Wireless Carriers to Appeal Big FCC Fines; Tesla Investigated for Securities and Wire Fraud; Amazon Rolls Out Fleet of EV Big Rigs; US Revokes Intel & Qualcomm Licenses to Sell Huawei Chips

Posted: May 8, 2024 | Author: | Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: , , , , | Leave a comment

We just reported a few days ago on big fines totaling almost $200 million for the Wireless carriers…AT&T, Verizon, and T-Mobile, and suggested that they wouldn’t just pay up. Now, in statements released, the big 3 wireless carriers have expressed their intent to appeal the FCC fines. Mashable.com reports that the fines were over the companies’ selling customer location data to aggregators, who then resold the info to third-party location-based service providers. In a statement, AT&T said “The FCC order lacks both legal and factual merit. It unfairly holds us responsible for another company’s violation of our contractual requirements to obtain consent, ignores the immediate steps we took to address that company’s failures, and perversely punishes us for supporting life-saving location services like emergency medical alerts and roadside assistance that the FCC itself previously encouraged.” Verizon issued a similar statement. Expect the carriers to not only appeal, but to continue to appeal to higher courts to draw things out for years…so they avoid paying the big fines, or perhaps get out of them entirely. 

Having to give up a lot of data to the NHTSA is one thing, but now it turns out that Tesla is being investigated by the Department of Justice for securities and wire fraud concerning its self-driving claims. Wire fraud is never good…the government is pretty accomplished at proving cases centered around that. According to theverge.com, an investigation over self-driving claims has been ongoing since late 2021. Federal prosecutors are now starting to zero in on specific charges though…securities and wire fraud. For years, Elon Musk has been promising fully autonomous Tesla vehicles are just around the corner — while also admitting that he often sets overly optimistic timelines. Meanwhile, the company’s advanced driver-assist features, Autopilot and Full Self-Driving, do not make the vehicles autonomous and require drivers to keep their hands on the steering wheel and eyes on the road. The DOJ is also looking at Tesla’s over-optimistic range claims…although as any gas car owner can tell you, it’s a pretty rare moment when your gas car makes the claimed EPA mileage, too. 

Amazon is hitting the road with 50 heavy duty electric semi-trucks in Southern California. Geekwire.com says it is the largest such fleet to handle first and middle mile operations, as Amazon moves further towards decarbonizing operations. You have probably already seen Amazon electric delivery vans…I have seen a number of them the last few months, but the new big rig EVs will move goods move from where they are manufactured, through customs, across oceans, into ports, and then into Amazon’s fulfillment network….so-called first mile. Middle-mile trucks move Amazon orders between fulfillment centers, sort centers, air facilities, and delivery stations, where packages are finally loaded into last-mile vans to be delivered to customers. Amazon has deployed 35 electric heavy-duty vehicles for such transportation in Southern California and installed more than 45 direct current fast chargers across 11 sites to power the trucks.

The US government has pulled licenses that let Intel and Qualcomm buy and sell chips to Huawei of China. This is the latest in trade restrictions placed on the Chinese company, which has been under other restrictions since 2019. Engadget.com notes that The decision will impact chips Huawei uses for computers and mobile phones and is effective immediately. You may recall that a few years ago, both the US and UK blocked use of Huawei cell tower equipment when it was discovered that they had back doors that allowed them to scoop up information for the Chinese government. 

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

Google Prohibiting Sites & Apps that Generate Deepfake Porn; ChatGPT Search Engine Rumored Imminent; Threads Now Lets You Control Who Can Quote Your Post; Jack Dorsey No Longer on Bluesky Board

Posted: May 6, 2024 | Author: | Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: , , , , | Leave a comment

Google is going to prohibit ads promoting websites and apps that generate deepfake porn…starting May 30th. Engadget.com reports that Google has already had strong restrictions in place for ads that feature certain types of sexual content, this update leaves no doubt that promoting “synthetic content that has been altered or generated to be sexually explicit or contain nudity” is in violation of its rules. Advertisers who violate the rules will be suspended without warning. Such deepfake ads are already prohibited in Shopping ads. Hopefully, Google will really police this, and in a manner where it doesn’t end up like whack a mole. 

When it comes to the internet and tech companies, people are always scouring every single word and character to try to determine what’s coming…whether a feature or ‘the next big thing.’ Now, according to mashable.com, a post in Y Combinator’s Hacker News community noted a domain name and security certificate for ‘search.chatgpt.com’ has been created. This could mean we are going to see a ChatGPT search engine sooner not later. Google, the 800 pound gorilla of search already is powered by an AI algorithm…but a ChatGPT one from OpenAI could really juice up the competition. It’s conceivable that before long, one could do a Google search, a ChatGPT search, and one with Microsoft Copilot…and I wouldn’t put it past some brilliant hackers out there to come up with a way to synthesize then streamline the results from all three…for a supercharged search like we’ve never experienced!

Threads is giving more control over who can quote their posts. Engadget.com says if you want to limit quoting your posts, you can limit it to only people you follow…or you can set it so no one can quote your posts at all. The update was announced over the weekend, and Threads is doing it to ‘help keep Threads a more positive place.’ Threads has now climbed past 150 million monthly users. Another recent feature lets users archive posts…either manually or automatically after a selected expiration date.

Jack Dorsey Tweeted over the weekend (not saying post on X, since it was Twitter when Jack ran it) that he is no longer on Bluesky’s board. TechCrunch.com notes that in fact, Jack was the platform’s most prominent backer…he first announced it back in 2019 when he was still CEO at Twitter. Dorsey didn’t elaborate, just replying to a question about him being on the board with a curt “No.” 

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

FCC Fines AT&T, Verizon, Sprint & T-Mobile-Sharing Location Data; Meta is Offering Some Creators Thousands; Eight News Publishers Sue OpenAI & Microsoft-Copyright Infringement; DARPA’s Wild Self-Driving Robot Tank

Posted: April 30, 2024 | Author: | Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: , , , , | Leave a comment

The FCC has whacked the big mobile carriers in the US a combined $200 million for what the Commission says was illegally sharing customer location data without consent. Theverge.com reports that the carriers “sold access to its customers’ location information to ‘aggregators,’ who then resold access to such information to third-party location-based service providers.” The agency says the carriers effectively “attempted to offload” their responsibility to get customers’ consent to share their location data with “downstream recipients.” Even after being made aware of the issue, the FCC claims, the carriers still failed to limit access to the information. T-Mobile got whacked the hardest…with an $80 million fine. AT&T was number two, getting dinged for $57 million, and Verizon was hit for $47 million. Sprint, which merged into T-Mobile after the investigation started, owes $12 million. All the carriers are expected to appeal. 

Meta is waving thousands of dollars under the noses of some creators if they go viral on Threads. According to engadget.com, the money is part of a new invitation only bonus program. It is “based on the performance of your Threads posts” or “the number of posts you create.” Meta hasn’t given details about how the bonus program is structured, but so far, it appears that the bonuses are tailored to each individual creator. Meta says it is just testing the payment feature, so we don’t know how much it might be expanded…but a couple of creators have gotten offers of “up to $5,000” for Threads posts or replies with 10,000 views or more. That’s not nearly as high as the $10,000 bonuses Reels creators could once earn on Instagram, but not too shabby, either. 

Eight US news publishers have sued Microsoft and openAI, making the claim that the companies are using their copyrighted articles to train generative AI like the ChatGPT series and what Microsoft has recently dubbed Copilot. Cnbc.com says the suit claims the chatbots have  been “purloining millions of the publishers’ copyrighted articles without permission and without payment.” Newspapers operated by the companies that have sued include New York Daily News, the Chicago Tribune, the Orlando Sentinel, the Sun Sentinel in Florida, The Mercury News in California, The Denver Post, The Orange County Register in California and the Pioneer Press of Minnesota. The complaint filed states that “The current GPT-4 LLM will output near-verbatim copies of significant portions of the publishers’ works when prompted to do so.” Previously, the New York Times had sued OpenAI over ChatGPT using its copyrighted property without payment. OpenAI’s CEO Sam Altman said at the time that the suit was without merit, and that the startup had wanted to pay the Times.  

The folks at DARPA, who years ago developed DARPANet…that became the internet…have a wild new project. Bgr.com reports they are testing a self-driving robot tank. The prototype doesn’t have cannons on it, but it is freaky seeing the thing bound over all kinds of difficult terrain at 25 mph with no human input. It has two large, green lighted slits at the front that are status indicators, but look like eyes of some green monster. The tank is part of DARPA’s so-called RACER fleet….based on their RACER heavy platform that can be used for tanks, personnel carriers and other vehicles, including the Manta Ray underwater drone which bowed recently. 

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

US Offers TSMC over $6 Billion for Arizona Chip Plant; Google Launches Find My Device Network; Apple Officially Allows Retro Game Emulators on App Store; OpenAI Transcribed Over a Million Hours of YouTube Videos

Posted: April 8, 2024 | Author: | Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: , , , , | Leave a comment

The Biden Administration has offered TSMC up to $6 billion in government funding under a preliminary agreement announced by the government today. Cnbc.com reports that The funding, under the U.S. CHIPS and Science Act, will support Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co.’s more than $65 billion investment in three cutting-edge fabrication plants in Phoenix, according to the nonbinding agreement. The Taiwanese multinational semiconductor company is also eligible for around $5 billion in proposed loans under the CHIPS Act. TSMC Arizona has already created more than 25,000 jobs and attracted 14 semiconductor suppliers to the state. Intel got $8.5 billion in indirect funding and up to $11 billion in loans last month under the CHIPS Act.

At long last, Google has launched its Find My Device network. According to engadget.com, the tech leverages a crowdsourced network of over a billion Android devices to help folks find their lost gadgets. It essentially has the same functionality as Apple’s Find My network and that of the Tile system. The Google one rolls out to US and Canadian users today…and Google says the worldwide release will be coming soon. As with the others, you can use the app to locate your device with a map. The map data will work even if the device is off line. 

Apple has finally officially started allowing retro game emulators on the App Store. Engadget.com says updated Apple guidelines now say that retro gaming console emulator apps are welcome and can even offer downloadable games. Apple also reportedly confirmed to developers in an email that they can create and offer emulators on its marketplace. Apple warns developers, however, that they “are responsible for all such software offered in [their] app, including ensuring that such software complies with these Guidelines and all applicable laws.” Clearly, allowing emulators on the App Store doesn’t mean that it’s allowing pirated games, as well.

In the ongoing effort to train its Chat GPT4, OpenAI transcribed over a million hours of YouTube videos! Theverge.com reports that the company knew this was really questionable, but believed it to be fair use. OpenAI president Greg Brockman was personally involved in collecting the videos that were used. Google spokesperson Matt Bryant told The Verge in an email the company has “seen unconfirmed reports” of OpenAI’s activity, adding that “both our robots.txt files and Terms of Service prohibit unauthorized scraping or downloading of YouTube content.” Google has said it also trained its models on ‘some YouTube content,’ but did it into accordance with its agreements with YouTube creators. Apparently, all the Large Language Models are running out of content to scrape. Some data scientists think they may run out by 2028, and will need to train on ‘synthetic’ data…that seems scary.

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

ChatGPT-No Account Required; Yahoo Picking Up AI Powered News App; Microsoft Working on Xbox AI Chatbot; Google Must Destroy Browsing Data Collected-Settlement

Posted: April 2, 2024 | Author: | Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: , , , , | Leave a comment

In a somewhat surprising move, OpenAI has announced that users will no longer be required to create an account to use ChatGPT, its AI chatbot. Bgr.com reports that the move was announced in a blog post. The company said they will be rolling out the change gradually, but didn’t elaborate on a timeline for when it will be widely accessible without an account. Right now, Open AO says over 100 million people a week in 185 countries use ChatGPT. They aim to expand the number of users dramatically by dropping the account barrier. Keep in mind that you will still need a paid subscription to use the latest and greatest GPT 4, and to save and review your chat history, share chats with others, and use voice chat. This may be OpenAI’s version of a loss leader at the grocery store!

Yahoo is in the process of acquiring Artifact, and AI powered news app started by co-founders of Instagram Mike Krieger and Kevin Systrom. According to TechCrunch.com, Systrom and Krieger will work with Yahoo in an advisory capacity through the transition, but Artifact will stop operating as a stand alone app…its tech will be integrated into Yahoo and the Yahoo News app in the next few months. Artifact had said it was starting winding down operations as the market wasn’t big enough to continue further investment. Financial details have not been disclosed. 

What would you think of an AI powered Clippy annoyingly trying to assist you on your Xbox? Ok, I made that part up, but Microsoft is actually testing a new AI powered chatbot for Xbox that can be used to automate support tasks. Theverge.com says that the AI uses an ‘embodied AI character’ which animates when responding to Xbox support queries. The chatbot is plugged in to Microsoft’s support documents for the Xbox network and system. The chatbot can reply to questions and even process game refunds from Microsoft’s support site. Wait ‘till people try to argue with the chatbot about a refund or try to escalate to talk to a manager! 

Under the settlement of a class action suit from 2020 brought by Google Chrome Incognito users, Google will have to destroy ‘billions of data points’ that it improperly collected. Engadget.com reports that the search giant will also have to update data disclosures and maintain a setting that blocks Chrome’s third party cookies by default for the next 5 years. The suit claimed Google told users their info was private in Incognito mode…all the while it was monitoring their activity. Google had argued that Incognito doesn’t mean ‘invisible,’ and that sites could still see their activity. 

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

Microsoft Separates Teams from Office Globally; AT&T-Huge Data Breach; OpenAI Teases Synthetic Voice Engine; Apple Says Latest AI Model ReALM is Better than GPT4

Posted: April 1, 2024 | Author: | Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: , , , , | Leave a comment

Microsoft is going to sell its Teams chat and video app separately from Office worldwide now. Reuters.com reports that the announcement comes 6 months after Redmond was forced to unbundle Teams from Office i Europe to avoid an EU antitrust fine. The EU has been investigating Microsoft’s tying of Teams and Office since 2020. Teams has been a part of Office 365 since 2017 at no extra charge. Rivals have complained that the bundling has given Microsoft an unfair advantage. Starting April 1, customers can either continue with their current licensing deal, renew, update or switch to the new offers. For new commercial customers, prices for Office without Teams range from $7.75 to $54.75 depending on the product while Teams Standalone will cost $5.25. The figures may vary by country and currency. 

In the event you hadn’t heard, AT&T has reset millions of passwords for accounts after a huge data breach from 2021 was dumped onto the dark web in March. According to techcrunch.com, some 7.6 million out of the around 73 million accounts were affected. The larger number includes some former AT&T account holders. AT&T customer account passcodes are typically four-digit numbers that are used as an additional layer of security when accessing a customer’s account, such as calling AT&T customer service, in retail stores, and online. The leaked data includes AT&T customer names, home addresses, phone numbers, dates of birth and Social Security numbers. Of course, AT&T put out the usual corporate bs about how they take data safety seriously. Uh, huh…all you big companies do. 

Open AI launched voice capabilities in Chat GPT last September. Mashable.com notes that now they are previewing their Voice Engine, a model that can take a 15 second audio clip and text prompt and generate longer audio. In other words, voice cloning. Actually, this has been around for a while from other tech firms, and that’s one of the reasons the SAG-AFTRA union demanded and got protection for actors and voice actors to have the actor’s permission and to be compensated when AI clones their voice for other purposes. The big step forward by Open AI is that up to now, it has taken about 15 minutes of recording of a voice to clone it halfway decently. Their new Voce Engine does it with 15 second clip. Right now, the Voice Engine is limited to a very small universe of users. It isn’t just actors and voice actors who are concerned about this tech…recall the fake Joe Biden robocall a couple months ago. The Biden call is thought to hav been made with software from ElevenLabs, not anything from OpenAI. OpenAI claims to be building in safeguards, but the Biden Administration, members of Congress, and other politicians are working to codify safeguards…best not to leave this sort of thing to self-policing. 

We can expect a continuous flow of peeing patch announcements from the tech world, saying basically ‘mine’s bigger than yours, and I can pee further.’ Now, even famously secretive Apple has joined in. Bar.com reports that Apple researchers have published a paper claiming their ReALM large language model is better than ChatGPT4. Apple says its AI can understand and handle contexts of different kinds. Apparently, users can ask about something on the screen of the PC or run in the background, and the large language model can still understand the context and give the correct answer. An example they gave was doing a search for pharmacies. After the list is on screen, the user could ask ‘Call the one on Rainbow Rd,’ or ‘Call the bottom one,’ and the ReALM model could understand and respond. Instead of responding to a text prompt alone like Chat GPT4, the Apple model can use a screenshot and respond from what’s on it. In another article today, some scientists have predicted that ultimately combined AI may end up being like Star Trek’s Borg…only friendlier, they say. While you assimilate that little tidbit….

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

Gemini in Google Messages Rolling Out; Facebook Snooped on Snapchat Traffic; Apple Announces WWDC; Leak-3rd, SmallerPixel 9 model

Posted: March 27, 2024 | Author: | Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: , , , , | Leave a comment

Google has started rolling out Gemini for some Google Messages beta testers. 9to5google.com reports that in addition to being a beta tester, you have to have RCS enabled, a Google Account, have English set, and have a Pixel 6 or later, Pixel Fold, Samsung Galaxy S22 or newer, or a Galaxy Z Flip or Z Fold. If all those criteria are met, you should see a Gemini AI option. Right now, voice messages aren’t supported, but you can upload images. Also..the conversations are not end-to-end encrypted. All that said, you can use Messages to query the AI about things, or have it draft a message or brainstorm ideas. Google does say that messages could go through human review, so keep that in mind if you are going to try it. 

Thanks to a lawsuit against Meta, we now know that in 2016, Facebook ran a secret project designed to intercept and decrypt the network traffic between people using Snapchat’s app and its servers. The goal was to understand users’ behavior and help Facebook compete with Snapchat, according to newly unsealed court documents. TechCrunch.com notes that it was called ‘Project Ghostbusters,’ which is a little freaky since the latest Ghostbusters movie just hit theaters last week. According to documents released from the suit, Meta also tried to gain a competitive advantage over Amazon and YouTube by analyzing network traffic. The suit is a class action filed in 2020 against Facebook, claiming that they lied about data collection activities. 

Apple has announced this year’s WWDC. It’s the 35 annual developers conference from the Cupertino company. WWDC will begin on Monday, June 10th and run to Friday, June 14th. Macrumors.com says it will be an online event as it has been since 2020. WWDC is open to all developers at no cost. Expect the keynote to hi light features from iOS 18, iPadOS 18, tvOS 18, MacOS 15, and WatchOS 11. 

A leak has a new addition to the Pixel lineup. 9to5google.com reports that images from @OnLeaks show a third handset in the 2024 flagship lineup. The additional Pixel 9 only has two cameras, while the previously leaked images for the Pixel 9 Pro and Pixel 9 have 3. The new third model has a slightly smaller display than the Pixel 9 Pro. The Pro is 6.2 inches, the smaller phone is 6.03 inches. The body of the phones is the same, but the smaller screen unit has bigger bezels. One other difference…the newly leaked model loses a speaker cutout at the bottom…it has a SIM tray there instead. 

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

EU Goes After Meta, Apple, & Google; China Bans Intel & AMD Processors for Government PCs; Spotify Tests Video Courses; Apple’s iOS 18-More Control of Home Screen

Posted: March 25, 2024 | Author: | Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: , , , , | Leave a comment

The European Commission is opening 5 non-compliance investigations into how Meta, Apple, and Google are complying with the new Digital Markets Act antitrust rules. Theverge.com reports that the EU regulator said in an announcement quote: “We suspect that the suggested solutions put forward by the three companies do not fully comply with the DMA. We will now investigate the companies’ compliance with the DMA, to ensure open and contestable digital markets in Europe.” The EU commission seems most interested in Google and Apple’s anti-steering rules in their app stores, and Google’s apparent self-preferences for its own services via its search engine.

China barred most government use of iPhones a while back, and now is going after US-made processors. According to engadget.com, Chinese guidelines ban the use of US processors made by Intel and AMD from government computers and servers. The new regulations also block Microsoft Windows and foreign database products, pushing government agencies there to use domestic products, which they term ‘safe and reliable.’ The rules came out in December but have just started showing up. They could be a blow to US companies’ bottom lines. China accounted for 27% of Intel’s sales last year and 15% of AMD’s. 

Spotify is testing out video courses which teach everything from music production to Excel spreadsheet use. Techcrunch.com says the rollout of the videos has started in the UK. They are terming the courses ‘freemium.’ The first lessons are free, then the total course cost if taken will range from 20 pounds to 80 pounds. The price is the same for courses whether you are a basic or premium Spotify user for now. Spotify is pitching the courses as somewhere between YouTube videos, Master Class, and LinkedIn Learning. The educational video market is estimated at $315 billion as of 2023, so if this takes off, it could be a significant new income stream for Spotify.

Android users have had it for years…lots of flexibility to arrange and customize your smartphone screen. Now, Apple is apparently going to give users more flexibility starting with iOS 18. Macrumors.com reports that even though icons will still snap to a grid on the Home Screen, users will be able to arrange them more freely. There will be the ability to create blank spaces, rows, and columns between app icons. We’ll know more when iOS 18 is revealed at WWDC in June.

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

YouTube-AI Labels for Some, but Not All Videos; Intel Scores $8.5 Billion in CHIPS Act Grants; Google Socked With $270 Million Fine by France; Feds Can Film Your Front Porch for Over 68 Warrantless Days

Posted: March 20, 2024 | Author: | Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: , , , , | Leave a comment

YouTube now requires labels for some AI generated videos…but not all of them. Mashable.com reports that YouTube put out a statement saying “We’re introducing a new tool in Creator Studio requiring creators to disclose to viewers when realistic content – content a viewer could easily mistake for a real person, place, or event – is made with altered or synthetic media, including generative AI.” Not all AI made videos will be labeled. According to YouTube, this policy only covers AI digital alterations or renderings of a realistic person, footage of real events or places, or complete generation of a realistic looking scene. For some videos, this is not a big deal. Exceptions are made for videos that use beauty filters, special effects like blur or a vintage overlay, or color correction. YouTube notes that all of these alterations were already available long before generative AI was a thing. One glaring exception though…Animated AI content. It seems this should be covered, since a lot of kids videos are animation or include animation. 

Intel has been awarded $8.5 billion in CHIPS Act grants, and will have access to billions more in loans. According to CNBC, this is part of the Biden administration’s effort to ramp up bridging semiconductor manufacturing back to the US. the additional loan funds could total another $11 billion. Intel has long been a stalwart of the U.S. semiconductor industry, developing chips that power many of the world’s PCs and data center servers. However, the company has been eclipsed in revenue by Nvidia, which leads in artificial intelligence chips, and has been surpassed in market cap by rival AMD and mobile phone chipmaker Qualcomm. Intel makes its own chips. AMD and Nvidia design chips, then send the files and staff to Taiwan’s TSMC for the actual manufacture of the chips. Intel is building fabrication and research centers in Arizona, New Mexico, Ohio, and Oregon. 

The French have socked Google with a $270 million fine over copyright protections for news snippets. Techcrunch.com says France’s competition authority found that Google disregarded its previous commitments to news publishers. They also took into consideration the fact that Google had used the news content to train its Generative AI model…Bard at the time, now Gemini. The French authority asserted that Google had not notified the publishers of that fact and hadn’t gotten their permission. Google had previously been fined by the authority to the tune of $592 million for using publishers’ material. 

A federal court has ruled that law enforcement recording of the front of a person’s home for 68 days…15 hours a day…was ok without a warrant. Gizmodo.com reports that the officers had no warrant, and had put a camera on a pole across the street to record the man’s home. The Kansas man, Bruce Hay, was an army vet who was found guilty of lying about his disability status to get benefits from the VA. The federal court noted that video cameras in public spaces are a common thing now, and so there is a diminished expectation of privacy when you are out in the world. If you ever thought your front porch was private…well, now you know it isn’t.

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

Apple Negotiating With Google To Get Gemini AI on iPhone; LInkedIn Wants To Add Gaming; Tesla Settles Discrimination Suit; Tick-Killing Pill for Humans

Posted: March 18, 2024 | Author: | Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: , , , , | Leave a comment

Apple has been working more quietly than others on AI…which it calls machine learning. Apparently things aren’t moving quickly enough for Cupertino. Now comes word that they are in ‘active negotiations’ with Google to bring the latter’s Gemini generative AI to the iPhone. Theverge.com reports that Apple has also considered ChatGPT from Open AI. Earlier this year, Samsung added a number of Galaxy AI branded features to its Galaxy S24 smartphones. The tech is also of course a banner feature of Google’s own Pixel 8 smartphones. It would be a good deal for Apple, even if they have to drop a ton of money, since their own AI is behind Google’s Gemini and ChatGPT…but it would also be a good deal for Google, as they would get their AI tools on some 2 billion iPhones. If a deal is made, is is likely to stay under wraps until Apple’s WWDC in June. 

In an effort to get more engagement and longer periods of it, Microsoft-owned LinkedIn is looking at adding gaming to the platform. According to TechCrunch.com, the platform now has a billion users. Most are on it for professional purposes or recruitment, but with Microsoft’s huge footprint in gaming, dropping some into LinkedIn really might do the trick as far as increasing peoples’ time on the platform. 

A long court battle between a former elevator operator and Tesla has settled. Owen Diaz had originally been awarded $137 million in damages in 2021 for racial discrimination, but that was cut to $3.2 million. Engadget.com says no settlement amount has been disclosed, which is normal for this type of situation. Diaz had accused the car maker of enabling a racist workplace, ‘straight from the Jim Crow era.’ Co-workers had left swastikas and racist graffiti on his work space and around the Tesla Fremont plant. There is still another lawsuit against the electric car maker for racial discrimination, and that one is in process of getting certified as a class action…which could add 240 black employees or former employees to Marcus Vaughn’s suit. 

We have them for dogs and cats…pills for tick prevention. Now, Tarsus Pharmaceuticals is working on a pill for humans. Wired.com notes that it could protect people from tick borne Lyme Disease for several weeks at a time. An early trial has found that after 24 hours of taking the pill, it works to kill ticks on people for up to 30 days. Whether you are a hiker, or walk your dog, or just are outdoors a lot, this will be a big deal if it makes it all the way through testing and approval by the FDA.

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

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