What I Read This Week…

President Trump announces increased tariffs, marketing teams are influencing LLMs to recommend their products, and doctors are performing organelle transplants to address life-threatening conditions

Chamath Palihapitiya

Apr 07, 2025

Watch All-In Episode 222

Read our Short Dive: The Trump Administration’s Fiscal Strategy

Caught My Eye…

This week, President Trump announced increased tariffs, including a baseline 10% duty on virtually all imports with higher rates for certain countries. In response, China immediately implemented 34% tariffs on all U.S. goods while tightening export controls on critical minerals, the EU announced counter-tariffs up to 25% on select U.S. products, and Canada imposed 25% tariffs on select U.S. products. In addition to China, the EU, and Canada, numerous other countries, including U.S. trading partners across Asia and Latin America, have signaled readiness to impose retaliatory tariffs or trade restrictions. These measures triggered a severe market response, with the S&P 500 declining 10.5% over two days, erasing around $5 trillion of market value. Long-term U.S. interest rates decreased as well, with the 10-year Treasury yield decreasing to 3.93% as tariffs prompted investors to seek safety in government bonds, which allows for more favorable refinancing of $6T+ of U.S. government debt. Despite offers from countries like Vietnam to eliminate their tariffs on U.S. goods, President Trump has indicated he's "not ready to make deals yet," suggesting a deliberate strategy of maintaining pressure before negotiations. The long-term effects of Trump tariffs remain unclear, due to this change affecting too many interacting variables. Even though we are already beginning to see the first-order effects of tariffs, the second, third, and fourth order effects are impossible to see today.
Language models are changing how people shop online, with customers now asking AI chatbots for product advice instead of using traditional search engines. Nearly 60% of online shoppers have begun replacing search engines with AI chatbots for recommendations, leading retail site visits from AI chatbots to increase by 1,300% during peak shopping periods. Similarly, several travel companies reported AI-driven visits to their sites jumping 1,700% over the past few months. Retailers are also adapting their strategies to ensure visibility in AI recommendations. Instead of optimizing for keywords and backlinks, retailers are in the process of figuring out how to become the “answer” a language model gives – focusing on structured data, trusted content, and strategic visibility across forums, product reviews, and FAQ pages. In response, online platforms are also retooling their experiences to help customers find what they are looking for without leaving their respective ecosystem. For example, Amazon launched their AI shopping assistant Rufus that lets customers ask detailed product questions in natural language in the Amazon App, and Google integrated Gemini with its 45-billion-product shopping graph to offer personalized recommendations, search results, and deal tracking while chatting with Gemini.
Scientists are transplanting healthy mitochondria into damaged cells, performing microscopic organelle transplants, to address various life-threatening conditions and potentially extend lifespan as well. For example, doctors at Boston Children's Hospital have extracted mitochondria from abdominal tissue and infused them into failing hearts, increasing the survival rates of babies with heart damage from 60% to 80%. Similar approaches are being tested for stroke patients at the University of Washington, while companies like Minovia Therapeutics are using these techniques to address genetic mitochondrial disorders such as Pearson's syndrome. Beyond these applications, researchers are discovering that mitochondria play roles beyond energy production – they regulate cell death, process fatty acids, and manage calcium signaling, making their transplantation potentially effective for other conditions. Laboratory studies show transplanted mitochondria can prevent damaged neurons from self-destructing, reduce chemotherapy requirements for cancer cells, and even rejuvenate elderly cells. This may explain why transfusing young blood plasma into older animals extends their lifespan, as it may be delivering healthy mitochondria that help older cells repair themselves and function more effectively. With approximately 3.7 million free-floating mitochondria per milliliter of blood and evidence of a natural mitochondrion-transfer network in the body, scientists may soon establish an entirely new field of medicine that could transform treatment approaches for both acute injuries and age-related decline.