Tanaya Macheel

Political life is defined by moderation and compromise. The recent push to describe politics in apocalyptic terms is dangerous. I discuss this in my latest column. https://lnkd.in/eU2jGfiX

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The Cipher News team of climate tech journalists report our own stories and we also point out top-notch and timely pieces other journalists in the ecosystem are publishing. I have come to really enjoy seeing what my colleagues are reading and why. Here are a few highlights of late: Here's a recent one from Bill Spindle: https://lnkd.in/eQUZHbQu Bill's summary: "Texas entrepreneur. Bloomberg profiles a new startup company in Texas that aims to install batteries in homes super-cheaply and then aggregate the energy they store and sell it into the state’s market-driven grid." Bill's hot take: "Texas is a hotbed of clean energy innovation due to its freewheeling, market-driven power market. The start-up is co-founded by the son of Michael Dell, who upended the PC market in its early days." The story from on Bloomberg News from Ashlee Vance: https://lnkd.in/efBm4z88 Here's from Amena H. Saiyid: https://lnkd.in/eXxYa3mV Amena's summary: "Culture war. The Washington Post reports on how political ideologies are dictating decisions to buy electric vehicles across the country." Amena's hot take: "Saving money on gasoline while protecting the environment could be seen as a plus; instead it has become a culture war issue." The story on The Washington Post from Shannon Osaka: https://lnkd.in/et75YTTG And from Amy Harder: https://lnkd.in/ejG4GWTX Amy's summary: "Offshore oil. The NYT uses impressive visuals (along with text) to illustrate life and work on an offshore oil and gas platform in the Gulf of Mexico, including a required helicopter crash training course." Amy's hot take: "I took that same helicopter crash survival course in 2014; it was one of the hardest things I have done. Candidly, I'm not sure I could do it again, knowing fully well how hard it was!" (My little addition here: Wow! I am impressed, Amy!) And the story on The New York Times from Ivan Penn with visuals by Erin Schaff: https://lnkd.in/eiE8f3F5 And from our esteemed European colleague, Anca Gurzu: https://lnkd.in/ebAeTEAR Anca's summary: "Greenwashed flights. EU regulators are investigating 20 airlines over their potentially “misleading greenwashing practices” including the claimed benefits of offsetting emissions from flying, the FT reports." Anca's hot take: "Since offsetting is an unregulated practice and anyone can use big words, these kinds of investigations are crucial in keeping airlines accountable and not misleading consumers." And the story at the Financial Times from Philip Georgiadis and Kenza Bryan: https://lnkd.in/ehNqphpm Check Cipher News each day for more! https://ciphernews.com/

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Amazon's Ring, years into a shift from a self-styled crime-fighting shop to a hub for peace of mind (and pet videos), is getting a new mission statement: "Keeping people close to what’s important" has come a long way from the original pitch, "Reduce crime in neighborhoods." More bits: -Ring boss Liz Hamren tells me the unit recently became profitable, thanks to a subscription push (and a few rounds of price hikes). It's a bet that users would pay to save videos and do more with their doorbells and cameras -It's tough to overstate how single-minded Ring was in its early years. Veterans say projects without a clear home security mandate didn't tend to last long. Employee docs outlined Ring product set like one might describe a fortress. -Ring's Always Home Cam, three years after it was supposed to hit the market, is still in development. Teams are working to enable the drone to navigate unusual home setups -- curved walls, low ceilings, and the like. read the rest here: https://lnkd.in/gAsY_Bcx

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Adobe updated its terms of use. Then, chaos. My first enterprise story for Bloomberg Law: Customer turmoil over a seemingly routine change in Adobe Systems Inc.'s terms of use agreement spurred a rare internal reckoning over how the company communicates complex legal issues to users and account for anxiety around generative AI. “As technology evolves, we have to evolve,” Dana Rao, Adobe’s general counsel, said in an interview with Bloomberg Law. “The legal terms have to evolve, too. And that’s really the lesson that we’re sort of internalizing here.” Over the weekend, some Adobe customers revolted on social media, crying foul at updated terms of use they claimed allowed Adobe to seize their intellectual property and use their data to feed AI models. The Photoshop and Illustrator maker responded with multiple blog posts over several days seeking to reassure users it wasn’t stealing their content, including a pledge to quickly rewrite its user agreement in clearer language. Rao said Tuesday that Adobe will be issuing updated terms of use on June 18 in which it will specifically state the company doesn’t train its AI models Firefly on its cloud content. The unexpected online storm around the updates is the latest example of how sweeping technological changes—such as the rise of generative AI—have bolstered users’ fears of copyright violations and privacy invasions. That sentiment is part of the landscape the tech industry must navigate to serve a creator community increasingly on edge. Read the whole story by Cassandre Coyer and me here: https://lnkd.in/gVZs_M8T

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The end of the Walmart - Capital One partnership is not a good look for Capital One... From reading the court documents, it seems like Capital One was able to deliver on very little of what it promised... For example, on posting and processing, Capital One committed to the following: • Conforming payments: 97% posted within 1 business day of receipt • Non-conforming payments: 99% processed and posted within 5 business days of receipt In July 2022, Capital One posted only 55% of conforming payments within one business day of receipt and 76% of non-conforming payments within five business days of receipt Five of the these "critical" service failures took place in a single 12-month period, giving Walmart the right to exercise a termination clause However, Capital One quibbled about the wording of the termination clause, forcing Walmart to take the credit card issuer to court The court ruled in Walmart's favour, describing the termination clause as "plain" and "unambiguous" https://lnkd.in/eFY5RjpS https://lnkd.in/e_NVr6rB

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Promotions are slowing down. New for Bloomberg News with my colleagues Daniel Neligh and Ella Cerón: Among 68 million white-collar professionals, just 1.3% were promoted in the first three months of the year, the lowest rate in five years, according to an exclusive analysis conducted for us by Live Data Technologies. As the labor market has softened, the balance of power has shifted back to employers, who are under less pressure to hand out promotions in order to hold onto workers. Slowing promotions also helps companies control costs. Demisha Jennings, a career coach I talked to, has seen the shift firsthand among her clients. While promotions a few years ago came easily for some based on tenure, workers nowadays have to carefully document their impact. “It’s a lot harder, you really have to fight for it now,” she said. But a slower approach comes with risk: Companies that delay promotions for top performers could demoralize their strongest contributors — and, in some cases, lose them to competitors. https://lnkd.in/eTJZNsZT #career #promotion #raise #labormarket #costcutting #hiring #hr

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A Bloomberg reporter was fired for breaking an embargo. It’s a nightmare that fuels paranoia whenever someone is working with sensitive information. What if a reporter, despite promising, file a story earlier than planned? I think what’s happened here – a dangerous, very unfortunate action that could have jeopardised an international prisoner exchange – shows us why we don’t have to worry too much. By far the most common reason to give reporters access to information early is so that they have additional time to plan and report a story. We want to make sure they have the ability to put the news in context, hopefully by speaking to someone and adding more context. Time is also a consideration – the ability to release the story at the soonest possible moment. Even though the news hopefully will be covered by others, you desperately, in this world of thousands of sites and accounts, want people to hear it there first. All of this is understandable and, at some level, benefits everyone. What doesn’t is breaking that agreement. I’ve never had a journalist knowingly break an embargo. And a couple of times, something has gone up quicker than expected, it’s usually been because there’s been confusion over a changing embargo time. (Note: don’t do this.) Moreover the vast majority of pieces of news are interesting to a specialist audience. They are noteworthy, yes, but there’s no massive fame and fortune to be made by leaking. On the contrary, the consequences of being iced out of future deals – and potentially even facing legal action are far more dire. Even in the Bloomberg case, there’s been an impassioned response from the reporter in question about how she never, ever would maliciously break a pre-agreed break time. It seems that what happened – while not acceptable – was somewhere in the process of writing and editing. So breathe easy, and let people with trusted relationships have time to review and report on forthcoming stories.

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Below…incredibly valuable media relations advice straight from the source…without attending a conference or webinar. And yes, the phone still is a tool you should use. #PR #mediarelations #journalism #publicrelations #marcomms

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🗞 In this week's Prima Facie newsletter for Capital Brief I've covered a topic that's been bubbling away in my brain for a few months now: NDAs. 📖 Initially brought to my attention via research Regina Featherstone and Sharmilla Bargon in March, this is becoming an increasing area of debate and scrutiny. Plus: 💰 Litera has some new research on tech and billing in the legal industry. I spoke with Litera APAC lead Stefan Steenveld about why Australia lags behind US and UK counterparts in technology adoption, relying more heavily on hiring freezes or reducing head counts than US or UK firms when adapting to the economic climate. And: ⚖ Judgment day is coming in the ACCC v Delta Building Automation attempted bid-rigging lawsuit linked to National Gallery of Australia. https://lnkd.in/gJnKAP8P Until next Thursday! #nondisclosureagreements #bidrigging #competitionlaw #legalaffairs

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Liars beware, I am now Intermediate at Digital Investigation Techniques according to AFP and Google News Initiative. This course focused on tracking election disinformation and verifying climate claims. It was interesting to see how the course's tools could be used to examine past/current elections.

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For American tech companies building AI, the past few years have been an unregulated free-for-all. In the race to stuff these expensive new tools into every existing digital product, discussions about potential harms, transparency, and intellectual property have taken a back seat. But yesterday in the EU, the first comprehensive law regulating AI took effect. Here’s what it means. https://lnkd.in/e4QGkZNe

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Meta seems ready for redemption in the 2024 election cycle. If so, it's thanks to its Oversight Board. My latest CEO Daily for Fortune. With the U.S. presidential election less than six months away, and elections also happening in the EU, U.K., India, and many more countries, now is a good time for CEOs to reflect on their company’s relationship to democracy at large. One company that has done so, and seems ready for redemption, is Meta.  Meta has come a long way. Eight years ago, the Trump campaign used improperly obtained Facebook data to build voter profiles for 50 million users, and Russia weaponized Facebook to undermine the integrity of the U.S. elections. The scandals led to Facebook’s darkest hour, and forced its founder, Mark Zuckerberg, to testify before Congress.     But 2024 isn’t 2016. A crucial part of Meta’s response since then has been the creation of an “independent” oversight board. And last week, that group released its key lessons in a historic election year. These are my takeaways: – A company should think about its principles vis-à-vis democracy and not react only to specific instances. Meta learned this lesson when it blocked former President Donald Trump’s Facebook account after the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol, which was seen as arbitrary. When it reinstated Trump’s account in 2023, Meta did so based on more broadly applicable protocols.   – Almost no company can be entirely apolitical. Some of the most divisive societal issues concern foundational democratic principles—freedom of speech, equality, limits on government interference—written up in constitutions and human rights charters. A company must know where it stands on such values.  – Efforts to interfere with elections often start small or in inexpensive markets. They then move to more expensive markets. Some interference campaigns are subtle, using deep fakes or somewhat credible fake claims. A company must study its weakest points of entry to ensure it’s not a vehicle for such schemes. – Finally, oversight boards are a good idea for almost any organization. Meta’s self-governing board can be critical of the company, and its supervision ensures Meta is caught off-guard less often by user protest or complaints.  Meta didn’t get it 100% right. One shortcoming of its oversight board is that it still depends on Meta for funding. Over time, that’s bound to lead to problems. But Meta’s approach nevertheless benefits the company—and society—in myriad ways. For Meta, it lowers the likelihood of future PR crises. More broadly, it makes Meta act as a more responsible corporate citizen. That’s in everyone’s interest, and a model to follow. Thanks to my old classmate Simona Sikimic-French for providing very useful background, and Claire Zillman for another excellent edit. #elections #socialmedia #corporateresponsibility https://lnkd.in/e3Dq6F9D

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So this profile of #anthonypompliano, aka Pomp, is a great read for anyone who dreams of building a Silicon Valley-like successful business empire outside of the Valley. Known today for his investments, podcast, newsletter, his career (which began in the military) has been a wild ride of hard work and luck. It's not your typical Silicon Valley founder-in-a-hoodie story. https://lnkd.in/g66X4sU8 #entrepreneur #venturecapital #startups #crypto #bitcoin

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My latest piece from The Pre-Postmodernist on Substack. We are continually getting it wrong in terms of unseen costs when combatting societal ills. In fact, we’re often terrible at identifying the ills themselves. Link in Comments. #opportunitycost #tradeoffs #liberty

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This year's election may be a Biden vs Trump rematch, but it's not the same electorate as four years ago. In a new Bloomberg News / Bloomberg Businessweek story out today (see gift link below), we estimate that at least 10% of most states' 2020 eligible voter population is gone and has been replaced with new potential voters. In some states that number is closer to 15%, including in key swing states like Arizona and Nevada. That level of churn easily dwarfs the 2020 presidential margin of victory in the seven battleground states we're watching. This analysis brings together a lot of government and private datasets to understand not only the impact of the Great American Migration of the last few years, but also the number of deaths (including from the Covid pandemic), those who've turned 18 since 2020, and newly naturalized US citizens. Many factors will likely shape the 2024 presidential result, but knowing how the electorate has changed and what that means for key demographic shifts will be crucial for any serious election watcher. As always, it takes a village: with graphics magic from Elena Mejía, reporting help from Gregory Korte and the work of editor trio Laura Bliss, gregory white and Chloe Whiteaker.

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According to the Federal Trade Commission (FTC), Americans lost $10 billion to scams of all shapes and sizes last year. According to Interpol, people lost $1 trillion worldwide. An important takeaway: No demographic or geographic location is immune. Yet, some are more likely to be targeted and fall victim. Read more now (link in comments). Like, comment and subscribe for more. #newrules #change #resilience

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The #WorldBank-IMF meetings are over. What did they actually accomplish? Depends on your perspective, though "not enough" seems to be the consensus from the people I spoke with. Check out my latest Newswire for more on the meetings.

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