Rumors of Google’s Demise… – Stratechery by Ben Thompson

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On that note, here were a few of our favorites this week.

1. Rumors of Google’s Demise… Since the arrival of ChatGPT two-and-a-half years ago, no one in big tech has faced more skepticism than Google. And, looking back, you can make the case that the company actually underinvested in AI infrastructure, which fits the thesis. That, however, is no longer the case: Google (and its new CFO) increased its capital expenditure plans for the second time in six months and Ben is getting pretty bullish. — Andrew Sharp
2. Content and Community. It is useful to study how the Internet impacted the content industry, because that was a harbinger for how the Internet would affect all industries. AI, though, reduces content to mere tokens, a total commodity. Is there a market there? In Content and Community I argue that any publisher that wants to avoid that fate has to re-anchor itself in the real world: whereas communities and countries created the conditions for successful publishers, publishers of the future needs to create communities with content as the totem. — Ben Thompson
3. Computers are Entertainment Machines. An enjoyably languid midsummer episode of Dithering begins with discussion of old man ergonomic concerns and Ben’s dorky epiphany for the ideal travel workstation, but in addition to the late-July riffing, the subsequent conversation about AI and Grok yields a trenchant observation on the history of computing in the modern era. To paraphrase: Apple has always styled itself as a tool-making company enabling productivity, but it wasn’t until the iPod and the iPhone—personal consumption devices that have been primarily used for entertainment—that Apple was transformed from a plucky player on the margins into the most successful hardware business in history. It’s a note worth keeping in mind as the whole world focuses on AI for productivity and tries to trace the shape of a market for individuals and businesses looking to enhance efficiency. Historically speaking, the biggest market in tech has always been entertainment, and whoever uses AI to crack that market will likely be the biggest winner of all. — AS

Stratechery Articles and Updates

Dithering with Ben Thompson and Daring Fireball’s John Gruber

Asianometry with Jon Yu

Sharp China with Andrew Sharp and Sinocism’s Bill Bishop

Greatest of All Talk with Andrew Sharp and WaPo’s Ben Golliver

Sharp Tech with Andrew Sharp and Ben Thompson

This week’s Sharp Tech video is on the fallacy of the disappearing software engineer.