16 Minutes News by a16z

While governments, policymakers, and employers around the world are all figuring out how to reopen the economy, contact tracing -- which includes identifying and warning contacts of exposure in order to stop chains of transmission -- is a key strategy for preventing further spread of a disease like COVID-19.

But approaches vary from manual to automated. And different regions have different frameworks, whether combined with GPS (location data) and CCTV as in South Korea -- or mainly Bluetooth-based, as in Singapore and elsewhere. The players and apps also vary in whether they're from corporations, grassroots/citizen efforts; employer-facing or for widespread public-health surveillance; or even just open vs. closed, decentralized vs. centralized, and so on.

So we break it all down in this week's episode of 16 Minutes on the News with Joel de la Garza, in conversation with Sonal Chokshi, given headlines around Apple and Google’s approach, called "privacy-safe contact tracing". What ARE the security and privacy concerns here? Yet technology is not the biggest part of this discussion; it’s also about rights, cultures, and values... and the bigger questions around what happens when people are "transformed into cellphone signals".

Aliens are among us. Well, the online multiplayer game Among Us is -- a murder mystery set in space, where the group must figure out who the alien imposter is (a variation of party games like Werewolf or Mafia) -- has seemingly suddenly become very popular. And not just because a major politician livestream-played it earlier this week, which is what makes this news.

So on this episode of 16 Minutes on the News -- our show where we talk about what's in the headlines; tease apart what's hype/ what's real; and where we are on the long arc of innovation with related tech trends -- we cover:

• Who, how, and why now? Especially since the game, from indie game company InnerSloth, has been around since 2018 -- what if it's NOT just "the pandemic effect" (where people are seeking new ways to connect);
• What are the underlying trends involved -- from social to streaming -- but digging in on the twists, and nuances, of both;
• What are the implications for startups and big companies when it comes to the gaming market, beyond this game?

All this and more, in less than 16 minutes, with a16z consumer team partner Jonathan Lai (formerly at Tencent games, Riot Games) in conversation with host Sonal Chokshi.

headlines & sources for stats/quotes cited in this episode:

• "Everything to know about the game everyone is obsessing over", CNET [stats, roadmap]
• "Everyone's playing Among Us", New York Times [quote from Kotaku's Nathan Grayson]

As calls for better, faster, cheaper, portable testing for COVID-19 disease are heard around the world -- given the important role of test-trace-isolate in re-opening the economy! -- the FDA recently issued an Emergency Use Authorization (EUA) for a CRISPR-based diagnostic.

It's the first authorized use of CRISPR technology for an infectious disease test. So we discuss this topic in this week's episode of 16 Minutes -- our show where we cover the news headlines, tease apart what's hype/what's real from our vantage point in tech, and share where we are on the overall arc of various trends -- covering:

• where are we with testing for COVID overall given the taxonomy of what's already here and what's coming;
• where are we with CRISPR technology, given that this is the one of the first times it's being used for diagnostics vs. therapeutics (and that clinical trials are only coming of age there now;
• how does this work, and how does this type of CRISPR compare to the PCR approach for testing; and
• how do EUAs and more play out given past policy debates and discussions of CRISPR and gene editing

...with a16z general partner Jorge Conde and bio deal team partner Andy Tran, in conversation with Sonal Chokshi.

On 16 Minutes, we also offer frameworks for thinking about the topics covered, so we also discuss: the tradeoffs between specificity and sensitivity when it comes to testing, especially when there's a big difference in false positives in testing for the disease vs. testing for antibodies; the tradeoffs between decentralized vs. centralized testing (getting the sample to the test or getting the test to the sample), especially given the potential for pregnancy-kit like tests here; and the tradeoffs between specific, scalable, and sensible testing ...Is it possible to have it all when it comes to CRISPR??

In one of our special "2x" episodes of 16 Minutes (32ish minutes;) -- our show where we quickly cover the headlines and tech trends, offering analysis, frameworks, explainers, and more -- we cover the algorithm that powers TikTok, the short video-sharing platform that grabbed massive marketshare in cultures and markets never experienced firsthand by the engineers and designers in China, beating out other apps in the United States. Now, with talk of U.S. ownership/partnership for TikTok, what happens if the algorithm isn't included in the deal? And what can we learn from the "creativity network effects" flywheel of TikTok; for "algorithm friendly" product design; and more broadly, about the future of video?

The news: Given the U.S. government calling for TikTok's business to be sold to U.S. owners last month, and several bidders coming in since, the latest news was that Oracle Corporation and Bytedance are hammering out an agreement for the former to be TikTok's "trusted tech partner" in the U.S. This could include (as reported by Axios) their exclusive ability to oversee all tech operations for TikTok in the U.S., including access and control of U.S. user data; ability to review source code and all updates to software for security vulnerabilities; and separate boards and entities for ensuring compliance with CFIUS/ U.S. policies (and for allowing ownership stakes for Oracle, with Walmart). The deal hasn't been approved yet [as of September 18, 2020].

The episode: But since this show is focused on where we are on the long arc of innovation, and what's hype/ what's real when it comes to tech trends & the news, where does the source code (and more specifically, the "For You Page" algorithm) -- which may or may not be included in the deal due to China's revised export controls -- come in? Yet it's not just about if TikTok is really TikTok without it, or whether "the algorithm" and machine learning training data can be recreated... the real question is: How does the "creativity network effects" flywheel work between video creation and distribution -- from origination to mutation to dissemination? It boils down to the idea of "algorithm friendly design", observes Eugene Wei, who has written a series of deep dives on TikTok, and formerly led product at Hulu, Flipboard, and video at Oculus, among other things. So what does TikTok, regardless of deal outcome, suggest about the future of product development, and more broadly, the future of video? All this and more in this 2x+ long explainer episode of 16 Minutes.

image: Eliza Petersen

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"It's CRISPR!" This week, the Nobel Prize in Chemistry was awarded to scientists Emmanuelle Charpentier and Jennifer Doudna (also an a16z co-founder, of Scribe Therapeutics), for the development of the CRISPR/Cas9 method for genome editing -- a technology that's "had a revolutionary impact on the life sciences, is contributing to new cancer therapies, and may make the dream of curing inherited diseases come true".

While many describe this technology as "genetic scissors", one of the sharpest tools, is that analogy too limited for describing the true power and potential of CRISPR as a gene-editing platform? And while the time between (unexpected) discovery to practice to award has been less than a decade -- further confirming that we're in the new century of biology! -- at what point does such discovery become engineering, that is, innovations we can use and systematize and scale (much like transistors)?

In this special episode of 16 Minutes, a16z general partners Vijay Pande and Jorge Conde, in conversation with Sonal Chokshi, examine the long arc and narrative of CRISPR, both backwards and forward; tease apart what's hype/ what's real in terms of where we really are, in practice; and... celebrate the incredible milestone this is. It's CRISPR!, and much more...

articles cited in this episode [see also related pieces below]

"Pioneers of revolutionary CRISPR gene editing win chemistry Nobel", Heidi Ledford & Ewen Callaway, Nature, 7 October 2020

"The Nobel Prize in Chemistry 2020", The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences, NobelPrize.org, 7 October 2020