💥6.13.2025 Smarter Strategies: Global Talent, Learning, AI Security, DAO Law
Don't negotiate your own obsolescence.
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This Issue of S3T in 30 secs:
🔍 Global Higher Ed Shakeup
India could emerge as a global education leader—possibly its own Ivy League—if reforms and AI-forward curricula continue. Meanwhile, U.S. universities risk decline unless they reframe their value proposition and focus on doing over resenting.
📈 College Still Pays—But Not Always
New data shows college grads earn ~2x more than high school grads on average, but earnings vary widely by field. Some top-earning high school grads still outperform low-earning degree holders. 📚💼
⚠️ Reddit vs Anthropic: The Data War Gets Personal
Reddit is suing Anthropic for scraping its forums to train AI. This could set major legal precedent around using community-generated content in AI—and spark broader backlash. 🧠⚖️
🔒 Data is Power—Guard Yours
Firms with unique, protected data will win in AI negotiations. Those without strong protections risk fueling the models that will outcompete them. Don't sign away your future. 🛡️🤖
🏛️ DAOs Return with Legal Backing
New Hampshire's DAO law (effective July 2025) offers real-world legal recognition for blockchain-run organizations. A new RFP hints at a DAO registry run on-chain with stablecoin payments. 🏗️📜
💥 AI Arms Race: Big Tech Goes All In
OpenAI is teaming up with Google to meet compute demands, while Meta eyes Scale AI to access high-value enterprise data. The final AI frontier? Proprietary, hard-to-get information. 🚀📊
🕵️ Coinbase Hack Sparks Offshore Scrutiny
A $400M breach involving bribed offshore workers is forcing companies to reassess offshoring risks. Key lesson: Misalignment across legal, security, IT, and vendor teams creates hidden vulnerabilities. 🌍💣
🔧 Security Tips for Offshoring
Cross-check team blind spots, clarify access rights one layer deeper, enforce time-bound vendor compliance—and monitor everything. Neglect = risk. 🔐🛠️
[macro-economics]
Full Access Members: See the S3T Economic Dashboard for the Top 500+ US & International real-time economic indicators.
Higher Education won't be just a US - or Western thing anymore
India has the potential to be an education powerhouse with its own Ivy League notes the Economist, if reform and rising GDP allow. The US's apparent bent on crippling its own universities (crippling...or at least chastising them for their condescending cultures) may open opportunities for international universities to attract / keep talent in their own economies.
India in particular seems to have a collection of universities who are very focused on understanding how AI and emerging tech is impacting the workforce, and taking proactive steps to align their faculty and curriculum's accordingly.
New research from the Hamilton Project provides updated comparison of lifetime earnings for high school vs college grads. College grads on average will earn twice as much over their lifetime than high school grads, but keep in mind this is an average of all grads.
- What you study specifically impacts your earnings, and what/how you learn afterwards.
- There are cases where the highest earning high school grads can earn more than the lower earning college grads.
My take: Personally I still recommend college education but at least some elements of US higher education will need to clarify their value proposition, and graduate from the helpless outrage mindset that seems to exist in too many departments - and focus instead figuring out productive solutions.
If we hate fracking, for example, we could teach students to write papers linking fracking to colonialist power structures, OR we could show them how to go to the economic zones where fracking represents one of the few viable job options and create MORE jobs - start companies that offer jobs with better wages and benefits. That would do way more to end fracking than writing resentful papers.
To be clear, the schools that focus on helping students spread their wings, learn about themselves and find their path forward are providing a critical service helping young gain independence. In today’s world, this goes far beyond just getting them a diploma.
For more context on the evolving landscape of higher education, see my interview on the future of work and learning with John Vandivier.
[emerging tech]
AI is hungry (again): Notable signals and developments
- Surprise move: OpenAI is partnering with Google in order to meet its growing compute capacity needs.
- Meta rumored to be planning an investment in Scale AI - a key player in fine tuning and enterprise data integration (see Scale.com). The move is another indicator of just how intensely focused Big Tech AI players are on gaining access to proprietary enterprise data. It is literally their last frontier.