Win the AI vote, win the electoral vote
20th June 2024
Welcome to AI Collision 💥,
In today’s collision between AI and our world:
Vote: AI for PM
The long-awaited uranium interview
Sale to die for
If that’s enough to get the uranium enriching, read on…
AI Collision 💥
Rishi, Kier, Nigel…
You probably know of these people. Angela, Penny…the rest, you’ll have heard of them too.
That’s because it’s general election time in the UK!
I know, time to tie up the bunting, get your best British flag suit (or Ginger Spice British flag dress) on and sing God Save the Queen King!
Isn’t that how it’s supposed to work?
Well, it’s time to decide for yourself who gets that little tick in the little box on that little ballot slip in that little voting booth at the little kids’ school.
Now I should forewarn, the next couple of weeks we’re going to pay closer attention to the UK General Election. But don’t switch off!
This is going to be the AI ELECTION and it will shape the future of British AI, and it will impact the value of your investments.
That’s because,
Whomever ends up as PM will be making some big calls on how much (or little) the UK presses forward with artificial intelligence technology.
This will impact business conditions for investment in the AI sector and intersecting industry using AI in the UK
It will either open the floodgates for new AI opportunity, or it will drive it offshore.
Either way, it’s going to play a big role in the future of the UK because whether the politicians like it or not, AI is going to be one of the most important economic activities the UK needs to retain its importance in the world.
You see, for economies like the UK, there are some things that get done very well and some things that used to get done well that are now done elsewhere.
Britain used to manufacture stuff. Used to mine stuff. Used to grow stuff. Not so much anymore. For example, in 1960 around 36% of GDP came through manufacturing.
Today that’s more like 16%. And around 80% of UK GDP comes via the “services” industries. That covers a lot from financial services to retail and a big ol’ chunk o’ change from travel and tourism (hence why no one really wants to get rid of the monarchy).
It’s those services that will drive the UK forward. To fancifully think that manufacturing is going to have some kind of glorious resurgence is a fool’s errand.
Those services will include technology services too. Like how ARM provides intellectual property (IP) to the entire world to develop and make the latest in cutting edge chips and AI silicon.
This is just one example of how important AI policy, strategy and conditions will be in the UK – depending on who gets into power.
So, again, that means we’re going to take a look at the UK parties, remaining unbiased and giving a real view as to what they’re saying (or what they’re not saying) about AI, about the role it’s going to play in the growth of the UK in the coming years and importantly, what areas of AI could stand to benefit most from a Labour government…
Yeah ok, let’s call a spade a spade, it’s very likely Labour ends up in power. So we do need to consider if they do, what parts of AI in the UK win, what lose, and what impact on your AI investments is this going to have.
I should note, while we’re going to be AI election focused, it won’t be the only thing we’ll talk about until the big day on July 4th.
And you can see what I mean by that below, with a long-awaited interview on the state of the uranium market.
But strap in, get your patriotic voting hat on, it’s the AI Election we’ve been looking forward to and it may even be the AI strategy that determines the success or failure of AI in the UK in the coming years.
Also, if you want some non-AI coverage of the election, including our friends over at Fortune and Freedom – who have a direct line to Reform UK party leader Nigel Farage, head over to hear what Nick and John and the F&F team will have to say over the coming weeks from a non-tech angle and perspective.
AI gone wild 🤪
A little while ago I sent you an interview I did with CEO of Sprott Asset Management, John Ciampaglia back in March 2023.
If you missed it, check it out here (it provides great context for what’s coming below).
I sent it because the uranium and nuclear story is critical to the future of AI. We know AI is power hungry, we know that the current energy mix is not going to be sufficient as energy demand looks to double in the coming years.
So what is the answer?
Well, the answer is in the new interview video I recently did with John Ciampaglia.
We look back on our March 2023 interview, dissect what’s been going on in the last year, and then look forward at how uranium and nuclear is going to be critical to industry like AI and what that means for the uranium market, for uranium prices and for uranium and nuclear focused stocks.
There’s a lot of great insight in there, so check it out below,
Boomers & Busters 💰
AI and AI-related stocks moving and shaking up the markets this week. (All performance data below over the rolling week).
Boom 📈
Nvidia (NASDAQ:NVDA) up 12%
Taiwan Semi (NYSE:TSM) up 9%
Tesla (NASDAQ:TSLA) up 9%
Bust 📉
Vicarious Surgical (NASDAQ:RBOT) down 22%
Cyngn (NASDAQ:CYN) down 16%
C3.ai (NYSE:AI) down 8%
From the hive mind 🧠
I’ve started to see on X.com feeds in the last couple of weeks accounts that are clearly reply-bot farms failing for reasons like running out of credits on ChatGPT and copy-pasting clearly ChatGPT replies. Here’s a good look at how Russian propaganda is now infiltrating some of these AI system
“I’ll have a large McChicken meal, a chocolate thickshake thanks… and… and.. TWO CHEESEBURGERS!” This is pretty much how all of my Maccas orders go. But sometimes as I drive away the bag does not reflect my script. I can' excuse a human forgetting to add my cheeseburgers (once) but an AI forgetting, a MACHINE forgetting. Inexcusable. That’s why McDonalds is (for now) doing away with their AI.
China and “sex-bots” are not two things I thought I’d ever see in the same headline, let alone the South China Morning Post! But here they are in all their full glory!
Artificial Polltelligence 🗳️ The Results
This is a much tighter outcome than I was expecting!
Apple Intelligence was all the talk of the AI world over the last week and a bit.
For good reason too, it does look like it will be a cracking iteration of ChatGPT’s AI, plugged into and tweaked to Apple’s ecosystem.
All good so far, right?
Well I don’t know. I hope so, time will tell.
But your thoughts are important, I think you’ve got a good track recrod building of how things will impact us in good ways and bad. So we asked will Apple Intelligence be good and help you day to day…
Here are the results…
This is one of the closest run races I’ve seen yet. And it also probably tells me who are Apple users, who are clearly not and who’s maybe not so convinced about the promise of Apple Intelligence.
Now I also want to throw something else in the mix with a new poll today.
This time, I want your predictive hats on again, and it may be an obvious outcome, but I’m keen to know from you something big.
BUT READ THE NEXT PART CAREFULLY
I don’t want you to respond who you’re going to vote for, but I want to know who you THINK WILL WIN the UK general election.
If you also happen to think something else, like Binface is going to trounce them all with all the votes, feel free to comment below too.
Weirdest AI image of the day
Funeral homes should advertise like this. – r/Weirddallee
ChatGPT’s random quote of the day
"Success is not final, failure is not fatal: it is the courage to continue that counts." — Winston Churchill
Thanks for reading, and don’t forget to leave comments and questions below,
Sam Volkering
Editor-in-Chief
AI Collision
We all know that Labour will win (majority size is the unknown bit) but they will be a Labour Party forced to shift rightwards by Reform, by lack of clear water between Tories & Labour & from recent EU trends. So whilst they might lack MP(s) & perhaps the wider skill set for governance, Reform will likely be the party that shifts debates & shapes politics the most, as it could be argued that UKIP did. Brexit happening was perhaps the last time that actual voters overcame The Blob/Courts in deciding how their lives/liberties would move forwards as a whole group/nation rather than for individual/smaller groups. And that was almost too close to call in the end. Now through having had Starmer as DPP (whilst Blair also had a huge majority) & an power grabbing ECHR it is generally the Courts that will have the final say. Dislike a policy or decision e.g. easing of planning consent or firmer migration control....just appeal it in the Courts or to an Ombudsman & it stands a reasonable chance of being overturned or dying in the delay whilst a judgement is awaited. Kritarchy based on fine interpretations that were caused by (?deliberately or just careless) loose wording or "quangocracy" (about status quo &/or vested interests) but it is almost certainly unlikely to be a democracy for a generation or more.