2024-12-03
ChatGPT being censored from writing “David Mayer” is something else. No one knows why! Is it because of regulation? A bug? Some one with this name suing? Another example of how LLMs are black boxes in rules their teams add, and that are impossible to know from the outside.
TechCrunch
ChatGPT refuses to state some names, possibly due to digital privacy requests or a post-prompt handling bug; OpenAI may have fixed the viral “David Mayer” issue
Users of the conversational AI platform ChatGPT discovered an interesting phenomenon over the weekend …
2024-09-17
From Amazon's “Who we are” page: “Amazon strives to be Earth's most customer-centric company, Earth's best employer, and Earth's safest place to work.” The same Amazon striving to be “Earth's best employer” just announced the most draconian RTO policy across Big Tech:
CNBC
Amazon CEO Andy Jassy tells staff to return to the office five days per week from January 2, 2025, citing the importance of the policy to the company's culture
Amazon orders employees back to the office five days a week Michael Grothaus / Fast Company : Amazon CEO Andy Jassy orders employees back to the office 5 days a week in one of the ...
2024-09-01
A company ignoring court orders and not having representation in a country risks a ban. You can argue if the court's order is legal - and challenge it. But w/o such a challenge (and w no legal representation) what was Brazil to do? Pretend it's ok to ignore their legal system? …
Associated Press
Brazil blocks X, following an order from Supreme Court Justice Alexandre de Moraes after Elon Musk refused to name a legal representative in the country
The blocking of social media platform X in Brazil divided users and politicians over the legitimacy of the ban, and many Brazilians …
2024-05-14
OpenAI just dropped the demo of how a modern Siri should work. They are leaving Apple in the dust, given Siri has no such capabilities: and will not have anything close, unless Apple licenses this. Rare to see Apple out-executed with a “magical” phone experience like this. …
OpenAI on YouTube
A recording of OpenAI's Spring Update event, where the company unveiled GPT-4o and ChatGPT for macOS; the app demo included real-time screen sharing with GPT-4o
We'll be streaming live at 10AM PT Monday, May 13 to demo some ChatGPT and GPT-4 updates.
OpenAI just dropped the demo of how a modern Siri should work. They are leaving Apple in the dust, given Siri has no such capabilities: and will not have anything close, unless Apple licenses this. Rare to see Apple out-executed with a “magical” phone experience like this. …
TechCrunch
OpenAI unveils GPT-4o, a new flagship generative AI model that is faster and natively multimodal, rolling out for free to all ChatGPT users in the coming weeks
There are two things from our announcement today I wanted to highlight. OpenAI : Hello GPT-4o — We're announcing GPT-4o, our new flagship model that can reason across audio, visi...
2024-05-01
Congrats!! Both to you and your new team! Meta seems to be more and more serious about doing 0-to-1 work with the kind of velocity that is faster than how most startups execute. Building Threads in 6 months was kind of unbelievable. You'll do stuff like this, won't you? :)
Business Insider
Esther Crawford joins Meta's Messenger team as director of product; Crawford was Twitter's director of product management before being laid off in February 2023
Kwan Wei Kevin Tan / Business Insider :
2024-04-24
Huge news for anyone working in tech in the US. Noncompetes are now banned: not just in California (like before), but nationwide. Very, very relevant for anyone at Amazon (which is the Big Tech that has enforced noncompetes even for low-level engineering positions).
Wall Street Journal
The US FTC bans noncompete clauses that restrict job switching, the first time in 50+ years that the FTC has issued a regulation mandating an economywide change
Move sets up high-stakes legal clash with business groups over the agency's power — WASHINGTON—The Federal Trade Commission …
2024-04-15
Been invited to a new social app that is... audio-only? It's called Airchat. I appreciate the innovation. I just don't have time for it anymore. In 2020, I tried Clubhouse b/c I was craving any form of human connection thanks lockdown. After lockdowns, had no time for it either.
TechCrunch
Airchat, Naval Ravikant's social media app built around audio recordings, which the app transcribes, relaunches on iOS and Android; the app is invite-only
2024-03-22
This is from the Department of Justice, quoted exactly as they put it. I assume they did extensive research and have backing for all these statements. We'll surely learn a lot more during this trial!
The Verge
In its lawsuit, the US DOJ alleges CarPlay lets Apple exert too much control over the auto industry; some analysts say the DOJ may be misunderstanding CarPlay
Buried in the 88-page antitrust lawsuit filed by the US Department of Justice against Apple is a reference to everyone's favorite phone-projection system, CarPlay.
So THIS is why GM said it will no longer support Apple CarPlay from 2026?! And build their own Android experience. Because they don't want Apple to take over all the car's screens as Apple demands it does so. From the US vs Apple lawsuit:
The Verge
In its lawsuit, the US DOJ alleges CarPlay lets Apple exert too much control over the auto industry; some analysts say the DOJ may be misunderstanding CarPlay
Buried in the 88-page antitrust lawsuit filed by the US Department of Justice against Apple is a reference to everyone's favorite phone-projection system, CarPlay.
2024-03-07
“Apple said one of the reasons they terminated our developer account only a few weeks after approving it was because we publicly criticized their proposed DMA compliance plan.” Most devs w an Apple dev account don't dare say ANYTHING negative of Apple. https://www.epicgames.com/...
Bloomberg
The EU confirms requesting further explanations from Apple over removing Epic's developer account under the DMA, and is examining if Apple broke any other rules
- Epic Games barred by Apple from opening own iPhone app store — EU says it is looking to see if firm has broken new tech law
Dare criticize Apple and they can (and, sometimes, will!) remove you from their platform as a developer. They just did this w Epic! I cannot remember even Microsoft being this much of a bully back in the 90s. Apple became the very thing they fought against in 1984. Shameful.
Bloomberg
The EU confirms requesting further explanations from Apple over removing Epic's developer account under the DMA, and is examining if Apple broke any other rules
- Epic Games barred by Apple from opening own iPhone app store — EU says it is looking to see if firm has broken new tech law
“Apple said one of the reasons they terminated our developer account only a few weeks after approving it was because we publicly criticized their proposed DMA compliance plan.” Most devs w an Apple dev account don't dare say ANYTHING negative of Apple. https://www.epicgames.com/...
The Verge
Epic says Apple removed its iOS developer account, hampering its app store plans, and shares a letter from Apple lawyers calling Epic “verifiably untrustworthy”
Dare criticize Apple and they can (and, sometimes, will!) remove you from their platform as a developer. They just did this w Epic! I cannot remember even Microsoft being this much of a bully back in the 90s. Apple became the very thing they fought against in 1984. Shameful.
The Verge
Epic says Apple removed its iOS developer account, hampering its app store plans, and shares a letter from Apple lawyers calling Epic “verifiably untrustworthy”
2024-02-13
Cloudflare paying awards to invalidate patent trolls patents is genius: “While we refuse to pay trolls for their meritless claims, we've been happy to award prizes to Project Jengo participants who help stop the tolls through prior art that invalidates their patents or claims.” From @real_eastdakota:
The Register
Cloudflare defeats a second “patent troll”, invalidating parts of three Sable Networks' patents after crowdsourcing prior art findings through Project Jengo
Brandon Vigliarolo / The Register :
2024-01-23
When I became a Google Domains customer many years ago, I did it because I trusted Google. Google has now made me - and 10 million other domain holders - Squarespace customers. No consent asked, no reasoning given. Google prints money (made $59B in profits in 2022) yet sold Domains - and all Domains customers - to Squarespace for no clear reason. …
New York Post
Some current and former employees publicly blast Google, criticizing its lack of “visionary” leaders, choice not to deliver layoff news face-to-face, and more
Ariel Zilber / New York Post :
2024-01-19
You've got to wonder why Netflix and Spotify would refuse to help out Apple's Vision Pro launch (and odds of success) when Apple has been such a tyrant in policing their apps for years, banning even a hint of mention of where iOS users can buy a subscription - as Apple promotes Apple Music and Apple TV. …
Bloomberg
YouTube and, according to a source, Spotify are not planning to launch a native Apple Vision Pro app or to allow their iPad app to run on the platform
- Users of those services will be steered toward the web — Searches indicate apps from Meta may also be unavailable
You've got to wonder why Netflix and Spotify would refuse to help out Apple's Vision Pro launch (and odds of success) when Apple has been such a tyrant in policing their apps for years, banning even a hint of mention of where iOS users can buy a subscription - as Apple promotes Apple Music and Apple TV. …
MacRumors
Apple opens pre-orders for the Vision Pro, which has an M2 chip with an 8-core CPU and a 10-core GPU, and comes with 256GB, 512GB, and 1TB storage options
Apple today finally shared additional tech specs for its Vision Pro headset following the start of pre-orders in the United States.
2024-01-17
Apple hasn't allowed people trying out the Vision Pro to take photos until now. (we've also not seen an Apple exec wear it). Now that Apple-made photos are out, it's clear why: it looks really silly. Esp for something at $3,500. You can't pay me to wear it in front of others.
Engadget
Apple Vision Pro hands-on: eye and hand tracking are very accurate, but typing is frustrating, the killer app is watching movies, can feel heavy after 15+ min
We got hands-on with the device once more before its official launch, with some new features available to test this time.
2024-01-06
Main motivation seems to be to increase tax income for the government the next 5 years to fill the gap in lost tax income caused by tax reduction for the wealthiest individuals
The Pragmatic Engineer