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đ The Early Winners of the AI War
Plus: Israel-Hezbollah war intensifies..
28 years ago today, more than 150 million people tuned inâŚ
for the announcement of the OJ Simpson trial verdict. In that half hour, America stopped working: Phone call volume dropped 58%, NYSE trading volume dropped 41%, and an estimated $480M in productivity was lost. Then the "Not Guilty" came in, and somewhere an economist's first reaction was "Hmm, I wonder how much GDP we just lost?"
đ¤ Big Tech's dominating AI race
đ˛đ˝ Mexico's drug war ceasefire?
đ Man steals ambulance on way to stolen car hearing
âMax, Max, and Owen
KEY STORY
Drug War Ceasefire
Mexicoâs new president vowed an end to the nationâs drug war while taking office
Mexicoâs âwar on drugsâ began in 2006, when the then-president deployed troops to reduce violence in a cartel-controlled state. The military was soon confronting cartels across the country, though, and Mexico has since been in the most violent period in its history
Mexicoâs last president, AMLO, promised a âHugs, Not Bulletsâ policy that tackled the âroot causesâ of cartelsâ power without using violence. That backfired, though, and crime rose
In her inaugural address, Mexicoâs new president Claudia Sheinbaum â who has promised to continue AMLOâs leftist policies â declared, âThere will be no return to the irresponsible drug warâ
Dig Deeper
Sheinbaum promised to focus her governmentâs efforts on intelligence gathering and criminal investigations instead of confrontation
Her inauguration comes amid great violence: At least 50 people have been killed since September 9, when a prolonged gun battle began between rival cartels in a northern Mexican town
KEY STORY
Israel-Hezbollah War Intensifies
At least eight Israeli soldiers were killed in southern Lebanon on Wednesday
All were between ages 21 and 23. Seven were killed in an ambush by Hezbollah in southern Lebanon, just over the Israeli border
The deaths show the conflict is intensifying: Israeli troops were operating up to several hundred meters inside Lebanon and facing guerrilla warfare
Meanwhile, Iran said its âaction [against Israel] is concludedâ unless Israel strikes back. A day prior, Israeli PM Netanyahu had vowed to do so, saying, âIran made a big mistake â and it will pay for itâ
President Biden has said the US would not support Israeli strikes on Iranian nuclear facilities
Dig Deeper
Meanwhile, further details emerged about Iranâs launch of 181 missiles at Israel
The only death was a Palestinian man at the West Bank. Most missiles were shot down by air defense systems, although one landed near Mossad (Israeli intelligence) headquarters
The US, Jordan, France, and the UK all played a role in defending Israel from that strike
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KEY STORY
Big Tech's AI Vice-Grip
Startups are struggling to compete against Big Tech in the large language model (LLM) AI race
An LLM is a type of AI program that can recognize and generate text, among other things â like ChatGPT
On Wednesday, Character.ai â a three-year-old startup that was building LLMs â told the Financial Times that it is giving up on the LLM race after Google poached its founders, hired 20% of its staff, and paid $2.7B for access to its technology
Last week, ChatGPT announced it would double prices and switch to a for-profit company in order to better compete with industry incumbents
Dig Deeper
What remains of Character.ai will shift its focus to celebrity chatbots and other projects: âThe worry for Character.ai is the things it is doing can easily be replicated by big tech firms with financial firepower and huge global reach,â Character.aiâs new interim CEO said
Former Google engineer Noam Shazeer founded Character.ai in 2021, four years after he launched Meena, a chatbot he claimed was so powerful it could one day replace Googleâs search engine. Google execs reportedly chose not to release Meena to the public due to safety and fairness concerns
KEY STORY
Helene Disrupts Global Tech
Hurricane Helene's destruction of Spruce Pine, a small town in North Carolina's Appalachian region, could disrupt the global tech supply chain
Spruce Pine is the worldâs biggest producer of quartz, an essential ingredient in semiconductor chips â which power most modern digital technology â and solar panels
Due to Helene, operations at the quartz mine in Spruce Pine have halted. It's unclear when they'll resume and when the nearby railroads will be fixed
A short-term closure would not have a significant impact, but a long-term closure would, analysts say
Dig Deeper
In a 2023 book about global materials, UK journalist Ed Conway wrote, âIt is rare, unheard of almost, for a single site to control the global supply of a crucial material. Yet if you want to get high-purity quartz... it has to come from Spruce Pineâ
Beyond quartz, Spruce Pine has a population of 2,194 and is also known for its hiking
RUNDOWN
Some Quick Stories for the Office
đ Kamala Harrisâs husband, Doug Emhoff, was accused by three women of once slapping his ex-girlfriend in public
đ¸ Reports emerged that the official who would replace NYC Mayor Eric Adams if he resigns took political donations from one of the businessman accused of orchestrating illegal contributions to Adams
đ A day after the debate, several influential news outlets suggested that JD Vance won the vice presidential debate
đşđŚ Ukraine withdrew from an eastern town it had been defending for two years. The city once had 10,000 residents
đ° ChatGPT-founder OpenAI secured a record $6.6B in fundraising, doubling its valuation to $157B
COMMUNITY
đ§ Yesterdayâs question: Who do you think will be elected president in 2028?
JD Vance, Vivek Ramaswamy, or Gavin Newsom
Max and Max for President and VP!!!
After watching VP debate last night I think Vance has great poise and could reach across both isles. Not only that, he knows what life in America truly is all about. Most politicians havenât got a clue how the real people in America live.
If Donald Trump wins this year, Gavin Newsom will be elected president in 2028. If not, probably Kamala Harris will be reelected.
đ§ Todayâs question: Whoâs the most underappreciated US President?
POPCORN
Some Quick Stories for Happy Hour
đŹ Steal, steal, Mr. Postman: A Missouri postal worker was accused of stealing $1.5M worth of checks from his mail distribution center. He is also accused of having fraudulently obtained tens of thousands of dollars worth of pandemic-related aid
đ It was an emergency! An Oklahoma man was accused of stealing an ambulance to attend a court hearing about a stolen car. The ambulance he stole had been left running and unattended
Thatâs an angry Moo Deng!
đ¨đťââď¸ A knifeâs a knife: A UK surgeon was accused of using a Swiss Army knife to open the chest of a patient after he allegedly failed to find a sterile scalpel
đ More addictive than meth: A Florida woman was jailed for more than a month after police mistook Spaghetti-Os residue for crystal meth. While she was in jail, lab tests confirmed it was Spaghetti-Os
đł Naked Trump Statue: A 43-foot (13-m) tall naked, hanging Donald Trump effigy has been erected on the road from Las Vegas to Reno. The statue â whose creators are anonymous â hangs from a crane and weighs 6,000 lbs
ROCA WRAP
RocAround the World
.Every Thursday we gather a collection of interesting stories from around the world. Todayâs are from Nepal, Spain, and Pakistan.
Growth Spurt
Mt. Everest is growing faster than normal.
Mt. Everest â known in Nepal as âSagamartha,â meaning âGoddess of the Skyâ â was formed 50M years ago when the Indian and Eurasian plates collided. That collision is ongoing, meaning Everest is still getting taller.
Now, a new study suggests something beyond that collision is boosting Everestâs height.
All of the mountains around Everest were created by the same collision, which led one group of researchers to ask why Everest is so much taller â 250 meters â than the next-tallest. In a new paper, the researchers claim to have found the answer.
According to their findings, two rivers around Everest merged 89,000 years ago, leading to an increase in erosion around Everest, thereby creating a large gorge in the mountain that reduced its weight. That, in turn, allowed Everest to grow faster than other Himalayan mountains, explaining how it became so much taller.
This growth spurt wonât last forever, though, the researchers say.
While itâs currently causing Everest to grow by between .16 and .53mm a year, âThis effect will not continue indefinitely,â said one of the studyâs authors.
âThe process will continue until the river system reaches a new equilibrium state.â
As tall as it is, even Mt. Everestâs growth will slow eventually.
Blasphemy Police
Police in Pakistan allegedly organized the killing of a blasphemer.
Pakistan was established as a homeland for the Indian subcontinentâs Muslims. Its name literally means âLand of the Pureâ (âPakâ=pure, âstanâ = land of) and is also an acronym of Pakistanâs regions: Punjab, Afghan (the northwest region), Kashmir, Indus (or, some say, Islam), Sind, and Balochistan.
As the âland of the pure,â Pakistan has strict religious laws â including the death penalty for people convicted of blaspheming Islam, such as by criticizing the prophet Muhammed. Minority religious groups are often accused of blasphemy, which can also be used as a way to settle scores. On numerous occasions, blasphemers have been lynched, either before being arrested or while in jail.
This week, Pakistanâs government accused the police of killing a doctor accused of blasphemy. A mob alleged the doctor had insulted Muhammed, prompting the burning of his clinic and his arrest. Shortly after turning himself in to the police, the man was found dead.
The police claimed the doctor had sparked a shootout. However, the government has said the police appear to have faked that in order to have the man killed.
A blasphemer is dead, but is Pakistan any more pure?
Sell Outs?
Spain is accused of selling out Venezuela's opposition leader.
In July, Venezuela held presidential elections to determine whether or not Nicolas Maduro would remain in power. Despite the governmentâs jailing and disqualifying challengers, many Venezuelans rallied around an opposition leader named Edmundo GonzĂĄlez. While election data showed that GonzĂĄlez won the election, Maduro declared victory and initiated a crackdown that forced GonzĂĄlez to take refuge in the Dutch embassy in Venezuela.
After five weeks, GonzĂĄlez relocated to the Spanish embassy. While there, the embassy admitted two of Maduroâs closest aides, who held negotiations with GonzĂĄlez. Soon after, GonzĂĄlez left for exile in Spain and Maduroâs government published photographs of GonzĂĄlez signing a document allegedly accepting Maduroâs victory.
Last week, GonzĂĄlez said that the Venezuelans admitted to the Spanish embassy forced him to acknowledge Maduroâs victory as a prerequisite for leaving Venezuela. He said the letter was signed under "coercion, blackmail, and pressure."
Various officials said left-leaning Spanish leaders were in on the plan, including one unnamed senior Brazilian official who said, âMaduro pushed [GonzĂĄlez] out of the country through intimidation andâŚthe Spanish state was the main facilitator.â
The situation has sparked a backlash among Spanish conservatives, who have called for the resignation of Spainâs foreign minister and ambassador to Venezuela. Yet the Spanish government has rejected the allegations and denies any complicity in GonzĂĄlezâs validation of Maduroâs rule.
ROCA VIDEO
Holocaust Survivor Shares Her Incredible Story with Roca
When she was just six months old, Louise Lawrence-Israels' parents hid her and her brother in an abandoned attic in Amsterdam. It was January 1943, and the situation for Jews in the Netherlands was deteriorating. They remained in that attic for nearly three years. She shared her story with RocaNews' official podcast, We The 66. We'd like to give a special thanks to Louise and the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington, DC, which allowed us to film this interview in its halls.
Make sure to subscribe to the channel!
EDITORâS NOTE
Final Thoughts
Let us know if you have any guest suggestions for We The 66! We are always looking for fascinating stories to cover. Also, if you live in the Asheville area or know anyone in that area, please send us an email. We are eager to get an on-the-ground perspective from there. Have a great day.
âMax and Max