Weekend Briefing No. 511

Corporate governance and the shakeup at Open AI.

Nov 25, 2023

Welcome to the weekend.

I hope you had an amazing time with your friends and family over Thanksgiving.

We’re officially in the Christmas season. I’m obsessed with Christmas music. Over the years, I’ve built out the Ultimate Christmas Playlist. It’s 4+ hours of my favorite versions of the best Christmas tracks. I hope it brings you joy in this season.

Prime Numbers

150 – During this test flight, Starship reached an altitude of nearly 150 kilometers, placing it in space before it exploded. This was a big milestone representing solid progress.

5.1 – In 2021, a new study found that birth rates among U.S.-born mothers jumped 5.1% above pre-COVID projections. It looks like there was a bit of a COVID-19 baby boom.

24 – The U.S. death rate from cancer among people up to the age of 19 has dropped 24% from 2001 to 2021, according to new Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) research.

Shake Up @ Open AI

Last weekend was dramatic as Sam Altman lost his job amid ChatGPT's runaway success. While details are still emerging, OpenAI's convoluted corporate structure seemingly led to conflicting motivations. As someone who designs governance for dual non-profit/for-profit entities, it's a reminder to balance mission and commercial incentives. Well-intentioned people often overcorrect to lock out business interests in the name of mission protection. But that groupthink can ironically undermine the mission in the long run, as we may have seen at OpenAI. The key is striking the right balance.

AI and Jobs

New study shows artificial intelligence (AI) reducing freelance work. A working paper finds freelancer demand dropped immediately after ChatGPT's release on a major platform. The methodology is straightforward — a clear example of AI automating a job. But questions remain about the broader impact: 1) Did freelancers find new work or become unemployed? 2) If they found new roles, were they similar to freelancing? 3) Did new jobs pay more or less? Overall, any technology shifts occupational demand, destroying some jobs while creating others. Measuring the long-run balance is extremely difficult. Still, this clearly illustrates AI displacing human work in one area. More research is needed on how displaced workers adapt. SSRN (18 minutes)

Picasso’s $139 Million Sale Reveals Opportunity

Just last week, an iconic Picasso painting shattered expectations when it sold for a whopping $139 million at auction. Impressive, considering it was purchased for around $1 million in the late 1960’s. But there’s a group of investors also celebrating this sale: 61,000 users of one investment platform. Why? Because that platform, called Masterworks, enables anyone to invest in blue-chip paintings by artists like Picasso and Banksy for just a fraction of the cost. This way, not only the billionaires of the world can benefit from the stability of the art market – despite interest rate hikes, stock market volatility, and the risk of recession. To date, Masterworks investors have enjoyed 16 sales out of its portfolio, each of them profitable, with recent sales seeing net annualized returns of +17.6%, +21.5% and +35%. As a special partner, Weekend Briefing readers can skip the waitlist to join. Skip Waitlist. (Sponsored)

#clientbrag

Clinical Microbiomics (Denmark) and CosmosID (US) merge to form microbiome powerhouse. Together, they will create the first global microbiome service company with state-of-the-art labs, advanced bioinformatics, AI, and systems biology expertise meeting GxP standards. The new company aims to help scientists worldwide understand the microbiome's influence on health across humans, animals, plants and the environment. Having worked with CosmosID for four years, I'm excited to continue supporting them post-merger. It's a huge milestone and credit to CosmosID's CEO Manoj Dadlani. CosmosID (4 minutes)

Exxon and Electric Vehicles

Exxon hedges its bets with a new lithium mine. The energy giant plans to start mining lithium in Arkansas by 2027, aiming to become a top global producer at ~100K tons annually by 2030. Though best known for fossil fuels, Exxon scientists actually invented the lithium-ion battery now used in electric vehicles (EVs) back in the 1970s, before stopping battery production shortly after. With lithium usage expected to surge 40x from 2020 to 2040 as drivers go electric, Exxon is looking to the future. Its U.S.-mined lithium could undercut today's international imports on cost, making EVs more affordable and further accelerating adoption. So Exxon's lithium bet could be a self-fulfilling prophecy. Snacks (4 minutes)

The Chicago Principles

Over the past few years, there have been effects of Cancel Culture on institutions that require viewpoint diversity to function, with universities being the pre-eminent example. Cancel Culture, whether from the right or the left, tends to cause the condition Jonathan Haidt called “structural stupidity.” In 2014, the University of Chicago set out some principles about freedom of expression on campus, now called “The Chicago Principles.” Here is an excerpt. The university’s fundamental commitment is to the principle that debate or deliberation may not be suppressed because the ideas put forth are thought by some or even by most members of the university community to be offensive, unwise, immoral or wrong-headed. It is for the individual members of the university community, not for the university as an institution, to make those judgments for themselves, and to act on those judgments by openly and vigorously contesting the ideas that they oppose. Indeed, fostering the ability of members of the university community to engage in such debate and deliberation in an effective and responsible manner is an essential part of the university’s educational mission. University of Chicago (6 minutes)

Artistic Leaf Raking

Land artist Nikola Faller traveled to a pair of European parks (in Croatia and Hungary) to rake fallen leaves into a variety of patterns. Check out these photos of artistic leaf raking. Kottke (1 minute)

Should We Work Together?

Hi! I’m Kyle. This newsletter is my passion project. When I’m not writing, I run a law firm that helps startups move fast without breaking things. Most founders want a trusted legal partner, but they hate surprise legal bills. At Westaway, we take care of your startup’s legal needs for a flat, monthly fee so you can control your costs and focus on scaling your business. If you’re interested, let’s jump on a call to see if you’re a good fit for the firm. Click here to schedule a one-on-one call with me.

Check out my other newsletter, Founder Fridays — A Friday morning briefing helping founders scale smarter.

Weekend Wisdom

Gratitude is not only the greatest of virtues, but the parent of all the others. -Cicero

Weekend Briefing