Todd McGee

🌉 San Francisco's Surprising Comeback: From 'Doom Loop' to Renaissance? Recent data suggests that San Francisco, once trapped in a pandemic-induced 'doom loop', is showing strong signs of recovery. Here's what's changing: 📈 Positive Trends: - Population Growth: Net gains over the past two years, with domestic in-migration positive for the first time since 2012. - Housing Market: Median home sale prices up 1.2% YoY to $1,427,500 in June. - Job Growth: The Bay Area added 7,400 jobs between January and June. Downtown Revival: Foot traffic beyond typical work hours has recovered to over 90% of pre-pandemic levels. - Crime Reduction: Property crime down 32% and violent crime down 14% in Q1 2024 compared to Q1 2023. - AI Boom: The city is positioning itself as a hub for the AI revolution. 🚧 Ongoing Challenges: - High office vacancy rates - Homelessness and drug crisis - Lagging tourism and business travel 🔑 Key Initiatives: - "Vacant to Vibrant" program offering free rent to businesses in empty storefronts - Increased police patrols and encampment sweeping - Crackdown on open-air drug dealing 💡 Expert Insight: "The rising AI empire is giving the city a new edge. Funding, talents, and culture related to the AI revolution will help the city turn the corner." - Lu Chen, Senior Economist at Moody's Analytics 🤔 What's Your Take? Are these positive trends sustainable, or is it too early to declare a comeback? How can other cities learn from San Francisco's recovery strategies? What role will AI play in reshaping urban economies, particularly in tech hubs? https://lnkd.in/gCnPCBRU

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Reading Ted Mabrey's article on FDEs at Palantir (https://lnkd.in/dEeweq2g) I'm completely in agreement with his point that you've never "finished" building a product, thus your mission is to expand the "perimeter" of your product as fast as possible. IMO one can see this as a bit like the universe: it's always expanding. Not only do you want to keep expanding the use cases your product addresses, but there are ever more use cases popping up. Going further, if we imagine the number of use cases as a linear dimension, and the effort required as the surface area, unsurprisingly adding more use cases to your already complex product takes much more than linear effort... So not only is a product never finished, it becomes ever harder to expand its perimeter. Thus, building an ecosystem of products (from partners, or a well-integrated solution of one company's products) is likely to work better than one "super app.". The former is a collection of small spheres, each of which can expand to targeted incremental use cases with modest effort, versus the latter which is a huge and very hard to grow.

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The harsh reality of CA politics -- the state government works for Big Tech, not the citizens. Some good quotes here. Newsom's stated goal about workable "guardrails" is nonsensical as it's currently physically impossible. That's a bit like saying they are pursuing a way to apply DDT safely to agriculture.... no such method existed. Newsom and CA have zero cred on anything relating to responsible or safe AI. The question is whether that extends to Harris. I honestly don't know, but her history in defending SV and conflicting relationships that include her brother-in-law suggests that it would be difficult for her to regulate Big Tech objectively. Trump is also a wild card. He's so unpredictable that one day he might attempt to order Zuch arrested and the next brag about the power of American Big Tech. The next four years will be interesting. I have much more confidence in SCOTUS.

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California Law SB 1120 has gone into effect, and prohibits health insurance providers from denying claims solely based on an algorithmic decision. This means that "yes" decisions can be automated, but "no" decisions must be routed to a human expert reviewer for a final decision. The law is intended to disallow mass automated rejections, as has happened before, and matches how most health insurers already operate. https://lnkd.in/gKDx_XVa #healthcare #ai #regulation

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If you're wondering, 'Tacos again, Matt?' the answer is 'yep.' Because, honestly, they continue to be a great way to think about the interplay between human factors, optimization, and guac-to-sour-cream ratios. So here's the second installment in my series on the things a well run taco restaurant can teach us about efficient complex systems (which is also a sneak peek into the kinds of problems we're solving at Fixify and—hopefully—a helpful way to think about some of your own complex-systems quandaries, too.) https://lnkd.in/e48K257N

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Really interesting podcast that brings up one of the characters that seems to not go away in #bayarea #tech culture, i.e #ayn #rand . Conceptually if you fled authoritarian regimes, some of her ideas are good, but in practice the idea that being purely selfish is good, is what is deeply wrong with tech. The real world is complex and simple philosophies like “selfish good” are appealing to simple people or exploitive people looking to exploit.

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📢 JUST IN: CA Governor vetoed the CA AI Safety Bill S.B. 1047, asking for revisions for the next session! More info here: https://lnkd.in/eVNsZBpx "Mr. Newsom said that the bill was flawed because it focused too much on regulating the biggest A.I. systems, known as frontier models, without considering potential risks and harms from the technology. He said that legislators should go back to rewrite it for the next session." 📚 The AI Policy Newsletter: https://lnkd.in/eS8bHrvG 👩‍💻 The AI Policy Course: https://lnkd.in/e3rur4ff #AIpolicy #ArtificialIntelligence #TechPolicy #AIGovernance

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3 truths and 1 lie: 1) A former staffer of the San Francisco District Attorney, who was fired due to an inadvertent "Reply all" email asking his boss about her "panties color," is now suing the city for defamation. He asserts that the embarrassing message was sent accidentally, and it was intended for a friend who was grieving the recent loss of his father. 2) Kamala Harris's presidential campaign has set a new record by raising an unprecedented $90 million in just one day. This feat was achieved after President Biden decided not to seek reelection and endorsed Harris as the Dems nominee. It is the largest single-day collection in presidential history. 3) An Ohio woman has admitted to abusing the 911 system by making nearly 400 false emergency calls since 2020. Her repeated calls, often multiple times a day, falsely claimed various illnesses. Why, you ask? "For the thrill of getting countless ambulance rides." 4) According to the announcements made by FinMin Nirmala Sitharaman, the Indian salaried class will now be able to save up to Rs. 17,500 in income tax i.e. up to Rs. 1,450 per month. Second is a partial lie. It is $81 million, and not $90 million. And, you thought 4th is a lie, didn't you? Well, it is not a lie but a joke on you and me! 😑 If you don't want your news to be boring, join this WhatsApp group (only for women): https://lnkd.in/dafpnSgV We pick the most relevant news/content, break it down for your easy consumption and share it at 4 pm IST. #news #community #WhatsApp

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I'm still leery of calling today's AI "intelligent" or "reasoning", but I like how Perplexity is starting to experiment with how best to communicate the trade-off between quality vs. speed in the design of its in-product tooltips....

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Hey Network, happy Monday. I was ruminating today on the ever-increasing complexity of the GenAI tooling decision matrix that many of our clients face when I came across this timely collection of factoids: https://lnkd.in/gDmczhYJ. Something that we contend with in my work, as the major models have become commoditized, is the decision becoming less about benchmark performance and more about the cost/value equation or the nuance of usage patterns favoring different "category leader" capabilities. Or sometimes just platform vs. best-of-breed. With the commercial models all qualifying as "usually quite good," and the open source models closing the gap (something I'm super nerded out about,) I'm curious how you make decisions for yourselves or your clients about the right tool for the job (something, something hammer and nails...)

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Scaling a business effectively often requires more than just adding new hires. The traditional approach of growing teams to drive growth can lead to increased communication challenges, slower decision-making, and diminished productivity. Instead of focusing solely on expanding headcount, it’s crucial to optimize existing resources and leverage technology. AI, for example, can automate repetitive tasks and enhance efficiency, allowing smaller teams to achieve more without the added complexity of a larger workforce. By adopting a leaner approach and integrating smart tech solutions, businesses can scale effectively and drive impressive results. #BusinessGrowth #AI #Efficiency

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One thing I've noticed working with leaders of all types at all levels--everybody experiences stress. Stress is not bad, per se (you need a certain amount of it to perform well), but when you have too much of it for too long, it takes a toll on your mental and physical health. What can you do to manage your stress better? One thing I highly recommend to people is to build “energy recovery moments” into their workday. Work 90 minutes, and then take a few minutes to recover and recharge. Then go back at it. You can actually optimize your cognitive efficiency if you do that throughout your work day. Here is a fascinating way to get some recovery and reduce stress--in under 2 minutes. Many of us know about mindful breathing, but did you know that just looking at a particular type landscape can have the same effect? Read on to learn more: https://lnkd.in/gvMPhE77 It's fascinating how helpful it is to take a walk out in nature or by a body of water. (Even a fountain or swimming pool will do.) Apparently, our neurobiology is wired that way. What is something you do to reduce stress and get some recovery during your work day? Put it in the comments. I'd love to see. #recovery #recharge #reducestress #mentalfitness #optimizeyourself #nature #water #walking

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I wrote two blog posts digging into the BM25 full text search algorithm. It has a really clever origin story and actually isn't too hard to understand! https://lnkd.in/eBWNNSi9 The second one is Comparing full text search algorithms: BM25, TF-IDF, and Postgres: https://lnkd.in/e3zhbwhK

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Misleading the public on use of AI gets punished. It is not what you think….Two investment companies have been charged for misleading investors that their product was using specific type of AI models to gain a competitive advantage when they in fact NOT using it at all. So overpromising… Most organizations are worried about the scenario where the disclosure on the use of AI has not happened for transparency. Realistic disclosure is the way to go #AI Transparency

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Perhaps the only #AI themed #PODCAST attempting to become #SELFAWARE is BACK with a new episode. Daniel Bishop is on a top-secret side mission, so I am flying solo. This week, we discuss: • California's AI Act: A New Frontier Or A Slippery Slope? • Are AI Companies Ready For A Mandated Shutdown Switch? • How Much Damage Can Rogue AI Models Really Cause? • The Billion-dollar Price Tag For AI Training - Who's Left In The Game? • #OpenAI, #Anthropic, And Uncle Sam - An Early Access Alliance • #Copyright In The #AI Era - Who Owns The Data That Trained The Models? • Can AI Self-awareness Be Regulated, Or Will It Laugh In Our Faces? "Buy the ticket, take the ride...and if it occasionally gets a little heavier than what you had in mind, well...maybe chalk it up to forced consciousness expansion" ~ The other Hunter

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