Good morning. Driven by artificial intelligence, the world's second-largest economy grew by 4.5% between July and September.
The good news is that manufacturing and high-tech exports—particularly those related to artificial intelligence—performed well. The bad news is weak domestic consumption, a sluggish real estate market, and the ongoing global trade tensions we keep hearing about.
By the way, China’s economic outlook is far from clear—in a twist, this is partly linked to artificial intelligence. Like investors in the U.S., Chinese investors are concerned that billions of dollars invested in AI infrastructure may not deliver the promised returns.
In the words of The Sandlot: “Remember, kid, revenue gets remembered, but profit never dies.”
More tech news below. Have a productive day. — Andrew Nusca
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Key News
Major financial institutions are joining Sam Altman’s World initiative to adopt the “Proof of Human” badge to combat fraud and deepfakes.
In recent years, the inability to distinguish between bots and humans has led to billions of dollars in fraud losses, as AI agents trick companies into providing goods and services.
Now, a solution appears to have emerged.
On Sunday, World, the company co-founded by OpenAI CEO Sam Altman and developing an orb device that uses iris scanning to create “proof of humanity,” announced that video conferencing service Zoom and several major financial firms, including Bain Capital and VanEck Funds, are adopting its technology to block malicious bots.
During a Zoom call, this technology works by displaying a small blue badge on the screen for individuals who have been securely verified through World ID, indicating that they are human and who they claim to be.
Of course, the company can determine when such proof is required and reserve this level of review for sensitive calls.
The technology underlying the World ID verification system is controversial, but its supporters argue that it is both secure and privacy-preserving. The system relies on orb devices, which capture users' iris images—a unique biometric identifier for each individual—to generate a permanent and tamper-proof identity record.
The World orb device is about the size of a soccer ball and may seem like something out of a sci-fi dystopia to some. However, these devices rely on advanced encryption technology that does not create a centralized database of personal information; instead, they encrypt scanned identities in a way that companies cannot access.
When individuals need to verify their identity on Zoom or other platforms, they use their smartphone camera and an app to cross-reference it with the encrypted orb record. (Meanwhile, financial companies place orb devices in their offices to allow employees who have never previously scanned their irises with the device to complete registration.)
According to Tiago Sada, Chief Product Officer at World, consumer reactions to orb are similar to those seen when biometric security measures like Apple’s Touch ID were first introduced—these technologies require time to build trust.
"People understand that you don’t have to hand over your photos to Sam or any of us," said Sada. "Everything is open source and auditable." — Jeff John Roberts
Blind box
We may have reached a point where models systematically favor their alignment recommendations.
Click here to read the full article.
Quick Overview
- Anthropic has pledged to allocate 5% of its shares to a new "public benefit" fund.
- Industry executives say only seven to ten neoclouds will survive.
- Reports indicate that investors are objecting to Nscale's $30 billion IPO valuation.
- Apple's HomeView was originally planned for release in 2024.
- Disney has agreed to hire approximately 60 Character.AI employees and pay them a total of about $180 million over three years.
- Susan Dell is managing the Dell family’s $10 billion philanthropic initiative.
- "Magic state preparation" on Google's Willow quantum processor is effective: "a crucial step toward scaling quantum computing for practical applications."
Final blow
We know how technicians view artificial intelligence. What about economists? The Financial Times has compiled an overview.