Macro investor Raoul Pal warned that accelerating technological advances could fundamentally reshape jobs, businesses and economic systems over the next four years, while currency debasement continues to erode consumers' purchasing power.

Even after being in use for two decades, self-checkout lanes at grocery stores have not taken over. In fact, they witnessed a modest decline in popularity last year.

Per the WAPO paywalled article, one major survey found that:

"33 percent of supermarket transactions took place at self-checkout last year. Down from 35 percent the previous year."

Quote:

"After two decades of treating self-checkout as the inevitable future of shopping, many are experimenting with how much automation customers and stores actually want."

A bill to bolster the nation’s unemployment insurance program reflects the concern — and the risks — in Washington.

AI does not understand accountability, trust, culture, unwritten rules, ethical trade-offs or fairness, all of which shape reputational risk and ultimately drive revenue growth and profit margins.

The bottom line is that the AI story will be decided in the S&P 493, not the Mag 7, and so far, there is no evidence that revenue growth or margins are improving outside the tech sector.

This matters, as its the assumption the opposite will be true, that is driving the AI stock market bubble.

I've no doubt about AI's ultimate revolutionary potential, but I strongly suspect it will all happen in a post-AI bubble crash world.

No Signs of AI Payoff Outside the Tech Sector

The AI company warns its technology could threaten jobs and even humanity. For investors, those risks create a strange reason to buy in.

An old idea springs anew as a chorus of influential voices predicts that AI may trigger crises of vast magnitude

AI products that have shut down, changed direction, or struggled after the initial hype. The reasons range from high running costs and unreliable performance to larger platforms building similar features into their own services. One interesting point is that a useful feature doesn’t necessarily make a sustainable business. A tool can solve a real problem and still struggle if the same capability becomes available in an app people already use. Will this push the next generation of AI startups to solve more specialized problems, or are we heading toward a future where a few companies provide most of our AI tools? Which standalone AI tools would you still use if your phone or browser offered something similar?

Certain viruses attack bacteria and can sometimes clear antibiotic-resistant infections. Researchers said they had tailored a virus to attack one patient’s illness.

The CEO of Google DeepMind discusses solving intelligence, giving away AlphaFold, and why he believes AGI is just around the corner.

We're all trying to find the guy who did this.