DHUnplugged #678: Manufactroversy

AI technology in the hot seat.

Apple gives in to pressure on messaging

Short week - plenty of action.

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Warm Up
- CROCs CTP is almost over - 4 days until end... Then December starts the CTP CUP 2024!
- - Back from an RCL cruise- my, have things  changed
-  Market starting to overheat (KRI +5)
- End of Year - Santa Claus Rally - on schedule
- PSI - Markets Closed Thursday and after 1pm Friday
- Big doings in Crypto World - Pied Pipers (Binance now in hot water)


Market Update
- WEIRD Action - in the AI Space - Fire, Quit, Oust and then Hire
- USD continues to fall
- VIX has a 13 handle
- BIG news - NVDA earnings

What in the?
- Sam Altman pushed out over the weekend....
--- Hair on FIRE in Silicon Valley
- - Weekend scramble - MSFT picks up Altman to hear AI Unit
- Hundreds of OpenAI employees have signed a letter demanding the board resign or face an employee exodus to Sam Altman’s new venture at Microsoft “eminently.”
- What is going on?

MORE OpenAI
- OpenAI named ex-Twitch boss Emmett Shear as interim CEO
- Commercialization of product seems to be at the heart of the matter
- Microsoft Chief Executive Satya Nadella said in posts on X that Altman would become CEO of a new research group inside the software maker, along with other departing OpenAI colleagues such as outgoing President Greg Brockman who quit following Altman's ouster.
--- Was there a deeper and darker plan here?

Hmmm- This sounds Off
- OpenAI customers are looking for the exits, signaling a possible exodus of business that could devastate the startup.
- More than 100 OpenAI customers contacted OpenAI competitor Anthropic over the weekend, a startup that has raised billions from both Amazon and Google in recent months, according to someone familiar with the situation.
- Sounds like companies trying to create a corpse and pick on  its remains or manufactroversy
- A manufactured controversy is a contrived disagreement, typically motivated by profit or ideology, designed to create public confusion concerning an issue about which there is no substantial academic dispute. This concept has also been referred to as manufactured uncertainty. 

BitCoin ETF
- I was interviewed about this very topic last week by Paul Barron (he intimated I was a boomer - look up the view)
- The US Securities and Exchange Commission has deferred making a decision again on whether to approve the first US exchange-traded fund that invests directly in Bitcoin.
- The primary US securities regulator deferred on filings from Franklin and Globe X, according to documents Friday. The deferrals come after delays for other filers because both companies had put

More Crypto Crap
- Changpeng “CZ” Zhao is stepping down as CEO of Binance as part of a major $4 billion settlement between the Department of Justice and the cryptocurrency exchange he founded, according to sources close to the discussions with the agency.
- The settlement will be with the DOJ and Commodities Futures Trading Commission; the Securities and Exchange Commission is not participating.
- As part of the settlement, Zhao will also plead guilty to anti-money laundering charges brought by the Department of Justice. He is scheduled to enter the plea in federal court in Seattle on Tuesday afternoon, the Wall Street Journal reported.
- Binance, the DOJ, CFTC, and SEC had not replied to requests for comment at the time of publication.
- The SEC charged Binance, and its founder CZ, in June with operating an unregistered exchange and misleading investors by using a Switzerland-based fund Sigma Chain, which was also owned by CZ,