Web/Tech

Explaining, at some length, Techmeme’s 20 years of consistency

Colin Henderson

Please clap for Techmeme [ed] if you subscribe to any internet news I recommend it be Techmeme. I’ve followed since the beginning and it’s my goto news on web and trends. Techmeme turns 20 freaking years old today. This is our self-congratulatory post marking the occasion. Please share, retweet, and offer your sincerest congratulations. And thanks to so many of you for reading us all these years. Now if Techmeme is new to you, here’s a short definition: Techmeme is a news aggregator highlighting the latest news reports that tech industry leaders need to be aware of, placed alongside contrasting … Continue reading Explaining, at some length, Techmeme’s 20 years of consistency

banking, Regulations, US

A New Wave of Bank Mergers Is Just Getting Started

Colin Henderson

Rebecca Ungarino President Donald Trump’s looser financial regulation has helped send bank mergers to a four-year high—and more are on their way. Risks and opportunities abound. Look no further than Comerica, the 34th-largest U.S. lender. It began life as the Detroit Savings Fund Institute, an early provider of savings accounts for customers who enjoyed a perk that was novel in the 1840s: earning interest on deposits. Over time, the firm combined with competitors, rebranded, and moved its headquarters to Dallas. These days, ComericaCMA+1.44%—the product of decades of mergers and centuries of reinvention—finds itself at a critical juncture in what could be the … Continue reading A New Wave of Bank Mergers Is Just Getting Started

AI, AI_factories, AI_research, Infrastructure

A comprehensive comparison between ‘compute’ and ‘inference’ in AI

Colin Henderson

An integrated analysis of technological, infrastructural, and operational factors including AI Factories, Data Centres, development practices, chips, and overall infrastructure. The following report—structured in APA format—presents a formal, detailed comparative overview, incorporating relevant business, academic, and technical sources.Source: Perplexity.ai Compute and Inference: Definitions and Context Compute generally refers to the computational resources required for both training and running AI models, whereas inference is the process by which a trained model makes predictions or decisions on new data. Compute is foundational for both the intensive process of AI model training and the comparatively lightweight process of model inference. AI inference utilizes … Continue reading A comprehensive comparison between ‘compute’ and ‘inference’ in AI

AI

Canada to launch public AI registry amid federal expansion

Colin Henderson

Published 8 hr. ago kitchener.citynews.ca Summary Canada’s federal government plans to launch a public registry to track its growing use of artificial intelligence across departments, as officials acknowledge there is currently no “full and complete list” of AI projects underway. Prime Minister Mark Carney’sadministration is pursuing an ambitious AI-driven efficiency agenda, with Finance Minister François-Philippe Champagnedirecting colleagues to identify 15% program spending cuts by 2028-29 while expanding AI deployment. Current government AI applications span diverse functions, from Fisheries and Oceans Canada using AI to locate lost fishing gear and Agriculture Canada processing satellite data for crop predictions, to Transport Canada screening high-risk air cargo and the Canada Revenue … Continue reading Canada to launch public AI registry amid federal expansion

AI

ANTHROPIC

Colin Henderson

💰 Anthropic’s $183B valuation after massive funding Image source: Gemini / The Rundown The Rundown: Anthropic just announced a new $13B funding round that values the company at a whopping $183B, nearly tripling its worth from six months ago and coming amid significant growth from Claude Code and enterprise accounts. The details: Anthropic now serves over 300,000 enterprise customers, with accounts worth $100k+ in annual revenue growing sevenfold in 2025. The company’s Claude Code assistant now generates $500M in annual revenue, with usage up 10x in three months. The investor list notably includes QIA, the first Middle East participant, as hinted at by CEO Dario Amodei in … Continue reading ANTHROPIC

AI

Several significant technology trends, product launches, and innovations have emerged over the past week, illustrating the dynamic pace of advancement across big tech, startups, and consumer electronics.theverge+2

Colin Henderson

Major Technology Trends Artificial Intelligence Integration: AI continues to be a core focus, with big tech companies like Microsoft launching their own in-house AI models for enterprise integration.theverge Chip and Hardware Developments: Alibaba is reportedly developing a new AI-focused chip as hardware innovation heats up to support new applications.cnbc Fusion and Clean Energy: Commonwealth Fusion Systems secured an $863 million Series B2 round, demonstrating traction in advanced fusion technologies.vcnewsdaily Notable Product Launches Apple and Google Updates: Apple teased the Powerbeats Fit earbuds and anticipated iPhone 17 launch, while Google’s Phone app introduced ‘Calling Cards’ similar to iPhone’s Contact Poster, and … Continue reading Several significant technology trends, product launches, and innovations have emerged over the past week, illustrating the dynamic pace of advancement across big tech, startups, and consumer electronics.theverge+2

AI

Indications that AI is replacing traditional search

Colin Henderson

Search using Google, Bing, etc has been the predominant means of locating any type of information online since the beginning, and really took off following arrival of the large search engines. AI has introduced a different and more conversational method of locating information and browsers are able to use extensions, or in case of Perplexity produced new browser (Comet) that is built around AI. This report from Sensor Tower highlights the shift that is now becoming evident. “This growth signals more than just curiosity; it’s a shift in behavior.” I am deliberately avoiding the word “chat”: AI is so much … Continue reading Indications that AI is replacing traditional search

AI

NVIDIA Introduces Spectrum-XGS Ethernet to Connect Distributed Data Centers Into Giga-Scale AI Super-Factories

Colin Henderson

CoreWeave to Deploy NVIDIA Spectrum-XGS Ethernet With Scale-Across Technology August 22, 2025 Hot Chips—NVIDIA today announced NVIDIA® Spectrum-XGS Ethernet, a scale-across technology for combining distributed data centers into unified, giga-scale AI super-factories. As AI demand surges, individual data centers are reaching the limits of power and capacity within a single facility. To expand, data centers must scale beyond any one building, which is limited by off-the-shelf Ethernet networking infrastructure with high latency and jitter and unpredictable performance. Spectrum-XGS Ethernet is a breakthrough addition to the NVIDIA Spectrum-X™ Ethernet platform that removes these boundaries by introducing scale-across infrastructure. It serves as a third … Continue reading NVIDIA Introduces Spectrum-XGS Ethernet to Connect Distributed Data Centers Into Giga-Scale AI Super-Factories

AGI, AI

The classical key to the AI revolution

Colin Henderson

Source Engelsberg ideas AUGUST 21, 2025  JOHN TASIOULAS THEMES: HISTORY, TECHNOLOGY Since the time of Socrates, philosophy has operated as a small and badly funded intellectual insurgency against the hype and nonsense that inevitably afflicts our public discourse. Today, there is no greater prompt for hype and nonsense than AI technology. One important variant of AI hype centres on democracy. On a pessimistic view, prominent in circles such as the World Economic Forum, AI threatens the annihilation of democracy. AI algorithms supercharge the spread of misinformation and disinformation online. They intensify political polarisation through micro-targeting and social-media echo chambers. All this corrodes … Continue reading The classical key to the AI revolution

Economy, Growth, US

Monetary Policy 5 Yr Fed Framework Review

Colin Henderson

August 22, 2025 Chair Jerome H. Powell At “Labor Markets in Transition: Demographics, Productivity, and Macroeconomic Policy,” an economic symposium sponsored by the Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City, Jackson Hole, WyomingWatch Live Over the course of this year, the U.S. economy has shown resilience in a context of sweeping changes in economic policy. In terms of the Fed’s dual-mandate goals, the labor market remains near maximum employment, and inflation, though still somewhat elevated, has come down a great deal from its post-pandemic highs. At the same time, the balance of risks appears to be shifting. In my remarks today, … Continue reading Monetary Policy 5 Yr Fed Framework Review