AI

Claude shows limited ‘self-awareness’

Colin Henderson

I found this fascinating insight from Anthropic. Image source: Reve / The Rundown ———- The Rundown: Anthropic researchers published a new study finding that Claude can sometimes notice when concepts are artificially planted in its processing and separate internal “thoughts” from what it reads, showing limited introspective capabilities. The details: Specific concepts (like “loudness” or “bread”) were implanted into Claude’s processing, with the AI correctly noticing something unusual 20% of the time. When shown written text and given injected “thoughts,” Claude was able to accurately repeat what it read while separately identifying the planted concept. Models adjusted internally when instructed to “think … Continue reading Claude shows limited ‘self-awareness’

banking, Economics, sociology

Ancient Rome Survived High Inflation – Bloomberg

Colin Henderson

I came across this wonderful piece on inflation and beating it. Nothing is new in the world. Source: Bloomberg 2024 – Bloomberg membership required. _________________________________________________________ Ancient Rome Survived High Inflation. We Can, Too There was more to life in the empire than gore, sex and succession. The economic challenges look similar to our own — with a big dose of brutality.  July 2, 2024 at 3:00 PM EDT By Daniel Moss Daniel Moss is a Bloomberg Opinion columnist covering Asian economies. Previously, he was executive editor for economics at Bloomberg News. Worried that inflation is coming down too gradually? The Romans had a … Continue reading Ancient Rome Survived High Inflation – Bloomberg

AI, banking, Business Models, productivity

OpenAI Hires Ex-Goldman Staff to Help Cut Down Junior Bankers’ Grunt Work

Colin Henderson

In this Article By Omar El Chmouri October 21, 2025 at 6:06 AM EDT Takeaways by Bloomberg AI OpenAI has more than 100 ex-investment bankers helping train its artificial intelligence on how to build financial models as it looks to replace the hours of grunt work performed by junior bankers across the industry. Participants are paid $150 per hour to write prompts and build financial models for a range of transaction types, including restructurings and initial public offerings, and have been granted early access to the AI being created. The project, code named Mercury, involves a flexible job where contractors are expected … Continue reading OpenAI Hires Ex-Goldman Staff to Help Cut Down Junior Bankers’ Grunt Work

AI

Europe Needs Strategic Approach to AI, Says UK Minister

Colin Henderson

Bloomberg Tech 2025 is underway in London. Speakers throughout the day will include the CEOs of CoreWeave, Helsing and OnlyFans. A key theme this year is the future of European tech sovereignty, as the region looks to boost home-grown investment. UK AI Minister says Europe needs to be strategic about technology. NatWest’s chair says the bank is aiming to have 12,000 engineers working on AI. New Updates 3m ago05:17 Haythornthwaite is asked how he views the UK’s standing on the world stage — London’s reputation has taken a bit of a beating of late because of the city’s lackluster capital markets. … Continue reading Europe Needs Strategic Approach to AI, Says UK Minister

AI

JPMorgan – 30 AI linked stocks generated $5tn in wealth

Colin Henderson

JPMorgan Chase & Co. analysts revealed that 30 artificial intelligence-linked stocks generated approximately $5 trillion in wealth gains for US households over the past year, with these companies now representing about 44% of the S&P 500’s total market value.• The wealth surge is driven by technology giants including Nvidia , Microsoft , Apple , Amazon , Alphabet, and Meta Platforms, with nearly half operating in semiconductor and hardware sectors.• The $5 trillion wealth increase translates into an estimated $180 billion boost to annual consumer spending, equivalent to 0.9% of total consumption, according to economists Abiel Reinhart and Michael Feroli.• JPMorgan’s … Continue reading JPMorgan – 30 AI linked stocks generated $5tn in wealth

AI, Business Models, productivity

Comprehensive Report on the Evolution of LLM and Potential Predictions for Future

Colin Henderson

I have a new report, and first draft is available. Comprehensive Report on the Evolution of LLM and Potential Predictions for Future Executive Summary This report examines the evolution of Large Language Models (LLMs) from their origins in statistical language modeling through the transformative Transformer breakthrough to current state-of-the-art systems, with projections for development through 2030. The research synthesizes findings from academic literature, industry whitepapers, and regulatory frameworks to provide insights into technical innovations, regional approaches, organizational strategies, and future trajectories. Key findings indicate that LLMs have progressed from basic pre-training architectures to sophisticated systems incorporating reinforcement learning, synthetic data … Continue reading Comprehensive Report on the Evolution of LLM and Potential Predictions for Future

AI, productivity

The Progress of AI Outpaces Implementation Speed (BNY Mellon)

Colin Henderson

Referring to recent posts and the ponderously slow adoption of operational deployment of AI targetted at efficiency, effectiveness and productivity. This was highlighted in the recent MIT paper entitled The GenAI Divide and covered here on this blog. The central theme is how companies are going to great lengths to encourage employees to use AI as illustrated by Deloitte deploying Anthropic to 470K employees. These are admirable efforts to educate employees and I have no doubt there will be benefits in terms of new ideas to operationalise AI at the company level. Hoever the pace of change is not encouraging … Continue reading The Progress of AI Outpaces Implementation Speed (BNY Mellon)

AI

Perplexity weekly AI review Oct 13th

Colin Henderson

Perplexity.ai weekly review Over the past week (October 6–13, 2025), major developments across AI, gadgets, and startups defined the technology landscape. Key innovations came from Amazon’s fall hardware event, Samsung’s upcoming trifold phone, and several billion-dollar startup rounds emphasizing energy storage, reusable rockets, and AI-assisted software tools. Big Tech Developments Amazon unveiled a full suite of Alexa+-powered devices at its annual fall event, including the redesigned Echo Studio with spatial audio, new Echo Show smart displays, the Kindle Scribe Colorsoft (its first color e-reader), and upgraded Ring and Blink security systems featuring facial recognition and pet tracking.[1]Google received top AI … Continue reading Perplexity weekly AI review Oct 13th

AI, Growth, productivity

Bain – Many pilots, but not enough scaling with lack of clarity on objectives

Colin Henderson

Commentary from Greg @ Bain & Co. The theme is similar to what is becoming clear that business is deploying AI on employee desktops, but there is much less operational deployment targetted at productivity growth. ______________ Every other week we’ll provide updates on the latest value levers and trends operators are asking us about in Technology and Software. If there are things you want to hear more about – shoot us a note. Let’s start with the easy answer: Yes, AI is real and we have clients achieving 10-25% EBITDA improvement (top and bottom line). However, for every success story … Continue reading Bain – Many pilots, but not enough scaling with lack of clarity on objectives

AI

Dr Henry Shelvin

Colin Henderson

Fascinating chap deep into the philosophical limits and possibilities for AGI. Just watched him being interviewed on BBC. ————————- Henryshevlin.com I am a philosopher of cognitive science and AI ethicist, with specialisations in artificial intelligence and animal minds. Recurrent topics in my work include consciousness, creativity, intelligence, perception, short-term memory, and the psychological measurement of pain and suffering. I am the Education Director of the Leverhulme Centre for the Future of Intelligence, responsible for our two Masters levels courses, and Co-Director of the Kinds of Intelligence research programme. Publications “Relating to Machines.” Oxford University Press Handbook of Generative AI (Eds. Andreas Engel, Sarah Hammer, Philipp … Continue reading Dr Henry Shelvin