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

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 Jan 202318min

Now Alphabet has monster layoffs to announce. How much of it is about getting Google ready to battle OpenAI? More Twitter bans, but this time, the bans are for all 3rd party clients. The big executive shakeup at Netflix. Genesis officially files for bankruptcy, and in the Weekend Longreads Suggestions, the reasons why the humble pizza box is one of the worst designed products in existence. Sponsors: The Pegasus Investment Round! Email sam@thepegasus.app (Listener ad!) NFTTallinn.com and code RIDE for 10% of all tickets! (Listener ad!) Links: Google to Cut 12,000 Jobs in 6% Reduction of Global Workforce (Bloomberg) Twitter’s new developer terms ban third-party clients (Engadget) Netflix co-founder Reed Hastings to step down as chief executive (FT) Crypto Lender Genesis Files for Bankruptcy as Crisis Spreads (Bloomberg) Google Calls In Help From Larry Page and Sergey Brin for A.I. Fight (NYTimes) Weekend Longreads Suggestions: How Amazon Became Ordinary (Ritholtz.com) Who Owns the Generative AI Platform? (a16z) The Steam Deck wasn’t born ready, but it’s ready now (The Verge) A WIRED compendium (The Future, Now and Then) You Don’t Know How Bad the Pizza Box Is (The Atlantic) Brian's Episode on the Metacast podcast! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

20 Jan 202317min

Is Genesis finally on the verge of bankruptcy? Instagram wants you to take a break… from Instagram… and they’re even giving you tools to do so. Frowny-face for Amazon for shutting down the AmazonSmile program. Wikipedia gets a big redesign. Some numbers on where the investor dollars are going right now, and is San Francisco back, baby? Maybe cause I’m coming to visit. Sponsors: LayerDesks.com/ride, code ride for 10% off (listener sponsor!) Links: Genesis creditors negotiating prepackaged bankruptcy: Sources (The Block) Crypto Media Outlet CoinDesk Taps Bankers for Potential Sale (WSJ) Instagram’s new ‘Quiet Mode’ helps you take a break from the app (TechCrunch) Amazon to close charitable program AmazonSmile (The Hill) Wikipedia gets its first makeover in over a decade… and it’s fairly subtle (TechCrunch) Apple to Expand Smart-Home Lineup, Taking On Amazon and Google (Bloomberg) Web 3 Startup Funding Q4 Drop (Crunchbase) New AngelList Data Shows Startup Fundraising Pain in Second Half of 2022 (Newcomer) It looks like people are actually moving back to San Francisco (really) (Vox) Tweet on LA startup investment numbers (@emollick) Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

19 Jan 202317min

The original HomePod is basically back, even though it’s not the original cause it’s been updated. Apple’s AR/VR plans continue to be maddeningly confusing, at least to me. Microsoft has announced huge layoffs. Does even the AI revolution require human moderators working in boiler-room like conditions? And I guess we have all the specs for those new Galaxy phones about to be announced. Links: Apple announces revamped full-size HomePod two years after discontinuing original (The Verge) Apple Delays AR Glasses, Plans Cheaper Mixed-Reality Headset (Bloomberg) Full memo: Microsoft to cut 10k jobs, about 5% of workforce, and take $1.2B restructuring charge (GeekWire) Exclusive: OpenAI Used Kenyan Workers on Less Than $2 Per Hour to Make ChatGPT Less Toxic (Time) Galaxy S23 spec leak leaves few surprises ahead of February launch (The Verge) Twitter Manager: Daily Revenue Has Dropped 40%, 500 Top Advertisers Have Left (The Information) Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

18 Jan 202317min

New Macs and New M2 chips from Santa Tim this morning. Microsoft has made its Azure OpenAI Service generally available. But will lawsuits slow down the AI revolution? Is Google about to reveal its own AirTag-like product? And the law of if it’s too good to be true, it probably is, continues to hold, at least when it comes to hard drives for sale on Amazon. Sponsors: ZocDoc.com/techmeme Links: Apple Announces New MacBook Pros With M2 Pro and M2 Max Chips, Up to 96GB RAM, 8K HDMI, Wi-Fi 6E, and More (MacRumors) Apple Unveils M2 Pro and M2 Max Chips With 20% Faster CPU and More (MacRumors) Microsoft to Add ChatGPT to Azure Cloud Services ‘Soon’ (Bloomberg) Microsoft Plans to Build OpenAI Capabilities Into All Products (WSJ) Getty Images is suing the creators of AI art tool Stable Diffusion for scraping its content (The Verge) AI art tools Stable Diffusion and Midjourney targeted with copyright lawsuit (The Verge) Google reportedly working on AirTag-like location trackers (The Verge) Why the Heck Is Amazon Selling These Fake 16 Terabyte Portable SSD Drives? (ReviewGeek) Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

17 Jan 202319min

Our big AI discussion with @ReamBraden and @swyx. Shawn just posted this new essay drawing on what we discussed here: Every Google vs OpenAI Argument, Dissected Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

16 Jan 20231h 15min

The SEC just officially labeled two crypto lending programs as unregistered securities? Is the regulatory tsunami beginning? Did Tim Cook actually ask Apple to cut his pay? Did the nascent industry of carbon capture just take its first steps? And in the longreads, I go in depth to explain that weird OpenAI/Microsoft deal. It’s complicated. Links: SEC charges Gemini and Genesis with unregistered securities offering (The Block) Apple’s Tim Cook Takes Rare CEO Pay Cut After Pushback (Bloomberg) Climate Startup Removes Carbon From Open Air in Industry First (WSJ) Weekend Longreads Suggestions: Microsoft + OpenAI: Inside Tech’s Hottest Romance (The Information) Is Microsoft about to get the deal of the century? Or is Sam Altman unloading OpenAI at just the right time? (Gary Marcus) Robert Tinney’s Visions Of The Future (DocPop) Dungeons & Dragons content creators are fighting to protect their livelihoods (TechCrunch) Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

13 Jan 202321min

Is Apple finally ready to bring touchscreens to Macs? Sam Bankman Fried has a Substack. Apple Maps courts businesses. Is Twitter going to auction off user handles? And what tech publication that I quote from all the time has been using AI to write entire articles for months now? Links: Apple Is Working on Adding Touch Screens to Macs in Major Turnabout (Bloomberg) Sam Bankman-Fried sticks to his script (Axios) Apple Maps’ business listings are about to get more detailed with launch of ‘Apple Business Connect’ (TechCrunch) Twitter Said to Consider Selling User Names to Boost Revenue (NYTimes) Carta lays off 10% as CTO lawsuit looms (TechCrunch) CNET IS QUIETLY PUBLISHING ENTIRE ARTICLES GENERATED BY AI (The Byte/Futurism) OpenAI begins piloting ChatGPT Professional, a premium version of its viral chatbot (TechCrunch) Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

12 Jan 202318min