Humane AI pin + more things

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Humane AI pin

The Humane AI pin has been hyped for a while. Now it’s been launched as a product with what seems to be a small initial batch based on a waiting list and drop type distribution model. I thought I would wait a bit to post on the Humane AI pin and let the dust settle.

The Humane AI pin is an interesting take on a personal device. particularly with its ‘AI experience’ switching – picking the right smarts for the right task. This seem to fulfil the kind of vision that the likes of Kevin Kelly have outlined in the past. It also seems to access communications services like messaging services and the audio design in the product seems interesting. There is also a projected interface of sorts on the Humane AI pin. It’s an interesting alternative direction to the spatial computing vision of Apple’s Vision Pro.

The Humane AI device falls down in being such a network-centric device. Although it has onboard machine learning technology, its reliance on a relationship with T-Mobile US’ cellular network is problematic. Cellular connectivity is not ubiquitous. It is one of several device visions that have been articulated over the years, but what I still don’t understand is the ‘why?’

What’s going to be more interesting is what the Humane AI pin does next?

Beauty

How Chinese influencer Li Jiaqi’s outburst turned the poster child of C-beauty into a laughing stock

China

China’s first deficit in foreign investment signals West’s ‘de-risking’ pressure | Reuters

US law firms rethink China future amid economic woes, data crackdown | Reuters – Of the 73 largest U.S. law firms with a presence in China, 32 shrank their attorney presence in the last decade, according to a Reuters review of data from Leopard Solutions, which tracks law firm hiring. In Beijing, 26 of the 48 largest U.S. law firms drew down their presence since 2018. Worthwhile reading with: US consultancy Gallup withdraws from China | FT – market research was sensitive when I worked in China. Gallup’s business was closer to consulting than a pollster to get around these challenges. Interesting that they can no longer thread the needle in China

China’s family-run businesses face succession challenges – Nikkei Asia – more than 80% of China’s 1 billion private enterprises are family-owned, with about 29% of these businesses in traditional manufacturing. From 2017 to 2022, around three-quarters of China’s family businesses are in the midst of a generational leadership transition

Economics

Fading prosperity and global shipping surplus pose challenges | DigiTimes

Maersk cuts 10,000 jobs as shipping demand falls – BBC News

Energy

Shipowners urged to protect vessels against electric-car fires | FT

Russia’s weaker hand undermines case for Power of Siberia 2 gas link to China | Reuters

FMCG

Post-pandemic party’s over as Americans shun cognac | FT – Half of all cognac in the US is drunk by African Americans, a demographic that has been disproportionately affected by the cost of living crisis, according to analysis by Bernstein. The skew to African American consumers is in part due to the fact that French spirits producers ignored the segregation mandated by America’s Jim Crow laws and “cultivated the African American market segment in ways that other producers did not,” said David Crockett, professor of marketing at the University of Illinois Chicago. French spirits producers at the time marketed to Black-owned and targeted publications. As early as the 1970s the advertisements conveyed a message of upward socio-economic mobility, said Naa Oyo Kwate, a sociologist at Rutgers University

Sprite Ads Starred Rappers When Hip-Hop Was Young

25-Year Lasagna, Special Ops Oatmeal, and the Survival Food Boom | WIRED

Finance

The BofA $136B Dynamite Stick – Puck – treasury bond related losses.

Health

Did the Carpal Tunnel Epidemic Ever Really End? – The Atlantic

Plain packaging on cereal? The obesity crisis is far more complex | Comment and Opinion | The Grocer

Hong Kong

The Hong Kong Activist Who Called Washington’s Bluff – The Atlantic – The United States praised Joshua Wong and pledged itself to Hong Kong’s freedom. But when China cracked down, Wong found himself with nowhere to go….

Wong wanted to enter the U.S. consulate. The diplomats told him that only the rooms in the St. John’s Building were on offer, and that the office tower did not offer the protection of a diplomatic compound. In Washington, Ngo took the matter up with one of Hawley’s policy advisers, reasoning that the ultra-Trumpian senator might have the president’s ear. Responding at 1 a.m., Hawley’s staffer promised to pass the message on to his boss, but nothing changed. On July 1, the national-security law passed. The diplomats’ positions were the same: Wong couldn’t enter the consulate and couldn’t apply for asylum from outside the United States. Wong and Ngo knew the rules. But they were asking for the same pathway to haven that had been granted to Fang and Chen…

The focus in Washington has moved on from Hong Kong to Taiwan. The island is under constant military threat from Beijing, which claims the territory as its own, even though the Chinese Communist Party has never controlled it. But for those in Taiwan who cherish their democracy, Hong Kong’s story offers a cautionary tale. The United States gave Hong Kong’s cause its vocal backing, then abandoned the city in its time of greatest need.

Bored Ape crypto fans report ‘eye burn’ after Hong Kong party | FT – this comes on the back of safety problems of a Mirror concert at a local arena in July 2022.

This city never slept. Now with China tightening its grip, is the party over? | CNN Business

Asia is much more important to U.S. interests than the Middle East | Noahpinion – East Asian cities like Tokyo, Seoul, Singapore, and until recently, Hong Kong are arguably the world’s most magnificent — hyper-dense and efficient and bustling with life and creativity and personal freedom, but also extremely safe. East Asia is a wealthy region with high quality of life across the board, rivaled only by North Europe and parts of the Anglosphere. Maciej Cegłowski called them “Zeroth World”, and I think that is an apt description. – the burn for Hong Kong on this is real

Ideas

The challenges of sustainable societies and solar punk.

The one where Chandler Bing’s impenetrable job defined a generation | FT – André Spicer, Executive Dean of Bayes Business School, suggests a new category altogether: a “Chandler Bing job”, one indifferent to finding meaning, “low on existential rewards but relatively high on extrinsic rewards, like pay and promotion”. Chandler’s stoicism more broadly reflects Gen X’s tacit acceptance of their lot: the forgotten latchkey kids squished between the Baby Boomers and the Millennials. Jennifer Dunn, author of Friends: A Cultural History, says he “showed that we might not all find fulfilment in the first, or even the longest lasting job we will ever have.” Compared to today’s employers who are increasingly concerned about making their younger colleagues happy, few cared about Gen X’s work-life balance.

Korea

Korea’s brutal economy.

Luxury

Skims and Swarovski Announce Collaboration | BoF – Austrian crystal company Swarovski announced on Wednesday its partnership with the shapewear and clothing brand SKIMS on a collection of body jewellery, intimates and ready-to-wear, co-designed by SWAROVSKI’s creative director Giovanna Engelbert and Skims founder Kim Kardashian. The range, which launches Nov. 7 on Swarovski’s flagship store on Fifth Avenue in Manhattan as well as online

Morgan Stanley’s Top 20 Swiss Watch Company Ranking for 2023 | Professional Watches

Former Vogue editor Carine Roitfeld says ‘no one’ wanted to dress Kim Kardashian | The Independent