Kevin A. Bryan (@Afinetheorem) / X

Kevin A. Bryan

13.6K posts

Kevin A. Bryan

@Afinetheorem

Assoc. Prof. of Strategy, U Toronto Rotman | Chief Economist, CDL Toronto | Co-Founder, AllDayTA | Ars longa, vita brevis, occasio praeceps (especially now)

Toronto, ON, Canada

Joined February 2015

Kevin A. Bryan
@Afinetheorem
Feb 1, 2025
The tariffs are insane; everyone knows that if Congress voted in secret, Senate would be 95-5 against. This whole situation is based on the ignorance of one man, and the lack of fortitude among Congress to push back. It will harm all four countries. So what should Canada do? 1/x
1.8M
Kevin A. Bryan
@Afinetheorem
Mar 3, 2025
I've talked to pretty high-level folks in both US and Can this week, incl in Trump's govt: no one has any idea the real reason for these tariffs or what DT is trying to accomplish. What's to negotiate? Honestly, I think he just likes tariffs b/c of a bad understanding of econ.
704K
Kevin A. Bryan
@Afinetheorem
Jul 28, 2025
Hidden deglobalization indicator: the days of visa-free travel are essentially over. Starting in Australia, now NZ, US, UK, Canada, S Korea and soon Japan and the EU require "visa-free" visitors to apply and pay for a "ETA" prior to boarding. That's an e-visa! A total shame. 1/2
393K
Kevin A. Bryan
@Afinetheorem
Nov 30, 2022
I have helped run an AI-based entrepreneurship program for years, written papers on the econ of AI, and follow the field quite closely. Nonetheless, I am *shocked* by how good OpenAI's new chat (chat.openai.com/chat) is. E.g., you can no longer give take-home exams/homework.
Kevin A. Bryan
@Afinetheorem
May 2, 2024
A short note on the encampment that's now set up here in Toronto @UofT. I snuck into it today (I told them I was a fellow comrade who'd stepped out to get a cig - not exactly crack security). I think it's only fair to talk to the folks and see what's going on before judging. 1/x
2.2M
Kevin A. Bryan
@Afinetheorem
Feb 3, 2025
The new OpenAI model announced today is quite wild. It is essentially Google's Deep Research idea with multistep reasoning, web search, *and* the o3 model underneath (as far as I know). It sometimes takes a half hour to answer. Let me show you an example. 1/x
819K
Kevin A. Bryan
@Afinetheorem
Apr 13, 2024
A few notes on Japan where I was last week. Quite fascinating economically. I have been many times over two decades rural and urban. 1) There are so so many foreign tourists. Regional Asian tourism + weak yen + collapse in tourism to China + was closed for multiple years. 1/x
1.4M
Kevin A. Bryan
@Afinetheorem
Jun 16, 2025
France now feels very 1990s US. Smoking is now rare, everyone under 50 dresses just like Americans, baseball caps are the most common headwear (often backwards), many bad tattoos, women's sports and fit young women working out everywhere - was not like this 20 years ago. 1/2
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Kevin A. Bryan
@Afinetheorem
Dec 27, 2023
NYT/OpenAI lawsuit completely misunderstands how LLMs work, and judges getting this wrong will do huge damage to AI. Basic point: LLMs DON'T "STORE" UNDERLYING TRAINING TEXT. It is impossible- the parameter size of GPT-3.5 or 4 is not enough to losslessly encode the training set.
759K
Kevin A. Bryan
@Afinetheorem
May 2, 2024
Replying to @Afinetheorem
First fact is that strict majority of people I talked to are neither students nor affiliated with our university. We have something like 100k students and tons of staff, so it's not hard to find them! But yeah, "student encampment" is just objectively wrong as a description. 3/x
216K
Kevin A. Bryan
@Afinetheorem
Jul 28, 2025
Replying to @Afinetheorem
"Passport Index" type lists showing "visa-free access" are totally wrong now, because tons of countries effectively require e-visas now and just use a different word for them. And they bind! We've had *two* EU visitors to Canada not be able to give talks just here at Toronto. 2/2
39K
Kevin A. Bryan
@Afinetheorem
Oct 29, 2024
Only politics post here this year: I urge you vote for Harris. Both for reasons Paul says (he's a bigoted, dictator-loving, unpredictable crook whose own staff from 2020 don't support him and who will sell Ukraine and Taiwan down the river), but also b/c America is booming! 1/2
Paul Graham
@paulg
Oct 29, 2024
If you haven't decided yet who to vote for, here's why I think you should vote for Harris.
130K
Kevin A. Bryan
@Afinetheorem
May 2, 2024
Replying to @Afinetheorem
(Oh, last thing: to make as clear as possible that this isn't a "student protest" and shouldn't be called as such, I am 40 and no one batted an eye about my age when I was there. Important to get this right @TorontoStar @globeandmail @CBCNews @RadioCanadaInfo @TheVarsity)
147K
Kevin A. Bryan
@Afinetheorem
May 2, 2024
Replying to @Afinetheorem
I don't really get why we'd allow this. All have the right to protest! Free country. But letting a group of masked (non)students control entry to quad, letting them turn it into a campground with tents: you can just take down the tents and entry gate w/o touching anyone 14/x
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