AI’s $100B Investment, Hollywood’s AI Revolution, and LinkedIn’s Silent Data Shift

Welcome to Autumn, AI enthusiasts! 🍂

Chilly evenings and endless pumpkins are here 🎃, the vibe is starting to change to demure, and the one and only thing that’s always here - is me, Max. Regardless of the season, your 3-minute newsletter is waiting in your mailbox 📬 to keep you updated and well-prepared for whatever the world of technology wants to throw at you.  

Get yourself a cosy drink, reader, and let’s get started! 🫶

1. Here Comes the Money 💸

Just look at that! Demand breeds supply, indeed. BlackRock and Microsoft are partnering to raise $30 billion 🤩 in private equity for AI infrastructure, with plans to leverage this to $100 billion in investments. The initiative, which includes Abu Dhabi’s MGX and Nvidia, focuses on building data centres and energy infrastructure, mainly in the US 🇺🇸 , to support the growing demand for AI technologies. BlackRock CEO Larry Fink emphasised the multi-trillion-dollar opportunity in financing AI infrastructure, while Microsoft’s Brad Smith highlighted AI as the next major technology driving economic growth. Nvidia will contribute its expertise in AI data centres and systems. All in!

More to come, folks: as AI-driven data centres are expected to increase 📈 electricity demand tenfold by 2030, the partnership will also fund energy projects, including renewable sources like solar and wind. US energy producers are responding by delaying the retirement of fossil fuel plants and accelerating the development of new power plants. The initiative comes as Microsoft, which has heavily invested 💰 in OpenAI, faces challenges meeting AI demand due to limited chip and data centre capacity. In other words, when AI comes knocking, the future’s looking smarter—and a whole lot brighter (literally) 💡

2. John Weak 🐶

Do you remember Keanu Reeves crying because of a dog?... Let’s not go deep into details, as I’ll start being too sad. But – what if John Wick is a cat 🐱 person? Or is it his pet rabbit 🐰 ? Or a parrot 🦜 ? Quite soon, you might have a chance to play around with all these options as the studio that stands behind ‘John Wick’, as well as ‘The Hunger Games’ and many other well-known films, Lionsgate, announced a partnership with AI startup Runway to develop a customised video generation model designed to assist filmmakers, directors, and other creative professionals in enhancing their projects 📽️

Runway, known for building models potentially trained on unlicensed online content, will now access Lionsgate's library to develop a custom AI model. This AI is expected to assist in content creation, particularly by streamlining pre-production and post-production processes, potentially lowering 👇 production costs. Lionsgate vice chair Michael Burns described the collaboration as a way to create “capital-efficient content” and highlighted that several filmmakers are eager to explore its potential.

However…does it mean back to strikes? 🪧 After SAG-AFTRA’s massive move in 2023, the deal once again raised concerns about using creative content for AI training without transparent compensation for those involved. AI vs Actors: let’s do it again, but this time - with Keanu Reeves 💚

3. What The Hell Is Consent 🤐

Express consent, implied consent, opt-in consent and opt-out consent, verbal consent, legal consent, and consent consent. Bla bla bla. Who cares, really! 🤷🏻 That could be a direct quote of ‘LinkedIn’ if it was a sitcom character. So, to the point: the platform has automatically opted users into allowing their data to be used for training generative AI models without explicitly asking for consent. Hooray! 😬 The social platform updated its privacy policy, stating that personal data could be used to improve its services and develop AI models. Let me talk you through the stages if you want to opt-out: navigate to the Data privacy section in your settings and turn off the "Data for Generative AI Improvement" toggle. However (surprise, surprise 😈), opting out only stops future data use - any data already used for training AI models remains unaffected. 

LinkedIn also uses machine learning for purposes like personalization and moderation, which are not part of generative AI. Users who want ato opt out of all machine learning use of their data need to submit a separate LinkedIn Data Processing Objection Form 🤦🏼‍♂️ The platform's quiet opt-in practice comes shortly after Meta disclosed it had similarly used non-private user data for AI training dating back to 2007. You and me, and he and she, they and we are all in the exact vehicle now. Buckle up because whether you opt-in or out, this AI train isn't slowing down anytime soon! 🚝

BTW, find me on LinkedIn 

That’s it for now. I guess that's enough. However, I have one last question: in a world where AI is driving everything from billion-dollar investments to blockbuster movie magic, does Keanu Reeves have LinkedIn? 🤔

See you in a week, stay curious! 👀 

Max

Founder and Director of Bandera Agency - Marketing agency for Fintechs 🚀 

xx