OpenAI Hustles to Beat Google to Launch ‘Multimodal’ LLM Read more

Art by Mike Sullivan.
Art by Mike Sullivan.

Their First Rodeo: Why Are DAOs Suddenly Leaping Into Wyoming Real Estate?


Following state passage of pro-crypto laws, distributed autonomous organizations are dropping thousands on wild—and sometimes uninhabitable—tracts of land.

Jan. 14, 2022 11:00 AM PST

Should we buy this town?”

The tweet, accompanied by a link to a Zillow listing for a $4.7 million abandoned ghost town in Colorado, was almost certainly a joke—but then again, maybe not. The message was posted by @CityDAO, the account representing a 10,000-member distributed autonomous organization that already owns a 40-acre plot near Cody, Wyo. With CityDAO’s mission to “build the future of real estate ownership on chain,” the whole thing—the desire to buy a town, the commitment to scooping up wild land in Wyoming, the whispers of wanting to purchase Kanye West’s 4,000-acre ranch—seemed both on brand and off the rails.

Since its founding last July, CityDAO has raised $7 million from its membership, which includes major crypto players such as Coinbase founder Brian Armstrong and Ethereum creator Vitalik Buterin. CityDAO is one of the flashier DAO projects to take root in Wyoming, which has fast established itself as the most crypto-friendly state in the union. But it’s not the only collective to zero in on Western real estate. Kitchen Lands DAO LLC, with three members, bought 35 acres in Sheridan, Wyo., for $25,000, and The Crypto Coalition, a group of members from decentralized venture capital organization Jade Protocol, will potentially buy land in the state as well.

Access on the go
View stories on our mobile app and tune into our weekly podcast.
Join live video Q&A’s
Deep-dive into topics like startups and autonomous vehicles with our top reporters and other executives.
Enjoy a clutter-free experience
Read without any banner ads.
OpenAI's Greg Brockman (left) and Google's Demis Hassabis (right). Photos by Getty.
AI Agenda google ai
OpenAI Hustles to Beat Google to Launch ‘Multimodal’ LLM
As fall approaches, Google and OpenAI are locked in a good ol’ fashioned software race, aiming to launch the next generation of large-language models: multimodal.
From left, a Google TPU, Broadcom CEO Hock Tan and Google Cloud chief Thomas Kurian. Photos via Getty, Google and YouTube.
Exclusive google semiconductors
To Reduce AI Costs, Google Wants to Ditch Broadcom as Its TPU Server Chip Supplier
Google executives have extensively discussed dropping Broadcom as a supplier of artificial intelligence chips as early as 2027, according to a person with direct knowledge of the effort.
Art by Clark Miller.
space Twitter
The Trouble With Walter: In His Elon Musk Tome, the Writer Shows Us the Perils of Access Journalism
Walter Isaacson is the exotic bird of American letters, a charming and convivial bon vivant and raconteur, the life of many a dinner party, a studious biographer and a generous mentor.
Flexport founder Ryan Petersen. Photos via Getty and Flexport.
e-commerce
Can Ryan Petersen Fix Flexport?
Ryan Petersen was getting antsy. This March, Petersen had handed over the CEO job at Flexport—the logistics company he’d founded a decade earlier, which had ballooned to an $8 billion valuation in 2022—to veteran Amazon executive Dave Clark.
Photos via Eiso Kant (left) and YouTube/VMWare Tanzu (right)
AI Agenda startups ai
How GitHub Copilot’s Co-Creator Raised $126 Million to Compete with His Former Employer
Recent interest in artificial intelligence has focused on large-language models that aim to do everything from writing Shakespearean poetry to solving math riddles.
Art by Mike Sullivan.
The Flexicon culture
A Is for Adaptogens, B Is for Body Sculpting: A Trending-in-Silicon Valley Health Glossary
Last month, The Information Weekend conducted our first-ever Brain-Body Investment Survey , asking subscribers about their exercise, wellness and beauty practices.