Elon Musk has become influential in a variety of fields through his companies, including Tesla, SpaceX, Neuralink, and others. He played a direct role in Ukraine’s war effort by providing internet access via Starlink but also threatened to cut it off, demanding payment from the Pentagon. Musk has a contentious relationship with regulators as his rocket launches and new technologies often push boundaries, and he has clashed with safety officials over workplace conditions during the pandemic. While Musk’s ambitions to accelerate sustainable energy and space exploration through ambitious goals have achieved success, his erratic behavior on Twitter and growing influence on geopolitical issues are increasingly controversial. He recently launched a new AI company, despite concerns that advanced AI poses existential risks if not developed carefully.
A US federal judge ruled that AI-generated artwork cannot be copyrighted. Stephen Thaler had tried to copyright an image made by his Creativity Machine AI algorithm, but the US Copyright Office repeatedly rejected it. In her decision, Judge Howell wrote that copyright requires human authorship. Thaler plans to appeal, but his lawyer said the court’s interpretation of copyright law was correct. No one knows how copyright law will handle AI in the future, as more cases have emerged around data scraping by AI systems at companies like OpenAI and Meta. This case, in particular, highlights the challenging question about how much human input is needed for AI-created works to be eligible for copyright. Thaler will continue pursuing this issue through an appeal of the ruling.
Valuations of large companies have historically mean-reverted over long periods as company compositions and investor behaviors changed. However, reversions are difficult to time, and multiples may not reach past lows due to today’s largest firms focusing on high-margin growth industries like technology. Globalization also makes markets harder to depress individually as capital flows freely. While mean reversion is inevitable, its timing remains unpredictable, so valuations should not dictate short-term investment decisions. Overall, the changes in public companies and increased capital mobility mean multiples may not see the low levels of the past.
One card is a credit card startup based in Pune, India that has managed to issue over a million cards through partnerships with banks. Unlike competitors, Onecard provides banks with the full technology to manage credit cards from onboarding to payments. This allows Onecard to offer a customized user experience and earn a larger share of revenue. The founders’ extensive banking experience helped Onecard prioritize risk management over rapid growth. Competitor Slice rapidly expanded but then saw its active card count plummet from 2.5 million to 700,000 within months. Onecard’s partnership model has allowed it to sustain issuing an average of 70,000 new cards per month while avoiding the regulatory issues that hampered rivals.
Over 100 non-profits in India have lost their licenses to receive foreign funding in the past 7 months due to tightened regulations. This has resulted in over 4,000 job losses and cut off critical services to millions of vulnerable people in rural areas who rely on these organizations. The frontline workers employed by these non-profits now face an uncertain future, as finding new jobs is difficult given limited opportunities in their communities and other non-profits’ reluctance to hire due to regulatory fears. In particular, the story highlights a researcher who now struggles to support her family without an income. Shutting down these voices could set back India’s development by decades by removing non-profits’ important role in strengthening democracy and local governance.
Remittances from India shot up sharply in June ahead of a proposed tax on transfers. Outflows under the Liberalized Remittance Scheme increased 35% from the previous month and 96% from June 2022, totaling $3.89 billion. This was driven mainly by rising funds used for equity/debt investments, property purchases, gifts, and family support abroad as people looked to avoid the new taxes planned for July. Property purchases abroad grew 116% and equity investments spiked 384% from the year before. However, the government postponed implementing the taxes until October and exempted credit card spending due to difficulties with reporting systems. The surge and policy changes highlight the significant impact that foreign remittance taxes can have on outflows from India.