What the numbers say: Google's Android accounted for just 1.69% of mobile operating systems at the start of 2009 but surpassed iOS and Symbian in 2012. Android continued to be the leading smartphone operating system worldwide for the next decade, holding a 71.8% market share by the end of 2022. Apple's iOS ranks #2 and its market share has been relatively stable over the past decade. Relevance: Smartphones are widely used across developing and developed economies. 7.26 billion people used smartphones in 2022, up from 6.95 billion in 2020, and the market is expected to grow in the coming years. Google's Android is open-source, so it cannot earn money through licensing. However, both Google and Apple have cemented their dominance by "tying" their digital products to their software systems. Brands that should care: EU antitrust authorities have imposed heavy fines on Google for using these "tying" practices to boost its market share. To avoid clashing with competition watchdogs, digital platforms could seek alternative monetization strategies, such as shifting to a subscription model.
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 The U.S. may default on its debt as soon as June 1 if Congress fails to raise the government's borrowing limit, Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen warned on Monday. Yellen penned a letter urging House and Senate leaders to act "as soon as possible" to address the federal government's $31.4T debt ceiling. More: - Yellen wrote that failing to raise the debt ceiling will "cause serious harm to business and consumer confidence" and "raise short-term borrowing costs for taxpayers."
- At a conference in Washington last week she urged lawmakers to raise the debt limit without waiting until "the last minute."
- The U.S. Treasury said it needs to borrow $726B from April to June, $449B more than previously expected.
- The Republican-controlled House passed a bill last week to raise the debt ceiling by $1.5T but the legislation contains spending cuts that are fiercely opposed by Democrats in control of the Senate.
- President Biden wants Congress to raise the country's borrowing authority without further negotiations.
- He invited four senior lawmakers to discuss the U.S. borrowing limit at the White House on May 9.
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 A message from TRUERA LLM Testing and Monitoring – Join the Hands-On Workshop How can you ensure that your large language model is honest, harmless, and helpful? Join TruEra on May 11th and 18th as their President and Chief Scientist, Anupam Datta, provides a hands-on overview of how to analyze and improve the performance of your LLMs. During the two 60-minute online sessions, he will cover the following: - Quick introduction to LLMs - what are they and their history?
- Risks and challenges of LLMs: is your LLM honest, harmless, and helpful?
- Defining feedback functions to model LLM quality and performance
- How should you test and monitor LLMs?
- Live walk-throughs of how to identify, diagnose, and debug model issues in development and production
- Q&A with Professor Datta
Dates: 2-session series on May 11th and 18th Where: Virtual Event - Join from Anywhere Who should attend: Data scientists, machine learning engineers, MLOps managers, data analysts, statisticians, data and analytics managers Register for Free
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 Morgan Stanley plans to cut about 3,000 jobs. The investment bank is focusing on curbing its expenses amid a sluggish rebound in dealmaking, Bloomberg reports. More: - About 5% of Morgan Stanley's global workforce, excluding financial advisors and their supporting staff, will be laid off.
- Many of the job cuts will target the firm's banking and trading group, reports Bloomberg, citing people familiar with the matter.
- Morgan Stanley CEO James Gorman said in April that underwriting and merger deals remain subdued.
- Gorman said he does not expect dealmaking activity to increase until the second half of 2023 at the earliest.
Zoom Out:
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 GOOD NEWS: Conservation charity Plantlife said that its “No Mow May” campaign led to the proliferation of wildflowers in British gardens last year. Protecting wildflowers has a positive effect on the ecosystem because they are a key food source for scores of wild insects. More: - According to Plantlife, “No Mow May" aims to trigger a cultural shift by encouraging gardeners to let wild flowers grow in their lawns, which has a positive effect on bees and butterflies.
- Wildflowers including daisies, field forget-me-not, meadow buttercup, white clover, and dandelion flourished following last year's campaign, Plantlife said.
Zoom Out: - Plantlife estimates that British gardens are cut 30 million times per year collectively, leading to around 80,000 tonnes of carbon dioxide emissions.
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 A message from VANTA Swamped with spreadsheets as you work to stay compliant with privacy and security regulations? Then you need Vanta, the market-leading automated compliance platform. Trusted by 5,000+ global customers, Vanta helps you quickly and easily get compliant, manage risk, and show off your security — so your business can focus on building and selling. Vanta’s platform: -
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 The Reserve Bank of Australia raised interest rates on Tuesday. The unexpected 25-basis point hike increased the central bank's official cash rate to 3.85%. More: - The Australian Dollar rose by 1.3% after the announcement and bond futures declined as markets responded to the unexpected decision.
- Traders and analysts expected Australia's central bank to temporarily pause rate hikes after the inflation rate decreased in the first three months of 2023.
- Despite the drop, the central bank said that it may raise borrowing costs again to curb inflation.
Zoom Out: - Australia's headline consumer price index stood at an annual rate of 7% for the first quarter of 2023, down from 7.8% in the previous quarter.
- Australia's central bank projects inflation to return to its target range of between 2% and 3% by mid-2025.
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 IBM CEO Arvind Krishna said the company anticipates a hiring pause for jobs that Artificial Intelligence (AI) may soon be able to perform. He noted that non-customer-facing positions, including those in human resources, will likely be affected. More: - Krishna said he could "easily see" 30% of back-office functions being performed by AI over the next five years.
- He noted that 26,000 IBM workers have non-customer-facing positions.
- Krishna expects to automate tasks such as generating employment verification letters and shifting staff between departments.
- Other HR functions, such as evaluating workforces, are unlikely to be automated within 10 years, said Krishna.
Zoom Out: - IBM announced plans to cut around 3,900 workers in January, but the firm also added 7,000 employees over the first quarter.
- Goldman Sachs estimates that AI automation will affect two-thirds of jobs in the U.S. and Europe.
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QUICK HITS - The company behind these surgical robots is planning to list on Nasdaq. Last day to fund your investment is on 5/10.*
- Vice Media Group may soon file for bankruptcy, reports Reuters, citing people familiar with the matter. Five companies are reportedly interested in acquiring the media firm, which may still avoid bankruptcy by agreeing to a sale.
- Environmental and cultural-heritage nonprofits filed a lawsuit against the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) on Monday. The suit alleges that the FAA breached the National Environment Policy Act by failing to conduct an environmental review before authorizing SpaceX to launch its largest rocket ever from Boca Chica, Texas.
- The U.S. military has been tracking a balloon of unknown origin since the end of last week. The object traversed parts of Hawaii but officials do not believe it is another Chinese spy balloon.
- Members of the Writers Guild of America are set to start striking on Tuesday. The move comes after the labor union failed to reach an agreement with major studios after weeks of negotiations.
- Demo Divvy, get an Ember heated mug. Hot coffee and quick and easy expense management — get both when you demo Divvy.*
*This is a sponsored post
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 |  | Gregory Bridgman is a writer and researcher with an academic background in politics and the philosophy of science and technology. He holds a BA from the University of Cape Town, an MS from University College London, and a Ph.D. from the University of Cambridge. He is interested in climate issues, technological changes, and the implications of the fourth industrial revolution. Please feel free to contact me at gregory@inside.com! | | | | Editor | Eduardo Garcia is a writer and editor based in New York. He is the author of "Things You Can Do," an illustrated book about climate action. Bylines in The New York Times, The Guardian, Slate, Scientific American, and others. In one of his previous lives, Eduardo worked as a Reuters correspondent in Latin America for nearly a decade. | |
Join us on May 11th and 18th for a hands-on overview of how to analyze and improve the performance of your LLMs. | |
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