matt.smith

OpenAI is going retail. That's the headline and it's also a bad sign. When deals like this are made available to retail, that means all the smart money has passed on the offer. OpenAI set out to raise $30 billion. The target is now $20 billion, and only $11 billion is in. The Wall Street Journal says big investors were "tepid." Investors from the UAE come next, then a "retail offering" for wealthy individuals.

France's lower house just voted to tax data by the gigabyte. 5.5 euro cents for every gigabyte sent to French users, with internet providers counting it by sender for the tax office. Britain wants a "YouTube tax" because half a million people a year stop paying the BBC licence fee. Data will be taxed by the gigabyte. Just like driving may one day be taxed by the mile.

Do you remember how, during COVID, airlines were the enforcers of government-mandated travel restrictions? Will that trend continue as the government deputizes others for enforcement? Some examples: Local and state police: more than 29,000 are now deputized for immigration work, double the number from eight months ago. Bank employees: legal protection to hold customers' accounts. Power companies and their contractors: in France, the right to shoot down drones. Prison, ATF and DEA employees: the Justice Department plans to staff polling places with them.

In May, US employers blamed AI for about 38,000 job cuts. By September it was under 4,000. Good news? Not really. The cuts didn't stop. They went quiet. Companies just stopped hiring. Planned hires in September were the weakest for any September since 2011. There's no layoff headline when the job never gets posted. That's the cut young people are taking.

Amazon spent $77 billion on buildings and equipment last quarter, more than double a year ago. Over the past year it spent $42 billion more cash than its business brought in, the most ever. The AI buildout now costs more than even Amazon earns, so the industry borrows. AI companies have sold a record $419 billion of bonds this year.

Five days ago I said the bill for leaving would come next. Italy just wrote one. Its draft budget taxes anyone with €800,000 or more in investments who moves abroad. 26% on their gains, even if they haven't sold anything. The government expects it to raise under €7 million a year. A tax that brings in almost nothing is there for one reason: to make leaving expensive. nitter.cf/mattpheus/status/21147…

Half of what Trump says is designed to mislead the markets. The other half is to deceive you.

I am old so explain to me what possible perk/advantage is sold to people that their appliances should be internet connected?

Digital ID is going global. India is showing what happens when one government database decides whether you exist. India has struck more than 130 million names off its voter rolls. Software flagged people for spelling differences, for having six or more siblings, even for having a twin. Those deleted lost food rations, benefits and passport renewals. Voting rights are relatively low stakes. Now imagine food or fuel tied to a digital ID. When that database gets it wrong, people go hungry and the appeal takes 21 years

🚨 BREAKING: Hackers are hitting supermarket freezers in 5 countries at the same time. This is what Covid looked like in week 1. A few countries. Small numbers. Nobody called it a crisis. 1/ Sweden: stores say hackers hit their cooling overnight. One says fridges and freezers were set to 50°C, and the food spoiled. ICA Kvantum stores in Sjöbo and Tomelilla were hit, plus at least 6 Coop stores. Sjöbo stayed closed through the morning, threw out all affected goods and apologized. ICA says it is working to restore normal operations. In Sankt Olof a store manager said "everything is ruined." Sweden's National Cybersecurity Centre is working on several incidents. 2/ Estonia: the CEO of cooling firm Kitman Coldtech says several clients were targeted and a large chain's freezer was raised to +50°C. It was found and addressed in about 10 minutes, no major damage. 3/ Ireland: SuperValu pulled ALL fresh and frozen food from 13 stores. Its owner, Musgrave, confirmed a "cybersecurity incident" on a "specific model" of fridge. 4/ Luxembourg: Ahold Delhaize says an "IT incident" hit fridges and freezers at dozens of its supermarkets across Luxembourg and Belgium. 5/ Belgium: more than 40 Delhaize, at least 15 Carrefour and around 5 Spar stores were hit. Cold storage climbed to 15°C. Aisles were closed off and large amounts of stock were destroyed. A notice at one Proxy Delhaize said its systems had "fallen victim to hacking." Now zoom out. A freezer normally sits at -18°C. In Estonia, hackers reportedly got in through older controllers. In France, the controller maker said many devices were obsolete or ran outdated firmware. Raise the temperature overnight and the food rots. "You can't unspoil food," one professor said. It did not start today. 3 weeks ago hackers raised freezers at more than 350 sites in France to as high as 50°C. There were fires. Intermarché's CEO put the cost at "tens of millions of euros nationwide in a single day." Sources suspect Russian involvement there. No group has claimed it. That same day an analyst said Spain, Portugal, Poland, Germany and Belgium were affected too. Covid emptied the shelves. Nobody is calling this a crisis yet. But the Financial Times already puts the ruined food at millions of euros. Officials say the Pentagon is treating late-August freezer failures on US military bases as a suspected hack. At least 6 base stores were hit. Army investigators are working with French law enforcement. 5 countries in one day. 11 countries named since August. Share this. Everyone should know about it.