Cisco joins the list of tech companies announcing layoffs. Hashtag Trending, Friday Feb 16, 2024
Every once in a while, you have an interview that goes off in a totally different direction. That’s what happened this weekend. My guest, Ed Wattel, an AI thought leader, came in to talk about elections and how we’ll deal with AI and deep fakes. And we ended up with
Read MoreForget Artificial General Intelligence (AGI) – the big impact is already here and it’s called AI agents
I watch a lot of YouTube – so you don’t have to. In this series I’ll bring you some of the best of what I’m watching, and sometimes, as in this post, I’ll provide my own commentary. YouTube is buzzing this week. Sam Altman is rumoured to be making a
Read MoreAfter rockets and spacecraft, Rocket Lab’s next frontier could be applications
Rocket Lab is exploring possible applications for a satellite constellation that they would build, launch and operate in-house, similar to SpaceX’s Starlink business, as a way of generating recurring revenue, an executive said this week. “If you look to where we ultimately want to go, in a lot of ways
Read MoreOpenAI’s Sora video-generating model can render video games, too
OpenAI’s new — and first! — video-generating model, Sora, can pull off some genuinely impressive cinematographic feats. But the model’s even more capable than OpenAI initially made it out to be, at least judging by a technical paper published this evening. The paper, titled “Video generation models as world simulators,”
Read MoreFTC seeks to modify rule to combat deepfakes
Spurred by the growing threat of deepfakes, the FTC is seeking to modify an existing rule that bans the impersonation of businesses or government agencies to cover all consumers. The revised rule — depending on the final language, and the public comments that the FTC receives — might also make
Read MoreCoinbase cites stablecoins, Base as key 2024 priorities after crushing Q4 estimates
After disclosing better-than-expected financial results in its fourth quarter earnings report, U.S.-based Coinbase has big plans. The second largest crypto exchange told its investors that intends to lean heavily on its work with the popular USDC stablecoin this year, lever its recently launched layer-2 blockchain Base as a way to
Read MoreI read comics on Apple’s Vision Pro . . . It was fine
Few joys in this cold world can match cracking open a new comic on a lazy Sunday morning. Nothing to do, nowhere to be — just you, a mug of coffee and some sequential art. Not much has fundamentally changed about the American comic book since publishers began collecting newspaper
Read MoreThis German nonprofit is building an open voice assistant that anyone can use
There’s been many attempts at open source AI-powered voice assistants (see Rhasspy, Mycroft and Jasper, to name a few) — all established with the goal of creating privacy-preserving, offline experiences that don’t compromise on functionality. But development’s proven to be extraordinarily slow. That’s because, in addition to all the usual
Read MoreNo ‘GPT’ trademark for OpenAI
The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office has denied OpenAI’s attempt to trademark “GPT,” ruling that the term is “merely descriptive” and therefore unable to be registered. It’s a blow to OpenAI’s branding, but don’t expect its competitors to start releasing their own version of the ubiquitous chatbot. ChatGPT is certainly
Read MoreLawmakers revise Kids Online Safety Act to address LGBTQ advocates’ concerns
The Kids Online Safety Act (KOSA) is getting closer to becoming a law, which would make social platforms significantly more responsible for protecting children who use their products. With 62 Senators backing the bill, KOSA seems poised to clear the Senate and progress to the House. KOSA creates a duty
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