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Anthropic is adding watermarking in response to the E.U.’s AI law. It’s a terrible idea, first and foremost for philosophical reasons. Subscribe to Stratechery Plus for full access. Already subscribed? $15 / month or $150 / year With Stratechery Plus you get access to the subscriber-only Stratechery Update and Stratechery Interviews, and the Sharp Tech, Sharp China, Dithering, Greatest of All Talk, and Asianometry podcasts.

On January 1, 1870, Jay Cooke, hailed as an American hero for his role in financing the Union effort in the Civil War, signed a contract that would, if you squint, lead to world war. In 1864, Congress had created the Northern Pacific Railway Company with the goal of linking the Great Lakes and Puget Sound with tracks that would eventually run from Duluth to Tacoma; the charter included 40 million acres of land adjacent to the proposed line in exchange for accomplishing the build-out.

Apple’s earnings (and stock) are limited not by memory but rather chip shortages; then, more on Amazon’s earnings and Andy Jassy’s market analysis. Subscribe to Stratechery Plus for full access. Already subscribed? $15 / month or $150 / year With Stratechery Plus you get access to the subscriber-only Stratechery Update and Stratechery Interviews, and the Sharp Tech, Sharp China, Dithering, Greatest of All Talk, and Asianometry podcasts.

(Photo by Ethan Miller/Getty Images) Welcome back to This Week in Stratechery! As a reminder, each week, every Friday, we’re sending out this overview of content in the Stratechery bundle; highlighted links are free for everyone. Additionally, you have complete control over what we send to you. If you don’t want to receive This Week in Stratechery emails (there is no podcast), please uncheck the box in your delivery settings. On that note, here were a few of our favorites this week.

Google’s earnings seemed to confirm the Anthropic hedge; it was Andy Jassy who explained why their — and Amazon’s — capex was justifiable. Subscribe to Stratechery Plus for full access. Already subscribed? $15 / month or $150 / year With Stratechery Plus you get access to the subscriber-only Stratechery Update and Stratechery Interviews, and the Sharp Tech, Sharp China, Dithering, Greatest of All Talk, and Asianometry podcasts.

Microsoft’s earnings were compelling because they showed a clarity of strategy, lower costs, and a tangibility of application. The reason why is scarier. Subscribe to Stratechery Plus for full access. Already subscribed? $15 / month or $150 / year With Stratechery Plus you get access to the subscriber-only Stratechery Update and Stratechery Interviews, and the Sharp Tech, Sharp China, Dithering, Greatest of All Talk, and Asianometry podcasts.

Good morning, I am happy to be back, and not a moment too soon. When I scheduled this vacation I knew I would come back to a flood of earnings news; I’m going to focus on working through those this week, but I also think this was a very productive break in terms of thinking bigger picture about AI and its implications. I’m very excited to get back to writing, both about these near term results and long-term considerations.

Stratechery is on vacation the week of July 27. There will be no Weekly Article or Updates. The next Update will be on Monday, August 3. Sharp Tech, and Greatest of All Talk  will also return the week of August 3. Sharp China and Asianometry will continue to publish, and there will be one episode of Dithering next week. The full Stratechery posting schedule is here.

(Photo by Ng Han Guan-Pool/Getty Images) Welcome back to This Week in Stratechery! As a reminder, each week, every Friday, we’re sending out this overview of content in the Stratechery bundle; highlighted links are free for everyone. Additionally, you have complete control over what we send to you. If you don’t want to receive This Week in Stratechery emails (there is no podcast), please uncheck the box in your delivery settings. On that note, here were a few of our favorites this week.

OpenAI accidentally hacked Hugging Face, but the takeaways are more encouraging than people realize. Subscribe to Stratechery Plus for full access. Already subscribed? $15 / month or $150 / year With Stratechery Plus you get access to the subscriber-only Stratechery Update and Stratechery Interviews, and the Sharp Tech, Sharp China, Dithering, Greatest of All Talk, and Asianometry podcasts. Stratechery Update Substantial analysis of the news of the day delivered via three weekly emails or podcasts.