The end of the road for Convoy is a cautionary tale for startups and investors

What the heck happened at Convoy? We explore that question on a new episode of the GeekWire Podcast, examining the market forces, debt, and other dynamics that put the digital freight marketplace out of business this week. 

• GeekWire co-founder John Cook, who has covered startups and venture capital since before the dot-com bust, compares Convoy’s implosion to past flameouts of high-profile startups, and explains the trends that served as the backdrop for Convoy’s demise.

• Listen here, or subscribe to GeekWire in Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Spotify or wherever you listen. 

“I think it’s mostly nonsense.” That’s the take from Seattle-area science-fiction writer Ted Chiang, speaking Thursday at the GeekWire Summit about “The Techno-Optimist Manifesto,” published by venture capitalist Marc Andreessen. 

• Chiang, whose work inspired the movie Arrival, said AI is too often unjustly portrayed as a high-tech panacea. That claim came through loud and clear in Andreessen’s manifesto, which called AI a “universal problem solver.”

• "Technology can solve certain problems, but I think the biggest problems that we face are not problems that have technological solutions,” Chiang said. Read more. 

Hot Links:

• Xbox and PlayStation light up The Sphere: The new eye-catching attraction in Vegas had a gaming theme this week. (The Verge) 

• Tesla planning new Seattle-area service center: The EV giant filed documents for a 115,000 square-foot building in Renton, according to public records. (Puget Sound Business Journal)

• ‘The Great Amazon Heist’: A new documentary uses pranks and humor to take on Amazon. (Wired)