STORM AHEAD
SAM ALTMAN ENTERS THE CHAT… ON FOX NEWS. The OpenAI founder and CEO gave an exclusive interview to the president-elect’s favorite(ish) Sunday news program: Fox News Sunday and signaled he’s all aboard the Trump train. More via Fox Business:
"AI is a little bit different than other kinds of software in that it requires massive amounts of infrastructure, power, computer chips, data centers, and we need to build that here and we need to be able to have the best AI infrastructure in the world to be able to lead with the technology and the capabilities," Altman told Fox News. "I believe President-elect Trump will be very good at that."
ELON MUSK WANTS TO BREAK-UP OPEN AI… Altman’s decision to do Fox came less than 36-hours after Trump’s billionaire bro Elon Musk had his attorneys file an injunction to block Altman’s OpenAI from dropping its non-profit status.
—> WHY IT MATTERS: Musk says Altman’s OpenAI and Microsoft are building an artificial intelligence monopoly.
—> WHAT THE MAIN STREAM MEDIA IS MISSING: There’s been such reductive “reporting” about how Trump world is divided between pro-Musk and the anti-Musk contingencies. Nope. It’s Musk v. Altman — a battle bigger than even Rs v. Ds for at least the next decade.
More via Forbes:
Musk’s lawyer, Marc Toberoff, filed a motion for a preliminary injunction in federal court on Friday that essentially seeks to block OpenAI from following through on a reported plan to transition from a non-profit to a for-profit business.
The motion claims OpenAI and its partner Microsoft have sought to monopolize the industry by “cutting off competitors’ access to investment capital (a group boycott)” and sharing “wrongfully obtained competitively sensitive information or coordination via the Microsoft-OpenAI board interlocks.”
SOURCE MATERIAL: Read the injunction.
FYSA: OpenAI Hopes Apple Partnership Can Give It 1 Billion Users, via Pymnts.
hello, future. it’s me, kev.
…and this is a dispatch from the digital frontier. Your one-stop shop for markets, tech, and the future. The day is 335. The year is 2024. The planet is Earth. My name is Kevin Cirilli —> LinkedIn.
We hope you had a great Thanksgiving. It’s honestly our favorite holiday. And this time of year is a good time, so enjoy… be glad.
Back to the future...
FLASHBACK: ‘CATACLYSMIC’ SOLAR STORM STRUCK EARTH 2,687 YEARS AGO, ACCORDING TO ANCIENT TREES. Scientists at the University of Arizona are studying ancient tree rings, which hold clues about rare, massive solar storms called Miyake Events. These events, so powerful they leave marks in tree growth, have happened only six times in the last 14,500 years, with the most recent in 664 BCE. Source: Space.com.
—> BOTTOM LINE: If this colossal solar storm hit our technologically advanced world the effects would have been devastating. READ IT AGAIN: Humanity is not prepared for solar storms… sun storms… and space weather…
Voyager 1. Source: NASA // AP News.
NOTABLE: NASA announced this weekend that it has resumed contact with Voyager 1 — the farthest-reaching space craft in human history that is 15.4 billion miles away from Earth.
—> NASA used radio technology that hasn’t been used in more than 40 years to resume communications with the interstellar space craft.
—> NASA launched Voyager 1 and Voyager 2 back in 1997… they took pictures of the gas planets… and then Voyager 1 used Saturn’s gravitational force to slingshot all the way beyond Pluto…
and now it’s in Interstellar space.
GEOPOLITICS
CHINA’S PLAYBOOK: SCREW U.S. WORKERS AND DODGE U.S. SANCTIONS LIKE RUSSIA. Breaking tonight in the Wall Street Journal: China has been closely analyzing Russia's strategies to dodge Western sanctions, using the Ukraine war as a live playbook. Beijing’s interagency team has produced reports for top leadership, drawing insights to prepare for potential penalties if tensions over Taiwan escalate. Chinese officials have even consulted with Moscow's financial and central bank authorities to refine their understanding of sanctions evasion tactics.
—> DIG DEEPER: This effort underscores the merging of economic policy and global power plays, marking a dangerous new era of economic warfare. As China braces for a potential conflict over Taiwan, its ability to bypass Western economic measures could blunt the impact of sanctions, reshaping how global powers leverage financial deterrence.
MORE: HOW CHINA WILL STRIKE BACK AT TRUMP, via The Economist.
Meanwhile… HONOLULU (AP) — On a two-day visit to Hawaii, Taiwan’s president Lai Ching-te met with the state’s governor and congressional representatives as part of a Pacific island tour that has already triggered criticism from Beijing.
On Sunday, China’s Foreign Ministry said it “strongly condemned” U.S. support for Lai’s visit and had lodged a complaint with the U.S. It also denounced a newly announced U.S. weapons sale to Taiwan, a self-governing island that China claims as its own territory.
And if all that wasn’t enough? The president-elect on Truth Social over the holiday weekend:
CLICK-BAIT, via Bloomberg News: Why are women less likely to use AI? Half of all men reported having used generative AI over the previous 12 months, while only 37% of women did.
OPPOSITE OF CLICK-BAIT, via Bloomberg News: How a Lab Leak Could Cause the Next Covid-Like Pandemic.
RETAIL // BLACK FRIDAY // CYBER MONDAY
SHOPPERS FIGHT BACK AS RETAILERS CRACK DOWN ON RETURNS: Shoppers splurged over the holiday weekend, but the battle begins as return season kicks off. With online return rates skyrocketing in recent years, big-name stores like Saks, Abercrombie & Fitch, and Zara are tightening the rules—think return fees and shorter windows. Shoppers aren’t taking it lying down. They’re scrutinizing fine print, obsessing over reviews, and even boycotting stores that dare to charge for returns. The fight is on: Will retailers stick to their policies, or will shopper power win out? Source: WSJ.
ONE MORE THING
Black Friday hits a record $74.4B in sales online, up 5% on last year, via TechCrunch.com.
With gratitude,
Kev
ABOUT mtf.tv’s meet the future: mtf.tv’s meet the future is a cutting-edge platform focused on addressing key challenges at the intersection of national security, technology, and business. With a mission to embrace freedom to meet the future’s challenges and opportunities, mtf.tv offers forward-thinking media offerings and forums.
