In today’s issue:
- The geopolitical tinderbox
- Welcome to the club, gangster
- Teddy on a whale?
Editor’s note: Today, we bring you a guest piece by Sam Volkering from his publication AI Collision which was first published on Tuesday 16 July.
You can hear from Sam more often at AI Collision and learn more about the latest developments in AI by simply clicking here to sign up for free on Substack.
Welcome to AI Collision 💥,
Sometimes the AI story has to sideline when historic moments take place that you must pay attention to.
And when a former US president, who mid-campaign for the next presidency is shot in an attempted assassination, yeah, we kind of need to take a moment to consider the seriousness and impact of this.
Whichever side of the debate you might sit on, it is never acceptable for something like this to happen. Ever.
I think that it’s going to solidify Trump’s run at presidency, and it’ll be a decisive factor in him getting back into the White House.
In which case, it’s going to be bullish for markets, bullish for crypto, it’s going to be bullish for US domestic energy providers notably oil and gas and nuclear (but not so much for the renewables sector), US military and ultimately the US markets.
The markets are going to be fun to trade and find opportunities in leading up to it as right now, chaos seems to prevail – which leads to market volatility, which leads to opportunities in the market.
But we are also acutely aware of the tinder box of social unrest that faces America, and much of Europe and the UK right now. And that too adds a layer of volatility to the market which we also have to consider.
An inch different over the weekend, and Trump dies, and then who knows what happens to America and the markets. Again, I would expect chaos to ensue.
But he’s alive, barely, and the hysteria is only going to build from here (on both sides).
So, frankly, I don’t see things tamping down any time soon.
In America it’s only going to ramp up to the election. In Europe, well, who knows what’s going on – that’s a bit of a basket case in its own right. And then of course the UK just changed hands of government as Sunak vacated the prime ministership, handing over to Tony Blair Keir Starmer.
Can anyone say, “geopolitical risk”?
On the subject of the UK right now, whilst there is a bit of a lull in things post-election (and post another Euros football final loss for England) expect things in the UK to heat up again too.
I say that because interestingly I saw an article in The Times recently from none other than the former Labour leader, titled “Tony Blair: My advice to Keir Starmer.”
(If you’re paywalled, try dropping the URL into archive.md.)
I found this interesting in the highest order because for the first half of the article Blair goes on about voting and the other parties and the job of getting to become PM vs actually being PM.
Then about halfway through things take a surprising turn towards… artificial intelligence.
That’s right. An article about “my advice to Keir” quickly becomes an article about how The Blair Institute is pushing hard for AI and the economic growth engine of the UK.
It is quite an abrupt turn, and one we find utterly fascinating.
Not the least because just two weeks ago I wrote to you about the real puppet masters of our governments and AI future. [My colleague Nick has his own thoughts too on who is the real leader of the UK – and it’s not Keir.]
On 2 July I wrote,
… it’s fair to say who might have some input on the shaping and change-making that Labour might pursue when it comes to AI.
And I would suggest taking a look at the Tony Blair Institute site for a bit of an idea.
I went on to show you what some of the highlights of the Blair Institute have been thus far on AI and were quite clear that if anyone was going to shape Labour’s AI strategy, it would be Blair via the Blair Institute.
So, when four days after I wrote all that we get Blair penning a piece in The Times which is an AI strategy piece in disguise… well I guess I felt somewhat vindicated with my take on things.
In his piece, Blair wrote,
My institute will this week hold its Future of Britain conference. To coincide with it, we will publish detailed reports that show how the unvirtuous circle can be turned virtuous, by accelerating the application of technological innovation.
The spread of the application of AI by the private sector and its encouragement by appropriate government policy is the only answer to Britain’s productivity challenge and, over time, it can turbocharge growth.
He writes about AI in healthcare, in government, and how AI will “change everything”. It is for him, clearly, the centrepiece of the pathway forward for Labour.
Good or bad, whether he is indeed in control of the strings that Starmer dances to, or not, it is very clear that AI is going to be a theme for the UK government to try to get its growth agenda humming along.
The government will say it’s about houses and construction, but underneath it is about technology and AI, that’s what’s going to drive the country forward.
The tools are there to be taken and used. We’ll have to wait and see if they can execute any of it.
AI gone wild 🤪
Prince Charles is said to have written a personal letter to Trump after the assassination attempt.
I wonder what it said…
Dear Donald,
Welcome to the club, gangster!
Yours truly,
H.R.H Charles III
For it was 30 years ago in Sydney the King was also in the midst of an “assassination attempt”.
Well, it’s said it was a protest not an attempted assassination of the King who was then just Prince Charles. But the guy that did it was carrying a pistol (albeit a starters gun) and did get off two shots (albeit blanks) as he rushed the Prince.
Weirdly in Australia, they just wrestled the guy to the ground, and he’s now a barrister in Sydney. He’s not in a morgue with half his head missing.
I get the feeling the next time someone tries something like that in Australia, the UK, the US… anywhere, it’ll be an outcome befitting the guy that took a shot at Trump.
Anyway, it is the King that will also have a hand (somewhat) in what Blair has pushed (as per the essay earlier) through his institute and what Keir Starmer is about to introduce to the UK tomorrow.
It is tomorrow that HRH Charles III will read The King’s Speech, written by the government, delivered by the monarch at the official opening of Parliament.
It’s widely expected that in that speech Labour is going to drop some heavy AI-focused detail, even some AI specific bills to be introduced into parliament.
That’s going to set up for a lively summer sitting and debate, when the UK gets its big boy AI pants on and really starts to push forward Blair’s Starmer’s policies and agendas.
We don’t know for sure what’s coming, but we will be watching.
AI and AI-related stocks moving and shaking up the markets this week. (All performance data below over the rolling week). [Figures correct at time of writing.]
Boom 📈
- Tesla (NASDAQ:TSLA) up 24%
- Vicarious Surgical (NASDAQ:RBOT) up 32%
- Taiwan Semi (NYSE:TSM) up 10%
Bust 📉
- Cyngn (NASDAQ:CYN) down 43%
- Wearable Devices (NASDAQ:WLDS) down 8%
- Zeta Global Holdings (NYSE:ZETA) down 8%
From the hive mind 🧠
- Meet the NGF. The Next Generation Fighter from Europe. Maybe they should have called it the Defence Next Generation Aviation Fighter, or the DNGAF (if you want, look that up on Urban Dictionary). It will be scary, high tech and yes, full of AI.
- Is AI the energy drain that many suggest? Is it going to require vast amount of energy that we currently do not have? Are we going to see rolling blackouts if something isn’t done? Dunno. Maybe. AI can help energy usage, that’s for sure. But it also does require vast amounts to do its thing.
- When we say AI can help energy usage, there’s some evidence to support that. Like how LG has used AI to rapid design batteries. Not in a month, not in a week, but in just one day.
Artificial Polltelligence 🗳️ The Results
Last week, we looked at the idea of AI helping to improve government services and asked:
You don’t think it will help. A narrow margin, but a win for the “no’s” nonetheless.
Interesting again is that Blair in his The Times piece also said,
… applying AI to the processes of government can cut workforce time by 20 per cent.
So maybe AI helps to reduce the time we all waste with government services, but fundamentally the services themselves don’t actually improve.
Then again, I’d rather have the same level of incompetence but 20% faster, than things get worse.
We can hope for the best, and then just accept they’ll probably fumble the opportunity anyway!
Weirdest AI image of the day
Newly discovered photos of Theodore Roosevelt – r/Weirddallee
ChatGPT’s random quote of the day
“Honey, I forgot to duck” – Ronald Reagan
Thanks for reading, see you next time!
Sam Volkering
Editor-in-Chief, AI Collision
PS If you enjoyed this article, remember that you can sign up for free to AI Collision and you’ll receive a double dose each week on Tuesdays and Thursdays straight to your inbox. Just click here to sign up for free on Substack.
