- “The classic example in language is that a doctor is male and a nurse is female. If these biases exist in a language then a translation model will learn it and amplify it. If an occupation is [referred to as male] 60 to 70 percent of the time, for example, then a translation system might learn that and then present it as 100 percent male. We need to combat that.”The Verge interviews Macduff Hughes, the head of Google Translate. Worth reading for understanding applications of AI, the amount of bias that exists in our culture (along various dimensions), and the garbage in, garbage out problem.
- “This was a great year for iPhone customers, but perhaps not for Apple itself… Technology is outpacing customer need and phone lifespans are ever-longer, which we saw hurt Apple’s bottom line.”Keeping a tab on Apple makes sense, and this is a good place to start. Apple has had a difficult year for many reasons, but the most important reason has been a multi-year phenomenon – Apple has gotten too good for its own good.
- Ben Thompson tells it like it is:
“While I know a lot of journalists disagree, I don’t think Facebook or Google did anything untoward: what happened to publishers was that the Internet made their business models — both print advertising and digital advertising — fundamentally unviable. That Facebook and Google picked up the resultant revenue was effect, not cause. To that end, to the extent there is concern about how dominant these companies are, even the most extreme remedies (like breakups) would not change the fact that publishers face infinite competition and have uncompetitive advertising offerings.”
Worth reading for an excellent discussion of the law of conservation of profits, the Buzzfeed firings that took place recently, and the future of media. - As Tyler Cowen never tires of saying, “solve for the equilibrium“:
“The content industry spent years trying to battle piracy via all manner of heavy handed-tactics and lawsuits, only to realize that offering users inexpensive, quality, legitimate services was the best solution. Many users flocked to these services because they provided a less-expensive, more flexible alternative to traditional cable.Now, if the industry isn’t careful, it could lose a sizeable chunk of this newfound audience back to piracy by making it overly expensive and cumbersome to access the content subscribers are looking for.”
Worth reading for why piracy may yet re-emerge, a good understanding of market entry and exit, and competition and its implications. - “The market valuation of Baidu, Alibaba, and Tencent (BAT) is more than a quarter of India’s GDP.”
What a stunning statistic. The rest of the blog post is a good way to acquaint yourself with how China has seen it’s internet ecosystem grow, and where India could improve.
EconForEverybody 
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