Meta Bulking Up AI Age Detection; China Firm-EV Battery Charges as Fast as Gassing Up; Bluesky Gets Blue Checkmarks; New RAM 10,000 Faster

Meta is expanding AI use in its age detection program for Instagram. Theverge.com reports that it started using AI last year, spotting things like wishes for a 16th birthday (when an account claimed to be 18 or over.) Meta puts restrictions on teen accounts that they don’t have once over 18. Strangers can’t send them messages, and some content is limited. With the AI, Meta will be more proactive…and will actually change settings on accounts it suspects are kids masquerading as adults. The Meta folks say they know there will be errors, but feel like protecting kids will be worth it…plus, no harm in their not seeing adult content or getting messages from strangers. 

The EV range and recharging battles are heating up. Now Contemporary Amperex Technology…CATL…out of China has revealed its latest battery cell tech, which they say will charge as fast as filling a gas tank, and potentially lower costs. According to electrek.co, CATL is the world’s largest battery manufacturer by quite a ways. The new sodium-ion battery cells not only charge as fast as filling up, but you can drill into a cell or cut one in half without a ‘thermal event,’ or in plain English, catching fire! So how fast is fast? A 45 minute charge can get you 300 more miles of range, depending on EV model. They expect the tech to be in some 67 EV models by the end of the year. Arch competitor BYD also has a fast charging battery. Are you hearing this, Tesla? 

Bluesky is joining the blue checkmark club. The platform is beginning to grant official verification through blue checkmarks to “authentic and notable” accounts. It will also allow some “trusted organizations” to verify users as well. An example of that: they will allow major news organizations to give the check to their reporters. By the way, the ‘trusted organization’ checkmarks will be surrounded by a badge with scalloped edges, instead of just a circle. At this point, they are just giving out the trusted organization ones, and will encourage other users to verify themselves via a custom domain. 

Things are picking up speed all over…not just fast charging for EVs, either. Now, a team at Fudan University in Shanghai, China has unveiled a big leap in memory tech. Bgr.com reports that this new next generation RAM can write data in 400 pico seconds. That’s some 25 billion operations per second…and it’s 10,000 times faster than the flash memory in your regular b-flat laptop! The new RAM utilizes two-dimensional graphene instead of the usual silicon. It’s non-volatile memory, too…so if the data is written and power cut, the data is intact. This could slash energy consumption, bring powerful AI right on to smartphones, and heaven knows what the military will do with it!

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