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Before Twitter was X and had an X logo, it had that famous blue bird logo. But, in April 2023, Elon Musk briefly changed that bird logo to a picture of a Shiba Inu, which is a dog breed from Japan. Why did he do that? 

It may be, because it's, also, the picture that represents the Dogecoin cryptocurrency, which Musk seems to be a fan of. Wait, what's Dogecoin? Just regular crypto?

Well, what do you get when you combine Internet memes and cryptocurrency? You get memecoins, which Dogecoin is. In some ways, memecoins, like Dogecoin, started as a parody, but seemed to gain a massive following, almost being like a digital expression of creativity. They are said to have playful or humorous branding inspired by memes, with their value mostly being influenced by social media trends, online communities and celebrity endorsements. 

In April 2024, a news report outlined that social media personality Tanmay Bhat's net worth was said to be more than 650 crore rupees. Sounds pretty cool. Bhat responded to this claim, remarking that the number was wildly off. Nonetheless, it seems like he may be pretty well-off. Content creators in the creator economy, like Bhat, MrBeast, MostlySane or others, may be pretty successful.

In 2022, according to Kalaari Capital, India had about 80 million content creators. But, only about 150,000 of them can effectively monetize their services. The 150k of them were said to be earning about $200 to $2500, which is about 16,000 rupees to 200,000 rupees a month. Less than 1% of professional creators with more than a million followers were said to be earning more than 50 lakh rupees a month. However, that could just mean some do better than others, that happens in all industries.

And sure, the creator economy could signify the power of independence and individual creativity. 

But, are there certain hurdles that creators face that could be solved by Blockchain? It's said that content creators in the creator economy are struggling with monetization models relying heavily on intermediaries. Could Blockchain disrupt this paradigm and help with better monetization avenues?

Tanmay Bhat. Dr Mike. Joe Rogan. MostlySane. BeerBiceps. They're what's being called "creators". And over time, mostly since the COVID-19 pandemic, there's been a rise of an economic system featuring independent creators connected to businesses and audiences through the internet. This is being dubbed "the creator economy". And it has about 160 million amateur content creators.

So, how does that work? The audience supports the creator financially by engaging with their content, purchasing their merchandise, buying from brands the creator is associated with or, just simply, making the creator a thought leader. It's not just singing or dancing or telling jokes. Creators can also have newsletters, podcasts, informative videos and more. It seems like a new force shaking the status quo. It's getting so cool that a lot of young people may prefer being a creator to an astronaut.

The creator economy is expected to grow from about $128 billion in 2023 to close to $530 billion by 2030 at a CAGR of about 23%. So, if it has potential, it could be a new frontier for the VC community, who aim to have their finger on the pulse of innovation.

So, RegTech is one of those revolutions that seem underway. It may be traditionally defined as companies using innovative tech solutions to manage compliance. At the same time, there's been a bit of a shift where policymakers and regulators are looking at the same tech solutions to craft compliance and try to stay updated in a world that refuses to sit still.

Since late 2022, we seem to be in the golden age of AI and some may see AI having some applications in RegTech. After all, RegTech is a blend of regulation and technology.

According to Archana Balasubramanian, Partner - Agama Law Associates, "RegTech is a tool used by companies, particularly in FinTech, to assist in compliance, risk assessment, risk mitigation, reducing penalties, data management, internal policy-making and so on. RegTech is largely AI or ML-based and requires vast amounts of input, some through the system or, in some cases, manually, which helps throw up relevant data points to enhance all of the benefits..."

So, RegTech may be AI-based. But, could it go the other way as well? Could RegTech be used to craft AI policy in India? Not just for use by governments, but by companies as well.

In late 2022, OpenAI's ChatGPT was released to the public. And while people threw bouquets at the power of generative AI, there were a couple of brickbats as well. Many were worried about potential copyright infringement and privacy violations. And then, the lawsuits began.

There was a lawsuit filed that alleged OpenAI copied text from books without getting consent, crediting the copyright holder or even compensating them. Another lawsuit claimed that OpenAI's models collect people's personal information illegally. It was claimed that ChatGPT could accurately summarize books, which may mean that the LLM has read the books.

And there have been accusations that OpenAI is gathering people's images, music preferences, locations, financial details and more by being integrated into platforms, like Spotify, Snapchat, Slack and Microsoft Teams. And then, the New York Times sued OpenAI for copyright infringement, becoming the first major American media organization to do so, contending that millions of articles published by NYT were used to train chatbots to replace the outlet as a source of information. Comedian Sarah Silverman, also, joined the lawsuits accusing OpenAI of having ingested her memoir as a training text for AI programmes. Authors, like John Grisham, George RR Martin, Michael Connelly, Jodi Picoult and others are some of the authors who have sued OpenAI.

So, why the OpenAI dislike? Are people just getting on the bandwagon of lawsuits? Why can't everyone just get along?

Remember November 2023? That seemed to be a tumultuous time for OpenAI. Co-founder Samuel Altman was abruptly fired over Google Meet, joined Microsoft and, then, returned to OpenAI again. Then, he fired most of the OpenAI Board that had fired him. But, just before Altman was fired, something happened.

A group of staff researchers were said to have sent a letter to the OpenAI Board. The letter was said to be about warning it about a new AI algorithm that could pose a threat to humanity. There was said to be a mysterious endeavour called Project Q* (pronounced Q-Star.) Some members believed that Project Q* could be a significant breakthrough in the pursuit of AGI, which is Artificial General Intelligence. This is a system that isn't good at one specific thing, but one that could do a wide range of things better than people. Some systems are good at something, but not everything. A smartphone could be great at understanding voice commands. But, it may not know how to learn a new language without specific programming.

AGI could create machines that aren't narrowly focused, but could understand, learn and do many things. Much like a human being. It could be a system that could learn things on its own, understand people's needs better over time and adapt to situations without needing specific instructions for each scenario. The idea of AGI is said to be building machines that have the kind of intelligence people have.

Picture a classroom. A teacher is looking at how to make their classes more engaging and immersive. They've heard about the Metaverse - a collective virtual shared space using different kinds of tech. They've heard it's a realm where the digital and physical worlds could meet and where there could be an immersive and interactive experience. "Why not?", they say, "How can the students use this?" 

So, when the teacher is teaching about the Ajanta and Ellora Caves, they select a virtual classroom space resembling these caves. The students get to create personalized avatars to represent themselves in this virtual classroom. The avatars can interact with each other and the environment. Instead of showing a PPT on a screen that's pulled down, there's a virtual field trip to these caves. They can explore and ask questions. Now, the teacher has their undivided attention.

That could be interesting to see in India. And in the EdTech sector, that seems to be fraught with challenges as of late, that could create use cases. In a sector that might be struggling to build a value proposition beyond a pandemic, could this be a panacea? EdTech's goal has always been about leveraging tech to augment educational outreach and quality. And that seems to be India's goal as well. So, with burgeoning digital infrastructure and a government that seems committed to a Digital India, could this be the next frontier of the EdTech revolution?

It seems like over the years, there's a financial instrument quietly gaining traction amongst growth-stage companies in India: venture debt. It may be considered an alternative funding mechanism offering loans and once a niche, it could be emerging as a tool for companies seeking capital without wanting to relinquish too much equity.

So, what's driving interest? What's making venture debt gain popularity as an asset class? According to Dr Somdutta Singh, Serial Entrepreneur, Founder and CEO - Assiduus Global Inc, LP Angel Investor, Advisor Govt of India (Core Committee Member of WEP - Niti Aayog), "The interest is being driven by the relative safety of debt instruments compared to equity, steady income from interest payments and potential equity upside. Additionally, as the startup ecosystem is maturing, I am certain venture debt might become a valuable option for startups looking to complement their capital structure". 

"India's surge in startup activity, over the last few years in particular, presents both opportunities and challenges for the venture debt market. Opportunities lie in providing growth capital to promising startups, while challenges include assessing risk and managing defaults. Education, the people involved, standardizing terms & collaboration between lenders, startups and investors can address these challenges", adds Singh.

With so many players in the finance and crypto market, who threw their hat into the ring? The Indian government. The Reserve Bank of India launched a pilot project on the Central Bank Digital rupee in December 2022 called CBDC: Central Bank Digital Currency.

This would be digital and dematerialized banknotes that's considered convenient, safe, secure and accessible. The goal is said to be complementing physical cash, not replacing them. So, apart from taking out your wallet, using UPI or a card, there's a CBDC option available.

And it's said that India CBDC worth about 16 crore rupees is in circulation, as of March 2023. So, there is some traction.

But, there might be another looming worry: do CBDCs have the potential to give a government increased visibility into a person's financial transactions and track their spending?

At one point in time, running an entire country entirely on renewable energy seemed like a pipe dream. No longer, though.

For almost a week in November 2023, the country of Portugal ran on 100% renewables. It was said that Portugal's energy landscape witnessed about 1102 Gigawatt hours (GWh) from renewable sources during this period. As a frame of reference, that could power thousands of sports stadiums hosting a really important cricket match. So, Portugal operated without the use of natural gas for about 130 consecutive hours, which just might signal a reduced dependency on fossil fuels. Portugal's renewable energy is said to be wind and solar power and there are said to be plans to explore hybrid plants that combine both wind and solar energy.

And Portugal's total energy consumption amounted to about 840 GWh, encompassing households and industries. So, there was surplus energy as well. During 95 of those 130 hours, where natural gas wasn't used, Portugal was said to have met its own energy needs, while, also, exporting excess clean energy to Spain. That might mean that Spain could be a renewable energy exporter.