AWS Enters The G-ai-me 🤖🏗️

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👀 TLDR:

In this week’s What’s Appening, we have a report on the AI cloud services race. Amazon had been pretty quiet on AI until now, but it has made its move with Bedrock, an API toolkit for businesses to build AI apps on AWS. We look at what Bedrock means for businesses, and what impact it could have as Big Tech brands position themselves in the AI arms race. Also this week, we cover the news that the Montana House of Representatives has passed a bill to ban TikTok in the Treasure State. There’s news of Visa launching a cross-app payment service, meaning you’ll be able to pay your buddy for drinks on Venmo directly through PayPal. Our Stat of the Week looks at the astounding growth of AI-powered app user payments. And What’s dAppening looks at Twitter’s announcement that you can (kind of) start buying crypto and stocks through the platform.

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Takes 🎬️

🤖⛅ Amazon – Launch of Generative AI Cloud Service Called Bedrock

File this one under unsurprising. The consensus is that Amazon – or AWS, more aptly – had to do something to counteract the unstoppable march of Microsoft’s AI products. With the announcement of Bedrock, it has made a big statement. Bedrock is essentially a service that provides businesses with access to generative AI models on Amazon’s AWS cloud platform. In a nutshell, companies will be able to build and scale AI applications using the AWS API. Importantly, AWS will host all the models on the cloud, meaning businesses don’t need to host huge amounts of data on their own infrastructure. Think of it a bit like an AI Web Service – AIWS 🤓. The AI is split into two parts: Bedrock is the core service itself, whereas Titan is the content (the AI models) on AWS that businesses will have access to. Ok, so why is this all important? Well, we know that most of the focus on AI has been on the disruption to stuff like search engines, people potentially using ChatGPT to cheat their way into Harvard, or whatever AI tool Elon Musk is about to launch, but the real action, at least financially (see our Stat of the Week below), is going to be on the gold rush to build AI products. Bedrock is Amazon giving businesses the green light and the toolkits to start building those products. It also keeps Amazon in the driving seat for cloud services as it looks over its shoulder at the rise of an AI-powered Microsoft Azure. The term “cloud AI wars” has now been coined, and it’s going to be a hugely important trend as businesses start building a new generation of AI-powered apps, products, and services. Two of the “Big 3” cloud providers – Amazon and Microsoft – have made their move. Google, which is still reeling from the disastrous showcase of Bard, will not want to be left behind. #CloudAIWars Read more here.

⚖️🚫 TikTok – Montana House of Representatives Votes to Ban TikTok App

If you think that all the talk of a US TikTok ban was just political posturing on Capitol Hill, think again. Last week, the GOP-held Montana House voted to ban the app in the state, with Bill SB 419 now on its way to the state house for Gov. Greg Gianforte to sign. SB 419 would make it illegal to download the TikTok app from January 2024 onwards. Yeah, we know some of the jokes write themselves, and if we had a dime for every social media post saying nobody lives in Montana anyway…..But this is serious business. There will be some fightback, both from TikTok and opposition groups, with legal arguments centering on the 1st Amendment in particular, and the bill itself will become void if Congress passes a law that forces TikTok to sever connections with ByteDance, the Chinese owner at the heart of the security issues surrounding the app. But a US state legislature has voted to ban one of the world’s most popular apps, and others might follow. The gravity of that situation should not be lost on anyone. #TikTokStopped Read more here.

💳💰 Visa – Partnership with PayPal and Venmo for Cross-App Payments

Interoperability between payment apps is one of the most pressing issues in the sector right now, particularly given the huge number of options out there. But Visa believes it has solved the problem with Visa+, a service that will allow instant payments across competing payment apps. PayPal and Venmo are among the biggest names to sign up for the trial, which will be rolled out to some users in the US in the middle of this year ahead of a wider launch in 2024. VISA+ does what you might expect, allowing you to send money directly from your PayPal account to your buddy on Venmo. But the key here is that you don’t need an underlying Visa debit or credit card to do so; you’ll simply link your PayPal or Venmo address to the Visa+ app service. Other payment providers to join the program include Western Union, DailyPay, i2c, and TabaPay. #PayYourPals Read more here.

🧐 Stat of the Week: 4,184% Rise

📈💰 Apps – User Spending Surges by Over 4,000% on AI-Powered Apps

We touched upon in our main take that the next wave of AI apps and services would create a financial boom, and the proof is kind of in the pudding already. A study by Apptopia claimed that in-app user spending on AI apps surged by 4,184% YoY in March 2023. Now, as anyone with a head for figures will attest, these large percentage rises are a bit misleading when they come from a standing start, and it’s thus notable that spending was ‘only’ $3 million in March 2023. But the sector is just getting started, and that $3 million is just a teeny-tiny fraction of where we are headed when it comes to the AI app economy. #AIAppSpending Read more here.

🕸️ What’s dAppening?

🐥🪙 Twitter – Crypto and Stocks Trading Partnership with eToro Announced

Elon Musk is idolized by many retail crypto investors, some of whom believe he will lead them to some kind of promised land (via Dogecoin). So, there was a tremendous buzz last week when the media reported that Twitter would allow crypto investing via the app. Even this morning, Bitcoin Magazine was proclaiming, “You can now buy Bitcoin over Twitter.” But can you? Not really. The word “over” is doing a lot of heavy lifting in that sentence. What Twitter has announced is more of an extension to its financial hub, i.e., live financial market data when you search for cashtags like $BTC or $ETH. And when you find that info, you will be able to go through a portal to the eToro site, where you can buy and trade crypto, stocks, and other financial products. Thus, Twitter’s role is more of a middleman marketer here. So, is this a big old nothing burger? It is, but only to an extent. What’s arguably more important is the intent. Musk has vowed to make Twitter into the “everything app”, and it is assumed that he will eventually allow users to buy and hold crypto directly on wallets linked to the platform. That’s going to take time, years probably, and while it might feel like an eternity with Musk at the helm of Twitter, it’s been less than six months. Still, there are those that believe Twitter’s future lies in being a financial social hub. This is a (very, very small) step in that direction. #EverythingApp Read more here.

Meanwhile at 3Advance…

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