The World in Focus...

Welcome to the inaugural edition of The Chris Worsey Newsletter! 

Every Friday, we will be exploring the week’s most relevant and interesting stories across life, business, sport, and everything in between…  

Today, we will be getting started by taking a look at the most important takeaways from a week filled with shocking, unexpected, and thought-provoking stories…

Let’s get into it!

1) The VC Dip: A Sign of the Times… 

At the start of this week, I stumbled across this tweet by Dan Primack:

• In essence, what we see is a stark image of the recent state of Venture Capital (VC). 

  • The world is facing a serious DPI crisis 

  • Investors are increasingly seeing less and less of a return on their investments

  • Startups are struggling

• The VC market has become an extremely tumultuous place to be 

  • Key causes of this include value misjudgement, economic instability, and overheated markets

• This is all representative of a problematic trend that has come to a head over the last few years.

  • Startups are struggling to generate the kind of returns investors expect

  • Recent years have seen a slowdown in exits and a decline in DPI

2) The Man With Nine Lives?

• In 2022, Joe Biden announced the creation of the US Advanced Projects Agency for Health (ARPA-H)

  • This was done with the aim of promoting bold innovation in the health sector

    

• Earlier this week, the organisation hired Jean Hébert to lead a new division surrounding ‘functional brain tissue replacement’

  • Hébert’s views on the subject are fairly ambitious, making this an extremely radical move

• Hébert believes that humans could be capable of escaping death.

  • His vision plays on the idea that – if humans were to effectively find a way of replacing parts of their bodies with younger versions – they could theoretically live forever.

3) Apple’s Very Own Robot?

When you reach the top, there is nothing more difficult than maintaining your position. Over the last few years, no organisation has felt this quite like Apple. 

Facing increased competition year on year, the need for innovation in the technology sector has never been more pronounced.

• In recent years, technological innovation at Apple has – arguably – been stagnant

  • Numbers in key metrics have dropped

  • The firm has discontinued ambitious projects such as the creation of self-driving cars

  • Apple is yet to properly immerse themselves into the world of AI 

• Bloomberg has stated that – in an attempt to boost revenue growth – Apple has been preparing for the creation of tabletop robots

  • While little is known about when to expect the device, reports state that it will be released in around 2025 or 2026

  • It is thought that the device will be powered using advanced AI, and will feature an iPad style display paired with robotic limbs 

4) A Step in The Right Direction… Hopefully

The potential of technology to positively impact people's lives is immense. So why has the development of essential public services lagged behind?

Well, because it seems that, in reality, we're left hoping those in charge make decisions that benefit the public.

• Over the last few weeks, former UK Prime Minister, Tony Blair, has referenced the idea of AI innovation

  • Noting a suffering NHS in his press conferences, Blair – who still holds ties with the current Labour Government – has come up with a new plan. 

• In a leaked report, POLITICO, found that Blair is preparing to recommend a sort of centralised data hub that holds medical records to power ‘AI doctors’ to interact with the public. 

  • Theoretically, if acted upon, this could allow for faster diagnoses, personalised treatment and, on larger scales, a reduction in waiting times and an ease of the burden currently placed on NHS workers.

5) Ah, The Football

We couldn’t finish without talking about the return of the Premier League last weekend… 

What can we say? Well, not much has changed, has it… Chelsea are still – you know – Chelsea, Spurs are still bottlejobs, and Manchester City? Well, they continue to win. 

But, that doesn’t mean that we should expect everything to be the same…

• Earlier this year, the Premier League announced that it would be moving away from the VAR-style based officiating for offside calls

  • This comes after a series of high profile mistakes and outrage by fans, players, and managers alike

• This week, it was revealed that Genius Sports – a firm with expertise in sports data – will be taking over 

  • Implementing a style of semi-automated offside decisions similar to those seen in international tournaments, the PGMOL will be looking to increase the accuracy of offside calls, while finally shortening the time it takes to come to a final decision.  

• The system will utilise the generation of digital twins to create 3D depictions of players and the ball to enable precision in each call made

That’s all we have for this week… Enjoy the weekend! If you want to stay up-to-date with even more interesting bits of news, make sure to follow me on my socials!