In-Datacenter Performance Analysis of a Tensor Processing Unit
The seminal paper from Google detailing the design, architecture, and datacenter performance of the first-generation custom ASIC Tensor Processing Unit.
Recommended Reading
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The New Moats: Why Systems of Intelligence are the Next Domain of Competitive Advantage
Proposes that traditional software moats are being commoditized by open-source and cloud infrastructure, and the new defensibility lies in proprietary data and AI-driven Systems of Intelligence.
YouTube's Advertiser Boycott Leaves Creators Feeling Lost
Documents the immediate impacts of the 2017 YouTube advertiser boycott (the 'Adpocalypse') on independent video creators, highlighting their extreme vulnerability to platform-level algorithmic and policy shifts.
Artificial Intelligence and the Modern Productivity Paradox: A Clash of Expectations and Statistics
Addresses the puzzle of why rapid AI progress hasn't boosted productivity growth yet, proposing a J-curve of intangible asset development.
A Survey of Neuromorphic Computing and Neural Networks in Hardware
A comprehensive survey of neuromorphic computing systems, analyzing hardware implementations, designs, and key challenges for neural network deployment.
Thoughts on Tokens
Balaji Srinivasan provides an analytical perspective on tokens, categorizing them and describing how they enable decentralized applications to bootstrap networks and fund open-source development.
Can Blockchain Strengthen the Internet of Things?
An influential examination of how decentralization and blockchain technology can address security and privacy challenges in Internet of Things (IoT) architectures.
Some Simple Economics of the Blockchain
Explores the economic impact of blockchain technology through the reduction of verification and networking costs in decentralized ecosystems.
Corporate Governance and Blockchains
Investigates how blockchain technology could revolutionize corporate governance by providing real-time, transparent ownership records and auditing.
The Hierarchy of Engagement
A framework for building iconic companies by focusing on a three-tier hierarchy of user engagement: growing core daily actions, retaining users through accruing benefits and mounting loss, and establishing virtuous lo...
a16z Podcast: Not All Network Effects Are Created Equal
Distinguishes strong from weak network effects and how marketplace design choices determine which kind a business gets.
What's Next in Computing?
Surveys emerging platforms and argues open-sourced deep learning tools create startup opportunities in AI.
Prospects and Challenges for Future Semiconductor Scaling
An analysis of the technological roadmap and physical limits facing semiconductor dimensional scaling in the post-FinFET era.
Pipelines, Platforms, and the New Rules of Strategy
Argues traditional linear pipeline businesses must convert to platforms to harness network effects or be displaced by those that do.
The Decentralized Application Stack
A seminal post mapping out the architectural layers of the decentralized web, comparing the components of decentralized apps (storage, computation, identity) to traditional web architecture.
The Risk of Automation for Jobs in OECD Countries: A Comparative Analysis
Critiques previous task-based automation predictions by arguing that individual jobs consist of heterogeneous tasks, showing only 9% of OECD jobs are highly automatable.
Deep Reinforcement Learning: Pong from Pixels
Explains policy gradient reinforcement learning by teaching a network to play Atari Pong from raw pixels.
Bitcoin and Cryptocurrency Technologies: A Comprehensive Introduction
A comprehensive, academic textbook and course outline providing a rigorous technical introduction to decentralized cryptocurrencies.
Antitrust and Aggregation
Contends the EU case against Google is the first of many because the end game of aggregation is monopoly.
Governance in Blockchain Technologies & Social Contract Theories
Applies classic social contract theories to understand governance mechanisms within decentralized blockchain networks.
All About Network Effects
Taxonomizes types of network effects and explains why not all of them create equally durable marketplace defensibility.
Being ‘creative’ in the age of ‘creator’: Social media entertainment and the web-native creator system
A foundational scholarly analysis mapping the emergence of the web-native 'creator' class and the social media entertainment system.
The Rise of the Platform Economy
A key essay on how digital platforms have become the foundational infrastructure for digital labor, creative production, and economic organization.
Machine intelligence, part 2
Proposes regulatory approaches to slow bad actors and speed good actors in developing machine intelligence.