Rami's Readings #70 - AI, Canada & Japanese 💾
The latest on AI, LLMs, Generative AI Patents, GraphRag, Canadian Digital Services Taxes, Japanese Floppy Disk War, and more.
Welcome to Rami’s Readings #70 - a weekly digest of interesting articles, papers, videos, and X threads from my various sources across the Internet. Expect a list of reads covering AI, technology, business, culture, fashion, travel, and more. Learn about what I do at ramisayar.com/about.
🤖 AI Reads
WIPO Patent Landscape Report on Generative AI
Notes: Not surprising to me to see Chinese patents overrepresented.. I argue multiple times in this newsletter that Chinese ML talent is significant and underestimated. See The Global AI Talent Tracker.
Samsung Stock Hits Three-Year High on Profit Leaping 15-Fold
Notes: Secondary impact of the AI stock craze.
Microsoft / GraphRag: A Modular Graph-Based Retrieval-Augmented Generation System
Notes: From Microsoft Research. Not my organization (see disclosure).
APIGen: Automated Pipeline for Generating Verifiable and Diverse Function-Calling Datasets
Notes: Synthetic data is a perfect use case for function-calling training.
Searching for Best Practices in Retrieval-Augmented Generation
Notes: Interesting paper.
We demonstrate that multimodal retrieval techniques can significantly enhance question-answering capabilities about visual inputs and accelerate the generation of multimodal content using a "retrieval as generation" strategy.
💼 Business Reads
Canada Enacts Digital-Services Tax Amid US Reprisal Threat
Notes: I suspect that only the largest digital companies generate significant revenue from the Canadian market, so it seems the scope of this tax will be limited. Hence why the tax seems unfairly targeted. Also, I don’t think this tax will be that impactful for Canadian tax revenues. In my experience, Canada is not exactly the most desirable export market for most software companies. The regulation is too heavy, the tax burden too high, and the revenue isn’t all that significant. The more serious question one should be asking is if the tax revenue outweighs the threat of US reprisal? A reciprocal tax on Canadian digital services companies would hurt Canadian tech much more
Canada Is a Force in AI Research. So Why Can’t the Country Commercialize It?
Notes: I asked this question multiple times in this newsletter, but received no clarifying answer. When I also left Canada, this statement from Bergen was also true:
The government already had a top-down strategy that it wanted to implement and didn’t really care what CEOs and leaders of domestic firms were actually needing in order to be successful.
Government favoritism in the tech industry (especially in Montreal) was rampantly obvious. If you had the political connections (or lobbying budget), your company was showered with government investment with little oversight. My Canadian friends know exactly which company I am writing about.
🎨 Culture Reads
Japan Wins 2-Year 'War on Floppy Disks,' Kills Regulations Requiring Old Tech
Notes: I was touring an MIT Chemistry Lab and saw a machine running Windows XP to control lab equipment. Ancient tech exists even in the most modern of places.
Some believe Japan's reliance on older technology stems from the comfort and efficiencies associated with analog tech as well as governmental bureaucracy.
I also get comfort from analog things.
The World’s Most Liveable Cities in 2024
Notes: Seattle ranks highly! 😊
The Economics of the Tennis v Pickleball Contest
Notes: I love Tennis, and I’m not so bothered by the pickleball players. Who is up for a game in Seattle?
Signing off from Redmond.