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Fri. 07/21 – Reddit Doesn’t Blink Jul 21, 2023

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Reddit is choosing violence with their biggest holdouts. More data on the ebbing of Threads usage. AI seems to be bringing Sergey Brin back into the office. Why you should be getting your paycheck quicker. And an Oppenheimer-themed Weekend Longreads Suggestions.

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Thu. 07/20 – An Apple GPT Jul 20, 2023

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Rumors that Apple already has an LLM framework and their own generative chatbot. Google is shopping an AI bot that can write news stories to various journalism outlets. Has GPT-4 actually gotten dumber of late? More streaming price raises. And it’s the last chance saloon for Microsoft’s AR headset for the US Military.

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Apple Tests ‘Apple GPT,’ Develops Generative AI Tools to Catch OpenAI (Bloomberg)
Google Tests A.I. Tool That Is Able to Write News Articles (NYTimes)
Study claims ChatGPT is losing capability, but some experts aren’t convinced (ArsTechnica)
Meta open-sources Llama 2, but with strings attached (MoneyControl)
Apple slams UK surveillance-bill proposals (BBC News)
Google raising price of YouTube Premium to $13.99 per month (9to5Google)
Microsoft Poised to Deliver Improved Combat Goggles, US Army Says (Bloomberg)

Wed. 07/19 – More Proof The Big Folks Are Winning AI (For Now) Jul 19, 2023

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Microsoft announced aggressive pricing for their AI products and got rewarded with an all-time high stock market valuation. More price aggression in the streaming wars. Meta released Llama 2. Google is asking for employees to voluntarily work on air gapped machines. And let me introduce you to the concept of “synthetic data” for LLMs.

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Tue. 07/18 – Checking In With Threads Jul 18, 2023

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It’s been… two weeks. Let’s check in on how Threads is doing. Streaming players continue to raise prices. Microsoft still plans on fighting for its prize. Are the incumbents winning the AI race? And the interesting startup that wants to use light instead of electricity in computer chips.

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The spam bots have now found Threads, as company announces its own ‘rate limits’ (TechCrunch)
Five reasons Threads could still go the distance (Platformer)
Peacock to raise its subscription prices on August 17 (TechCrunch)
Microsoft-Activision Deal Poised to Close Later Than Planned (Bloomberg)
Wix’s new tool can create entire websites from prompts (TechCrunch)
UK chip designer raises millions from Agnelli fund (FT)

Mon. 07/17 – Sony And Microsoft Stop Fragging Each Other Over Call Of Duty Jul 17, 2023

Show notes

Sony and Microsoft have made nice. Bitcoin ETFs continue to look like a possibility. How the Vision Pro is shaking up Apple’s org structure in a meaningful way for the first time since the Steve Jobs Era. And why Netflix’s recent turnaround have rekindled those perpetual rumors that Apple is gonna end up buying Disney some day.

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Sony agrees to 10-year Call of Duty deal with Microsoft (The Verge)
SEC accepts BlackRock’s Bitcoin ETF application, signaling regulatory review (CoinTelegraph)
The shady world of Brave selling copyrighted data for AI training (StackDiary)
Hacker News Thread On The Brave Thing
Typo leaks millions of US military emails to Mali web operator (Financial Times)
Apple’s New Vision Group Reflects Shift Away From Steve Jobs Approach (Bloomberg)
Bob Iger Shifts From Building an Empire to a Disney Yard Sale (Bloomberg)

Fri. 07/14 – Twitter Starts Showing People The Money Jul 14, 2023

Show notes

Elon has made good on his promise to share ad revenue with some big Tweeters. The fact that you can’t use Threads in Europe continues to be weird. Meta unveils a new AI image generator that they say is significantly smaller and better. Why AI is at the center of the Hollywood strike part eleven. And one choice Weekend Longreads Suggestion.

Links:

Twitter starts sharing ad revenue with verified creators (TechCrunch)
Musk's Twitter sues four Texas entities for data scraping, seeks damages (Reuters)
Meta confirms it is blocking EU-based users from accessing Threads via VPN (TechCrunch)
Meta claims its new art-generating model is best-in-class (TechCrunch)
Exclusive: AP strikes news-sharing and tech deal with OpenAI (Axios)
Actors say Hollywood studios want their AI replicas — for free, forever (The Verge)
Here’s the new default font for Microsoft Outlook and Word: Aptos (CNBC)

Weekend Longreads Suggestions:

Apple, Lionel Messi and the $2.5bn question: What’s next? (The Athletic)

Thu. 07/13 – Elon Launches An AI Company Jul 13, 2023

Show notes

Elon has launched his own AI company with some pretty big names involved. The FTC will appeal! Roblox is coming to Zuckerberg’s metaverse. Meta does plan to commercialize LLaMA. And a cool new “do a napkin sketch and have AI turn it into an actual work of art” tool.

Links:

Musk Unveils xAI in New Bid to Rival Startup OpenAI (Bloomberg)
FTC appeals its loss to Microsoft in Activision Blizzard case (The Verge)
Ex-Celsius CEO Mashinsky Charged in Latest DOJ Crypto Case (Bloomberg)
Roblox is coming to Meta’s Quest VR headsets (The Verge)
macOS Sonoma Brings Apple Password Manager to Third-Party Browsers (MacRumors)
Meta to release commercial AI model in effort to catch rivals (FT)
Stability AI releases Stable Doodle, a sketch-to-image tool (TechCrunch)

Wed. 07/12 – Microsoft Wins Big In The FTC Case Jul 12, 2023

Show notes

A big win for Microsoft leads critics of FTC chair Lina Khan to come out of the woodwork. Anthropic has released its Claude 2 chatbot. Say hello to the Nothing Phone (2). And while the market caps of the big players might have been boosted by AI, might the need for on premises AI lead to a unique opening for the likes of Dell and Hewlett Packard Enterprise?

Links:

Microsoft-Activision deal moves closer as judge denies FTC injunction request (CNBC)
Microsoft and UK regulators agree to pause their Activision battle to negotiate (The Verge)
FTC would face tough appeal of Microsoft-Activision order, experts say (Reuters)
F.T.C.’s Court Loss Raises Fresh Questions About Its Chair’s Strategy (NYTimes)
AI Startup Anthropic Releases a New Version of Its ChatGPT Rival, Claude (Bloomberg)
Why SUSE is forking Red Hat Enterprise Linux (TechCrunch)
Bigger, Brighter, More Expensive: Nothing Reveals the Phone (2) (Gizmodo)
The AI Boom Is Here. The Cloud May Not Be Ready. (WSJ)

Tue. 07/11 – A Meaningful Anti-Tracking Law Jul 11, 2023

Show notes

Could Massachusetts pass the first meaningful anti-tracking law in the country? With social media in transition, what’s the lane for someone like Tumblr? Instagram is going after Twitter, but is someone coming for Instagram at the exact same time? And the sad state of affairs for video game history.

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Selling Your Cellphone Location Data Might Soon Be Banned in U.S. for First Time (WSJ)
Tumblr says it’s going to ‘fix’ its ‘core experience’ to appeal to new users (The Verge)
HCA Healthcare patient data stolen and for sale by hackers (CNBC)
A New VC-Beloved Startup Rips a Page From Meta’s Playbook (The Information)
THE GAME AVAILABILITY STUDY, EXPLAINED (Video Game History Foundation)

Mon. 07/10 – Evernote Deadpool? Jul 10, 2023

Show notes

Time to get worried about your Evernote files. Looks like Meta won’t have to leave the EU. OpenAI has a new product that people are raving about. More analysis of if AI can be useful to doctors. And I’ll tell you the one simple reason Threads has hit 100 million users so fast. The answer is right in front of us.

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