Hacker News Reader

moose_manon Feds arrest telehealth execs for overprescribing Adderall

I saw one of their ads today on Reddit lol.

moose_manon Ask HN: Is anyone afraid of near-term AI autocracy?

Yeah, but the horse didn't drive the cars.

moose_manon McDonald's will stop testing AI to take drive-thru orders, for now

The cost of implementing this system vs paying a teenager minimum wage makes it not worth, and probably not worth it for a while. A lot of use cases for generative AI seem to miss that you can get humans to do them for pretty low costs and installing a new AI system is quite expensive and potentially error prone.

moose_manon U.S. clears way for antitrust inquiries of Nvidia, Microsoft and OpenAI

It seems like the investigations are linked so it could be they are acting in concert in a way that prevents or disrupts competition. Say for instance, OpenAI was using Microsoft money to buy chips and Nvidia was favoring it in a way that hurt other AI startups.

moose_manon U.S. clears way for antitrust inquiries of Nvidia, Microsoft and OpenAI

Google and Apple are currently in antitrust litigation, and the government is looking into Facebook's acquisitions of Insta and Whatapp.

moose_manon China continues to subsidize deadly fentanyl exports

The Chinese government warns companies about US investigations and helps them avoid US enforcement.

moose_manon More Companies Are Defaulting over and over Again, S&P Says – Highest Since 2008

https://archive.ph/0IdiV

moose_manon Amazon CEO Touts AI Revolution While Committing to Cost Cuts

Cut costs - aka fire lots of people.

moose_manon US Producer Prices Rise 2.1% from Year Ago, Most in 11 Months

https://archive.ph/zwJvl

moose_manon Credit-Card Delinquency Rates Were Worst on Record in Fed Study

The Calls for Help Coming From Above the Poverty Line https://www.wsj.com/lifestyle/poverty-america-low-income-eme...

moose_manon Credit-Card Delinquency Rates Were Worst on Record in Fed Study

The economy is terrible for most people and this AI driven loosening of financial conditions is only benefitting a small number of wealthy people at the expense of prolonging the pain for most. The longer the stock mania keeps the Fed from lowering interest rates the worse things will get for most Americans.

moose_manon Ask HN: Why is everyone so optimistic about the economy?

I don't know, it feels like it's more driven by investors than anything. Everything is free money, there cannot be any downside type thinking. Like the Fed is going to cut rates without that also implying a slowdown in the economy. And the delusion about the April rate cut when inflation was above 3%.

moose_manon Dow closes 500 points lower, worst day since March 2023

There's been an overly optimistic view of the economic situation:

https://www.barrons.com/articles/bank-of-america-stock-bond-...

https://archive.ph/Q46oB

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2024-04-03/business-...

https://archive.ph/BDm4W

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2024-03-30/clo-manag...

https://archive.ph/4ElrO

https://www.wsj.com/finance/banking/banks-are-extending-offi...

https://archive.ph/WQ6XL

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2024-03-19/real-esta...

https://archive.ph/Wc92Q

moose_manon Bank of America Racks Up Bond Losses That Could Top $100B

https://archive.ph/Q46oB#selection-227.0-227.64

Honestly, thats a staggering loss. I'm shocked.

moose_manon Is AI driving tech layoffs?

moose_manon The Failure of Silicon Valley Bank and the Panic of 2023 [pdf]

I don't think this is behind us. It was a sign that huge amounts of capital has been misallocated torching billions.

moose_manon [dead]

The first step to fixing any problem is acknowledging there is a problem. I'm not sure what the solution is. There may not be one. But acknowledging that people were willing to kamikaze massive fortunes and their careers in order to try to stop this guy should be a big red flag for everyone. And it's not just the idealists, he scares the sharks as well.

moose_manon Everything in our universe may be conscious, scientists say

Imagine what will happen when it realizes we're like it's lice infestation. It's gonna freak out.

moose_manon Dementia Risk May Fall as Younger Generations Have Larger Brains

moose_manon Are we all doomed? Why?

Right now the pressure is coming from a combination of over-hiring and the increase in interest rates. Even if AI hype is realistic, corporations are human enterprises that move much slower than changing everything in a single year. Things don't move that fast because humans don't move that fast. We're still at the beginning. Don't believe the hype, it's what Sequoia and Andreessen want to create their paper money. This cycle hasn't even begun to play out. Horses aren't unemployed just because we have cars.

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=39824275

moose_manon Beware AI Euphoria

https://archive.ph/GHm8d

"Even if you believe AI will be today’s equivalent of electricity or the internet, we are at the very early stages of a highly complex multi-decade transformation that is by no means a done deal. Yet valuations are pricing in the entire sea change, and then some. A February report by Currency Research Associates pointed out that it would take 4,500 years for Nvidia’s future dividends to equal its current price. Talk about a long tail."

"While Nvidia isn’t Pets.com — it has tangible revenues from selling real things — the overall AI narrative depends on many uncertain assumptions. For example, AI requires huge amounts of water and energy. There’s a push in both the US and EU to get companies to disclose their usage. Whether via carbon pricing, or a tax on resource usage, it’s quite likely that those input costs will rise significantly in the future.

Likewise, AI developers don’t now have to own the copyright to content on which the models are trained. They don’t have to make profits on AI itself, of course; the assumption of future gains is enough to fuel the froth. Relentless techno-optimism and the illusion of inevitability is how Silicon Valley creates paper wealth. But remember, many of the proponents of “AI everywhere” were touting web3, crypto, the metaverse and the benefits of the gig economy not so long ago."

moose_manon Glenn Greenwald on TikTok Ban Bill [video]

You could be a literal Nazi and Glenn Greenwald would support you if you stood against 'the American empire'. That's the sum total of his personality.

moose_manon Alphabet's Verily lays off employees working in one of its science groups

https://archive.ph/NsD48

moose_manon OpenAI accuses NYT of hacking ChatGPT

That's dumb, they really shouldn't defend themselves that way. Given how free form ChatGPT interaction is and plus they're basically looking for their own work.

moose_manon U.S. opens UnitedHealth antitrust probe

https://archive.ph/meOGZ

moose_manon FTC chair Lina Khan takes victory lap on blocking Nvidia-Arm merger

I expect that they coordinate or communicate, so we have no idea what her influence was on the UK initiative. But also the big moves to control the market power of tech has it's critics, this is a victory lap for the idea.

moose_manon Should I feel bad for being a narcissist?

It's your job to make sure that your problems don't disrupt other people's lives.

moose_manon Lawmakers Demand Elon Musk Provide SpaceX Internet to US Military in Taiwan

Eminent domain exists for a reason. If he does anything, just seize it. SpaceX existence is because of the US Defense department. Elon may be rich, but does he want to stand against the nuclear superpower where he lives? His life is in palm the government, and he could be crushed, both literally and figuratively.

moose_manon Wall Street Traders Are Too Scared to Fight the AI Rally Short Are Missing

This is only going to end badly, and with the other issues like rising consumer credit card debt and commercial real estate, the longer people drag it out, the worse suffering there will be.

moose_manon Chicago is uniting to assist H-1B visa holders impacted by layoffs in the tech

No that you would have a government endorsed entity create a special initiative to help H1B applicants when so many US citizens are looking for the same jobs. H1B is because you can't find a qualified citizen for the position. That makes the whole notion of H1B into a joke, the contract with the citizens is totally broken.