RightSignalWeek in review
Week in review
Nov 2 – 8
The US midterms turned public opposition to AI data centres into votes, and markets reacted with the worst tech sell-off since 2020. Anthropic's filing showed how much the AI build-out costs and warned that AI may soon speed up its own development. The memory chip shortage kept raising prices and squeezing makers of phones and PCs, and the Binance hack and the Nvidia spy report showed security risks at the top of the industry.
The stories that mattered
- US voters reject AI data-centre building in midterms as Democrats win the HouseVoters in more than 30 places backed limits on data centres, and stricter AI laws now look more likely, which set off the week's market turmoil.
- Tech stocks have their worst day since 2020 as investors worry about AI after the midtermsThe Nasdaq 100 lost a record $2.3 trillion in one day as investors started doubting the AI trade after the election, and Asian markets fell the next day.
- Anthropic's filing shows $17B quarterly revenue, a $23.3B loss and $895B in commitmentsThe filing showed huge revenue growth next to a $23.3B quarterly loss and $895B in compute commitments, a clear picture of what the AI build-out costs.
- Safety group METR says Anthropic's AI is now improving about twice as fast as a year agoAn outside review found Anthropic's models improving about twice as fast as a year ago, backing up its own filing's warning about AI speeding up its own development.
- Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang admits an affair with a suspected spy; board opens inquiryNvidia's CEO admitted a relationship with a suspected Chinese spy, and his board opened an inquiry while the US already worries about AI chips reaching China.
- Crypto exchange Binance says its $6.3B hack began with fake job interviewsNorth Korean hackers stole $6.3B by starting with fake job interviews and one tampered download, and the stolen funds are now being moved.
- Apple expects holiday sales to grow but margins to shrink as memory chip costs riseApple expects lower margins and is stockpiling memory as AI data centres take chip supply, part of a shortage that also hit AMD, Raspberry Pi and PC buyers.
- Suspected hackers heat supermarket fridges to 50C across seven European countriesHackers heated supermarket fridges in seven European countries, which shows how exposed control devices can be used to disrupt the food supply.
Concepts this week
- Luhn algorithmConcept of the day, Mon, Nov 2
- Two's complementConcept of the day, Tue, Nov 3
- Rolling hashConcept of the day, Wed, Nov 4
- Time-based one-time passwordsConcept of the day, Thu, Nov 5
- Locality-sensitive hashingConcept of the day, Fri, Nov 6
- Content-addressable storageConcept of the day, Sat, Nov 7
- Copy-on-writeConcept of the day, Sun, Nov 8