My main newsletter, Complex Machinery, includes a section called "In Other News..." It's where I list one-liners about interesting articles that didn't fit into any segments.

You can think of this list as a version of In Other News, but with a wider remit than Complex Machinery's "risk, AI, and related topics."

Above the fold

1. When you compare OpenAI's revenues ($20B) to its debts ($1.4T), a worrying picture emerges. (IFRE)
2. This article on business strategy is thirty years old. It still resonates. (HBR)
3. Leaders keep falling for ideas that are bold, oversimplified, and often incorrect. This article is about politics but everything here equally holds for the genAI hype wave. (Joxley Writes)
4. The payments industry has a long and storied history with adult content. Usually: they happily collect their fees until there's a public outcry. So why hasn't that played out after the recent Grok-as-a-CSAM-engine uproar? (The Verge)
5. I've long noted the overlap between quantitative finance and ML/AI. Someone else agrees with that take, and they've written it all down. (Financial Times)
6. This look into German discount grocer Aldi doubles as a lesson in ruthless retail efficiency. (Bloomberg)
7. Investments in genAI's exhibit risk of widespread financial contagion. Is anyone else here getting "too big to fail" vibes? Just me? (Bloomberg)
8. Charting the unraveling of malignant narcissists. (Darren F Magee)

The rest of the best

• Mental health professionals are seeing more cases of problems tied to genAI chatbot use. (New York Times)
• French execs note that genAI hasn't had much of an impact on the bottom line. (Les Echos 🇫🇷)
• Yet another OpenAI exec acknowledges that genAI is probably a bubble. (CNBC)
• Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella states the obvious: genAI needs use cases or people will give up on it. (PC Gamer)
• The white-collar AI boom is driving a blue-collar boom for datacenter construction. (Wired)
• A newer ChatGPT model has been drawing source material from Grokipedia. (The Guardian)
• One takeaway from CES: AI tech out of China will travel the world. (MIT Technology Review)
• ChatGPT's push into adult content has raised some red flags. (The Observer)
• Now that TikTok operates out of the US, ostensibly for reasons of data privacy, it's collecting … even more data from end-users. (Wired)
• People are pestering librarians for nonexistent resources. Thanks, genAI-based search! (Le Monde 🇫🇷)
• What if genAI agents were to announce themselves to websites, instead of sneaking around? (Tech Policy Press)
• Using ChatGPT for search? Iffy. Using it to store your research? Bad. (Nature)
• OpenAI is working on AI-based age verification. (Der Spiegel 🇩🇪)
• Companies are using genAI to screen resumes. Some applicants are filing lawsuits. (New York Times)

Did I miss anything?

Have something I should read? Send the link my way.