Machines of Loving Grace / Farming on Mars, How We Will Ride There ? / EU Inc Petition / Can AI Scaling Continue? / EU VC and Crypto data

Hello there ??

I'm Edo, and welcome to the 65th issue of Tech Readings of the Week!

Every Sunday, I curate a digest of tech insights for non-tech folks and aspiring founders. From data-driven trends to tech leaders' opinions, with a pinch of startup wisdom, I help you cut through the noise and stay ahead of the curve.

Ready to dive in? Let's go! ??

In Today's Issue ??

1. Machines of Loving Grace, AI according to Dario Amodei
2. Farming on Mars, Will it be Possible?
3. Can AI Scaling Continue Through 2030?
4. Raising VC capital is Sales, How to Deal With It
5. European Q3 VC Report and a16z State of Crypto

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??EU Inc, sign the petition??

Let’s unite the startup ecosystem in Europe. A petition calling for a standardized EU-wide legal entity for startups, signed by more than10.000 people including Index, Seedcamp, Slush, Patrick Collison, Paul Graham, etc.

?? Sign here

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???Essays & articles

• Machines of loving grace - how AI could transform the world for the better (Dario Amodei)
• The quest to figure out farming on Mars - if we’re going to live on Mars we’ll need a way to grow food in its arid dirt. Researchers think they know a way (MIT Technology Review)(€)
• Meta’s new AR glasses come at a high cost - Orion forgoes affordability for innovation (IEEE Spectrum)
• How will we ride to Mars? - now that we’re ready to go to Mars, we must ask ourselves: How are we actually going to get there? (Uncharted Territories)
• AI’s real dollar cost - Don't let current AI spending confuse you (Exponential View)
• The Cybathlon: Bionic athletes compete for the gold - in the international competition, individuals with disabilities test cutting-edge devices to complete everyday tasks, highlighting the advancements in assistive technologies (Knowable Magazine)
• The second $100B AI company - the first AI company to eclipse $100B in market cap will be a consumer AI company (Digital Native)
• ‘Smart’ insulin prevents diabetic highs, and deadly lows - in animals, the molecule automatically reduces blood-sugar levels without causing them to dip too much (Nature)
• New interface uses light to scale up Quantum Computers - "It’s the first time in the history of the quantum industry where a company has built the equivalent of a network interface card" (IEEE Spectrum)

???VC & startups stuff

• Network density - building a network, whether it is a social network, a real world network, or some other kind, the value of the network goes up massively as density increases (AVC)
• The empty suit executive - the type of leaders who is above the work, who wants to manage the work, and who scoffs at the idea of doing the work themselves (Tyler Hogge)
• The rise of software delivered services - there is a big shift underway in the software industry. Fast, cheap, and powerful multi-modal models have massively expanded the scope of what's possible with software (Sean Linehan)
• The end of venture's free lunch - AI as the catalyst that will take venture back to its roots of truly disruptive innovation (Mike Annunziata)
• Startup investor ranks have fallen another 25%, can they come back to life? - more venture firms than ever are becoming zombies (Pitchbook)
• London AIM market should be axed for failing to win tech floats, say think-tanks - a report by The Tony Blair Institute has proposed the measure after it concluded that London’s markets are “not fit for purpose (Financial Times)(€)

???Reports & Data

• Can AI scaling continue through 2030? - exploring AI scalability: overcoming power, manufacturing, data, and latency constraints for 2e29 FLOP training runs by 2030 (Epoch AI)
• European Venture Report Q3 2024 - European venture capital dealmaking is set for another year of decline with deal value projected to come in 9.7% below 2023’s annual total (Pitchbook)

• These 10 charts show startup funding downturn continues despite AI’s ascent - funding in Q3 totaled $66.5 billion, down 16% quarter over quarter and 15% year over year, with the decline led by a decrease in large, late-stage rounds (Crunchbase News)
• Accel 2024 Euroscape: AI Eating Software - AI driving value creation in the tech public markets and driving the recovery of venture funding, up 27% vs. 2023 (Accel)
• State of Crypto 2024 - new data on swing states, stablecoins, AI, builder energy, and more (A16z Crypto)

?? Founder's Toolkit

TRW's collection of free fundraising resources for founders!

• How startup studios build and grow startups - unlike incubators, accelerators, or traditional VCs, they are involved from ideation to scaling, providing comprehensive support and resources (OpenCV)
• VCs don’t really ghost you. They are just prospects. Treat them as such - one of the most frustrating things for founders is when VCs “ghost” them (SaaStr)
• The emerging startup playbook - Eight learnings from the next generation of software (Growth Unhinged)

???ICYMI

• SpaceX’s Starship test ends with a remarkable ‘chopstick’ booster catch - (The Verge)
• Chip stock selloff persists in Europe, Asia After ASML warns of slower recovery - (Wall Street Journal)(€)
• Microsoft and OpenAI’s close partnership shows signs of fraying - (New York Times)
• EU considers including Elon Musk’s business empire to calculate potential X fine - (Financial Times)(€)
• Perplexity introduced internal knowledge search and spaces - (Perplexity AI)
• Sam Altman's Worldcoin becomes World and shows new iris-scanning Orb to prove your humanity - (TechCrunch)
• Uber considered potential acquisition of Seattle travel giant Expedia - (Geekwire)
• Amazon goes nuclear, to invest more than $500 million to develop small modular reactors - (CNBC)
• Meta is laying off employees at WhatsApp, Instagram, and more - (The Verge)
• Google strikes a deal with a nuclear startup to power its AI data centers - (Engadget)
• SpaceX tells FCC it has a plan to make Starlink about 10 times faster - (Ars Technica)
• The Internet Archive is back as a read-only service after cyberattacks - (The Verge)

???Shitpost of the week:

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Thanks for reading, and I'll see you next week.

Edo