Tue. 04/23 – Microsoft’s Own LLMs and Perplexity’s Big Raise

You think things are bad in your corner of the tech sector? Wait until I tell you about the memory chip industry. OpenAI releases a tool to let you check if something was created by OpenAI. Netflix might be going a tad overboard on this password sharing crackdown. Meta wins round one against the FTC. And the interesting new app from the founders of Instagram. Sponsors: Portant.co code techmeme (Listener!) Podcast Guru App (Listener!) Links: Hynix Posts Record Loss on Slump in Memory-Chip Prices (Bloomberg) Historic Crash for Memory Chips Threatens to Wipe Out Earnings (Bloomberg) OpenAI releases tool to detect machine-written text (Axios) Google is asking employees to test potential ChatGPT competitors, including a chatbot called ‘Apprentice Bard’ (CNBC) Confirmed: Netflix Unveils First Details of New Anti-Password Sharing Measures (The Streamable) Meta Wins Court Nod to Buy Virtual Reality Startup in Loss for Khan’s FTC (Bloomberg) Meta Plans to Shut Down One of Its Most Popular and Long-standing Multiplayer VR Games (Road To VR) Instagram's co-founders are mounting a comeback (Platformer) Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

1 Helmi 202316min

Today, some weird headlines from the world of gaming. Is VR gaming a big nothingburger for gamers themselves? Is E3 dead as a gaming industry event? Stripe is apparently raising a pretty significant down round. And the first Level 3 autonomous driving platform to receive regulatory approval belongs to Mercedes-Benz. Sponsors: Radial.llc/ride (Listener Ad!) Links: Sony Slashes PlayStation VR2 Headset Output After Pre-Orders Disappoint (Bloomberg) Exclusive: Xbox, Nintendo, and Sony Won't Be Part of E3 2023 (IGN) Showtime to Be Rebranded ‘Paramount+ with Showtime,’ Added to Paramount+ Premium Tier (The Streamable) Thrive Capital Said to Lead Potential Investment in Stripe (NYTimes) Twitter Makes First Interest Payment on Musk Buyout Debt (Bloomberg) Mercedes-Benz is the first to bring Level 3 automated driving to the US (The Verge) Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

31 Tammi 202316min

Après ChatGPT, prepare yourself for the generative AI deluge. Amazon says the free lunch for grocery delivery is over. More speculation about foldable iPads. San Francisco wants Waymo and Cruise to pump the breaks on their self-driving car experiments because the actual cars have been literally pumping the breaks too much. And my wager on whether or not 2023 will actually go down as the year that AI breaks through. Sponsors: The Business of Tech (Listener ad!) RelationshipHero.com/techmeme (Listener ad!) Links: Chinese Search Giant Baidu to Launch ChatGPT-Style Bot (Bloomberg) Amazon adding new fees for grocery delivery (GeekWire) Apple Supplier in India Begins Making Components for AirPods (Bloomberg) Foldable iPad could arrive as early as next year, claims noted Apple analyst (The Verge) Two companies race to deploy robotaxis in San Francisco. The city wants them to hit the brakes. (NBCNews) Scientists at Salesforce develop proteins with AI that can eat trash (NeoWin) AI has designed bacteria-killing proteins from scratch – and they work (New Scientist) Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

30 Tammi 202320min

What can make Buzzfeed hit our headlines two days in a row? How about jumping on the ChatGPT bandwagon? Amazon is apparently launching a major NFT project, like it’s 2021 or something. Is Stripe going to be our big tech IPO savior? And of course, the weekend longreads suggestions. Sponsors: NFTTallinn.com and code RIDE for 10% of all tickets (Listener ad!) Radial.llc/ride (Listener ad!) Links: BuzzFeed to Use ChatGPT Creator OpenAI to Help Create Quizzes and Other Content (WSJ) Amazon NFT Initiative Coming Soon: Exclusive (Blockworks) Stripe Sets One-Year Timetable to Decide on Going Public (WSJ) Longreads The ‘Enshittification’ of TikTok (Wired) The Chess World’s New Villain: A Cat Named Mittens (WSJ) Welcome to the Shoppy Shop (Grub Street) The Disappearance of the Ashtray (Clive Thompson) Why Not Mars (Idle Words) RSVP For The Listener Meetup Tickets For The Comedy Show Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

27 Tammi 202318min

I get all metaphysical about where the tech industry is going right now with a record slowdown in smartphone shipments, Masa Son seemingly misplacing his investing shoes, Meta and Buzzfeed joining forces to stave off irrelevancy, and universities offering degrees in AI for the first time. Oh, and are you SURE you want to spin up that Mastadon server? Sponsors: Instafloss.com (Listener!) RocketMoney.com/ride Links: Smartphone Shipments Suffer the Largest-Ever Decline with 18.3% Drop in the Holiday Quarter and a 11.3% Decline in 2022, According to IDC Tracker (IDC) SoftBank Deals Hit Record Low, Sapping Funding for Startups (Bloomberg) Meta Pays BuzzFeed Millions to Generate Creator Content for Facebook and Instagram (WSJ) University of Texas Will Offer Large-Scale Online Master’s Degree in A.I. (NYTimes) We tried to run a social media site and it was awful (Financial Times) RSVP For The Listener Meetup! Buy Tickets for the Comedy Show! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

26 Tammi 202317min

I’m gonna tell you why I think the latest antitrust suit against Google might be the most important one in terms of the overall tech ecosystem. And maybe the biggest threat Google is facing. Twitter reverses another thing they shouldn’t have broken in the first place. Why aren’t folks paying ransomware ransom as much anymore? And why are consumers not keeping their smart clothes dryers connected? Sponsors: Upside App and use promocode ridehome How To Fix The Internet podcast eff.org/podcast Links: US Sues Google to Break Up Ad Unit in Heated Antitrust Fight (Bloomberg) DOJ's new suit puts Google's ad business at risk (Axios) Google's most serious antitrust challenge to date (Platformer) Microsoft Cloud Strength Drives Second Quarter Results (Microsoft Investor Relations) Twitter for web will now stay on your preferred timeline (The Verge) Riot Games receives ‘ransom email’ for stolen source code following social engineering attack (The Record) Ransomware Revenue Down As More Victims Refuse to Pay (Chainalysis) LG, Whirlpool Target Customers Disconnected From ‘Smart’ Appliances (WSJ) After inking its OpenAI deal, Shutterstock rolls out a generative AI toolkit to create images based on text prompts (TechCrunch) Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

25 Tammi 202317min

Alright. It’s on. Mark Gurman has literally all the details on Apple’s forthcoming mixed reality headset. The DOJ might already have sued Google by the time you hear this. Amazon adds subscription prescriptions as a service. And it turns out that AI CNET used was good at… plagiarizing. Sponsors: HopelessMope.com code: ridehome (Listener ad!) The Business Of Tech (Listener ad!) Links: How Apple’s Upcoming Mixed-Reality Headset Will Work (Bloomberg) DOJ Poised to Sue Google Over Digital Ad Market Dominance (Bloomberg) Amazon launches RxPass, a $5/month Prime add-on for all-you-need generic drugs covering 80 conditions (TechCrunch) CNET's AI Journalist Appears to Have Committed Extensive Plagiarism (Futurism.com) RSVP For The Listener Meetup This Saturday: https://lu.ma/tx4vez9x Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

24 Tammi 202316min

More tech layoffs, and why I’m suggesting we might only be in the early innings of this tech retrenchment. Big Wall Street banks are coming for PayPal and Apple Pay. TikTok might be putting it’s thumb on the scales to favor certain content. Would you pay $42 a month for a ChatGPT Pro plan? And how far has Apple Silicon come, exactly. Sponsors: Radial.llc/ride (Listener!) MeetFabric.com/ride Links: Spotify to trim 6% of workforce in latest tech layoffs (Reuters) Elliott Management Takes Big Stake in Salesforce (WSJ) Banks Plan Payment Wallet to Compete With PayPal, Apple Pay (WSJ) TikTok’s Secret ‘Heating’ Button Can Make Anyone Go Viral (Forbes) ChatGPT users report $42 a month pricing for ‘pro’ access but no official announcement yet (The Verge) Apple MacBook Pro 16 (2023) review: the core count grows (The Verge) Buy tickets for the comedy show! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

23 Tammi 202318min