Substance over sizzle. I make no promises about the cadence of this email. I do promise it will be worth your time and mine. -Dave
“When You Think of Garbage, Think of Akeem”
Rumors of Apple’s entry into the health insurance market have been around since, oh, rumors of the iWatch arose. The momentum is building (Forbes). Will the data Apple collects from its users be sufficient to get to the root of America’s healthcare system and upend the country’s twin epidemics of obesity (CDC) and diabetes (CDC)? Moreover, let’s assume Apple’s health insurance gets scale. Does my iTunes, or iCloud profile then replace any other version of my digital health record? Shrewd.
Salmon in Water
As more folks experiment with DALL-E to generate images, or ChatGP for conversations, and VC’s flood AI startups with capital ($115B in 2021 alone), it’s important to fathom the significance of context and, specifically, how to program context into AI. Below is an example of an AI-generated image — “salmon in a river”. For married couples, the resulting image may perfectly reflect far too many exchanges that begin like this, “No, Honey. What I meant was…”
Oh, Baby, Youuuuu / You Got What I Neee-eeeed
Houston-based Ours, which bills itself as modern relationship management, snagged notable venture backing from the likes of Serena Williams (link). Ours is couples therapy for the Zoom-era. By all accounts, Ours is building something special, yet we can’t help but wonder how many relationships ended because the couple just wouldn’t battle traffic to get to a therapist’s office.
I am serious. And don’t call me Shirely.
The irony isn’t lost on those who are paying attention. First, America’s military service branches missed their Congressionally mandated recruiting goals by the largest margins in American history. In response, each service branch stood up a Task Force (link) to explore “transformational” approaches to recruiting. To date, there’s nothing to show for those efforts. Similarly, as collegiate athletics in America undergoes a SCOTUS-induced transformation, the Knight Commission tasked a Who’s Who of collegiate athletics administrators with the responsibility of defining the future of college sports in America. The result? Nothing remotely transformative has been broached by those tasked with that very objective. And the Knight Commission is miffed (link).
Make Me Smarter, Dave!
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“Wake me up at, oh, 5:30”
America’s venerable Navy lowered its entry standards in hopes of addressing the service’s recruiting crisis (link). Who wants to bet that by 2024, entry into the Navy will be solely contingent on one’s ability to successfully open a childproof bottle of vitamins?
Venture Capital Humor
MySpace’s Comeback Starts in 3…2…
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