E156: Ivy League antisemitism, macro, SaaS recovery, Gemini, Figma deal delay + big Friedberg update

A buy-now-pay-later company whose stock surged, reflecting confidence in strong Christmas spending.

The company behind ChatGPT and GPT-4, mentioned as having new models coming to market that will compete with Gemini.

A product design software company whose $20 billion acquisition by Adobe is stalled due to UK regulatory concerns regarding innovation and competition.

A company providing data on the startup ecosystem, indicating a significant increase in companies shutting down after raising substantial capital.

Its protracted acquisition by Microsoft was cited as an example of how lengthy regulatory reviews harm capital markets.

Mentioned as an example of a company that built a core of young talent by recruiting from Google and grooming from within, highlighting a talent concentration model.

David Friedberg's firm, which incubated a gene editing business that he is now taking over as CEO.

Highlighted as the richest digital data repository on Earth, giving Google an extraordinary advantage in training AI models, especially for imaging and video.

Mentioned in the context of the protracted Activision acquisition and its General Counsel Brad Smith's skill in navigating regulatory hurdles for mergers.

Implicitly mentioned through 'Uber drivers', 'Google', and 'Airbnb' as companies where high-quality talent has emerged and is now forming new startups at reasonable prices.

Discussed as a massive asset management business that at one point was one of the largest owners of forestry in America, indicating a shift in university priorities.

Google's AI research lab, which collaborated with Google Research on the Gemini project, marking a significant internal organizational effort.

Mentioned as an example of a company where driver wages have increased significantly, illustrating broader wage growth trends.

A VC firm from Boston that abruptly shut down despite having raised a large fund and seemingly good companies in its portfolio, illustrating the tough market conditions.

Discussed in relation to its recent Gemini AI launch, its market position in search versus AI, and its internal talent and organizational structure.

Mentioned for conducting a third round of layoffs (17% of employees), illustrating public firms being rewarded for downsizing.

$20 billion acquisition of Figma is stalled due to regulatory concerns in the UK. The company also had a competitive product (XD) that failed and was shut down.

Criticized for trying to create a walled garden with CUDA and its H100/A100 chips, which are facing year-long waiting lists, thus hindering the growth of the AI economy.

Mentioned as an example of an early public SaaS company, suggesting that historical valuation data should include such firms from earlier periods.

A firm whose data on public SaaS companies (specifically Annual Recurring Revenue, ARR) was referenced to show a rebound in Q3 2023, signaling an end to the software recession.

Adobe's competitive product to Figma for web design, which was shut down by Adobe, removing it from the market.

Google's Gemini AI is referred to as a 'ChatGPT killer,' highlighting the competitive landscape of large language models.

OpenAI's upcoming AI model, mentioned in the context of the proliferation and commoditization of foundational models.

Adobe's marketing design product, which CMA argues Figma could potentially compete with in the future, despite current distinct markets.

Google's compressed, high-performance, proprietary data storage system, part of Jeff Dean's notable technical contributions.

A programming model and algorithm for processing large data sets, part of Jeff Dean's notable technical contributions.

Mentioned as an example of an infrastructure provider that, along with Azure and GCP, will profit from the commoditization of foundational AI models and hardware.

An example of a Google AI integration that, despite being 1.0, suggests a future where AI greatly increases the number of user queries/interactions and improves ad targeting.

An example of a Google AI integration that, despite being 1.0, suggests a future where AI greatly increases the number of user queries/interactions.

Google's globally-distributed and consistently replicated database, part of Jeff Dean's notable technical contributions.

Its recent rally to $44,000 was highlighted as an example of market euphoria driven by interest rate cut expectations.

A foundational model from Abu Dhabi's government, mentioned for its amazing advances and contribution to the commoditization of foundational models.

NVIDIA's proprietary parallel computing platform, criticized for creating a walled garden that stifles innovation and commoditization in AI.

Google's new multimodal AI model, showcased with impressive demos and benchmark results against GPT-4, available in Ultra, Pro, and Nano flavors.

Google's open-source machine learning framework, part of Jeff Dean's notable technical contributions.

Mentioned as an example of an infrastructure provider that, along with AWS and GCP, will profit from the commoditization of foundational AI models and hardware.

OpenAI's previous leading AI model, which Gemini claimed to outperform in 30 out of 32 benchmarks.

One of the Ivy League universities whose president appeared at the anti-Semitism hearings.

One of the Ivy League universities whose president appeared at the anti-Semitism hearings.

The UK's competition regulator, which has effectively blocked Adobe's acquisition of Figma, citing concerns about reduced innovation and competition. Criticized for its novel legal theory and protracted timeline.

The committee that held hearings with university presidents regarding antisemitism on college campuses, which sparked wide viral debate.

The newspaper from which an interesting story about tribalism impacting economic perception (expressive responding) was sourced.

Mentioned as an example of an infrastructure provider that, along with AWS and Azure, will profit from the commoditization of foundational AI models and hardware.

One of the Ivy League universities whose president appeared at the anti-Semitism hearings and gave controversial responses regarding codes of conduct.

The institution associated with Jennifer Doudna in the context of gene editing discovery.

The institution associated with George Church in the controversial discussion about the initial discovery of gene editing.

Mentioned for his famous question to voters in 1980 ('Are you better off than you were four years ago?'), which is still relevant for assessing economic sentiment.

The CTO and co-founder of David Friedberg's new gene-editing business, who came up with novel ideas for using gene editing in agriculture.

A friend mentioned for his point about Google's AI not achieving the same dominance as its search franchise, posing a challenge for monetization.

Mentioned in the context of political tribalism affecting economic sentiment, where Democrats negatively viewed the economy during his presidency.

Credited for a tweet about the mixed economic signals present in the current climate.

Antitrust advocate who a panelist expresses a desire to invite onto the podcast for a discussion on competition policy.

Credited with perfectly timing the recent bond market rally, leading the trade by going long on bonds about a month prior.

His quote about judging people by the content of their character, not by the color of their skin, was invoked to contrast with modern identity politics.

A scientist mentioned as a potential discoverer of gene editing, alongside Jennifer Doudna.

Mentioned as a previous guest who also wasn't significantly pushed back on politically, fitting the podcast's approach to guests.

A scientist mentioned as a potential discoverer of gene editing, along with George Church, for her work at Berkeley.

The most important person in charge of Google's AI projects, described as a preeminent technical light and an 'absolute animal' for his work on TensorFlow, MapReduce, BigTable, and Spanner.

His strategy to block news links in Australia and Canada due to government overreach was invoked as a potential countermeasure for Adobe/Figma against the CMA's decision.

The president of Harvard University who faced repeated questions about whether chants advocating for genocide violated Harvard's code of conduct.

Mentioned in the context of political tribalism affecting economic sentiment, where Republicans negatively viewed the economy during his presidency.

Microsoft's General Counsel, admired for his "political genius" and ability to successfully navigate deals through regulatory scrutiny, citing examples like Nuance, Mojang, GitHub, LinkedIn, and Activision.

Cited as an example of a controversial speaker who has been chased off campus at various schools, highlighting the perceived hypocrisy of free speech standards.

A conservative political commentator whose recent interview was discussed as intellectually interesting despite potential disagreement with his views.

Mentioned as a 'rapacious capitalist' and a large owner of forestry in America, parallel to Harvard Management Company.

Mentioned as someone whose government's actions in Gaza can be criticized without being labeled antisemitic, emphasizing the distinction between political criticism and hate speech.

The gene editing system that enabled specific DNA edits for the first time, unlocking a new era in biology and enabling novel therapeutics and discoveries.

An AI model from Abu Dhabi's government, mentioned for its interesting promise and contribution to the commoditization of foundational models.

Used as an analogy to describe the feeling of interacting with Gemini, likening it to conversing with the 'Data' character from the show.

The movie used to humorously compare the CMA's predictive approach to antitrust to the 'precogs' in the film, highlighting its subjective nature.