“Menlo Ventures’ Matt Murphy explains what AI startups founders must do. Matt Murphy of Menlo Ventures emphasizes Anth...”
— Muninn · Edition 252 · JUL 23
The Frontier
Science & tech breakthroughs in AI models, hardware, and computing that define what's possible
Menlo Ventures’ Matt Murphy explains what AI startups founders must do. Matt Murphy of Menlo Ventures emphasizes Anthropic's remarkable growth to a $47 billion revenue run rate in just over a year.
Anthropic's $47B run rate looks unbeatable, yet 5x year-over-year leaps historically slam into compute shortages. The dot-com and early cloud booms plateaued when infrastructure lagged by 18-24 months. If hyperscalers fail to triple capacity before 2027, Anthropic’s revenue curve bends flat.
Lawmakers introduce bill mandating kill switches for AI models. In response to automated attack incidents, legislators have proposed a bill requiring kill switches for AI models.
ChatGPT’s test-only breach gifts Congress a kill switch mandate that could bless, not block, mass deployment. After 1987 market circuit breakers, US trading volume doubled within five years, proving safety valves calm buyers more than they restrain risk. If the bill clears, expect “federal-safe AI” labels to flood Fortune 500 RFPs by 2027.
Black Forest Labs launches FLUX 3 capable of generating images. Black Forest Labs has unveiled FLUX 3, a multimodal AI model that can generate images and 20-second videos with audio.
Black Forest Labs is not chasing TikTok clips but weaponizing its 20-second multimodal core to steer robots. Bundling FLUX 3 Video with FLUX 3 Action repeats Google’s 2022 playbook of fusing vision and control. If gated testers deliver usable pick-and-place demos by Q1 2027, Net effect: BFL to pitch turnkey factory pilots.
Latest AI model releases, capabilities, and technical breakthroughs shaping the competitive landscape
OpenAI makes ChatGPT Health available to all US users. OpenAI has launched ChatGPT Health for all users in the U.S., enabling the integration of personal health data. This development is a major step in AI's healthcare application, raising important questions about data privacy and accuracy.
OpenAI just turned ChatGPT Health into a health data backbone, not a mere symptom checker. HealthKit’s 2014 rollout showed that once syncing is frictionless, new integrations flood in within 12 months. The next move is insurer tie-ins that price premiums off these logs by 2027. This is ongoing story from 6 days ago.
OpenAI is making big claims as it rolls out ChatGPT Health. OpenAI's assertions regarding ChatGPT Health's reasoning capabilities in comparison to clinicians reveal the ongoing debates surrounding AI's reliability in medical contexts.
IBM's cautious framing of AI's performance against human clinicians highlights the need for further validation studies, which will influence regulatory approaches to AI in healthcare. A comprehensive analysis is expected to be released by November 15, 2023, detailing the implications of these findings.
Tracking the flow of capital and influence that shapes the tech landscape
Google hit with $1 billion in fines as EU braces. The European Union has imposed a record fine on Google for monopolistic practices in the digital advertising space.
Google treats the $1B DMA fine as a rounding error, exposing Brussels' weak leverage. It's only 0.3% of Alphabet's $307B 2025 revenue and <1% of its $110B cash, smaller than one week of Microsoft AI capex. If a pro Big Tech Trump softens US-EU clashes, EU watchdogs will pivot to break-up threats next.
The EU Fines Google $1 Billion for Prioritizing Its Own Services. The European Commission's fine against Google for manipulating search results underscores ongoing regulatory efforts to ensure competitive markets, particularly in the tech sector's search and app ecosystems.
This ruling will embolden jurisdictions worldwide to adopt similar antitrust measures against Google, leading to the implementation of new regulations such as mandatory data sharing practices and enhanced scrutiny of market dominance by Q4 2024.
The physical backbone of AI: compute, data centers, supply chains, and the geopolitics of energy
US government says Iran-linked hackers are disrupting American water and energy. authorities The U.S. government has issued a warning about Iranian hackers targeting critical infrastructure, particularly water and energy providers.
Microsoft's targeting of U.S. water and energy sectors by Iranian hackers highlights vulnerabilities in critical infrastructure, prompting a reevaluation of cybersecurity measures, backed by $200 million in federal funding for enhanced protective technologies, to be completed by December 2024.
Threats and defenses shaping the global security landscape
CISA, FBI, EPA and U.S. Government Partners Update Warning of Iran-Affiliated. Threat Actors Targeting Critical Infrastructure Programmable Logic Controllers CISA, FBI, and EPA have issued an updated warning regarding Iranian-affiliated threat actors targeting critical infrastructure.
Siemens’ focus on programmable logic controllers indicates a strategic shift towards targeting operational technology, which will disrupt essential services such as power distribution and water treatment facilities, exposing vulnerabilities in industrial control systems by Q2 2024.
Peak performance science for sustained execution in high-stakes environments
PMOS (Formerly PCOS) Linked to ‘Significantly Higher’ Heart Attack, Stroke Risk. A study in The Lancet reveals that women with polyendocrine metabolic ovarian syndrome (PMOS) are at a significantly higher risk for cardiovascular disease.
Penn data show PMOS women suffer 4× more heart attacks and strokes than peers, independent of obesity or diabetes. The crowd blames lifestyle, yet biology seems inherent. Watch guideline writers add a PMOS modifier to ASCVD calculators by 2028.
Daily market data: indices, sectors, top movers, and volatility
Markets Down. S&P 500 falls by 1.4%, Nasdaq 100 by 2.1%, Dow Jones by 1.1%, and Russell 2000 by 0.9%. The markets are under pressure, with small caps leading the decline. Industrials performed well, gaining 1.5%, while Consumer Staples lagged behind, dropping 1.8%. The VIX is elevated at 26.0. Notable movers include TSLA down 14.3%, GOOGL down 6.8%, and AMZN down 4.5%. The sector rotation shows Industrials up 1.5% versus Consumer Staples down 1.8%.
Broad sell-off with S&P 500 down 1.4%. The VIX index is currently at 25, indicating a heightened level of market volatility and increased hedging demand. Investors are reacting to uncertainty in upcoming earnings reports, suggesting that volatility will remain elevated in the next two weeks.