What I Read This Week…
The U.S. dollar is at its highest valuation in 40 years, Google has begun rolling out its AR-like feature for smartphones, and cell metabolism may play a role in determining what a stem cell becomes
Watch our Interview with Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent
Watch our Interview with Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick
Read our Deep Dive: The Media Landscape - Sense-Making 2.0
Caught My Eye…
The U.S. dollar is at its highest valuation in 40 years, reflecting the dollar's strength against other global currencies. When the dollar is strong, it buys more foreign currency per dollar, increasing Americans' purchasing power abroad while making U.S. goods more expensive for foreign buyers. This increase in the dollar's strength stems from multiple factors: the Federal Reserve raising interest rates from near-zero to over 4% has attracted global investors seeking higher returns on dollar-denominated assets, while geopolitical uncertainties have enhanced the dollar's safe-haven appeal. Dollar-pegged stablecoins like USDT and USDC have driven extended American currency dominance, creating a form of "digital dollarization" that increases global demand for dollars even in cryptocurrency markets. The consequences of the dollar’s strength ripples throughout the global economy. The Federal Reserve is currently facing an additional balancing act, as a stronger dollar helps fight domestic inflation by cheapening imports, but risks triggering financial instability abroad that could eventually harm U.S. markets. U.S. exporters lose competitive ground as their products become more expensive globally, and Japan, facing a 32-year low in the yen's value, has spent approximately ¥9.2 trillion ($65 billion) buying yen with dollars – their first such intervention since 1998. Meanwhile, emerging markets suffer capital flight as investors shift toward dollar assets.
Google has begun rolling out real-time visual analysis features to Gemini Live, their conversational digital assistant, enabling it to interpret both device screens and smartphone camera feeds through a language model with multi-modal capabilities. These real-time features, which were first demonstrated as part of Google's "Project Astra" nearly a year ago, provide users with immediate feedback on visual information without requiring them to capture or upload static images. The live camera functionality resembles aspects of augmented reality in function, if not form – it interprets the real world through your camera in real-time and adds an intelligent layer of information or assistance through conversation rather than visual overlays. This conceptually aligns with augmented reality's goals of blending digital intelligence with the physical world, but without wearing additional hardware. The rollout positions Google ahead of competitors in the AI assistant space, as Amazon's Alexa Plus remains in limited early access preparation, Apple has delayed its Siri upgrade that would include similar environmental awareness features, and Samsung continues using Gemini as the default assistant on its phones despite maintaining its own Bixby assistant. This rollout may be a step toward enabling more natural interactions between people and digital assistants in real-world settings.
Cell metabolism may play a key role in determining what type of cell a stem cell becomes. While researchers have traditionally viewed genes as the main drivers of cell differentiation, recent studies highlight the active role metabolites, molecules produced through metabolic processes, play in regulating gene activity. Researchers at the University of Copenhagen, for instance, discovered that a specific metabolite called alpha-ketoglutarate accelerates the differentiation of stem cells into placenta cells during early human embryo development. Similarly, scientists at Northwestern University observed that cells with defective mitochondria failed to mature into lung cells in mice because mitochondrial stress signals interrupted their differentiation process. This metabolic regulation is not limited to mammals, as the slime mold Dictyostelium demonstrates metabolic control by transitioning from single cells to a multicellular structure in response to starvation-induced metabolic changes. Even cancer research has linked metabolism and differentiation, showing that the tumor-suppressor protein p53 partially exerts its effects by modifying cellular metabolism. These findings suggest metabolism is more than just a passive executor of genetic commands – it may actively shape cell development by establishing a distinct "metabolic compartment" within the cell nucleus.
Other Reading…
Transcript of Chair Powell's 3/19/25 Press Conference (Federal Reserve)
Schumer Says He Won't Step Down Despite Continuing Resolution Uproar (AP News)
California Has 30 New Proposals to Regulate AI (Route Fifty)
Most AI Value Will Come From Broad Automation, Not From R&D (Epoch AI)
What Can AI Researchers Learn From TPU/LPU Chip Design? (Jonathan Ross)
Nvidia Debuts Llama Nemotron Open Reasoning Models Advance Agentic AI (VentureBeat)
Flock Raises Big As Investors Fund Public Safety Startup (Crunchbase)
How BYD Plans to Make EV Charging As Fast As Filling Gas Tank (TechCrunch)
On X…
Hi Chamath,
I used to be a fan of the All-In podcast and appreciated the diverse set of opinions among you and the rest of the team, which made for rich conversations with opposing viewpoints. While I didn’t always agree with the opinions shared on the podcast, I was satisfied because you offered a balanced perspective.
However, I have silently observed how the dynamics have changed—drastically. There are no longer opposing opinions on All-In; instead, you all seem to suck up to Trump and naively play along with made-up stories. I understand that you and the tech bros need to protect your ecosystem and aim to make ever-increasing amounts of money, and that’s totally fine—but this is not the way.
A concrete example of this is the interview with Howard Lutnick. That was unbelievable—zero pushback and no fact-checking.
I never thought Trump would be able to turn the All-In podcast into his propaganda machine.
I hope you take this as constructive feedback.
Best of luck
Couple O Thoughts: good gravy this was a lot of information to go through, thank you so much for putting it together.
* Re interviews: peronsality differences in political figures - it's human nature to go into fight or flight when attacked. I think media settings, are an automatic trigger to fight/flight for politicians. So people come off horribly in media settings or they succumb to crowd think when in front of crowds. However, in these one on one type interviews, politicians come off so much better. I'm not a big fan of lutnick, he's got that NY brashness that I have a hard time getting down with, but in this interview, his passion for solving the problem comes through and I can appreciate that (even if I think his numbers were exaggerated and some of his ideas are kind of whacky). I like Bessent a LOT. He's calm, composed, and thoughtful. You can tell he just wants to do a good job and that he's thought this through. I also think Bessent's optimism and compassion come through in that interview. I wonder if you could do a politician would have the "balls" to have a podcast right outside of the Senate doors that only had people of the other party on. I could see someone like Booker having a talk with Thune and try to re-establish some level of civility between the parties. We've gotten ourselves into a bind where we let the extremes define the whole and it has just stopped any chance of bipartisanship at a time when the country could really use it.
* I really dont like the attacking of judges. The bottom line is that everything being done right now is being done unilaterally via EO. That's not good because it's fragile. You have a Republican congress that Mike Johnson seems to be able to coral. Get things through Congress and solidify the legacy. Let the agenices deregulate to kickstart the private sector, that would be something perfectly legal and, in most cases, can be done without Congress having to be involved.
* Re Gold Card: I love the gold card idea. But Tim Cook said Apple doesnt build in China because it's cheap, it's because the labor is skilled. While there is certainly a segment of China manufacturing that is just slave labor with ridiculously low cost, there is certainly a large segment that is as described by Cook. I'd really like the administration to follow through on Trump's idea of stapling a green card to every college diploma. If we're goign to beat China, we need to keep the talent here. Automatic green card for non social science Masters or PhD degrees and prioritizing those specialized manufacturing skills would be putting our economy on steroids.
* To extend even further on above. The govt should have a training.gov. A public jobs board with corresponding training that vetted American companies can post to that makes it easy for people to find openings and the training necessary to be qualified for them. People that register for the site can be verified as citizens to ensure that companies are not getting scammed by some foreign actor with AI. Consolidating the places where people can find jobs and walking people through what it takes to get those jobs would be shortcut to quality growth.
* ai - I've been teaching my nieces and nephews about AI and I've started ending with the mantra: "take the problem you're looking at now and think a standard deviation higher, you can solve that bigger problem right now." Problems will always be there but the scope of what individuals or small groups are capable of solving is growing at the pace of AI.
* Re: govt problems - Two quotes "move fast and break things" - silicon valley and CTO of the VA Charles Worthington's mantra for his office. "passion for output was replaced by passion for process" - Gavin Newsome. I think what we're seeing with this administration is seeing if what applying "move fast and break things" to a federal govt that has become obsessed with process. The federal govt could operate incredibly efficiently if you could steamline the layers of processes that have ossified over the years. There are a lot of talented people that want to do big things (both gov employee and contractors) but are held back by all this. I remember meeting Jonathan from Groq at a Carasoft event where he was telling people that Groq was going to get FedRAMPed and charge the govt the same as the private sector. I had some ideas of how we could immediately use it to help a tremendously fragmented VA help desk system. I setup a meeting with Groq (shout out MG Karch and Alec McLean) and the VA AI office. We proposed our idea and I was working to try to move it forward but really had no avenue to go from there because my company didnt have the right contract vehicles to do anything. Later, Groq bailed on the FedRAMP initiative to focus on other things. This was such a missed opportunity. I think a lot of this stuff comes down to how can you balance safety of infrastructure/data with building quick. I'm not sure what the answer is with that. Maybe internal tiger teams that offer short term small business contracts to build POC before sending out bigger contracts. prove the value and then make the contract.
* home ownership is a solution to civil unrest. Being able to go to work without the fear of losing the roof over your head is a tremendous removal of burden. I think the vast majority of people dont care about being rich. They care about having something to fill the hours during the day and spend the rest of their time with their family and friends. I'm hoping that 3d printed houses, opening up land for building, and removing investors from buying these homes can keep costs in an affordable range and open up a life that a lot of people desperately want.
* Chamath, bro, due process is what makes America, America. The idea of removing some muscle with the fat works for running a company but with immigration, that can be incredibly traumatic or life ending for the person/family/friends going through it. If it was your son that was part of the "muscle" cut away and you were helpless to get them back, every minute you waited for someting to happen would be tortuous. Every moment after he, hopefully, comes back is going to be spent worrying about his mental/physical health.