Archive
The complete OZ Talking archive of analysis across technology, economics, and the humanities.
2026
Issue #131AI & TechEmpty Strollers and ₩380 Trillion
The country with the OECD's cheapest child care has the world's lowest birth rate — cost was never the real bottleneck.
Issue #129BusinessSalesforce's $3.6B Fin Deal Wasn't About Technology
The real prize: 30,000 SMB customers and a GTM engine that works the moment you switch it on
Issue #128BusinessOne Researcher Left With $650M; 138 Stayed in Tokyo
Sakana AI bets kaizen-style efficiency, not massive compute, can win the race to self-improving AI.
Issue #127SocietyFortune-Telling Chatbots and Korea's Claim to AI's Top 3
The world's most AI-enthusiastic public still faces a 40% model gap — and enthusiasm alone won't close it.
Issue #126Business10,000 Signups a Day, But Revenue Won't Budge
The problem wasn't the email copy — it was who Railway was sending it to, and the fix was surprisingly simple.
Issue #125AI & TechThree of the Big Four Caught Citing Fake Sources
Only 5 of 45 footnotes in KPMG's agentic AI report were real — and the root cause is organizational, not technological.
Issue #124BusinessThe Real Reason Apple Pays Google $1 Billion a Year
It skipped the AI arms race and bet on maximum distribution instead of the best model.
Issue #123SocietyThe World's Strongest AI Went Dark 3 Days After Launch
In 1999 the US called a computer a weapon; in 2026 it pulled the plug on an AI model — and sovereignty went from slogan to survival.
Issue #122AI & TechKilling the World's Deadliest Animal With Code
Why Google is breeding 32 million mosquitoes to release in the US
Issue #120AI & TechSpaceX at $135: Dream Price or Bubble Price?
Institutions bid 4x the offering while Morningstar says $63 — the gap is a bet on data centers that don't exist yet.
Issue #121AI & TechWhy Nature Put Peer-Reviewed Science on TikTok
A 157-year-old journal's TikTok debut reveals what shrinks when science goes short-form.
Issue #119SocietyHistory Repeats? The 📠 Office Automation Era of 1979
Workers feel 3x faster while executives measure 1.8% — the exact gap that opened when word processors first hit the office.
Issue #118Business230,000 Births: The Number the UN Got Wrong
Fertility's turning point in country after country lines up not with economic crises, but with the year smartphones arrived
Issue #117SocietyKorea Walks the Path Apple and the EU Abandoned
From July 1, every image uploaded to Korean communities gets AI-scanned — at operators' full expense, with no government subsidy.
Issue #116SocietyAustralia Banned Teens From Social Media. Did It Work?
Six months into its under-16 social media ban, Australia's official numbers tell two contradictory stories.
Issue #115BusinessHalf Your Salary on AI Tokens? Uber Found Out
What happened after Uber burned through a full year's AI budget in four months.
Issue #114BusinessAI Swallowed Our Content, and Clicks Went to Zero
Korean publishers still have no legal shield against AI search's traffic squeeze.
Issue #113SocietyWhat's Peter Thiel Up To? He Found a Country-Sized Lab
A billionaire who placed third in a local chess tournament is quietly building a plan B.
Issue #112BusinessSame Company, 100x Bonus Gap: Korea's New Problem
Citizen dividends, a sovereign fund, solidarity wages—three rival fixes emerged in just three weeks.
Issue #111BusinessFounders Banned, $2 Billion Meta-Manus Deal Unwound
The chip war's next battlefield: AI agents.
Issue #110AI & TechJensen Huang's Ten Days: Beijing to Taipei
Three capitals, three dilemmas—the cost of Nvidia's tightrope walk is starting to show.
Issue #109BusinessWhy Anthropic Is Hiring a $320K Copywriter
AI can write, but only humans can figure out what to say.
Issue #108BusinessWhy Starbucks Pulled AI Out of Its Stores
It promised 99% accuracy, but baristas trusted their own hands more.
Issue #107SocietyWhy a Math-Major Pope Wrote an Encyclical on AI
The same question the Vatican asked 135 years ago about the Industrial Revolution is back — now about AI.