Creators are the Gatekeepers

Hey everyone,

A special welcome this week to our new subscribers—great to have you here!

This is your Sunday Space, where I serve up the best ideas, tools and resources I’ve found each week as we explore the technology shaping the future.

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IDEAS
Creators are the Gatekeepers

Notice how the main interview from Apple’s WWDC was between Tim Cook and Marques Brownlee, the OG tech review YouTuber.

The media that brought Apple’s AI announcements to the world this week wasn’t mainstream media, like the New York Times or CNBC.

It was creator media.

This phenomenon isn’t isolated to Apple’s WWDC:

• Trump was recently interviewed by Logan Paul.

• iJustine has interviewed Elon Musk at SpaceX many times.

• Casey Neistat collaborated with Samsung on several product launches.

Whether you’re trying to launch a software product or promote a movie, excluding creators from your marketing strategy would be reckless. Period.

Because creators, not mainstream media, are the new gatekeepers to attention.

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INSIGHTS
From Articles I Read

Apple’s AI moment arrives (finally)

Surprise, surprise. Apple will integrate “Apple Intelligence” (AI?) into iOS 18 later this year. Expect Siri to get smarter, generative AI capabilities baked right into the OS and ChatGPT integrations across Apple platforms.

Luca's take: I have full confidence that Apple will use its last-mover advantage to win over the AI consumer with beautifully designed experiences.

However, I can’t help but think its Empire is under threat. Apple just gifted OpenAI a route directly into its operating system, which they have always controlled outright.

Is ChatGPT a trojan horse for Microsoft to infiltrate their arch nemesis?

Or will OpenAI leapfrog Apple and Microsoft and take it all?

Only time will tell.

Elon vs Apple x OpenAI

While the general public is pretty excited about a native ChatGPT integration with their iPhone, Elon is most certainly not drinking the Kool-Aid.

Shortly after WWDC, he threatened to ban Apple devices from all his companies.

Luca’s take: I get Elon’s concerns from a privacy and security standpoint. We have no idea what data might be exposed to OpenAI from the ChatGPT integration. I don’t even think Apple does.

That aside, I think his threats run deeper. Think of the game theory at play between OpenAI and xAI, Elon’s AI startup:

ChatGPT is about to meet the biggest and most profitable smartphone user base at the operating system level. Grok’s utility, on the other hand, is constrained to the X app.

Researchers Identify Gene That Helps Cancer Spread

A team from Mass General just identified Gstt1, the gene that causes metastasis—the spread of cancer from the primary tumour to other parts of the body.

Metastasis is the main reason people die from cancer, accounting for 90% of cancer-related deaths. So, solving the problem of metastasis (i.e. stopping the spread of cancer) is one of the most important steps in finding its cure.

Luca’s take: Cancer is a disease that has affected my family and close friends extensively, so this breakthrough is close to home. I hope this discovery helps the science community develop a therapeutic that can safely silence Gstt1, effectively stopping the spread of cancer in patients.

Screw cancer. Go science.

From X/Twitter

A tale of two world(view)s…

From YouTube

TOOLS
Ollama

Ollama is the easiest way to run open-source models (like Mistral and Llama 3) locally on your PC.

It’s an open-source framework and a user-friendly interface which provides core functionally for running LLMs, simplifying set-up and configuration.

The real value of running models locally is in protecting sensitive data from being retrained in proprietary models like GPT or Claude.

Here’s how you can install Ollama and run a model locally:

(Note that performance will vary depending on your PC Specs.)

• Go to ollama.com.

• Download the application for your respective operating system and run the installer.

• Once installed, don’t panic! Ollama’s framework essentially operates in the background of your PC. To use it, open your favourite terminal.

  • For Windows, press the Windows button type cmd and open Command Prompt.

  • For Mac, press Command + Space, type Terminal, then hit Enter.

  • Or use the terminal through an editor like VS Code.

• Once in the terminal, type ollama pull llama3. Ollama then downloads the model weights onto your PC.

• Once finished, type ollama run llama3.

• Type your prompt and wait for the model to respond.

Congrats! You’re now running an LLM locally on your PC.

Let me know how it went in the feedback form below.

THOUGHTS
Quote I’m Pondering

Billionaire Investor Keith Rabois, on the one piece of advice he’d give his younger self:

“Read, Read, Read… And Write.”

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Thanks for reading,

— Luca

P.S. Steve Jobs in heaven watching them announce Apple Intelligence.