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Hello,
Over a decade ago, I appeared for an entrance exam to a prestigious journalism college in India. It went swimmingly well until it came to the general knowledge section.
That part was akin to an offering to the gods of rote learning – all questions on dates and names no one actually needs to know.
I left the section untouched. On my way out of the room, I jokingly told the examiner that they could reuse my general knowledge sheet for the next year.
It’s been borderline thrilling to discover that the world’s idea of general knowledge isn’t the same as that of the Indian education system.
Not that it matters, but I did get into that college. And more interestingly, I’ve developed a liking for tucking in tidbits of information in my mind now.
In this week’s edition of AI Odyssey, I write about GPT-4, OpenAI’s star athlete, which is powered by all the knowledge it was allowed to soak up.
While GPT-4 sharpens its tools and draws from a wealth of resources, this week’s premium story is about building startups from scratch, often by tapping into a shared knowledge base that stems from the expertise of seasoned investors.
As my colleague, Shadine, details in this week’s big story, venture building is now picking up in Southeast Asia, especially in Singapore. The region is at the beginning of the maturity curve, she reports.
The model is specifically beneficial during an economic slump since the cost of equity is lower for investors.
Though the Singapore government and corporations have also jumped into the field, generally speaking, VCs could have a special advantage since they’ve had a ringside seat to building startups.
Their experience can be insightful. For instance, take what Yinglan Tan of Insignia Ventures Partners has to say: During a bear market, startups building infrastructure to simplify the industry’s complexity and change behavior and relationships in it will have a lot of impact.
And his insights come backed with examples. More on this in Making Waves.
— Nikita
THE BIG STORY
MAKING WAVES
AI ODYSSEY
FYI
NEWS YOU SHOULD KNOW
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