Start Up No.2684: the trouble with smartphones, three questions about AI and jobs, SpaceX’s valuation questions, and more

The Xbox brand is in deep trouble, judging by a message sent to employees within Microsoft which points to OEM hardware in the future. CC-licensed photo by Mike Mozart on Flickr. You can sign up to receive each day’s Start Up post by email. You’ll need to click a confirmation link, so no spam. A selection of 9 links for you. Game on. I’m @charlesarthur on Twitter. On Threads: charles_arthur. On Mastodon: https://newsie.social/@charlesarthur. On Bluesky: @charlesarthur.bsky.social. Observations and links welcome. Are you finally ready to admit it’s the phones? • Noahpinion Noah Smith: » The idea of perpetually tying every human into a global hive mind tripped alarm bells. It reminded me too much of the hive minds I had seen depicted in science fiction nightmares — the Borg from Star Trek, the Blight from A Fire Upon the Deep, the Human Instrumentality Project from Neon Genesis Evangelion. Humans were meant to be individuals — unique, independent incubators of ideas and desires, not…