Notes for March 1st 2024

Song of the week:

• I attended the launch of openAI Ireland this week. It featured a panel discussion with Chief Strategy Officer Jason Kwon, UL's Stephen Kinsella, Aisling Murray from Beta festival alongside Dogpatch's Patrick Walsh, chaired by Aine Kerr. Around 300 people were in a very well decked-out CHQ building to hear about their Irish plans and generally how AI is changing things.
  • I remain fairly AI-skeptical. I was in college many hundreds of years ago and the narrative was the same as today. Yes, the tech has advanced significantly but we are not peering into the eyeballs of the singularity just yet. The big winner in AI isn't even Ai companies. It's nVidia.
  • It's admirable that openAI are so actively engaged in public policy and helping governments figure this out. I know folks will be skeptical there but I know some of their policy people, and they're legit.
• I've spent an inordinate amount of the last year dealing with old tax bills from $prev_job. And it's just comical how bad the guidance, or lack thereof, was about 5-6 years ago. Lots of folks I know in the tech world who were employed in that era have been audited but there's a cloak-and-daggers "I know what you don't" approach from the tax office that's infuriating, frustrating and stress-inducing. There's a constant feeling that it's an existential crisis that will never end because there's more to come, probably.
  • I guess the upshot is that $current_employer actually is really good at this, informative and open. And I have a good, experienced tax accountant.
• It snowed! Therefore I went as quickly as I could with my 3 year old in his new boots with the camera to snap the weather!