Mon. 06/17 – Thinner And Lighter It Is

Elon Musk did a big spontaneous interview with the BBC last night on Twitter Spaces, but here’s two things that didn’t make the interview: Twitter appears to be working on generative AI for reasons yet unknown and Twitter Inc. doesn’t exist as a company anymore. Global VC funding for crypto startups fell to $2.4 billion in the first quarter of 2023, down 80% from an all-time high in 2022. Video game illustrators in China say AI image generators are causing them to lose their jobs. And Reddit moderators saying AI-generated spam is rapidly mounting as they brace themselves for a spam apocalypse. Links: Elon Musk is moving forward with a new generative-AI project at Twitter after purchasing thousands of GPUs (Insider) Twitter Inc. has been merged with X Corp. and “no longer exists,” Elon Musk’s company says in a court filing. (Slate) Six things we learned from Elon Musk interview (BBC) Crypto VC Funding Plunges by 80% in Dire Quarter for Startups (Bloomberg) AI is already taking video game illustrators' jobs in China (Rest of World) Reddit Moderators Brace for a ChatGPT Spam Apocalypse (VICE) NPR to Suspend Twitter Use After ‘Government-Funded’ Label (NY Times) Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

12 Apr 202318min

Alibaba revealed its ChatGPT-style bot, and mere hours later the Cyberspace Administration of China announced plans to require security reviews of generative AI tools before they’re released. The Winklevoss twins made a $100 million loan to their crypto exchange, Gemini Trust, after it failed to raise enough from outside investors. The FBI has warned against using any public USB charging ports. And YouTube has announced new Premium features and also announced the pricing for their NFL Sunday Ticket packagers and they’re not cheap. Sponsors: Bloomberg.com/careers go.tech/tm Links: China slaps security reviews on AI products as Alibaba unveils ChatGPT challenger (Ars Technica) China proposes measures to manage generative AI services (Reuters) Winklevoss Twins Lend $100 Million to Their Gemini Crypto Platform (Bloomberg) Juice jacking rising, FBI says don't use airport USB outlets (Android Authority) YouTube Premium adds more perks with SharePlay support, higher quality video and more (TechCrunch)  NFL Sunday Ticket on YouTube starts at $249 for the 2023 season (The Verge) Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

11 Apr 202318min

Twitter has stopped throttling tweets with Substack links in them, but only after Elon Musk denied they were ever blocked. About 270 US Apple Stores have held staff meetings about unionization risks in the past two weeks. A New York Times article about the environmental and economic impact of bitcoin mines has some crypto proponents up in arms. And the 2023 Dell XPS 13 is… fine. Just fine. Sponsors: OregonState.edu Links: Twitter stops throttling tweets with Substack links (Engadget) Elon Musk Denies Substack Links Are Blocked On Twitter, A Claim That’s Very Misleading (Forbes) Apple (AAPL) Continues Efforts to Keep Retail Stores From Unionizing (Bloomberg) The Real-World Costs of the Digital Race for Bitcoin (NY Times)  Crypto enthusiasts go after New York Times for its BTC mining report (Cryptopolitan) Rebuttal to the NYT article (Daniel Batten, Twitter) Dell XPS 13 review: Dell is coasting (and that’s fine) (The Verge) Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

10 Apr 202321min

Check out David Auerbach's books: Meganets: How Digital Forces Beyond Our Control Commandeer Our Daily Lives and Inner Realities Bitwise: A Life in Code Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

8 Apr 20231h 3min

Shenanigans from some Elon companies. Twitter looks like it’s blocking Substack. Not just links to Substack but even mentioning the name, the word Substack, in some cases. Oh, and Tesla employees apparently liked to view videos from your car and share them with each other internally. Last quarter was epically bad when it came to venture investing. And, of course, the Weekend Longreads Suggestions. Links: Twitter now disables likes, replies, and retweets if a tweet has Substack links (The Verge) Special Report: Tesla workers shared sensitive images recorded by customer cars (Reuters) A third of organizations admit to covering up data breaches (VentureBeat) Global VC Funding Falls Dramatically Across All Stages In Rocky Q1, Despite Massive OpenAI And Stripe Deals (CrunchBase News) Weekend Longreads Suggestions: Behind the curtain: what it feels like to work in AI right now (Democratizing Automation) Think of language models like ChatGPT as a “calculator for words” (Simon Willison's Blog) Anthropic’s $5B, 4-year plan to take on OpenAI (TechCrunch) Blockbuster pushed HBO to start investing in original content, cable giant’s ex-chief says (CNBC) Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

7 Apr 202318min

More examples of chatbots hallucinating might lead to the first lawsuits. Did you know that you have a copy of the bitcoin white paper on your Mac right now? You don’t know it, but you do. I’ll tell you why. Substack is the latest to launch a Twitter clone. And why E3 had to die. It’s called direct to consumer, or, I guess, gamer. Sponsors: Mimecast.com OregonState.edu Links: ChatGPT invented a sexual harassment scandal and named a real law prof as the accused (Washington Post) The Bitcoin Whitepaper Is Hidden in Every Modern Copy of macOS (Waxy.org) Google CEO Sundar Pichai Says Search to Include Chat AI (WSJ) Google to prohibit personal loan apps from accessing user photos, contacts (TechCrunch) Substack’s new short-form ‘Notes’ feed looks a lot like Twitter (TechCrunch) Streaming Killed E3 (Wired) Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

6 Apr 202315min

Sony might be developing a sort of PS Vita mark 2. Sad news of the death of a well-known silicon valley luminary. Meta says its not going to be left behind in the AI race. What happens if the kids aren’t keen on the Metaverse. And I sketch out an example of our grand theory of AI varietals. Sponsors: Bloomberg.com/careers Links: EXCLUSIVE – SONY’S NEXT PLAYSTATION HANDHELD (Insider Gaming) Bob Lee, creator of Cash App and former CTO of Square, stabbed to death (TechCrunch) Google says its AI supercomputer is faster, greener than Nvidia A100 chip (Reuters) Meta to debut ad-creating generative AI this year, CTO says (NikkeiAsia) American teens aren’t excited about virtual reality, with only 4% using it daily (CNBC) What if ChatGPT was trained on decades of financial news and data? BloombergGPT aims to be a domain-specific AI for business news (NeimanLab) Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

5 Apr 202319min

We’ve said before that Elon owns Twitter, so if he decides to change the logo to a Shiba Inu, you know, why not? Apple kinda sorta bites the bullet on layoffs. What’s going on with the Apple Weather app? Do we want universities to call the use of ChatGPT plagiarism? And data on the corporate takeover of AI development. Sponsors: OregonState.edu ZocDoc.com/techmeme Links: Twitter’s new dog icon is sending dogecoin — sigh — to the moon (TechCrunch) Spotify shuts down its Clubhouse-style audio app Spotify Live (Musically) Google to cut down on employee laptops, services and staplers for ‘multi-year’ savings (CNBC) Apple to Cut Jobs in Some Corporate Retail Teams in First Known Layoffs (Bloomberg) Apple Weather forecasts suffer rare outage (AppleInsider) Universities express doubt over tool to detect AI-powered plagiarism (Financial Times) AI is entering an era of corporate control (The Verge) Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

4 Apr 202317min