allowed Whoop to be charged without taking it off your body. This made our development timeline much longer, but it allowed us to achieve something that no other wearable has achieved since: 24/7 health data. 7) Finally, have an unrealistic belief in yourself and your team. You are not supposed to succeed and the odds are stacked against you. Building hardware takes confidence and you’re up against big players who will rip you off. We went so far as to leave a message for our competitors on our circuit board (pictured below). In the case of Amazon and others, the prophecy came true. If you’re building consumer hardware, I wish you nothing but success. It will be super hard, but super rewarding. Good luck 👊🏼 #consumer #hardware #wearable #startup #whoop

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Technology fails This one gave me a certain amount of schadenfreude...all the honking you'd expect on a normal day in traffic in New York without the flurry of extended middle fingers...LOL - https://lnkd.in/gfSpFeWw #ai #technology #mobility #waymo #thefundraisingangel MONEYWATCH Waymo's driverless cars honk at each other, waking neighbors By Megan Cerullo Edited By Anne Marie Lee Updated on: August 14, 2024 / 3:21 PM EDT / CBS News Waymo driverless cars are coming alive at night, honking at each other and waking residents around the San Francisco parking lot where they sit when not making trips. The driverless taxi company has rented a lot outside of an apartment building for the cars to idle in, but the vehicles appear to be honking at each other, as they are trained to do on the road when other cars get close to them. Randol White, who witnessed the honking activity, told CBS News that he heard "a pair of honks" on Wednesday around 4:30 a.m. Pacific time. He added that according to his neighbors, "peak honk" took place around 4:00 a.m. Waymo attributed the disruptive honking to a feature designed to avoid collisions. "We recently introduced a useful feature to help avoid low-speed collisions by honking if other cars get too close while reversing toward us," the company said in a statement to CBS News. "It has been working great in the city, but we didn't quite anticipate it would happen so often in our own parking lots." Waymo added that it has updated the software that causes the cars to honk "so our electric vehicles should keep the noise down for our neighbors moving forward." Video posted by White of more than two dozen cars all in the same lot, with some honking at each other, has circulated on social media. In his caption, White commented that he would have found the scene funny if it weren't taking place at 4 a.m. Software engineer Sophia Tung has set up a livestream of the lot on YouTube, telling The Verge that she likes watching the cars "come and go" but wishes they would stop honking at each other. Waymo's taxi service is currently available to anyone who download's the company's app in Phoenix, San Francisco and Los Angeles.

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Google releases production updates and a >50% discount on Gemini 1.5 pro! Here's everything new from google... The updated model is the Google's new investment on Upgrading their LLMs. They just released, Gemini-1.5-Pro-002 and Gemini-1.5-Flash-002. These new models build upon their latest experimental model releases. However, this update includes improvements to the Gemini 1.5 and Flash for production ready use. 📌 Here are all their details: ↳ Price reductions for Gemini 1.5 Pro,  - including a 64% reduction on input tokens and a 52% reduction on output tokens. ↳ The rate limits for the paid tiers have been increased, allowing for more extensive use of the models. ↳ The new models offer 2x faster output and 3x lower latency. ↳ They've also improved quality in math, long context, and vision tasks. - Particularly, ~7% increase in MMLU-Pro, a more challenging version of the popular MMLU benchmark. - ~20% improvement on Math and Hidden Math Benchmarks. ↳ Both models perform better ranging from ~2-7% increase across evals measuring visual understanding and Python code generation. ↳ For summarization and extracation use-case the updated models output lenght is ~5-20% shorter than previous models. ↳ Updated Safety Filters for developers. I think the new updated allows us to utilize the Gemini 1.5 Pro to its full potential. 📌 The 2 Million context winodw + with a >50% price range is a deal breaker. I am very excited for the updates and use-cases for this model! Meanwhile, Every day I cover the latest happening in the AI Industry, Make sure to follow to not miss out! If you liked this post, Please share ♻️ it with your network! #google #gemini1.5 #gemini #llm #newmodel #new #ai #genai

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❓ Do you wish you got in on Nvidia before the split when it was $70 and not $700? 💰 When is the right time to get back into the market and get cash off the sidelines? ⏰ When is it the right time to invest in the next mega-trend? 🌱 When is it the right time to invest in food systems transformation and Plant-based Innovation? 📈 Timing the market is tricky if not impossible. Getting in early and having time in the market can beat trying to time the market. #investing #markets

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https://lnkd.in/gaUA2-k7 This is an interesting variant in the budding war over IP ownership as it relates to AI training. I think Stack Overflow’s strategy of enforcing a usage agreement that it sounds like a fair number of their users disagree with is a long term losing strategy… they can revert answers that users have changed, but they can’t force those users to continue contributing. Over time, if enough users become disenchanted, Stack Overflow will become outdated and irrelevant. The whole thing brings to mind what I think is a very strong dynamic in personal data privacy more broadly. What I’ve observed is that most individuals don’t care that much about their data privacy…at least many are willing to agree to relinquish it for almost nothing, but, importantly, not actually nothing. What users object to is someone else making money off their data without sharing a fair share (whatever that is). It feels like the same dynamic here…the disgruntled answerers are fine to share their knowledge with the world (and I truly admire that) but get upset when OpenAI looks to profit from that. Tbh it’s hard to disagree with them.

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🚨 Big Brother AI: Always Listening Plus - Apple and Shutterstock: The New AI Alliance ➡️ Limitless Introduces the Limitless AI Pendant. A wearable device that acts as your “pocket recorder”, capturing conversations and using AI to transcribe them. While the pendant offers undeniable convenience, concerns linger. Constant recording raises privacy issues, especially in group settings. READ MORE -> https://lnkd.in/eNipZts6 ➡️ Apple is making a big move in the world of AI by teaming up with Shutterstock, a giant stock image company. This multi-million dollar deal signals Apple's intent to acquire vast amounts of image and video data. Why? To train its AI models, of course! READ MORE -> https://lnkd.in/e6KD5R4v ➡️ Adobe has announced plans to integrate third-party AI plugins into its video editor Premiere Pro, allowing users to blend AI-generated content with traditional footage. This integration, which is set to be available later this year, will offer unprecedented creative opportunities. READ MORE -> https://lnkd.in/e5TSQCmQ ➡️ Purdue University joins forces with Windracers, a UK-based cargo vehicle company, to pioneer the future of aviation transportation. This partnership marks Purdue's commitment to being a leading researcher in incorporating AI and machine learning technologies into aviation transportation. Is this the future of logistics and supply chains? READ MORE -> https://lnkd.in/eMm-RyEU ➡️ The world's first AI beauty pageant has been announced. These AI-generated models and influencers will compete for a prize money of $20,000 based on their popularity and technical skills. Can you believe it? READ MORE -> https://lnkd.in/e6_hJbBk ~~~ ~~~ ~~~ 💡 What do you say? What AI news resonated with you today? Would you be okay with Limitless recording all your conversations? Let me know in the comments ✍️ ~~~ ~~~ ~~~ Reshare ♻️ to help others discover more AI news. Thank you! 🚀 Follow Fabio Sparano for daily AI news. ~~~ ~~~ ~~~ #ai #ainews #artificialintelligence #aidevelopment

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Vishal Sachdev highlights the strategic integration of open source and proprietary tech in architecting tech stacks, developer ecosystems and resulting business models. The world class companies effectively balance value commoditization in open source and value capture in proprietary tech. This is the strategic challenge for companies operating in #blockchain and #AI. I believe those who operate at the intersection of blockchain *and* AI stand to win this strategic battle...

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Hardware is Hard: Apple is struggling to find a way to bring down cost on the Apple Vision Pro to an Apple Vision. Display type and pricing matters. UploadVR: "Kuo Claims The Cheaper Apple Vision Headset Is Delayed "Beyond 2027" " (David Heaney) (Nov 03, 2024) "Supply chain analyst Ming-Chi Kuo claims the cheaper Apple Vision headset is delayed "beyond 2027". This would mean, if you believe Kuo, that Apple's next headset will instead be the straightforward refresh of Vision Pro with the M5 chipset that he claimed last month will enter mass production in late 2025. Interestingly, Kuo claims the cheaper Vision headset has been delayed beyond 2027 "for a while now". However, less than two weeks ago The Information reported that Apple told a supplier to expect to produce enough components for 4 million units of the cheaper headset, and less than a month ago Bloomberg's Mark Gurman reported that it's still coming in 2025, priced around $2000. Clearly, either Kuo is wrong or Gurman is. And it's notable that we've never seen these two sources report such drastically different claims. Kuo speculates that the delay beyond 2027 is that "simply reducing the price wouldn't help create successful use cases". However, if we assume this significant delay is real for the sake of argument, it seems more likely it would be related to the struggle to achieve a significantly reduced price in the first place. As recently as April, Gurman reported that Apple was "still flummoxed by how exactly to bring down the cost" for a cheaper non-Pro Vision headset. The biggest contributor to Vision Pro's price is its near-4K micro-OLED displays from Sony. Estimates place the cost to Apple at $350 each, meaning $700 per headset. Before Apple Vision Pro even launched, The Information's Wayne Ma reported that Apple was testing new micro-OLED displays from two Chinese suppliers, SeeYa and BOE, to try to bring down the cost of future Vision headsets. However, more recent reports suggested both potential suppliers were failing to meet Apple's stringent quality standards. In the past few months we've seen multiple reports from South Korean news outlet The Elec about Apple asking display suppliers like LG and Samsung about cheaper, lower resolution micro-OLED displays, and Japan's JDI pitching Apple a regular OLED display with density that approaches micro-OLED, an approach which Samsung is also exploring. The high-density regular OLED option in particular could be significantly lower cost than any micro-OLED. However, as the report noted, they're still early in development, and wouldn't enter mass production until 2026 at the earliest. So if Kuo's claim of a delay beyond 2027 is correct, it would line up with Apple waiting for these displays so it can deliver a truly affordable Vision headset, priced closer to a MacBook Air or iPad Pro than today's $3500 Vision Pro." UploadVR: https://lnkd.in/gj9jfRus #xr #vr #ar #mr #spatialcomputing #apple #applevision #vision

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https://lnkd.in/gYsxURkz As I told you before, Nvidia GPUs takes the status of assest class. Investors are stockpiling AI chips to attract startups. #nvidia #artificialintelligence #llms #chatgpt #generativeai #gpu #servers #datacenter #cloud #ai #technology #innovation #business #Semiconductorindustry #electronics #semiconductor #supplychain credit: deep learning ai

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