1 00:00:00,000 --> 00:00:05,600 Tech news, I love tech news. I mean, you start talking about connector tables, 2 00:00:03,200 --> 00:00:08,840 CPUs, software updates. Is it getting hot in here? Do you mind? I might need 3 00:00:06,880 --> 00:00:12,640 the room. Intel's next-gen GPUs, code-named Battlemage, will launch this 4 00:00:11,000 --> 00:00:18,360 fall, according to industry sources who spoke to German tech outlet ComputerBase 5 00:00:15,160 --> 00:00:20,480 at Embedded World 2024. These mysterious 6 00:00:18,360 --> 00:00:24,640 beings reportedly indicated that Intel wants Battlemage graphics cards to 7 00:00:22,120 --> 00:00:29,200 arrive before Black Friday, aka November 29th, aka the OG Prime Day. If this is 8 00:00:27,720 --> 00:00:33,560 true, it means Battlemage could go head-to-head with NVIDIA's Blackwell 9 00:00:31,640 --> 00:00:38,800 gaming GPUs, which are set for a launch in Q4, according to equally mysterious 10 00:00:35,680 --> 00:00:40,720 board partners. Although the RTX 5090 is 11 00:00:38,800 --> 00:00:44,680 rumored to launch first, and if Intel follows their Alchemist launch playbook, 12 00:00:42,760 --> 00:00:49,040 they'll lead with an upper to mid-tier card. So, it might be more like going 13 00:00:46,560 --> 00:00:53,120 head to sternum, which I have seen work well. Linus be Luke. 14 00:00:51,280 --> 00:00:57,760 Right now though, Intel is taking on NVIDIA in the AI chip space. Team Blue 15 00:00:55,640 --> 00:01:03,480 just announced their Gaudi 3 accelerator, which they say can beat 16 00:00:59,800 --> 00:01:05,640 NVIDIA's H100 every sometimes running 17 00:01:03,480 --> 00:01:09,720 certain models. But hey, at least that's better than the new ARM-based Axion data 18 00:01:07,760 --> 00:01:14,480 center chip that Google just announced. That thing won't run AI language models 19 00:01:11,760 --> 00:01:18,920 at all, because it's a CPU, not an AI accelerator. Well, that's all for me. 20 00:01:16,800 --> 00:01:23,640 John? After years of inaction, a bipartisan pair of legislators has 21 00:01:21,240 --> 00:01:28,720 released a discussion draft for new federal data privacy legislation titled 22 00:01:26,600 --> 00:01:32,680 the American Privacy Rights Act. How appropriate. The 23 00:01:30,760 --> 00:01:36,320 Never again, guys. The act would create a national standard 24 00:01:34,640 --> 00:01:40,560 for data privacy that preempts the current state-by-state patchwork of 25 00:01:38,280 --> 00:01:44,560 privacy legislation. It would also limit what kinds of information companies can 26 00:01:42,440 --> 00:01:49,400 collect and create a set of consumer data rights similar to the EU's General 27 00:01:46,680 --> 00:01:52,800 Data Protection Regulation GDPR. Many businesses actually like the idea 28 00:01:51,360 --> 00:01:57,080 of a national privacy standard, primarily because that would reduce the 29 00:01:54,840 --> 00:02:00,680 difficulty and cost of compliance. However, this also means that the bill 30 00:01:58,720 --> 00:02:05,280 is likely to receive opposition from both states that currently have much 31 00:02:02,680 --> 00:02:09,080 higher and states that have much lower consumer protections, which is what 32 00:02:07,200 --> 00:02:12,720 scuttled Congress' last attempt at fixing this mess. Look, you can't just 33 00:02:11,080 --> 00:02:16,640 stick California and Texas in the same room and expect them to get along. 34 00:02:14,440 --> 00:02:20,160 They're like cobras and mongooses, mortal enemies. But there's a lot of 35 00:02:18,640 --> 00:02:25,320 reasons to think that regulations like this can help. The EU's GDPR has forced 36 00:02:23,480 --> 00:02:28,640 companies to make significant changes to how they handle data, and their new 37 00:02:26,960 --> 00:02:32,800 antitrust rules making it easier to switch browsers on most devices seem to 38 00:02:30,680 --> 00:02:36,280 have resulted in small browsers making significant gains in terms of market 39 00:02:34,600 --> 00:02:40,360 share in the region. What? Competition? Without new 40 00:02:38,240 --> 00:02:44,640 legislation though, most of the pushback against American companies that mistreat 41 00:02:42,720 --> 00:02:48,920 their customers is coming extremely gradually through regulatory bodies. 42 00:02:46,880 --> 00:02:53,560 Today, the FCC rolled out its new broadband consumer labels, which are 43 00:02:51,360 --> 00:02:58,640 standardized across different ISPs and must clearly list every single fee, cap, 44 00:02:56,200 --> 00:03:02,320 and charge associated with the plan, and must be clearly displayed for all 45 00:03:00,160 --> 00:03:06,200 customers at sign-up. The labels are also explicitly based on nutrition 46 00:03:04,200 --> 00:03:10,120 labels, like you'd find on the back of a box of cornflakes, which makes me wonder 47 00:03:08,040 --> 00:03:13,560 how many calories are in a wireless router. Are they higher in protein or 48 00:03:11,800 --> 00:03:17,880 carbs? And what is the latency of my next bowel movement? Several major AI 49 00:03:16,440 --> 00:03:21,080 image generators are struggling to depict interracial relationships, 50 00:03:19,600 --> 00:03:25,600 especially Asian men in relationships with white women. Mia Sato of The Verge 51 00:03:24,160 --> 00:03:29,680 first reported this issue a few weeks ago with Instagram's AI, which would 52 00:03:28,200 --> 00:03:33,920 consistently produce pictures of two people of the same race when asked to 53 00:03:31,360 --> 00:03:37,000 create mixed-race couples. Strangely, while it was basically impossible to 54 00:03:35,400 --> 00:03:41,320 coax it into creating an image of an Asian man and a white woman, it was far 55 00:03:39,520 --> 00:03:44,920 easier to get it to create images of a white man with an Asian woman or a black 56 00:03:43,400 --> 00:03:49,680 man with a white woman. Even then, it struggled with prompts 57 00:03:46,720 --> 00:03:53,480 like black man and white girlfriend, but not with white woman and black 58 00:03:51,520 --> 00:03:57,400 boyfriend. Several other news outlets jumped on the idea and replicated these 59 00:03:55,400 --> 00:04:01,520 results. Shortly after, Meta seems to have blocked prompts with keywords like 60 00:03:59,280 --> 00:04:05,640 Asian man, though this was mysteriously reversed after Mia Sato asked them about 61 00:04:04,040 --> 00:04:09,480 it. But it also turns out that this isn't an issue exclusive to Meta. 62 00:04:07,440 --> 00:04:14,040 OpenAI's DALL-E 3 almost managed to create a mixed Asian-white couple by 63 00:04:11,480 --> 00:04:19,320 somehow creating the most Asian-looking white women known to man, or men? When 64 00:04:17,120 --> 00:04:23,160 prompted with Asian man with white wife, Midjourney also produced a lot of oddly 65 00:04:21,239 --> 00:04:27,400 Caucasian-Asian women, as well as inexplicably a black man and a white 66 00:04:25,640 --> 00:04:30,680 woman in what appears to be traditional Chinese clothing. Verge writers were 67 00:04:29,240 --> 00:04:34,280 eventually able to get Midjourney to create an image of an Asian man and a 68 00:04:32,480 --> 00:04:39,440 white woman, but this only worked when the prompt was clearly platonic and 69 00:04:36,480 --> 00:04:43,520 mentioned academia. This is amazing. Google's Gemini wasn't able to produce 70 00:04:41,120 --> 00:04:47,560 interracial couples of any kind in any time, Viking or whatever, of course, 71 00:04:45,880 --> 00:04:51,600 because Google shut down its ability to generate images of people after the 72 00:04:49,640 --> 00:04:55,480 racially diverse Nazis incident back in February. The feature was supposed to 73 00:04:53,560 --> 00:04:59,400 return in March, so we can assume Google's still trying to get it to stop 74 00:04:57,440 --> 00:05:03,120 generating images of Schindler's List as cast by the Lin-Manuel Miranda. I bet 75 00:05:01,680 --> 00:05:08,200 the rap solos are going to be awesome in that. Schindler's Hermanos. Now it's 76 00:05:06,160 --> 00:05:12,120 time for Quick Bits, brought to you by Paperlike. They make screen protectors 77 00:05:10,240 --> 00:05:16,200 that not only protect your iPad, but also make it feel better to write and 78 00:05:14,040 --> 00:05:19,680 draw on it. The Paperlike 2.1 is manufactured in Switzerland and is 79 00:05:17,880 --> 00:05:23,880 designed to help you write and draw on your iPad just like how you would on 80 00:05:21,560 --> 00:05:29,360 paper. It uses their exclusive microbead technology called Nanodots TM to emulate 81 00:05:27,520 --> 00:05:33,840 the stroke resistance of paper without sacrificing screen clarity. Check out 82 00:05:31,400 --> 00:05:37,760 Paperlike at the link below. A quick bit is only really a quick bit if it comes 83 00:05:35,920 --> 00:05:41,640 from the quick uh region of France, otherwise it's really technically 84 00:05:39,920 --> 00:05:47,080 sparkling tech news. On Monday, we talked about how version 24H2 of Windows 85 00:05:44,400 --> 00:05:52,040 11 is blocking third-party modifying apps that alter the OS's UI. But it 86 00:05:49,680 --> 00:05:56,400 turns out that these changes actually go much, much further. A sizable list of 87 00:05:54,440 --> 00:06:01,040 apps, drivers, and hardware IDs can trigger an update hold on Windows 11 88 00:05:58,440 --> 00:06:06,200 version 24H2, including two Intel drivers, a Realtek wireless USB 2.0 89 00:06:03,720 --> 00:06:11,040 adapter driver, an AMD Radeon software executable, and an iCloud services 90 00:06:08,360 --> 00:06:15,400 executable. While Microsoft often blocks older software that is likely to cause 91 00:06:13,000 --> 00:06:18,760 instability, several of these newly blocked apps and executables were 92 00:06:16,800 --> 00:06:22,640 released relatively recently. This is likely because Microsoft is making some 93 00:06:20,560 --> 00:06:27,640 pretty extensive changes in the new version, mostly related to the AI 94 00:06:25,440 --> 00:06:31,440 features it wants to mix into the OS like mint through chocolate, in the 95 00:06:29,560 --> 00:06:35,880 sense that a lot of us do not want it there. And don't come at me, mint 96 00:06:33,360 --> 00:06:41,200 lovers. It's like the cilantro of OS. Yes. Whoa, whoa, whoa. Cilantro's great. 97 00:06:39,200 --> 00:06:46,720 It's great for you. I'm a mutant. TikTok is working on a new 98 00:06:43,480 --> 00:06:49,360 app called TikTok Notes, and you guessed 99 00:06:46,720 --> 00:06:53,640 it, it has nothing to do with notes or note-taking. It's a photo posting app. 100 00:06:52,280 --> 00:06:57,080 This isn't the first we've heard about this. Last month, a leak suggested 101 00:06:55,680 --> 00:07:01,520 TikTok was working on an Instagram competitor called TikTok Photos, a name 102 00:06:59,640 --> 00:07:06,400 that apparently made too much sense to everybody. Even more offensive, no one 103 00:07:04,040 --> 00:07:11,240 at TikTok, not a single person, named the photo app PicTok. If they want to do 104 00:07:08,920 --> 00:07:15,040 so now, they have to pay Jacob Rush $7 million, and I get royalty rights for 105 00:07:13,000 --> 00:07:18,960 saying it first on camera. Automatic, the parent company of WordPress, has 106 00:07:16,480 --> 00:07:21,920 acquired Beeper, the message company that You remember these guys? They spent 107 00:07:20,520 --> 00:07:27,080 the last several months getting their iMessage bridging service repeatedly blocked by Apple. That being said, 108 00:07:25,360 --> 00:07:31,440 Beeper will apparently operate as a mostly independent subsidiary. Automatic 109 00:07:29,720 --> 00:07:35,120 does however plan to eventually merge with Beeper with its other messaging 110 00:07:33,040 --> 00:07:39,120 service text.com. Beeper had only around 115,000 users 111 00:07:37,560 --> 00:07:43,840 prior to acquisition, but they've also got a waitlist of over 450,000. 112 00:07:42,080 --> 00:07:47,600 An entire Oakland's worth of people. Luckily for them, Beeper's new Android 113 00:07:45,560 --> 00:07:52,280 app is also leaving beta, though there's no word on when or if iMessage bridging 114 00:07:50,040 --> 00:07:56,880 will return, for Timothy Cook of Apple guards his blue bubbles most jealously. 115 00:07:55,160 --> 00:08:02,400 Texas Education Department will be introducing an AI-powered grader called 116 00:07:59,680 --> 00:08:06,920 Auto Scoring Engine, or ASE, for written questions on standardized tests. The 117 00:08:04,720 --> 00:08:10,520 only subjects excluded from computer grading appear to be Spanish 118 00:08:08,440 --> 00:08:16,040 assessments. So, get ready to find out what a robot thinks of your essay on 119 00:08:12,440 --> 00:08:18,680 George Orwell's 1984 essay. A S S A? 120 00:08:16,040 --> 00:08:22,560 While the ASE is intended to replace human graders, which would save the 121 00:08:20,480 --> 00:08:26,800 state an estimated 15 to 20 million dollars per year, around 25% of the 122 00:08:24,880 --> 00:08:31,440 tests will be sent for further human review as a measure of quality control. 123 00:08:29,200 --> 00:08:36,520 Texas has clarified that the AI powering the ASE is not ChatGPT, but an AI model 124 00:08:34,200 --> 00:08:40,320 purpose-built for grading. Regardless, this move brings us one step closer to 125 00:08:38,320 --> 00:08:44,760 the future dystopia where all schooling, both homework and grading, is completely 126 00:08:42,560 --> 00:08:48,520 AI-generated. Let the robots handle it. Leave me out of it. And according to 127 00:08:46,600 --> 00:08:53,600 Cloudflare, Monday's solar eclipse managed to depress US internet traffic 128 00:08:51,000 --> 00:08:57,880 by 8%, though that's less impressive when you consider that nearly 100% of 129 00:08:55,520 --> 00:09:02,160 what I see on the internet depresses me on a daily basis. For example, I learned 130 00:09:00,480 --> 00:09:07,000 from the internet that Google searches for eyes hurt spiked during the eclipse 131 00:09:04,840 --> 00:09:10,480 in both the United States and Canada. Nothing makes me lose faith in humanity 132 00:09:08,560 --> 00:09:14,920 more than people being confused as to why they have eyeball pain after they 133 00:09:12,560 --> 00:09:17,640 optically raw-dogged the sun. The first thing you learn about the sun is don't 134 00:09:16,280 --> 00:09:21,440 look at it. But it won't be a pain for you to come back on Friday for more tech 135 00:09:19,480 --> 00:09:25,160 news. The best part is you can stare at us for as long as you like, 136 00:09:23,440 --> 00:09:29,600 but maybe don't for too long. Don't Don't Don't Don't make it weird. 137 00:09:27,200 --> 00:09:33,320 We like the watch time, but there's a lot You will go blind.