Noah Smith: the AI boom isn't just for oligarchs
AI boom creates construction jobs and raises worker wages.
Latest
Latest briefings
A live read on what moved across the AI landscape, what it means, and what's next.
Memia Newsletter
Engaging weekly briefings for decision-makers navigating the AI economy from outside the frontier. Latest issues:
Memia #2026.39: Cheap signals🎭 safety harness🛡️🔒 discursive stratification🗞️ affective computing💧👁️ MAKERphone 2.0🔧📱 metabolic architecture🌿🏢 clippy with root access📎 look back with JOY🥲
Paradise of Machines🤖⛪️...
🎭Cheap signals: the game theory of AI safety theatre
Performing restraint pays better than practising it...
Upcoming Events
AIOctober 21, 2026
Agentic Engineering Day New Zealand
Agentic Engineering Day New Zealand is a community-driven conference for builders working with AI agents, MCP, AI infrastructure, and production AI systems. The event brings world-class AI engineering...
Memia Writing
Mind-expanding essays and frameworks on AI, accelerating technology, and the future.
Anatomy of an AI agent (mid-2026 edition)
Models, tokens, harnesses, agents, skills, tools - making sense of a dynamic vocabulary....
The Intelligent Interstitium: What Lies Between
An exploration of the connective layer between human minds, tracing how communication media have evolved from passive channels into increasingly agentic systems that now participate in thought itself....
About Memia
frontier literacy for AI decision-makers
Memia reads the AI frontier from outside the default US-China framing and turns that into strategic bearings for governments, capital and operators.
Horizon Scanning
Signals / Sensorium
The live feed: what moved, what it means, and where the exposure is forming.
AnalysisBriefings
Weekly longform analysis with thesis, evidence, implications, and decisions.
EngageAdvisory
Closed-door work for boards, governments, sovereign capital and executive teams.
PresentationSpeaking & Keynotes
The worldview delivered to a room: direct, numerate, and built for decision-makers.
Sensorium
Sensorium Signal Scanning
Real-time links and signal scanning from across the web, tracked through Memia Sensorium.
UVM wins $38M for AI digital twins in critical care
Largest UVM research award signals major federal backing for AI-driven critical care.
6 October 2026Bluesky wants to give users their own .bsky domains
Signals shift toward user-owned digital identity, challenging platform-controlled profiles.
AI Narratives
Interpret the future
Key narrative axes which Memia is tracking relating to Artificial Intelligence trends and impacts
There is no AI investment bubble
Is it an AI Bubble?
The AI investment bubble will burst imminently
There is no AI investment bubble
AI companies continue to justify their vast valuations and continue to raise capital. Valuations do not collapse suddenly.
The AI investment bubble will burst imminently
The gigantic amounts of money flowing into AI companies in 2022-2026 is seen not to generate returns and AI company valuations collapse very soon.
Robust Solutions
AGI Safety Alignment Progress
Minimal Safeguards
Robust Solutions
Robust, verified alignment solutions are developed and thoroughly tested before AGI deployment, ensuring AI systems reliably pursue intended goals and values.
Minimal Safeguards
Minimal safeguards are implemented due to competitive pressures and technical challenges, leaving significant alignment problems unsolved at AGI arrival.
Global Coordination
AGI Regulatory Environment
Fragmented Landscape
Global Coordination
Strong international governance frameworks emerge with coordinated policies, standards, and oversight mechanisms for AGI development and deployment.
Fragmented Landscape
Fragmented regulatory landscape develops with inconsistent national policies and AI development havens undermining global coordination efforts.
New Breakthrough Computing Technologies
AGI Hardware Requirements
Existing Architectures
New Breakthrough Computing Technologies
AGI requires quantum, photonic, thermodynamic or other breakthrough computing technologies, creating additional technical barriers and development timelines.
Existing Architectures
AGI emerges through scaling existing semiconductor architectures and optimizing current computing paradigms without fundamental hardware breakthroughs.
Gradual Integration
AGI Economic Transition Speed
Sudden Displacement
Gradual Integration
Gradual economic integration allows for smooth adaptation, retraining programs, and managed transition of workforce and business models.
Sudden Displacement
Sudden economic displacement occurs as AGI capabilities rapidly automate broad sectors, causing significant disruption and social adjustment challenges.