Katelyn Sweeney's Profile

Tik tok certainly has reached an addictiveness level not achieved by any other social media, and it’s almost scary to think about the AI/ML behind it.

Also they’ve done a good job of making the “you’ve been scrolling too long” videos so annoying that they simply elicit an eye roll as I scroll right past them. Maybe that’s just me falling for the AI.

Very cool! Maybe I’m misunderstanding their pricing model but it feels like they’re way undercharging for the value being provided. This is a really neat efficiency play for waste management.

Also weirdly enough Rubicon recently sponsored a competition called Clear Constellation where they sought proposals to solve the problem of space debris. It’s cool to think how they might apply these problems to other “waste management” arenas

I’ve been an avid Spotify user since 2013, and the way its suggestions have improved since the early days is amazing. Anecdotally it feels like it used to be really hit or miss, whereas now it seems to have learned my preferences and every recommendation is good.

The question you raise about whether the artists being used to “train” the suggestion model should get royalties is a super interesting one. How does pricing for creative goods change in the face of AI?

Interesting difference between DALL-E and Craiyon. I’m curious if DALL-E is pulling stock images of humans or if it does just have better data. The difference in human feature recognition is pretty stark between the two programs.

These are hilarious prompts to feed the AI. I wish it had been able to tell the difference between the types of toothbrushes! I would have loved to see that interpretation.

This is so funny. The AI got so close!! My favorite is the bottom middle dog, which truly looks like a collage of other dog images (which is essentially what the AI is doing). Also what an interesting thing that the AI is better at compiling animal features than human ones! Or maybe we’re just better at discerning human features rather than dog features. Interesting example!

This is super interesting! I knew of Protonmail because all of my programmer friends use it, and to me that’s the indicator of a really good software product. It’s interesting to observe how these platform businesses compete with each other.

It’s also interesting to read about Apple’s privacy push. To me it seems like the in-app purchase prices rising also falls partially on the app developers who would otherwise monetize the data, which gets into the ethics of whether third-party data should even be monetizeable in the first place. That said, the commissions Apple charges are exorbitant, so the increase in in-app purchase fees could simply be to combat rising “internet tax” from Apple.

This is great! I’m curious how Peloton’s retention will be post-COVID now that gyms have reopened. The chart showing the Connected Fitness income vs. profit indicates to me that they’re operating a platform of selling hardware near cost and earning on the software. I’m curious what happens to them if/when hardware sales slow. That said, I love the pelotons at Shad, I’m curious if there’s an avenue where they shift focus from home gyms to commercial ones.

I’ve been a Spotify user since 2013, and the difference once they began implementing ML into their music suggestions has been night and day different. The “Discover Weekly” playlist that operates off of user preferences is a super unique feature, and they do a great job of recommending artists that are out of the mainstream, allowing them to gain larger followings.

I’m really curious about what factors into Spotify’s recommendations– is it based simply on what similar users have liked (like Amazon’s shopping recommendations), or does it have to do with musical cues, like tempo or the key of a song?

This is really interesting! I’d be curious to see whether other consoles adopt DLSS if it’s as big a game-changer for Nintendo as it seems to be. It’d be neat to see larger consoles take on smaller form factors/leverage the same portability that the Switch hosts.