It looks like the U.S. will enter a new age of advanced semiconductor chip manufacturing now that the TSMC’s Arizona facility will start producing chips. The geopolitical implications for Taiwan, as highlighted by an analyst in this IEEE Spectrum article, could be substantial:
[TechInsights semiconductor analyst Dan Hutcheson] says having TSMC fabs outside Taiwan is good for the company’s customers and good for Taiwan. The island’s “ silicon shield” against China has done its work—TSMC’s dominance in advanced chip manufacturing gives the United States and other countries a reason to support Taiwan. But going forward, Hutcheson says the shield could turn into a target. If the United States and its allies are increasingly dependent on chips made only in Taiwan, then China can cause major damage to the U.S. economy by targeting Taiwan. Hutcheson says TSMC’s geographical diversification will make its home country less of a target. The company has also opened a fab in Japan and is building one in Germany.
I wonder if we can draw a parallel with the U.S. becoming a net exporter of petroleum, reducing reliance on Middle Eastern oil. Similarly, as the U.S. invests in domestic semiconductor manufacturing, what might this shift mean for geopolitics?
I’ve listened to a lot of podcasts this year, but it’s often hard to recall what stood out. So, I went back to my favorite app, AntennaPod, and picked some highlights worth sharing:
To combat dropping user engagement on older social media platforms, it appears Meta/Facebook plans to add AI-generated users that will post AI-generated content. Below is a quote from an article in the Financial Times:
“We expect these AIs to actually, over time, exist on our platforms, kind of in the same way that accounts do,” said Connor Hayes, vice-president of product for generative AI at Meta. “They’ll have bios and profile pictures and be able to generate and share content powered by AI on the platform . . . that’s where we see all of this going,” he added.
A social network for interacting with bots, called SocialAI, already exists. However, on a platform where both function concurrently, differentiating between them will likely become increasingly difficult. In the end, a stale, lifeless feeling already pervades the internet. Drowning in information overload, perhaps only bots will survive, quietly processing through the digital debris.
A new video from Le dessous des images discusses “micro-dramas,” short (1-2 minute) soap opera-style videos made for and shown on platforms such as Reelshorts. Webtoons also came to my mind; their monetization and distribution—short, cliffhanger-filled chapters, some locked unless paid for—are similar.
Years ago, I dropped Spotify due to the increasing number of playlists, like those for jazz, featuring little-known artists with single-track covers of popular songs. It was obvious to me that Spotify populated the playlists with songs as a way to reduce royalty payments to artists. This process, internally known as the “Perfect Fit Content program,” is the subject of a recent Harper’s Magazine article by Liz Pelly. This excerpt from her article perfectly captures how the process is changing our relationship with music.
A model in which the imperative is simply to keep listeners around, whether they’re paying attention or not, distorts our very understanding of music’s purpose. This treatment of music as nothing but background sounds—as interchangeable tracks of generic, vibe-tagged playlist fodder—is at the heart of how music has been devalued in the streaming era. It is in the financial interest of streaming services to discourage a critical audio culture among users, to continue eroding connections between artists and listeners, so as to more easily slip discounted stock music through the cracks, improving their profit margins in the process. It’s not hard to imagine a future in which the continued fraying of these connections erodes the role of the artist altogether, laying the groundwork for users to accept music made using generative-AI software.
In Gimpo, a Starbucks opened in the South Korean border observatory, close to where I live. #NotTheOnion
The South Korean city of Gimpo said hosting Starbucks was part of efforts to develop its border facilities as a tourist destination and said the shop symbolizes “robust security on the Korean Peninsula through the presence of this iconic capitalist brand.”
A mountain town in the Italian Alps, surrounded by steep mountains that obscure sunlight, erected a large mirror in 2006 to track the sun’s trajectory and bounce sunlight into the town square. The mayor, in an interview quoted in this Vice article, explained the project’s humanistic aims superseded its scientific foundation:
Although created to solve a very practical problem, the project has an almost poetic side to it too. “The idea behind the project doesn’t have a scientific basis, but a human one,” former mayor Midali said in a 2008 interview. “It comes from a desire to let people socialise in winter when the town shuts down due to the cold and the dark.”
You can also watch a video (in Italian) of the mirror’s inauguration here.
While living in northern Italy, I was impressed by the value, quality, and dependability of the rail service. For example, my ride on the high-speed Italo train from Bologna to Rome was one of the best train journeys I’ve ever had. An article in Railway Technology highlights the surprising success of private railway companies and the introduction of high-speed rail services like Italo.
Despite Italo shifting Trenitalia’s 100% market cap […] Trenitalia actually saw an increase in revenue during that period. High-speed rail was, and is, competing with low-cost flights, and despite the shift in market cap between the two train operators, they were actually winning more passengers from air to rail overall than from one another. […] The growth of both Italo and Trenitalia is also thanks to the fact that Italo’s growth was due to induced demand: if you build it, they will come. Or, you could say that the market for low-cost high-speed rail didn’t exist until Italo created it.
ARTE’s Le dessous des images released a video about the CrowdStrike-related IT outages in July 2024. This video traces the history of the “blue screens of death” in Windows and explores how it relates to larger themes present in speculative fiction.
An article in the Korea Herald I read today discussed the use of funeral wreaths as a protest metho in South Korea. These wreaths, traditionally used for funerals, are now being sent with messages to convey dissatisfaction.
One recent example of this is K-Pop fans who protested against a dispute between artists and their management company.
In reaction, some fans sent funeral wreaths to the agency’s headquarters in Seoul with messages such as “Hong Seunghan Out,” “Remove Hong Seunghan,” and “Riize is Forever Six” to protest his return.