Iterate Weekly - Issue 126
This week we're talking about Google summarizing articles for us, the tech recession may be over, robotaxis to fight food waste, MLB's fight to stay relevant, and "Curbing Traffic"!
Welcome to issue 126 of Iterate Weekly!
Hope you’re all doing well. This is just a friendly reminder that you can always reply directly to these messages or leave a comment on the Substack post. Feedback is highly encouraged and I’m happy to answer any and all questions that come up.
Let’s jump into this week’s stories.
🤖 Tech
Google can use AI to summarize that article for you
For the past year or so, I’ve written plenty of stories about AI helping to make us smarter. But I’d argue that this use case of AI could be making us more dumb.
Google is launching a new feature in its Chrome browser that can read and summarize articles for you.
Now, I’m all for AI helping us with tedious tasks, but this feature worries me a little. As if questionable news sources aren’t already a problem on the internet, now people may be getting their questionable news sources distilled into bullet points by an AI.
The technology used here is Google’s Search Generative Experience (SGE). It’s the force behind those clever little summarized search results that you often see. Now this same technology can filter through a full article to present you with the pertinent bullet points so you don’t have to actually read it.
Sure, I can see this being pretty useful for research projects. You can digest more information in less time. But there is also something enjoyable about reading articles in their entirety and if this really catches on it could put an end to that. And you also have to consider how much of the internet is still driven by clicks and page views. The retention time of a webpage will be much less if people are only checking the summarized bullets at the top of the page.
Right now this technology is slowly rolling out on the Google apps for Android and iOS. It will soon move over to the full Chrome desktop app where we’ll see if it really takes off in popularity or just becomes another one of the many forgotten Google features from over the years.
🎓 Education/Productivity/Work
The Tech recession may be over
Take a look at this chart above from the folks over at trueup.io.
They’ve been tracking the layoffs from the tech sector since September and have come to the conclusion that the tech recession may actually be over.
According to the data, it seems like January was really the peak of the layoffs when Amazon, Google, Microsoft and Salesforce all made the list. But since then, things seem to have settled down a bit. With June, July, and August having the lowest layoff numbers since last September.
It’s also worth noting that some of the employees who were laid off earlier in the year have found their way back to their respective companies. After laying off nearly 25% of its staff a few months ago, Meta has reportedly hired back dozens of those employees this summer.
This improved outlook has been lead my companies in the AI and Green Tech space but the impacts are being felt across the tech industry. The question now is will increased investor dollars start to ramp up the hiring phase more quickly by the end of this year or will these companies stay conservative in their hiring processes for the foreseeable future?
♻️ Health & Environment
Using robotaxis to lessen food waste
Here’s another robotaxi story that maybe got lost in the shuffle with all the recent debates in San Francisco.
But one of the ways that Cruise intends to use their legal autonomous driving vehicles in the city is to shuttle potential food waste to those in need.
Yes, maybe this is just one noble use case to try to brush all the other controversies under the rug but I still find it commendable. Hunger is a major issue in San Francisco. And even when restaurants are graciously willing to donate food scraps to soup kitchens and homeless shelters, there are still a lot of logistics that need to be sorted out.
Cruise is partnering with a company called Replate to connect restaurants to services in need of food. The pilot program is starting small with a just a few select vendors but the premise seems pretty scalable. An autonomous vehicle shows up a restaurant and sends a mobile alert to the person responsible for the food working in the kitchen. That person loads up the robotaxi with said food and taps a button on the app to confirm it can proceed to its destination. Once the car arrives at the needy establishment, someone on that end is notified and comes out to unload the goods. Fairly simple stuff.
Even if this is just a small program in one city right now, I sure hope other companies are taking notice and we can make this a very efficient way to move “rescued food” across cities for people who need it the most.
🛍 Grab Bag
Can Major League Baseball connect with young fans?
Major league baseball is a relatively niche sport on a global scale. It’s adored by many Americans but only a handful of other countries mostly in Asia and Latin America.
But even in the United States, the great American pass time had been dwindling in popularity among American youth. However, less than one season into implementing some new rules and media deals, MLB seems to be back on track to connect with their young fans.
The most noteworthy change has been trying to quicken the pace of the game. A pitch count has forced the action to continue with fewer of the lulls we’d become accustomed to in seasons past.
MLB is also taking some new chances and breaking away from some of the stagnant scheduling rules that have been in place for decades. With more interleague play, teams in cities that never used to compete against each other are getting to see opponents for the first time. The goal is for every team to play in every other team’s ballpark within a two-year span. And special location-based games are now on the schedule with games taking place in Williamsport, PA (home of the Little League World Series) and possibly Cooperstown, NY (home of the Baseball Hall of Fame).
So each game is feeling more like a special event rather than just another checkbox in a never-ending schedule of 162 games. And these shorter games make for a much better viewing product on television. Sure, there are still the occasional pitcher’s duel that can go to extra innings, but by and large, games are moving along at a zippier pace to keep up with modern attention spans.
The average age of a ticket buyer for an MLB game has dropped from 49 years old to 43 years old in just the past 3 years. And with increased MLB content easily found on YouTube and TikTok, the game is banking on a new generation of fans who are enjoying the sport in a whole new way.
💬 Quote of the Week
"Art is not what you see, but what you make others see."
-Edgar Degas
📚Content Review
Curbing Traffic
A few weeks back I wrote about how much I enjoyed reading “Building the Cycling City” by Melissa and Chris Bruntlett.
Today, I’m suggesting you check out their second book called “Curbing Traffic: The Human Case for Fewer Cars in our Lives”
The book follows their journey as Canadian ex-pats living in The Netherlands as cycling supporters. But this book breaks down several different ways that cities can improve when a majority of the transportation takes place on foot or 2-wheels rather than 4-wheels.
Here’s one great example. Yes, we know that cars help contribute to poor air quality in cities, but they have a great chapter breaking down how cars have had an impact on noise pollution in cities as well. We’ve come to accept that cities are just noisy places, but they don’t really need to be. A majority of that noise comes from cars. Whether it’s the engines or the honking horns or the wheels interacting with the pavement. Another important note is the sound made my tires rolling on pavement. It’s louder than you may realize and the sound won’t be any quieter with an electric car.
If you have dreams of living in a perfect urban utopia where car traffic is limited and people of all ages are able to safely get around in more sustainable ways, this book is certainly for you.
Thanks for reading, I’ll see you next week!
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