Here is the daily technology #threadcast for 9/13/24. We aim to educate people about this crucial area along with providing information of what is taking place.
Drop all question, comments, and articles relating to #technology and the future. The goal is make it a technology center.
Meta’s Big Privacy Admission: 17 Years of Data Scraping❗️
Did you know Meta (the company behind Facebook and Instagram) has been quietly scraping public posts, photos, and comments for the last 17 years? Yep, an Australian investigation uncovered that Meta’s been using all this data to train its AI models. Whether it’s your Facebook posts or Insta pics, they’ve been collecting it all. This isn’t just recent — it’s been happening since 2006! Definitely a reminder to keep an eye on what you’re sharing online.
> S👁️URCE <
Is anyone really surprised? Even Elon said "is there anyone who hasnt scraped the data from X?
not me …
Scientists Found a 520-Million-Year-Old Miracle: a Fossil With Brains and Guts Intact
A remarkable fossilized larva has been discovered by scientists with its brain and guts still intact.
The fossilized creature is one of the earliest ancestors of a group known as arthropods, which includes insects, crabs, and lobsters.
A unique window into the past, the ancient critter has allowed experts a chance to better understand evolutionary links between the arthropods of the pasta and those of the present day.
Robots Are Learning by Watching Us! 🤖👀
Google DeepMind just dropped some exciting news! They’ve developed a system called ALOHA Unleashed that teaches robots to perform tricky tasks simply by watching humans. Paired with their simulation tool, DemoStart, these robots are picking up skills from visual demos, like assembling objects or handling delicate tasks. It’s like teaching a robot by showing it a YouTube tutorial! Want to see it in action? Videos of these trained robots are contained in the source article.
> S👁️URCE <
https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c049kn7wlgxo
#youtube #cent
OpenAI Announces a New AI Model, Code-Named Strawberry, That Solves Difficult Problems Step by Step
https://www.wired.com/story/openai-o1-strawberry-problem-reasoning/
#tech #news
🚗✨ Big news for #AutonomousMobility! Uber and Waymo are teaming up to bring driverless rides to Austin and Atlanta by early 2025. The future of transportation is here! 🚀 #UberWaymo #technology
🔗Source in comments
LOL they are going to be trailing big time. Geofencing isnt really the way to go in my opinion.
@taskmaster4450le - As of today I would not get on any of those fucking things lol.
Tesla is going to shock everyone when, suddenly, one day, autonomous driving is there. It might take another year but it will be here soon enough.
It’s inevitable Task you are definitely right.
🔗Source:
~~~ embed:1834577946415432027?s=46&t=nxMrQtJGKh6vmosUkhbWLw twitter metadata:d2F5bW98fGh0dHBzOi8vdHdpdHRlci5jb20vd2F5bW8vc3RhdHVzLzE4MzQ1Nzc5NDY0MTU0MzIwMjd8 ~~~
https://www.bbc.com/worklife/article/20240905-microsoft-ai-interview-bbc-executive-lounge
https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c93pr5ewr22o
SpaceX's First Commercial Spacewalk Just Happened! 🚀
In a historic moment, private astronauts with SpaceX completed the first-ever commercial spacewalk on Thursday, kicking off just after 6 am ET. Jared Isaacman, a tech billionaire, led the charge, stepping out of the SpaceX Crew Dragon for mobility tests. He was outside for about an hour, fully exposed to the vacuum of space. What’s even more wild? They did this using SpaceX-designed spacesuits that had never been tested in orbit before. Curious to see it in action? There's a clip of the livestream showing the entire adventure.
> S👁️URCE <
@bradleyarrow is very jealous.
Maybe he can be one of the first ten private humans to walk in space.
Very jealous. Oh man, Thread while I am on a space walk. Can you imagine :)
Just think of the number of shorts you could make while doing that.
Are shorts allowed in space?
So far space is free although government tyranny is coming.
This sounds about right. Time to build more offshore islands perhaps.
I could do that now, all blackness. lol
Well I would say on the spacewalk point it to things that arent black like the spacecraft or the planet.
If too dark bring a flashlight.
hahahahaha, you some smart. Good thing I got you around.
🚀👩🏼🚀👍🏽
https://www.euractiv.com/section/artificial-intelligence/news/irish-data-protection-watchdog-probes-googles-processing-of-personal-data-for-ai-training/
OpenAI’s newly launched o1 model can do a better job of writing code nd solving maths problems
https://indianexpress.com/article/technology/artificial-intelligence/openai-unveils-o1-new-ai-model-trained-reasoning-9565662/
#news #cent #ai
My favorite quote so far from the Harvard Business Review Special Issue on How To Thrive In A GenAI World,
https://edition.cnn.com/2024/09/10/tech/india-samsung-strike-intl-hnk/index.html
#jobs #cent #news
https://www.reuters.com/business/finance/microstrategy-continues-bitcoin-buying-spree-lifting-holdings-945-bln-2024-09-13/
#bitcoin #cent #nees
Meta's AI Update: What You Need to Know
Starting next week, Meta is tweaking how it flags AI-edited content on Instagram, Facebook, and Threads. Instead of showing an "AI Info" label under usernames, you'll now find it tucked away in a menu at the top-right of images or videos. You can use tools like Adobe's Content Credentials or Google's SynthID to spot AI changes. This shift is in response to complaints that genuine photos were being mislabeled as AI-generated. So, keep an eye out for the new system—it’s designed to be more accurate and less intrusive.
> S👁️URCE <
https://www.reuters.com/legal/tiktok-faces-crucial-court-hearing-that-could-decide-fate-us-2024-09-13/
#tiktok #socialmedia #cent
Waymo robotaxis to become available on Uber in Austin, Atlanta in early 2025
Uber users in Austin and Atlanta will be able to hail Waymo robotaxis through the app in early 2025 as part of a partnership between the two companies.
Uber users in Austin and Atlanta will be able to hail Waymo robotaxis through the app in early 2025 as part of an expanded partnership between the two companies.
#uber #technology #newsonleo #waymo
Waymo’s autonomous vehicles have been available on the Uber app in Phoenix since October 2023. Uber has been snatching up self-driving partnerships across its ride-hail and delivery verticals, and it last month said it was partnering with GM’s Cruise and the U.K.’s Wayve as well.
Waymo runs its own autonomous ride-hailing service, Waymo One, in San Francisco, Phoenix, and Los Angeles, and provides around 100,000 trips per week, according to the company. The Alphabet-owned AV company began testing robotaxis in Atlanta and shuttling its own employees around Austin earlier this year — usually the first steps Waymo takes before it begins offering its ride-hailing service in new markets.
Still, Waymo said only Uber users would be able to hail its fleet of Jaguar I-PACE AVs in Austin and Atlanta.
Waymo said a limited number of users will be able to access rides in Austin and Atlanta via the Waymo One app in the coming weeks.
Waymo did not mention how many vehicles it would dispatch in the two cities, but said its fleet would “grow to hundreds of vehicles over time.” Uber will handle fleet management, like cleaning and repairing the cars, and Waymo will oversee testing and operation of Waymo Driver, as well as offering roadside assistance and other rider support functions.
First impressions of ChatGPT o1: An AI designed to overthink it
OpenAI released its new o1 models on Thursday, giving ChatGPT users their first chance to try AI models that pause to "think" before they answer.
OpenAI released its new o1 models on Thursday, giving ChatGPT users their first chance to try AI models that pause to “think” before they answer. There’s been a lot of hype building up to these models, codenamed “Strawberry” inside OpenAI. But does Strawberry live up to the hype?
Sort of.
#openai #strawberry #ai #llm
Compared to GPT-4o, the o1 models feel like one step forward and two steps back. ChatGPT o1 excels at reasoning and answering complex questions, but the model is roughly four times more expensive to use than GPT-4o. OpenAI’s latest model lacks the tools, multimodal capabilities, and speed that made GPT-4o so impressive. In fact, OpenAI even admits that “GPT-4o is still the best option for most prompts” on its help page, and notes elsewhere that GPT o1 struggles at simpler tasks.
“It’s impressive, but I think the improvement is not very significant,” said Ravid Shwartz Ziv, an NYU professor who studies AI models. “It’s better at certain problems, but you don’t have this across-the-board improvement.”
For all of these reasons, it’s important to use GPT o1 only for the questions it’s truly designed to help with: big ones. To be clear, most people are not using generative AI to answer these kinds of questions today, largely because today’s AI models are not very good at it. However, o1 is a tentative step in that direction.
Thinking through big ideas
ChatGPT o1 is unique because it “thinks” before answering, breaking down big problems into small steps and attempting to identify when it gets one of those steps right or wrong. This “multi-step reasoning” isn’t entirely new (researchers have proposed it for years, and You.com uses it for complex queries), but it hasn’t been practical until recently.
“There’s a lot of excitement in the AI community,” said Workera CEO and Stanford professor Kian Katanforoosh, who teaches classes on machine learning, in an interview. “If you can train a reinforcement learning algorithm paired with some of the language model techniques that OpenAI has, you can technically create step-by-step thinking and allow the AI model to walk backwards from big ideas you’re trying to work through.”
ChatGPT o1 is also uniquely pricey. In most models, you pay for input tokens and output tokens. However, ChatGPT o1 adds a hidden process (the small steps the model breaks big problems into), which adds a large amount of compute you never fully see. OpenAI is hiding some details of this process to maintain its competitive advantage. That said, you still get charged for these in the form of “reasoning tokens.” This further emphasizes why you need to be careful about using ChatGPT o1, so you don’t get charged a ton of tokens for asking where the capital of Nevada is.
The idea of an AI model that helps you “walk backwards from big ideas” is powerful, though. In practice, the model is pretty good at that.
In one example, I asked ChatGPT o1 preview to help my family plan Thanksgiving, a task that could benefit from a little unbiased logic and reasoning. Specifically, I wanted help figuring out if two ovens would be sufficient to cook a Thanksgiving dinner for 11 people and wanted to talk through whether we should consider renting an Airbnb to get access to a third oven.
After 12 seconds of “thinking,” ChatGPT wrote me out a 750+ word response ultimately telling me that two ovens should be sufficient with some careful strategizing, and will allow my family to save on costs and spend more time together. But it broke down its thinking for me at each step of the way and explained how it considered all of these external factors, including costs, family time, and oven management.
ChatGPT o1 told me how to prioritize oven space at the house that is hosting the event, which was smart. Oddly, it suggested I consider renting a portable oven for the day. That said, the model performed much better than GPT-4o, which required multiple follow-up questions about what exact dishes I was bringing, and then gave me bare-bones advice I found less useful.
Asking about Thanksgiving dinner may seem silly, but you could see how this tool would be helpful for breaking down complicated tasks.
I also asked ChatGPT o1 to help me plan out a busy day at work, where I needed to travel between the airport, multiple in-person meetings in various locations, and my office. It gave me a very detailed plan, but maybe was a little bit much. Sometimes, all the added steps can be a little overwhelming.
People presume that future activity will come from people. Because of this, they are focused upon building for humans. This might not be the case, especially for a platform for Leo.
Oprah just had an AI special with Sam Altman and Bill Gates — here are the highlights
Oprah Winfrey hosted a special on AI. Guests included OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, Marques Brownlee and FBI director Christopher Wray.
Late Thursday evening, Oprah Winfrey aired a special on AI, appropriately titled “AI and the Future of Us.” Guests included OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, tech influencer Marques Brownlee, and current FBI director Christopher Wray.
The dominant tone was one of skepticism — and wariness.
#technology #newsonleo #oprah
Oprah noted in prepared remarks that the AI genie is out of the bottle, for better or worse, and that humanity will have to learn to live with the consequences.
“AI is still beyond our control and to a great extent…our understanding,” she said. “But it is here, and we’re going to be living with technology that can be our ally as well as our rival … We are this planet’s most adaptable creatures. We will adapt again. But keep your eyes on what’s real. The stakes could not be higher.”
Sam Altman overpromises
Altman, Oprah’s first interview of the night, made the questionable case that today’s AI is learning concepts within the data it’s trained on.
“We are showing the system a thousand words in a sequence and asking it to predict what comes next,” he told Oprah. “The system learns to predict, and then in there, it learns the underlying concepts.”
Sam Altman overpromises
Altman, Oprah’s first interview of the night, made the questionable case that today’s AI is learning concepts within the data it’s trained on.
“We are showing the system a thousand words in a sequence and asking it to predict what comes next,” he told Oprah. “The system learns to predict, and then in there, it learns the underlying concepts.”
While Altman possibly overstated the capabilities of today’s AI systems, he underlined the importance of figuring out how to safety-test those same systems.
“One of the first things we need to do — and this is now happening — is to get the government to start figuring out how to do safety testing of these systems, like we do for aircraft or new medicines,” he said. “I personally, probably have a conversation with someone in the government every few days.”
Article
Three and Vodafone’s $19B merger hits the skids as UK rules the deal would adversely impact customers and MVNOs
Three and Vodafone’s planned $19 billion merger hits the skids as UK rules the deal is likely to reduce competition.
The U.K.’s antitrust regulator has delivered its provisional ruling in a longstanding battle to combine two of the country’s major telecommunication operators.
#vodaphone #merger #business #newsonleo #technology #three
The Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) says that Three and Vodafone’s planned $19 billion merger — announced 15 months ago — could lead to higher prices for consumers, diminished service such as smaller data packages in contracts, and reduced investment in U.K. mobile networks.
The CMA also took aim at the market for mobile virtual network operators (MVNOs) — a set up aimed at increasing competition by enabling new carriers to set up and offer services without building all of their own costly communications infrastructure. Both Three and Vodafone supply network to MVNOs, with the list including iD Mobile and Lebara. The CMA said that a merger might make it more difficult for MVNOs to access reasonable wholesale deals, in turn making services more expensive for customers.
Competition concerns aside, there was at least one other potential roadblock to this merger. Three is owned by CK Hutchison Holdings, a Hong Kong conglomerate subject to a national security law introduced by China in 2020, leading some to argue that Three could be compelled to share sensitive data with the Chinese state. The U.K. had introduced the National Security and Investment Act back in 2022 to cover such scenarios, and the government had previously used this law to block other deals between U.K. entities and Chinese companies.
However, back in May the U.K. government greenlighted the Three / Vodafone merger on security grounds, with some provisions, leaving the remaining regulatory concerns firmly in the CMA’s domain.
Article
Alternative app stores will be allowed on Apple iPad in the EU from September 16
It was a matter of time, but Apple is going to allow third-party app stores on the iPad starting next week, on September 16.
It was a matter of time, but Apple is going to allow third-party app stores on the iPad starting next week, on September 16. This change will occur with the next major release of iPadOS, the operating system specifically designed for the iPad.
#newsonleo #apple #appstore #ios #technology
The move is related to the European Union’s Digital Markets Act (DMA), a set of market fairness and pro-competition rules. Last fall, the Commission shared a list of six tech companies that have been designated “gatekeepers”, as they operate so called “core platform services” (CPS). It’s since added a seventh.
For Apple, the Commission initially designated three products and services as CPS: its mobile operating system iOS, its app distribution marketplace the App Store, and its web browser Safari. Then, in April, it announced that it was adding Apple’s iPadOS to the list.
While iPadOS user numbers did not meet the threshold to be in scope of the DMA, the Commission has some leeway in designations and said it considered that there are strong locked-in effects for business users in particular.
Apple had six months to update iPadOS and make sure that it is compliant with the DMA. Which brings us to Friday’s announcement: Starting with iPadOS 18, users in the EU will be able to install alternative app stores. Similarly, web browser developers will be able to release browsers for the iPad with their own browser engines.
Given the different DMA compliance timeline for iOS, recent changes to iOS in the EU can be an indication of what’s going to happen for iPad users in the EU.
There are five third-party app stores that are now available for iOS in the EU. One example, the AltStore PAL, was the first alternative app marketplace made available on iOS in the EU. You can use it to download video game emulator app Delta, virtual machine app UTM, torrenting app iTorrent, and more.
Apps are notarized by Apple for security purposes before they can be released on alternative app stores. App developers also have to sign new business terms with Apple — and pay a controversial “Core Technology Fee” above a certain threshold.
Epic Games also launched its alternative iOS app store in the EU so that people can download and play Fortnite, Rocket League Sideswipe and Fall Guys on their iPhones. The company has already said that it plans to bring Fortnite and its other games to the iPad.
Article
Polaris Dawn astronauts perform historic private spacewalk while wearing SpaceX-made suits
A crew of four private astronauts made history in the early hours of Thursday when they opened the hatch of their SpaceX Dragon capsule
A crew of four private astronauts made history in the early hours of Thursday when they opened the hatch of their SpaceX Dragon capsule and conducted the first commercial spacewalk.
#space #technology #newsloneo #polaris #spacewalk
The spacewalk, the riskiest part of the five-day Polaris Dawn mission, kicked off at 6:12 a.m. ET when oxygen started flowing into the astronauts’ spacesuits. Only two of the four crew members actually exited the vehicle, but all four had to don the new SpaceX-made suits because the Dragon capsule doesn’t have an airlock. That meant the entire spacecraft had to be depressurized.
A spacewalk — sometimes called extravehicular activity — is when astronauts leave the relative safety of their spacecraft for the vacuum of space. In the history of human spaceflight, spacewalks have only ever been performed by government astronauts, who use them as an opportunity to do repairs, perform maintenance, or to conduct scientific experiments. Spacewalks performed by NASA astronauts typically last between five and eight hours.
Billionaire entrepreneur and mission leader Jared Isaacman was the first to exit the Dragon capsule; after he returned, SpaceX engineer Sarah Gillis took a turn in the vacuum of space. They used a special ladder mobility aid dubbed a “skywalker,” which SpaceX added to the Dragon just for this purpose, to assist them outside the capsule. The pair was connected to the spacecraft by umbilical cords and they kept contact with the ladder at all times. The spacewalk was very quick, with each person outside the spacecraft for less than ten minutes. During that time, Isaacman and Gillis performed a series of movements to test the suits’ mobility and performance.
“Back at home, we all have a lot of work to do, but from here — looks like a perfect world,” Isaacman said.
Article
Why Y Combinator companies are flocking to banking and HR startup Every
Rajeev Behera’s new all-on-one HR startup, dubbed Every, is either brilliant or crazy.
Rajeev Behera’s new all-in-one HR startup, dubbed Every, is either brilliant or crazy.
Crazy because multi-module HR software that does payroll, onboarding, and spend management for small businesses is already a jam-packed market. Competitors include unicorn startups Gusto, Rippling, and Deel; incumbents that are strong in one area and are expanding into others like Mercury and Brex; and many smaller startups like Finally, Paylocity, and AccountsIQ.
#newsonleo #ycombinator #technology #every
Every’s investors clearly think Behera’s particular take on the idea is brilliant. Every just raised a $22.5 million Series A, led by Redpoint Ventures’ Alex Bard, with participation from Y Combinator, Okta Ventures, and Base10 Partners’ Rexhi Dollaku, TechCrunch can exclusively report.
Behera’s unique — and possibly brilliant — game plan revolves around his target customers and what he’s offering to hook them.
He and his co-founder, Barry Peterson, aimed Every at very early-stage tech startups and will help them do their incorporation documents for free, then set them up with a business bank account as well as other back-office essentials. Every makes its money by charging monthly SaaS fees for other modules, like accounting, and interchange fees.
“We spent all this time building pretty advanced expense management, banking, payroll, all that stuff. Now we will release incorporation for founders, and we’re going to just give it away for free,” Behera said.
After a 30-minute, white-glove onboarding session, startups get an integrated suite of banking, payroll, HR onboarding, HR benefits, bookkeeping, taxes, state compliance, and so on. (As we recently reported, the state compliance stuff is particularly tricky for startups.) Every’s customers also get a Slack channel where they can commiserate with other founders.
Article
India's Delhivery contests metrics in rival Ecom Express' IPO filing
Delhivery claims Ecom Express has inaccurately represented Delhivery's business metrics when drawing comparisons in its IPO filing.
Indian logistics firm Delhivery has publicly contested the accuracy of the metrics presented by competitor Ecom Express in its draft initial public offering prospectus, a rare confrontation in the lead-up to the latter’s market debut.
Delhivery, backed by SoftBank and already publicly listed, claims Ecom Express has inaccurately represented Delhivery’s business metrics when drawing comparisons in its IPO filing.
#ipo #delhivery #technology #newsonleo
The 442-page draft prospectus (PDF) submitted by Ecom Express last month said the startup had shipped 514.41 million packages in the fiscal year ended March 2024, while Delhivery handled 740 million during the same period.
Delhivery alleged in a filing to the stock exchanges on Friday that this comparison was flawed, asserting that what it considers a single shipment is counted as two by its rivals, suggesting that Ecom Express’ volume figures are potentially inflated. Delhivery said that its rival counts returned orders as two shipments.
Delhivery also called out Ecom Express’ cost per shipment (CPS) calculations, citing disparities in accounting methods and alleging inflated shipment figures.
The SoftBank-backed firm also pointed out that Ecom Express’ claim that it offers its services in 27,000 zipcodes isn’t accurate, as India has fewer than 19,500 unique zip codes.
This public dispute comes less than a month after Ecom Express, which counts Warburg Pincus, Partners Group and British International Investment among its backers, filed for an IPO, aiming to raise $310 million.
Delhivery has also questioned Ecom Express’ presentation of service EBITDA and corporate costs, citing a lack of consistent definitions for these metrics in the prospectus.
Article
XP Health grabs $32M to bring employees more affordable vision care
Antonio Moraes, the grandson of a late prominent Brazilian billionaire, was never interested in joining the family-owned conglomerate
Antonio Moraes, the grandson of a late prominent Brazilian billionaire, was never interested in joining the family-owned conglomerate of construction companies and a bank. Shortly after graduating from college, he founded one of Brazil’s first impact funds, which invested primarily in companies that made healthcare more accessible and affordable.
#technology #newsonleo #xphealth
But while attending Stanford University, where Moraes received a master’s degree in business administration and healthcare policy, he realized that instead of investing in impactful companies, he wanted to start his own.
As a part of an entrepreneurship class, Moraes and his co-founder, an engineering grad student, James Wong, visited multiple eyeglass manufacturing factories in China. They discovered that designer frames that sell for as much as $600 in the U.S. cost only about $10 to produce. “We thought there’s something very wrong with these markups,” Moraes told TechCrunch.
Because vision care and eyeglasses are expensive, many employees buy frames with their vision insurance, but the benefits typically don’t cover all the costs, Moraes said. “With vision insurance, people expect not to pay anything, but then they leave the optician’s office with a $300 out-of-pocket bill.”
Moraes and Wong started XP Health in late 2018, but during the pandemic, they shifted the startup’s focus to a digital-first, AI-driven platform that offers employees eye exams and eyewear benefits at significantly lower costs than existing vision insurance plans.
On Thursday, XP Health announced a $33.2 million Series B led by QED Investors with participation from Canvas Ventures, American Family Ventures, HC9 Ventures, Valor Capital Group and Manchester Story. The round comes less than two years after XP Health’s $17.1 million Series A.
XP Health members who buy eyeglasses virtually can save as much as 69% off the retail price, Moraes said. The company claims not to mark up the frames or lenses sourced directly from factories in Asia. Instead, XP Health generates its revenue through recurring membership fees.
Article
The End of Free Over The Air TV ATSC 3.0 Nextgen TV?
#streaming #television #technology #entertainment
Cord-Cutting News Roundup: ATSC 3.0, Fubo TV Lawsuit, MLB TV Rights, and More
In the rapidly evolving world of cord-cutting and streaming media, several significant developments have emerged. This article summarizes the key points from a recent "Cord Cutting Today" news roundup.
ATSC 3.0 (NextGen TV) Faces Uncertain Future
The transition to ATSC 3.0, also known as NextGen TV, is facing significant challenges that could jeopardize its future:
Despite these challenges, ATSC 3.0 offers benefits such as improved coverage area and the potential for more channels. However, criticisms persist regarding the implementation of digital Rights Management (DRM) in the standard.
Fubo TV to Release Confidential Carriage Agreements
In a significant move for transparency in the streaming industry:
Major League Baseball Seeks Wider National Availability
Amid the bankruptcy of regional sports networks, MLB is looking to change its approach to TV rights:
Other Notable Updates
These developments highlight the ongoing evolution of the cord-cutting landscape, with changes in technology, legal battles, and content distribution strategies aLL playing significant roles in shaping the future of television and streaming services.
How oil-rich Arkansas became a hotbed of lithium mining
Arkansas is becoming a key player in U.S. lithium production, but the state faces challenges like volatile prices and unproven technology.
The future of lithium production in the U.S. is gaining momentum in Arkansas, as companies like ExxonMobil, Albemarle, and Standard Lithium make significant investments in the state.
#newsonleo #technology #arkansas #lithium #mining
This comes at a time when global demand for lithium, driven by electric vehicles and energy-storage needs, continues to grow. In 2023, global lithium consumption reached 180,000 metric tons, up from 142,000 metric tons in 2022, according to the United States Geological Survey. But the U.S. produces less than 1% of the world's supply.
While most of the world's lithium still comes from countries like Australia, Chile and China, Arkansas could change that.
The state is home to the Smackover Formation, a geological formation rich in lithium brine.
"Lithium resource quality is really what makes this a great region," said Wesley Hamilton, CTO and vice president of research and technology at Albemarle, the world's top lithium producer. "It comes down to two things: the concentration of lithium and the ability to extract it efficiently from the brine."
Arkansas has long been a producer of bromine, which is extracted from the same brines now being tapped for lithium. The formation holds over 4 million metric tons of lithium, which is enough to power millions of EVs and devices, according to Galvanic Energy. That has attracted a rush of interest from companies looking to capitalize on the formation's potential.
Exxon Mobil, for example, acquired 120,000 acres in the Smackover Formation in 2023 and aims to start producing battery-grade lithium by 2027. The company said it will produce enough lithium to supply the manufacturing more than 1 million EVs per year by 2030. Standard Lithium, which has operated in Arkansas since 2020, is also expanding its Direct Lithium Extraction (DLE) facility in El Dorado, thanks to a $100 million investment from Koch Strategic Platforms. DLE is touted as a more eco-friendly extraction method, using advanced filters to reduce energy and water usage.
However, the road ahead isn't without challenges.
DLE technology, while promising, has yet to be proven on a large scale, and lithium prices have dropped sharply from over $80,000 per metric ton in 2022 to around $10,600 today. That's due to oversupply, slower-than-expected EV growth and new battery technologies, according to Benchmark.
British government had 'constructive' talks with Musk's X over disinformation, minister says
The U.K. government has had "constructive" talks with X over the spread of misinformation and other harmful content, technology minister Peter Kyle told CNBC.
As the riots raged in the U.K., Elon Musk began making incendiary comments about the situation, including the statement: "Civil war is inevitable." Musk is the owner of X, the social media platform formerly known as X.
#britian #x #technology #newsonleo
The U.K. government has had "constructive" talks with Elon Musk's social media site X over the spread of misinformation and other harmful content, technology minister Peter Kyle told CNBC Friday.
Kyle told CNBC's Arabile Gumede that the government had been in contact with all the major social media platforms — including Musk's X — over the summer about misinformation and the role they have in propagating harmful material.
The minister said that, although he hasn't had direct contact with Musk himself, he is "in touch often with his local chief executives here in the United Kingdom."
"So far, it has been a constructive set of conversations," he said, adding that, though there are "differences" in views between the two parties, they talk them through.
Citizens and governments around the world have higher expectations about social media platforms today and the role they play in keeping people safe and mitigating potential harms stemming from their products, Kyle said.
"It is a privilege having access to the British economy and society. And I just expect any company that comes to work here and aspires to sell products and services into our country to respect that," he added.
Kyle's comments to CNBC come after misinformation spread online after a knife attack at a Taylor Swift-themed dance class in northwest England sparked far-right, anti-immigration riots — with shops and mosques being attacked in towns across the country.
Keith Rabois says Miami is still a great place for startups, even as a16z leaves
Keith Rabois, managing director of Khosla Ventures, was having dinner with a “very successful CEO” in October 2018
Keith Rabois, managing director of Khosla Ventures, was having dinner with a “very successful CEO” in October 2018 when the CEO asked him a question: How many people does it take to create a whole new Silicon Valley? Is it 10,000? 100,000?
#miami #technology #startups
Rabois didn’t know, but he decided to accept the challenge and set about trying to make Miami the next Valley.
And despite other big name investors like Andreessen Horowitz decamping and shutting down its office in Miami a mere two years after setting up shop, Rabois said he’s still bullish on the South Florida city.
At Primary Venture Partners’ NYC Summit on Thursday, Rabois claimed that 11% of all seed investments in the United States have come out of Miami, which is “up basically from zero,” and that he hopes to raise that to 20%.
According to PitchBook data, seed investments into Miami startups to date this year accounted for only 2.6% of total U.S. seed investment. In 2023, they accounted for 3.5%.
“And the stats you should be looking at if you care about the future of tech are [the] fraction of seed investments, where do they happen?” Rabois said, adding that later-stage investment reveals less about the future of technology.
Rabois also said Khosla Ventures was gearing up to invest in its fifth company in Miami that will “reinvent education,” but didn’t provide specifics.
In April, Khosla and Founders Fund, where Rabois worked from 2019 until January, led the $150 million investment into spend management startup Ramp. Rabois said that Ramp, which is based in New York, has an office in Miami, which adds to the city’s appeal.
Article
https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cx29r65ygdqo
#news #cent
Meta is making its AI info label less visible on content edited or modified by AI tools
Meta is changing the way it labels content that has been edited or modified by AI tools on Instagram, Facebook and Threads.
Meta is changing the way it labels content that has been edited or modified by AI tools on Instagram, Facebook, and Threads. For this type of content, Meta is moving the “AI info” label to the post’s menu. In the past, the label would appear directly under the user’s name.
#facebook #ai #meta #tools #technology
The company says the label will still appear under content that it has detected was generated by an AI tool. This means that although the label is being hidden for content that was changed or edited by AI tools, it will still be prominently displayed under content that was fully generated by an AI prompt.
For content that was generated by AI, Meta will “share whether the content is labeled because of industry-shared signals or because someone self-disclosed,” the company says.
Meta says the change, which is rolling out next week, will “better reflect the extent of AI used in content” on its platforms.
By making the AI info label harder to find, it might be easier for users to be deceived by content that was edited with AI, especially as editing tools become more and more advanced.
Given that generative AI is a relatively newer technology, this isn’t the first time that Meta has changed how it labels such content on its platforms. In July, the company changed its AI label from “Made with AI” to “AI info” after Meta received complaints from photographers who said the label was being added to real photos.
Article
Samsung shares fall as workers' strike at India plant continues after talks fall through
The strike in Samsung India follows recent wage protests in South Korea where 36,500 members from its biggest workers' union went on strike in July and August.
Shares of Samsung Electronics fell as much as 3% on Friday, as workers at its southern Indian plant continued to strike, disrupting production at the consumer electronics unit for a fifth day.
Worker union's representatives, Samsung's management and the state's labor officials failed to reach an agreement over pay and working conditions among other things, on Thursday.
#swamsung #technology #strike #india
Hundreds of workers have been on strike since Monday, demanding the electronics conglomerate to recognize their union, raise wages and reduce working hours. It is one of the biggest such strikes in recent years in India, Reuters reported.
The plant, located in the city of Chennai in southern India, makes electronic appliances including televisions, refrigerators and washing machines.
It's one of the two factories that Samsung runs in India and can account for up to 30% of the group's $12 billion annual revenue in the country, Reuters reported.
Samsung Electronics is one of the leading players in India's smartphone and electronic appliances market. The major appliances sector-wide 2024 revenue in India is pegged at $38.2 billion, according to Statista.
The workers will continue to strike until their demands for better wages and working conditions are met, union leader E. Muthukumar told Reuters, "Samsung management asked us to stop striking but wouldn't recognize the union or talk to us, so the strike continues."
Article
Saudi Arabia expects to get access to Nvidia's high performance chips 'within the next year'
The U.S. has imposed restrictions on exports of the chips out of concerns they could be accessed by China, which is Saudi Arabia's top trading partner.
Saudi Arabia is optimistic about gaining access to U.S. chipmaker Nvidia's high-performance chips, which would enable it to develop and operate the most advanced artificial intelligence models.
Speaking to CNBC on Thursday, a top official at the Saudi Data and AI Authority, Abdulrahman Tariq Habib, said the kingdom expected to make such a stride in the next year.
#saudiarabia #nvidia #semiconductors #ai
"I think within the next year," Habib, Deputy CEO of SDAIA's strategy management office, told CNBC's Dan Murphy after being asked about a potential timeline. It's a significant expectation given that the United States' strict export controls have thus far prevented the chips' export to the kingdom. Habib made the comments on the sidelines of GAIN, Saudi Arabia's international AI summit, which took place in Riyadh this week.
It "will mean a lot" for Saudi Arabia to have access to the chips, Habib said — in this case, the Nvidia H200s, the firm's most powerful chips, which are used in OpenAI's GPT-4o.
"It will ease business between Saudi and U.S.," he said. "It will also open a lot of doors for building the capability, the computational capabilities, in the kingdom. But most importantly, it's not only the computational capability that's important. We worked hard in the past three years in building capacity, in human capacity, we also build data capacity as well. So we are working and collaborating with all [of the] international community and contributing [to] be one of the top active countries in data analysis."
Saudi Arabia is pouring considerable investment into developing a robust AI ecosystem in the kingdom, disclosing in a report by SDAIA that it aims to have AI make up 12% of its gross domestic product by 2030. According to the report, published on Sept. 9, the kingdom's $925 billion Public Investment Fund will lead the investment.
Article
Cohost, the X rival founded with an anti-Big Tech manifesto, is running out of money and will shut down
Cohost, a would-be X rival launched to the public in June 2022, is shutting down, the company announced via the social network's staff account earlier
Cohost, a would-be X rival launched to the public in June 2022, is shutting down, the company announced via the social network’s staff account earlier this week. The service had operated much like Twitter, offering users the ability to follow others, view posts in a feed, and like and repost content shared by others. However, Cohost differentiated itself by focusing on a chronological feed without trending topics, support for long-form posts, and pursuing a business model that didn’t rely on advertising.
#x #cohost #technology #newsonleo
The startup’s premium subscription, Cohost Plus, offered advanced features like an increased file size limit on uploads, with plans to add support for creator tools like tips and the ability to sell subscriptions, among other things.
Founded by a not-for-profit software company, Anti Software Software Club, with a small handful of developers, Cohost’s manifesto had anti-capitalist and anti-Big Tech leanings.
“[We] have watched the world buy into the lies of people who ‘believe in the disruptive potential of technology,’ and who think the best way to realize that potential is to build for-profit businesses that enable a creative-class petit bourgeois to make it through their day without acknowledging another human being,” the founders, Colin Bayer and Jae Kaplan, stated back in 2020. “We think we can do better, by building tools that focus on fair dealing and sustainable growth rather than market dominance,” their manifesto read.
Despite Cohost’s ambition to d
Despite Cohost’s ambition to disrupt the tech giants, it faced increased competition not only from X (formerly Twitter) but soon Meta as well, which launched its Twitter-like service Threads. Users who favored decentralized social networking on an open social web had various options, too, including Mastodon and Bluesky, among others.
As a result, Cohost will no longer be able to continue.
The company cited “lack of funding and burnout” as reasons for the shutdown, currently planned for the end of 2024.
“As of today, none of us are being paid for our labor,” the company shared in a post on its staff account, possibly an attempt to dispel rumors that staff salaries had eaten up the funds. “All of our money in the bank, and any money coming in from people who buy our merch or don’t cancel cohost plus, is going towards servers and operations — paying the bills so we can turn the lights off with as little disruption as possible.”
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Alibaba’s Taobao shopping app launches AI-powered English version in Singapore, jumps to first place in Apple’s App Store
Alibaba's Taobao app topped Singapore's Apple Store charts after launching an AI-powered English version on Tuesday, boosting accessibility for users.
Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba's Taobao shopping app topped the Apple App Store charts in Singapore after releasing an English version on Tuesday — thanks to translations powered by artificial intelligence.
#alibaba #taobao #singapore #technology
That's according to Sensor Tower, a market intelligence firm whose data shows Taobao shot to first place in Apple's Singapore App Store across all categories, as of Sept. 11. On Tuesday, the day the English-language version was announced, the app rose from fifth to first place in the shopping category.
Prior to this, the Taobao app had still enjoyed relative popularity and was consistently ranked in the top ten shopping apps for iPhone users from mid-August onwards, according to Sensor Tower.
The new update "highlights Taobao's dedication to serving its Singapore users, who have shown a strong desire for an English-language interface, reflecting their diverse language fluency," Alibaba said in a press release Tuesday. It did not elaborate on the AI translation features. The company has its own AI model.
The release said the new platform "enhances accessibility for non-Chinese users, eliminating their need for manual translations that previously made shopping less convenient for them."
Taobao and Tmall are Alibaba's biggest source of revenue by far, but to date have primarily sold to people in China using a Chinese-language interface. Taobao and Tmall Group's revenue for the quarter ended June 30 was 26.55 billion yuan ($3.65 billion), a 6% increase year-on-year.
Alibaba has in recent years has also sought to ramp up its overseas e-commerce business with platforms such as Alibaba.com and AliExpress.
Article
The Guardian: Parents ‘don’t use’ parental controls on Facebook and Instagram, says Nick Clegg
https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2024/sep/12/parental-controls-facebook-instagram-meta-nick-clegg
The Guardian: AI can change belief in conspiracy theories, study finds
https://www.theguardian.com/science/2024/sep/12/ai-can-change-belief-in-conspiracy-theories-study-finds
CNBC: British government had ‘constructive’ talks with Musk’s X over disinformation, minister says
https://www.cnbc.com/2024/09/13/britain-had-constructive-talks-with-elon-musks-x-over-disinformation.html
Shopsense AI lets music fans buy dupes inspired by red-carpet looks at the VMAs
At the MTV Video Music Awards (VMAs) on Wednesday night, new technology allowed fans to shop their favorite artists' styles as they appeared on the Thanks to a partnership with Shopsense AI and Paramount, viewers watching the VMAs could purchase similar outfits to replicate their favorite artist's style.
At the MTV Video Music Awards (VMAs) on Wednesday night, new technology allowed fans to shop their favorite artists’ styles as they appeared on the screen.
#technology #ama #shopsense #newsonleo
Though the drama from last night’s event focused on Chappell Roan confronting a rude paparazzi and Sabrina Carpenter‘s onstage kiss with an alien, fans were also raving about the extravagant and intricate outfits worn by the industry’s most-loved singers.
Thanks to a partnership between Paramount and technology company Shopsense AI, viewers had the opportunity to purchase similar outfits from the service’s suggestions.
Launched in January, Shopsense AI offers software that allows viewers to capture images of their preferred looks as they appear live on screen and then explore comparable options suggested by Shopsense’s detection model. The “AI” in this case refers to a sort of computer vision technology that matches on-screen looks with a database of clothing from online retailers.
Currently, Shopsense recognizes more than 1 billion items from over 1,000 retailers, including AllSaints, Macy’s, Nordstrom, Urban Outfitters, Revolve, and more.
Viewers can go to shop.mtvvmas.com/vmas and upload a photo of their favorite look from the VMAs or any outfit of their choosing using their phone camera. For Roan’s medieval warrior-inspired outfit, the software recommends a $500 AllSaints maxi dress or the more affordable $56 Boohoo milkmaid dress. It’s worth noting that Roan’s outfit comes from the Y/Project Fall 2024 collection, which is quite expensive, which makes having an affordable alternative a nice option.
The online storefront doesn’t have a built-in checkout feature. Instead, it uses direct links for each product, which allows brands to keep traffic on their respective platforms.
Shopsense’s technology still has some issues to resolve, we found.
During our testing, the suggestions were black dresses instead of the actual deep merlot color. There were also some outliers that didn’t seem to match, such as a metallic dress that Shopsense may have pulled from Roan’s acrylic nails, which resembled metal armor. However, the company points out that some items are meant to only match the “aesthetic” of the initial look.
Article
CNBC: How oil-rich Arkansas became a hotbed of lithium mining
https://www.cnbc.com/2024/09/13/how-oil-rich-arkansas-became-a-hotbed-of-lithium-mining.html
CNN: ChatGPT maker says its new AI model can reason and think ‘much like a person’
https://edition.cnn.com/2024/09/13/tech/chatgpt-openai-o1-human-reasoning/index.html
Wired: OpenAI Announces a New AI Model, Code-Named Strawberry, That Solves Difficult Problems Step by Step
https://www.wired.com/story/openai-o1-strawberry-problem-reasoning/
Is this the same model "o1" that I got an email about?
*Checks the link... Yeah, it is!
Thanks for sharing!
BBC: The 12-day flight across the world in a 60-year-old plane
https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20240912-the-12-stop-flight-across-the-world-in-a-60-year-old-plane
BBC: How much will AI help in the next pandemic?
https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c1epnnd3l5jo
Here's day 3 threadcast for Conversations with AI. If you're interested in feeding #leoai some data, put them there:
https://inleo.io/threads/view/ahmadmanga/re-leothreads-26rfswpsb
BBC: New beanless 'coffee' emerges but does it taste any good?
https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c4gv0rvx0dvo
BBC: Billionaire completes first private spacewalk
https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c86l6j2w865o
Reuters: TikTok faces crucial court hearing that could decide fate in US
https://www.reuters.com/legal/tiktok-faces-crucial-court-hearing-that-could-decide-fate-us-2024-09-13/