FOLLOW THE MONEY
S&P INDEX PREDICTS A KAMALA WIN? More in POLITICO: The S&P 500’s performance in the run-up to Election Day has historically been a strong indicator of whether the incumbent party’s candidate will retain control of the White House — correctly forecasting all but four presidential races over the last 96 years. The index’s recent rise is suggesting that Vice President Kamala Harris, who took over the Democratic ticket from President Joe Biden this summer, could be bound for victory. Full story via POLITICO here.
—> FORTUNE: The stock market points to a win for Kamala Harris—unless it’s 1968 or 1980 all over again. The outliers are Dwight Eisenhower’s victory in 1956, and the respective losses of Hubert Humphrey and Jimmy Carter in 1968 and 1980. Full report here.
MARK CUBAN, THE CLOSER?
MARK CUBAN SHOWS DEMOCRATS WHAT THEY’VE BEEN MISSING. Mark Cuban is all in on Kamala Harris. POLITICO’s Victoria Guida reports: “He’s exactly the kind of spokesperson that Democrats have leaned away from in recent years.”
FOX NEWS: Trump campaign blasts top Harris surrogate Mark Cuban for 'insulting' pro-Trump women.
QUOTABLE: “China kicked Trump’s ass.” — Mark Cuban to UFC President Dana White. Source: Mediaite.
ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE
OPENAI CHALLENGES GOOGLE IN SEARCH ENGINES. Shirin Ghaffary for Bloomberg:
OpenAI is adding a new set of search features to its flagship product ChatGPT, escalating the artificial intelligence startup’s challenge to Alphabet Inc.’s Google.
The option, called ChatGPT Search, will let the chatbot’s users search for timely information much as they would on the web and get responses with in-line attribution to news publishers and other data sources, OpenAI said Thursday.
NOTABLE: No plans for ads in ChatGPT search, via Mashable.
SEE FOR YOURSELF —> ChatGPT’s official search launch site here.
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 305. The year is 2024. The planet is Earth. My name is Kevin Cirilli —> LinkedIn.
Can you touch your toes? You should be doing hamstring stretches everyday, per GQ.
Back to the future...
Photo by RYAN COLLERD/AFP via Getty Images
ELON MUSK MOVES $1 MILLION VOTER LOTTERY LAWSUIT TO FEDERAL COURT — FOR NOW. More via CNBC: “A lawsuit by the Philadelphia District Attorney’s office seeking to block Elon Musk and his political action committee from continuing to award $1 million prizes to swing state voters will be heard — for now at least — in federal court in Pennsylvania.”
FUTURES
APPLE: Apple Sales Hit Quarterly Record as iPhone Business Rebounds, via WSJ. The company’s smartphone, which accounts for half its revenue, saw renewed growth ahead of the release of Apple Intelligence this month.
META // MICROSOFT: AI’s Spending Champs Won’t Be Tapping the Brakes. Both posted strong revenue growth and beat profit targets, but each stock still fell 3% after hours. Source: WSJ.
META: ZUCK’S THREADS SHOWS SIGNS OF LIFE. Threads has surged to reach “almost 275 million” people, Mark Zuckerberg said… Meta AI passed the 500 million user mark, Zuckerberg told shareholders this week. Source: Engadget.
BOEING: Boeing Skips China’s Biggest Airshow Amid Spending Curbs, via Bloomy.
AMAZON: Amazon Projects Strong Sales, Profit for Holiday Shopping Season, via Bloomy.
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ENERGY
PETER THIEL LOOKS TO POWER A.I. ENERGY BOOM. Peter Thiel’s Founders Fund is investing $500 million in equity into Crusoe Energy… a data center start-up that’s powering artificial intelligence data centers. Source: Financial Times (paywall).
A.I. THIRST TRIGGERS U.S. WATER CRUNCH: A report by JPMorgan and ERM highlights that the U.S. water supply, already strained, faces more pressure from AI's growth. AI needs significant water for cooling data centers and making semiconductors, intensifying water shortages as climate change disrupts rainfall patterns. Source: Bloomberg.
FCC TO PROBE UNDERWATER CABLES: WASHINGTON, Oct 30 (Reuters) - The Federal Communications Commission said on Wednesday it will vote next month to review its oversight of the global network of undersea communications cables that handle nearly all the world's internet traffic and national security issues.
DISPATCH FROM DELCO
PATRICK MURPHY ON THE FUTURE OF ENERGY IN BATTLEGROUND PENNSYLVANIA. Murphy views Pennsylvania’s energy production as a keystone of both national security and job growth. "Pennsylvania is second in the nation in natural gas production, and our LNG exports are up 136% in four years," he said. "Energy independence isn’t just about us—it’s about enabling allies to push back against Russia, especially as global security threats rise.” Source: mtf.tv’s meet the future.
TECH // CRIME
NOTABLE: University of New Haven uses artificial intelligence to detect guns on campus, via NBC Connecticut.
QUOTABLE: "This is an extremely serious problem that will only get worse as the tech gets better, so it is essential that the private sector work with law enforcement on gun safety solutions." — Nick Suplina, senior vice president for law and policy at Everytown for Gun safety. Source: USA Today.
TAKEAWAYS
KARA SWISHER… LT. GEN. (RET.) MARY O’BRIEN… AND KEV (me) MEET THE FUTURE AT G.W. Our mtf fellowship, a volunteer program for young professionals in security and tech, hosted a panel at George Washington University Wednesday. Read mtf media fellow Charley Roth-Douquet’s write up on the event here. Led by managing director Anna Maag (GW ’26), young pros from CFR, FP4A, and other D.C. groups gained insights on tech and election security from Swisher + O’Brien. Here's my three takeaways:
Trump and Musk's unlikely bond nearly fizzled out, with Musk initially disliking Trump—until he didn’t. Now, Musk’s support for Trump is evident as Election Day nears. Swisher’s unique insights into Musk and Silicon Valley’s elite set her apart. Read more in her book, Burn Book.
Young people are key to solving digital disinformation. O’Brien, an expert in cyber and AI, observed that while past generations easily separated fiction from reality, today’s older adults struggle—yet young people can still tell fact from fiction. HOPE!
The cyber war has already begun.
NOTE: mtf’s fellowship program have been the most humbling and rewarding privilege I’ve had in my career.
ONE MORE THING
QUICK Q: WHAT’S THE NEWS INDUSTRY TO DO? , co-founder Substack, weighs in on the Jeff Bezos / Washington Post drama:
What’s the news industry to do? Well, one path is to hope that stupendously wealthy individuals who believe that newspapers and magazines are still essential to a functioning democracy choose to prop them up—a path that Bezos, Marc Benioff (Time magazine), Patrick Soon-Shiong (the L.A. Times), and Laurene Powell Jobs (The Atlantic) are currently on.
That can work for a few, and for a time. But at some point, assuming you are willing to put up with the prickly conflicts of interest, you run out of people who fit into the tight part of that Venn diagram, and even then, their willingness to absorb financial bleeding isn’t infinite.
Another path is to stop looking to the past for hope. When the fire has ripped through the forest, new trees can grow.
Read the full post here.
REMEMBER VINE?
COMEBACK KID: SHAWN MENDES WALKED AWAY FROM STARDOM. HE’S READY TO TALK ABOUT IT. “He had also been on the road since he was launched… as a star of Vine, the now-defunct micro-video platform… he’s approaching his return with care, shoring himself up with support and family… He was lucky, he knew; he had therapy, friends and family. He clung to an adage: If you’re driving in the dark, all you need to see is 10 feet ahead of you to eventually find your destination.” Source: NYT.
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.
