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Latest Episodes:

Mon. 03/27 – SVB Finds A New Home Mar 27, 2023

Show notes

Looks like the short, sharp, SVB saga has reached the beginning of a conclusion. Twitter source code has been leaked. The doubts inside Apple about the upcoming mixed reality headset. Why has no one presented any evidence for why TikTok might need to be banned? And, again, will generative AI lead to a physical robot revolution?

Sponsors:

Miro.com/podcast
GetSunday.com/ride for 20% off

Links:

First Citizens to Buy SVB After Biggest Failure Since 2008 (Bloomberg)
Twitter Says Parts of Its Source Code Were Leaked Online (NYTimes)
Apple’s Best Hope for New Headset: a Smartwatch-Like Trajectory (Bloomberg)
France bans all recreational apps – including TikTok – from government devices (The Register)
Pinduoduo App Malware Detailed by Cybersecurity Researchers (Bloomberg)
Tech’s AI Armies Are Huge, Yet Struggling to Innovate (Bloomberg)
For Smarter Robots, Just Add Humans (Wired)

(Portfolio Profile) Investor Update (And How To Do Them) With Rownd Mar 25, 2023

Show notes

Robert from Rownd shares his most recent investor update live and in real time, so you can hear how these things go.

Also, want to learn more about Rownd? From Robert:

Demo site: https://demo.rownd.com. Try out Rownd! We put Rownd into a webflow site to show how easy it works! Sign in with google or email, add biometrics (if you choose), create a wallet, and get an NFT!

Do you have a mobile app or eCommerce company? Reach out at robert@rownd.io or sign up at https://app.rownd.io. We offer all podcast listeners 2 months free + 50% off for a year! Just email me!

Have some feedback? Grab some time with Rob: https://calendly.com/rob-rownd/mutant-podcast-army.

Try a few Rownd customer sites to see the experience!

https://stardust.app (mobile experience)

https://masrefund.com (web + mobile)

https://nextbigideaclub.com (e-commerce + web + mobile)

https://spouse-ly.com (e-commerce)

SMS Fraud link: https://interactive.twilio.com/sms-traffic-pumping-calculator

Fri. 03/24 – Twilight Of The Blue Checks Mar 24, 2023

Show notes

Twitter is finally sunsetting its legacy verified program. OpenAI rolls out ChatGPT plugins. Do Kwan has been detained and is facing formal charges here in the US. The FTC’s “click to cancel” proposal. And, of course, the weekend longreads suggestions.

Sponsors:

Headspace.com/RIDE30DAY

Links:

Weekend Longreads Suggestions:

Cheating is All You Need (Sourcegraph Blog)
The Age of AI has begun (GatesNotes/Bill Gates)
The secret history of Elon Musk, Sam Altman, and OpenAI (Semafor)
The case for slowing down AI (Vox)
Epic’s new motion-capture animation tech has to be seen to be believed (ArsTechnica)

Thu. 03/23 – Coinbase Wells Notice Mar 23, 2023

Show notes

Coinbase got a Wells Notice, which is not good. Hindenburg research has a new note out and is making short run on Block, which is not good. Apple might expand its sports streaming and release more things in actual theaters. And the space startup that 3d prints its own rockets.

Sponsors:

Thuma.co/techmeme for a $25 credit

Links:

Wed. 03/22 – Google Bard Joins The Fray Mar 22, 2023

Show notes

Well, we’ve got Google Bard. We’ve got a new Copilot from GitHub. Bing Image Creator is rolling out. Mozilla AI launches. The low hanging fruit that is plugging AI into NPCs to make games more realistic. And at the very end, some actual non AI news!

Links:

Google opens early access to its ChatGPT rival Bard — here are our first impressions (The Verge)
Microsoft’s GitHub to Add OpenAI Chat Functions to Coding Tool (Bloomberg)
Microsoft brings OpenAI’s DALL-E image creator to the new Bing (TechCrunch)
Mozilla launches a new startup focused on ‘trustworthy’ AI (TechCrunch)
Ubisoft’s new AI tool automatically generates dialogue for non-playable game characters (TechCrunch)
GPT-4 and professional benchmarks: the wrong answer to the wrong question (AI Snake Oil)
Amazon is flooding the zone with new TVs as it crosses 200 million Fire TV devices sold (The Verge)

Tue. 03/21 – TikTok Showdown Mar 21, 2023

Show notes

Ahead of a major showdown in Congress this week, TikTok wants the US to know exactly how popular it is. Why ChatGPT was shut down for a while yesterday. Why Google is suspending PinDuoDuo from the play store. The AI powered doctor’s office of the future. And is Andy Jassy the David Moyes of Amazon? If you get that reference, congratulations.

Down Round Podcast (Listener Ad!)

Links:

Mon. 03/20 – Robots All The Way Down Mar 20, 2023

Show notes

New bots to make video from text prompts. Fending off the bots from biting your style. Falling in love with the bots. In the streaming wars, the ad supported experiments are working, and pricing power is a thing. And the startup that says it’s about to introduce humanoid bots. Real, definitional robots.

Sponsors:

Dot Tech Domains: Go.tech/tm

Links:

Generative AI’s Next Frontier Is Video (Bloomberg)
Glaze protects art from prying AIs (TechCrunch)
AI love: What happens when your chatbot stops loving you back (Reuters)
Netflix’s Ad Tier Hits 1 Million Users. Is That Good or Bad? (Bloomberg)
Disney+ Users Paid Up When the Price Rose (WSJ)
Humanoid robots are coming (Axios)
Figure Promises First General-Purpose Humanoid Robot (IEEE Spectrum)

Fri. 03/17 – Midjourney 5 Is Amazing Mar 17, 2023

Show notes

Amazon Kindle gets out of the magazine business. An ironically named PE firm is buying Porn Hub. Midjourney v5 is really mind blowing. And, of course, the Weekend Longreads Suggestions.

Sponsors:

RelationshipHero.com/techmeme

Links:

Amazon will discontinue newspaper and magazine subscriptions in September (GoodEReader)
SVB Financial files for Ch. 11 bankruptcy protection, says it has $2.2B in liquidity (TechCrunch)
Pornhub owner sold to Canadian private equity firm Ethical Capital (Financial Times)
AI-imager Midjourney v5 stuns with photorealistic images—and 5-fingered hands (ArsTechnica)

Weekend Longreads Suggestions:

The Guardians (Meteor)
The Future Smartphone: More Folds, Less Phone, a Whole Lot of AI (Wired)
LinkedIn turns 20: An oral history of an unlikely champion (Fast Company)
‘It changed the world’: 50 years on, the story of Pong's Bay Area origins (SFGate)

Thu. 03/16 – We’re A Long Way From Clippy Mar 16, 2023

Show notes

For the first time ever, I had to delay producing this show so I could watch and cover and AI product announcement. Let me tell you about how Microsoft is bringing GPT-4, to basically all their most famous apps with Copilot. Looks like the potential for a TikTok ban is getting really real. And why folks are suddenly turning on OpenAI.

Sponsors:

Overtired Podcast

Links:

Wed. 03/15 – GPT-4 Is Here Mar 15, 2023

Show notes

GPT-4 is unveiled and it’s multimodal, and man, is everybody rushing to make use of this stuff. Alleged renders of Google's Pixel 8 Pro appear to show a mysterious new sensor. The state of the music industry in the streaming era. And Deadpool sells his phone company to another phone company.

Links:

OpenAI unveils GPT-4 with multimodal input and more creative and complex capabilities (Windows Central)
10 Ways GPT-4 Is Impressive but Still Flawed (NYTimes)
With Evals, OpenAI hopes to crowdsource AI model testing (TechCrunch)
Duolingo launches new subscription tier with access to AI tutor powered by GPT-4 (TechCrunch)
GPT-4’s new capabilities power a ‘virtual volunteer’ for the visually impaired (TechCrunch)
TikTok Considers Splitting From ByteDance If Deal With US Fails (Bloomberg)
Google Pixel 8 Pro adds a mysterious new sensor, flat display in first leaked renders (9to5Google)
Apple Music boosts streaming music revenue to record $13.3 billion in 2022; vinyl outpaces CDs for first since 1987 (9to5Mac)
Ryan Reynolds-Backed Mint Is Bought by T-Mobile for $1.35 Billion (Bloomberg)

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