Hi everybody. Are you ready for tech news?
Great. Steam was the subject of a spat between
the world's biggest valve critic {slash} Epic Games CEO Tim Sweeney and gamers at
large over games that use generative AI.
Currently, developers of such games must disclose how they used AI on their
game's Steam page, but in a reply to a tweet from game dev turned AI lobbyist
Matt Workman, Sweeney agreed that this is dumb because AI is the future of
games anyway and if we label the games now, the clankers will be upset later.
Oh, no. I could I said it. Sweeney's remarks came after another reply to the
same tweet from an artist at Valve, Ari Sanchez, who pointed out that
transparency on the use of AI or anything else, really, shouldn't be
considered a bad thing in this context. Now, Workman is concerned that labeling
games hurt their sales. Meanwhile, Arc
Raiders has such a label and it's hotter than a jet turbine strapped to the side
of A DATA CENTER. GOT THEM. Sanchez theorizes that the
only devs afraid of an AI label, quote,
are the ones that know their product is low effort. Oh, that's where that's
where that there.
But oop, here comes Tim Sweeney again to ask why we would stop at labels for AI.
We might as well force devs to disclose what shampoo brand the developer uses.
And to be fair, if a developer did find some way to develop a game using
shampoo, I would want to know that. Maybe they're born with it. Maybe it's
programmed. Maybe it's Head and Shoulders. The memory crisis has gotten
so bad that NVIDIA has reportedly stopped including VRAM on the GPU
modules it sells to some of its board partners. According to reasonably
reliable rumor monger Golden Pig Upgrade, now not including VRAM is
apparently standard procedure for NVIDIA sales to the biggest GPU vendors, but
that's not the case for smaller board partners with fewer memory industry
connections who will now have to wait outside a 7-Eleven panhandling for spare
RAM. But if they can't score any memory chips that way, if they're camped at a
7-Eleven in Korea, they could buy memory themed chips.
Because the convenience store chain collabed with memory company SK Hynix to
launch a snack called HBM chips, which
simultaneously stands for high bandwidth memory and honey banana mat, mat being
the Korean word for flavor. Now, this is extremely confusing to me, possibly
because I'm not Korean enough, but 7-Eleven apparently wants to do stuff
like this to create unexpected fun
purchasing experiences for younger consumers who are just bouncing off the
walls with hype over the next hot new snack from their favorite semiconductor
manufacturer. Woah, you got the new SK Hynix? Yeah, man.
Smoke some weed. The European Union has agreed on new
rules that would hold tech companies liable for scams hosted on their
platforms. Now, once the EU Parliament and Council adopt the new rules, payment
service providers like PayPal and Stripe, but also social media companies
like Meta and TikTok, will be punished if they fail to remove scams that have
been reported. So, I guess the EU is still doing stuff to keep big tech in
check, as long as it's not AI related. The block's Digital Services Act,
Digital Markets Act and it's still developing AI Act have all been put in
jeopardy by pressure from the US government who would like Europe to stop
telling American companies what they can or can't do in Europe. That's communism.
Correct me if I'm wrong. One particular European who doesn't like the American
approach is French President Emmanuel Macron who accused Brussels of being too
afraid to push back. And one of our writers points out that there has to be
a joke here about macaroni and brussels sprouts, and I would argue that no,
there doesn't. Yeah, all right.
You got me. There only has to be this segue to our sponsor Dbrand, a
mysterious entity that legends say has bullied people into buying their device
skins, cases, and screen protectors since the dawn of time. Even now,
Dbrand's presence hovers over the earth, infecting people's minds with the idea
that they could get Black Friday deals like 45 bucks off kill switch ultra kits
for handhelds and free shipping on most orders over $65. And if they listen to
Dbrand's wet little whispers, they'll get a free deck of possibly haunted
playing cards with any order. WAIT, NO, DON'T GIVE IN AND CLICK the link in THE
DESCRIPTION. NO!
HAVE YOU SEEN WHERE THOSE PESKY QUICK BITS WENT? We might need the help of a
friend to figure it out. BACKPACK?
BACKPACK? APPLE IS reportedly in talks to have
Intel manufacture the lower end of an upcoming M chip series in the US by
mid-2027. A huge shakeup considering Apple's M
series chips are currently built overseas by TSMC. Now, according to
Apple supply chain analyst Ming-Chi Kuo, if this happens, Intel will use the 18A
P advanced node to help MacBooks and iPads get made in USA silicon while
Apple keeps its top-end chips being produced at TMC. Apple began
transitioning away from Intel processors in 2020, but with everybody scrounging
to get chips manufactured these days, it looks like the two tech giants have been
brought back together by a force that has rekindled many a relationship,
desperation. Let's have a baby. That'll save our
marriage. MIT researchers say their iceberg index
simulation of the US labor market shows that 11.7% of US jobs could already be
handled by current AI, no problem. Importantly, the tool is meant to flag
vulnerable roles, not to predict layoffs. At least jobs appear safe from
AI at NVIDIA where CEO Jensen Huang told
an all-hands meeting that AI will not replace them and asked managers who have
been telling their employees to use less AI, are you insane? Meanwhile, NVIDIA
tried to calm financial analysts worried about the company's books, insisting in
a leaked memo that they are not Enron.
Okay. Not Enron, the poster child for
accounting fraud. Now, I'm not sure if that's going to calm anyone down. A
business bringing up Enron feels a bit like saying Macbeth in the theater.
The theater! Of course, if you do that, then Dbrand
steals your soul. 404 Media reporter Joseph Cox has
reported that his iDevices bizarrely began suddenly opening random podcasts
all on their own. Some with silent audio, which is even more creepy, and
others linking to pages that could be considered malicious. Security
researcher Patrick Wardle was able to replicate the phenomenon, but qualified
that it isn't a full-blown hack yet. However, it would be a great delivery
system if a real flaw exists. A few outlets reached out to Apple for
clarification and in true Apple fashion, they haven't commented yet and probably
won't because you. Taiwanese authorities have raided the home of former TSMC
senior VP Lo Wei-Jen who's accused of
leaking trade secrets to his new employer Intel, who insists Lo didn't
hand over anything sensitive, just the normal stuff. But investigators still
searched his Taipei and Hsinchu residences and froze assets as part of a
national security probe tied to TSMC's cutting-edge chip tech, which Taiwan
views as incredibly important to their security and sovereignty. Intel thinks
the whole thing is overblown, though. And if they had gotten secrets, you'd
definitely see their chips running a little bit faster by now, so. And
scientists at Tulane University have made a major breakthrough this week in
finding a literal pain switch in the brain. I mean, not literal in the switch
it's not a but you get it. An enzyme called VLK that neurons launch outside
the cell to crank up pain signals after injury. Mice without VLK barely felt
post-surgery pain and still moved normally, suggesting that future meds
could target this switch without the messy side effects of current pain
relief medications. If the study holds up and the same is found to be true in
humans, then who we, pain relief may have just gotten a whole
lot less painful. Pain switch in the membrane. Pain switch IN THE BRAIN.
BACKPACK. HEY, THANKS FOR exploring the wild and wacky world of tech news with
me today. What was your favorite part?
Fantastico. Remember, come back on Monday for another Riley adventure. And
if TSMC raids your home, remember to repeat after me, SWIPER, NO SWIPING.
HASTA LUEGO, me amigos.