OpenAI Former Chief Scientist Launches Safe Superintellegence; Pixel Fold 9 Battery Life Easily Bests Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 6; Starlink Will Block X in Brazil to Be Able to Keep Operating There; Draft Kings Whacked with Fine for Online Slots That Never Paid 

A new AI startup has been co-founded by the former Chief Scientist of Open AI, Ilya Sutskever. It’s called Safe Superintelligence, and in 90 days, they have raised a billion dollars in funding. Arstechnica.com reports that the company will focus on developing what it calls “safe” AI systems that surpass human capabilities. The fundraising effort shows that even amid growing skepticism around massive investments in AI tech that so far have failed to be profitable, some backers are still willing to place large bets on high-profile talent in foundational AI research. Venture capital firms like Andreessen Horowitz, Sequoia Capital, DST Global, and SV Angel participated in the SSI funding round. Right now the company only has 10 employees, and will use a portion of the funding round to hire a larger team. Right now they are operating in Palo Alto, CA and Tel Aviv. 

Google’s new Pixel 9 Pro fold has battery life bragging rights. According to mashable.com, the 2nd gen Google foldable outlasts the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 6 by 3 hours and 22 minutes. A couple of knocks on foldable at this point is the fragility and crease in the screen, and the lower quality cameras than flagship phones, in addition to less battery life. Well, Mashable tested the Pixel 9 Pro Fold and go 16 hours and change on a charge. The Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 6 was only able to make it a shade under 13 hours. No one expects days of battery life, but it really is important for phones to last through the day and evening so you can charge them at night while you sleep, so they’re ready to go again the next day. 

After protests from Elon Musk, Starlink has caved and said it will block Musk’s social media platform X in Brazil in order to continue satellite operations there. NBC notes that Brazil had threatened to pull Starlink’s business licenses if they didn’t block X. Brazil’s Supreme Court blocked X after the platform openly defied the court’s orders and failed to pay fines. The court had asked X to suspend accounts posting content that the court alleged harmed democratic institutions in Brazil, which is preparing for municipal elections in October. 

Draft Kings and White Hat Gaming have to cough up $22,500 in fines to Connecticut due to their online slot machine not ever paying a winner for an entire week. Engadget.com reports That Draft Kings paid out $19,000 and White Hat $3500. The glitch was caused by a faulty file which the companies failed to report. The State said that White Hat ‘responded swiftly’ to the investigation, but Draft Kings’ response ‘was not satisfactory,’ and so they were levied the higher fine.

I’m Clark Reid and you’re ‘Technified’ for now.