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Wed. 05/31 – AI Industry Says: “Regulate Us!” But Why? May 31, 2023

Show notes

Big names in the AI industry are basically begging governments to regulate AI. But some people are wondering about their motives. The considerations the Biden administration is taking into account vis-à-vis AI regulation. New Garmin smartwatches. And why the Lovecraftian Shoggoth is the meme of the AI moment.

Sponsors:

NewtonX.com/techmeme

Links:

A.I. Poses ‘Risk of Extinction,’ Industry Leaders Warn (NYTimes)
ChatGPT Risks Divide Biden Administration Over EU’s AI Rules (Bloomberg)
Garmin’s Epix 2 and Fenix 7 lineups go ‘Pro’ (The Verge)
The Race to Make A.I. Smaller (and Smarter) (NYTimes)
Why an Octopus-like Creature Has Come to Symbolize the State of A.I. (NYTimes)

Tue. 05/30 – Nvidia Joins The $1T Club May 30, 2023

Show notes

As Nvidia joins the rarified trillion dollar market cap club, their recent announcements highlight why they’re truly the center of the current AI moment. ARM transitions to a comprehensive 64-bit platform. Hands-on with Meta's Quest 3 prototype. And those weird new CAPTCHA’s you’ve been seeing? Yes, AI is responsible.

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Links:

How Nvidia created the chip powering the generative AI boom (Financial Times)
World’s Most Valuable Chipmaker Nvidia Unveils More AI Products After $184 Billion Rally (Bloomberg)
Video of the NPC character demo
Arm Unveils 2023 Mobile CPU Core Designs (AnandTech)
A First Look at the Headset That Could Be Apple’s Biggest Competition (Bloomberg)
Captcha Is Asking Users to Identify Objects That Don't Exist (Motherboard)

(IHP) Gary Flake On The Search Wars May 29, 2023

Show notes

(Originally aired February 2017)

Gary Flake has been involved with search technology ever since he got turned on to this particular field in college. In this wide-ranging discussion, Gary lays out for us, basically, the history of search technology before Google, the impact of Google, and then, since he lived it, the notion of competing with Google. The reason why Gary can talk so in depth about all of this is that he was Yahoo’s Chief Science Officer in the early 2000s, when Yahoo, via the infamous project Panama, and other initiatives, attempted to keep Google from taking over the entire search market. And because, prior to that, Gary was at Goto/Overture, he gives us basically the entire story of the birth of paid search as an industry. The story of Google is about two miracles. The first miracle is the Google algorithm that essentially solved search. And the second miracle is paid search… AdWords, AdSense, all of that… which is essentially the greatest advertising machine ever invented. But, not a lot of people remember: paid search was actually invented, not by Google, but by Goto/Overture.

(IHP) The History Of Google Parts 1 And 2 May 28, 2023

Show notes

When Larry and Sergey first met, they didn’t like each other much...

(Originally aired April 2017 in two parts)

BIBLIOGRAPHY:

In The Plex: How Google Thinks, Works, and Shapes Our Lives The Google Story How Google Works The Search: How Google and Its Rivals Rewrote the Rules of Business and Transformed Our Culture Googled: The End of the World As We Know It The Google Guys: Inside the Brilliant Minds of Google Founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin I’m Feeling Lucky: The Confessions of Google Employee Number 59 http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2000/05/29/search-and-deploy http://archive.fortune.com/magazines/fortune/fortune_archive/1999/11/08/268521/index.htm

(IHP) The History Of Internet Porn May 27, 2023

Show notes

(Originally published 01/04/2015)

So, I ran across this quote from Star Trek television producer Rick Berman. He said, “Without porn and Star Trek, there would be no Internet.” That’s a notion that I have to say really kind of rang true to me, in a tonge and cheek sort of way. I mean, it’s something you hear all the time. The idea that pornography leads the way with any new technological innovation. That Porn is some x-large percentage of the overall internet Do you ever wonder how much of the internet is actually porn? If it’s such a large amount then wouldn’t it be worth investigating how porn has shaped the web and the internet generally? That’s sort of the thinking that led me to begin thinking about this episode.

Bibliography:

Fri. 05/26 – AI Google Search Is Here May 26, 2023

Show notes

We get our first look at how Google is integrating AI into search. You heard me warn you, but the most concrete example yet that Crypto VCs might be turning their attention to AI. WhatsApp is probably moving to usernames. The Weekend Longreads Suggestions. And, for this long weekend, Brian’s Book Recommendations.

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Links:

Google starts rolling out Search Generative Experience (SGE) in preview (9to5Google)
Paradigm broadening crypto-only focus to areas including AI (The Block)
WhatsApp beta for Android 2.23.11.15: what’s new? (WABetaInfo)
The FDA will apparently let Elon Musk put a computer in a human’s brain (The Verge)

Weekend Longreads Suggestions:

Meta's ‘Efficiency’ Layoffs Take a Toll on Employee Productivity (Bloomberg)
Sergey Brin Has a Secret Plan to Put Airships Back in the Skies (BusinessWeek)
Some Neural Networks Learn Language Like Humans (QuantaMagazine)
A husband hid $500,000 in bitcoin during a divorce — and got busted by a crypto hunter (CNBC)
Going for a walk with Shift’s Moonwalker electric shoe-skates (TechCrunch)

Brian's Summer Book Recommendations:

Thu. 05/25 – Even Presidential Candidates Suffer From Twitter Glitches May 25, 2023

Show notes

The whole Twitter Space presidential announce did not go well. Microsoft says Chinese hackers have burrowed into critical US infrastructure. Sony has a handheld gaming device, but a true descendent of the PlayStation Vita it is not. Quite. Has AI allowed a paralyzed man to walk again? And the world’s newest unicorn is maybe the most delightful interesting raise of the year.

Sponsors:

Miro.com/podcast

Links:

Twitter glitches plague Ron DeSantis’ much-hyped presidential announcement with Elon Musk (CNBC)
Microsoft warns that China hackers attacked U.S. infrastructure (CNBC)
Chinese Malware Hits Systems on Guam. Is Taiwan the Real Target? (NYTimes)
OpenAI warns over split with Europe as regulation advances (Financial Times)
Sony’s new Q handheld is official: 8-inch screen, streams PS5 games (The Verge)
Apple Plans to Turn Locked iPhones Into Smart Displays With iOS 17 (Bloomberg)
A Paralyzed Man Can Walk Naturally Again With Brain and Spine Implants (NYTimes)
Indonesian agritech firm eFishery hits unicorn status with $108m series D (TechInAsia)

Wed. 05/24 – Microsoft Build Wrapup May 24, 2023

Show notes

All the headlines from yesterday’s Build conference. The big Netflix password crackdown has begun. Did Elon buy Twitter to dethrone Fox News? Is an Uber/Waymo partnership the start of a beautiful relationship? And is Final Cut Pro on the iPad actually what everyone wanted?

Sponsors:

Links:

Microsoft’s Azure AI Studio lets developers build their own AI ‘copilots’ (TechCrunch)
Microsoft’s Copilot and Bing AI plug-ins will be interoperable with ChatGPT (The Verge)
Netflix’s password-sharing crackdown is here — and it costs $7.99 per month (The Verge)
Elon Musk’s right-wing media venture scores another big win (WashingtonPost)
Uber teams up with Waymo to add robotaxis to its app (The Verge)
PSVR2’s early sales beat the original, Sony claims (VideoGamesChronicle)
That podcast ad you're listening to may soon be AI. Spotify is reportedly developing bots to mimic your favorite hosts. (Insider)
Final Cut Pro for the iPad is slick but limited (The Verge)

Tue. 05/23 – Shutterstock Nabs Giphy May 23, 2023

Show notes

Apple continues to play nice with Broadcom despite hoping to drop them someday. The thing people warned about with these bluechecks happened yesterday. HBOMax isn’t cool. You know what is cool, according to David Zaslov? Max. And how Shareit became the world’s favorite file sharing app.

Sponsors:

Links:

Apple expands US investment with new multibillion-dollar Broadcom deal for 5G tech (9to5Mac)
Verified Twitter Accounts Spread AI-Generated Hoax of Pentagon Explosion (Motherboard)
Following UK antitrust order, Meta sells Giphy to Shutterstock for $53M after buying it for $400M (TechCrunch)
Max will stream over 1,000 movies and TV episodes in 4K at launch (The Verge)
Meta’s new AI models can recognize and produce speech for more than 1,000 languages (MIT Technology Review)
Adobe is adding AI image generator Firefly to Photoshop (The Verge)
Anthropic raises $450M to build next-gen AI assistants (TechCrunch)
How China’s ShareIt became the world’s go-to file-transfer app (Rest of World)

Mon. 05/22 – Meta Hit With Biggest Ever GDPR Fine May 22, 2023

Show notes

Meta got hit by the biggest ever GDPR fine in Europe. A crypto project got taken over by hackers who voted themselves into power. The startup that wanted to dethrone Google is shutting down. The E-sports bubble seems to be popping. And what is it actually like to try to use Google’s new AI tools?

Sponsors:

Nutrafol.com/men promocode ride
Miro.com/podcast

Links:

Meta Fined $1.3 Billion Over Data Transfers to U.S. (WSJ)
Sanctioned Crypto Mixer Tornado Cash Hijacked by Hackers (Bloomberg)
Neeva, the would-be Google competitor, is shutting down its search engine (The Verge)
The E-Sports World Is Starting to Teeter (NYTimes)
Facebook parent in talks with Magic Leap over augmented reality deal (Financial Times)
We Put Google’s New AI Writing Assistant to the Test (Wired)

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