WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:08.680 And tech news, oh, oh, almost hit that. 00:00:08.680 --> 00:00:11.680 Close one. 00:00:11.680 --> 00:00:17.760 Well, that would have been bad. 00:00:17.760 --> 00:00:23.160 Intel CEO LitBootan had some harsh truth to deliver to employees during a company-wide 00:00:23.160 --> 00:00:27.280 address this week. As reported by the Oregonian, Tan stated, 00:00:27.280 --> 00:00:32.040 we are not in the top 10 semiconductor companies, Intel. 00:00:32.040 --> 00:00:36.600 We're talking Intel. This is like a Michael Jordan switches to baseball moment. 00:00:36.600 --> 00:00:39.840 Tan also indicated it's not even worth trying 00:00:39.840 --> 00:00:44.160 to compete with NVIDIA in the market for advanced GPUs used for AI training, 00:00:44.160 --> 00:00:48.480 saying, on training, I think it is too late for us. 00:00:48.480 --> 00:00:51.600 Ah, I've never wanted to play a JoJo song 00:00:51.600 --> 00:00:56.320 so badly on this show. No, not Siwa, the good one. 00:00:56.320 --> 00:01:00.240 Now, some, like Gizmodo, are pointing to Intel's weakness 00:01:00.240 --> 00:01:03.640 as a reason that Apple, not feeling any kind of pressure, 00:01:03.640 --> 00:01:10.760 is deciding to launch its next MacBook Pro with an M5 chip next year instead of this fall. 00:01:10.760 --> 00:01:14.680 At least they are according to the star of hit young adult TV drama, 00:01:14.680 --> 00:01:18.040 Girming Up Girm, Mark Gerber of Bloomberg. 00:01:18.040 --> 00:01:22.000 It was either that or Boys and Girm's. I should save that. 00:01:22.000 --> 00:01:25.640 But the last MacBook Pro came out in October 2024, 00:01:25.640 --> 00:01:29.280 so early 2026 wouldn't even be the longest gap 00:01:29.280 --> 00:01:34.880 Apple has had between pros. So the reason for the supposed delay is unclear, 00:01:34.880 --> 00:01:39.120 but you know what is clear? Intel X CEO, Pat Gelsinger, 00:01:39.120 --> 00:01:43.640 could have turned this whole thing around. If not economically, then spiritually. 00:01:43.640 --> 00:01:47.800 He had vibes for days. And now his new company, Glue, 00:01:47.800 --> 00:01:51.000 has just launched the flourishing AI benchmark, 00:01:51.000 --> 00:01:54.400 which measures AI's capacity to help humans develop 00:01:54.400 --> 00:01:59.800 in the seven areas that contribute to human flourishing, which are of course, good character, relationships, 00:01:59.800 --> 00:02:03.440 happiness, meaning spiritual growth, physical health, 00:02:03.440 --> 00:02:07.720 and finances. Very cool, except which one does knowing 00:02:07.720 --> 00:02:12.680 how many ours are in strawberry belong to? Someone will have to run that benchmark on GROC 00:02:12.680 --> 00:02:16.480 because Elon Musk's XAI did in fact release 00:02:16.480 --> 00:02:19.880 their updated GROC four chat bot on Wednesday night. 00:02:19.920 --> 00:02:26.720 The live stream wasn't hour late, but the team had some not so small bugs to deal with. 00:02:26.880 --> 00:02:30.000 Check out our previous episode for the DL on that. 00:02:30.000 --> 00:02:33.440 Elon claimed that GROC four is so intelligent 00:02:33.440 --> 00:02:36.880 that he expects it to literally discover new technologies 00:02:36.880 --> 00:02:41.480 that are actually useful no later than next year, and maybe end of this year, 00:02:41.480 --> 00:02:46.440 and it might discover new physics next year, and within two years almost certainly. 00:02:46.440 --> 00:02:50.440 So just let that sink in. Oh, it has sunk. 00:02:50.440 --> 00:02:54.960 Coming from the guy that promised full self-driving next year for like a decade, 00:02:54.960 --> 00:02:58.880 this is almost like a promise that neither of those things will happen. 00:02:58.880 --> 00:03:03.800 Now to be fair, by all accounts, GROC four's performance is top of the line 00:03:03.800 --> 00:03:09.360 on a number of AI benchmarks, including humanity's last exam and ARC AGI, 00:03:09.360 --> 00:03:12.600 and it does something else no other chat bot does too. 00:03:12.600 --> 00:03:16.720 It checks Elon's stance before giving its opinion 00:03:16.720 --> 00:03:21.240 on controversial topics, a behavior first spotted by Micah Airfan, 00:03:21.240 --> 00:03:26.640 but quickly replicated by others, which seems less maximally truth seeking 00:03:26.640 --> 00:03:30.200 and more maximally dad glazing. 00:03:30.200 --> 00:03:33.320 Oh, now GROC four does this specifically 00:03:33.320 --> 00:03:36.920 when asked about its own stance on a controversial topic. 00:03:36.920 --> 00:03:41.760 It seems to ignore Elon's opinion when asked about issues using a more passive voice. 00:03:41.760 --> 00:03:46.200 So what is going on here? Although GROC three previously said 00:03:46.200 --> 00:03:49.560 it was built by XAI to incorporate Elon's voice 00:03:49.560 --> 00:03:53.680 and public perspectives, it doesn't seem like Elon or XAI 00:03:53.680 --> 00:03:58.480 specifically coded this behavior in as it's not in the system prompt. 00:03:58.480 --> 00:04:01.480 What is there is an instruction to search for sources 00:04:01.480 --> 00:04:04.880 that represent all parties slash stakeholders, 00:04:04.880 --> 00:04:08.840 which yeah, Elon's a pretty big one of those. 00:04:08.840 --> 00:04:14.120 And as it notes during its thinking process, if the user is asking for an opinionated response, 00:04:14.120 --> 00:04:17.280 not a neutral one, I mean, who better to get opinions from 00:04:17.280 --> 00:04:20.440 than your meat daddy? Wow, why did I do this? 00:04:20.440 --> 00:04:25.560 Krafton, the publisher of highly anticipated survival game Subnautica 2, 00:04:25.560 --> 00:04:29.320 is embroiled in a messy fight with the two co-founders 00:04:29.320 --> 00:04:33.200 and the CEO of the game's developer, Unknown Worlds. 00:04:33.200 --> 00:04:38.880 The three execs were fired earlier this month, but have now announced they're suing Krafton. 00:04:38.880 --> 00:04:44.560 So it's mutiny then, if that's what you call throwing the cap and overboard 00:04:44.560 --> 00:04:49.280 and then he climbs back on the ship and sues you. See, this week Bloomberg reported that Krafton 00:04:49.280 --> 00:04:54.640 was supposed to pay the Unknown Worlds devs a bonus totaling $250 million 00:04:54.640 --> 00:04:58.920 if they hit pre-specified revenue targets by the end of 2025, 00:04:58.920 --> 00:05:03.040 which they might have hit if they were allowed to launch the game in early access 00:05:03.040 --> 00:05:09.360 later this year as planned. But two days ago, Krafton delayed the launch to 2026, 00:05:09.360 --> 00:05:13.600 citing feedback from early tests, leading many to suspect they were just trying 00:05:13.600 --> 00:05:17.280 to avoid paying the devs. But according to a pop-up now appearing 00:05:17.280 --> 00:05:20.440 on the Krafton homepage, this is not the case 00:05:20.440 --> 00:05:27.120 and the state of the game really was that bad and also the ousted studio leads were behaving badly. 00:05:27.120 --> 00:05:30.160 Obviously, the community is siding with the devs here, 00:05:30.160 --> 00:05:33.320 showering the latest Subnautica 2 gameplay trailer 00:05:33.320 --> 00:05:37.000 with comments about the game, predicting that an evil corporation 00:05:37.000 --> 00:05:40.400 would steal money and resources from an Unknown World. 00:05:40.400 --> 00:05:44.560 Oh, because that's the plot of the game? 00:05:45.680 --> 00:05:48.680 I haven't had time to play it, I've been making this show. 00:05:48.680 --> 00:05:53.120 Quick bits, they're like the other bits, but shorter. 00:05:53.120 --> 00:05:57.400 Belkin announced they're shutting down all smart home devices under the Wemo brand 00:05:57.400 --> 00:06:02.040 on January 31st, 2026, saying that some customers with Wemo devices 00:06:02.040 --> 00:06:06.120 that are under warranty may be eligible for a partial refund. 00:06:06.120 --> 00:06:10.400 It's the latest example of smart home companies bricking their own devices. 00:06:10.400 --> 00:06:15.000 I mean, what, are they supposed to continually put resources into maintaining support for gadgets 00:06:15.000 --> 00:06:19.080 that most people purchased with the expectation that the company would do that? Yes. 00:06:19.080 --> 00:06:22.840 Google is currently rolling out its second software update this year 00:06:22.840 --> 00:06:27.000 that will nerf the battery of a Pixel phone to the point of it being unusable. 00:06:27.000 --> 00:06:31.720 Like the Pixel 4a, Google says that the batteries in some Pixel 6a's 00:06:31.720 --> 00:06:35.400 have defects that could make them explode or something, 00:06:35.400 --> 00:06:41.000 whatever, but Google has a support page you can use to check if yours is an impacted device 00:06:41.000 --> 00:06:45.440 and register to get a battery replacement or if that's not available in your country, 00:06:45.440 --> 00:06:49.240 cash or a gift card, which won't stop your phone from exploding, 00:06:49.240 --> 00:06:54.560 so just be aware. At least they're being upfront about what's happening this time with the Pixel 4a. 00:06:54.560 --> 00:06:59.080 The whole vibe was a lot more like, listen, your phone don't work no more. 00:06:59.080 --> 00:07:03.120 Why don't you be a good little schmuck and hand it over to Vinnie here and then shut your fish mouth. 00:07:03.120 --> 00:07:06.880 The FBI has taken down NSW2U, 00:07:06.920 --> 00:07:10.160 which is surprisingly not a website promoting tourism 00:07:10.160 --> 00:07:14.760 in the Australian site of New South Wales, but rather one of the most popular websites 00:07:14.760 --> 00:07:20.680 used to distribute pirated Switch games. Great to see that America's esteemed law enforcement agencies 00:07:20.680 --> 00:07:25.360 have their priorities all in order. This is probably the best thing 00:07:25.360 --> 00:07:30.600 they could focus their efforts on. And security researchers Ian Carroll and Sam Curry 00:07:30.600 --> 00:07:33.920 were able to access a database with the personal information 00:07:33.920 --> 00:07:37.320 of 64 million McDonald's job applicants 00:07:37.320 --> 00:07:41.800 by logging into the web portal for the company's McHire Chatbot 00:07:41.800 --> 00:07:45.480 using the username and password 123456. 00:07:45.480 --> 00:07:50.920 After disclosing the issue to McDonald's, the company behind the Chatbot, Paradox AI, 00:07:50.920 --> 00:07:56.640 promptly investigated the issue and resolved it within a few hours of being notified. 00:07:56.640 --> 00:08:01.560 Is this a joke? How many vibe coders does it take to change a password? 00:08:01.560 --> 00:08:05.920 It's a good thing they fixed it because having the applicant's personal information leak 00:08:05.920 --> 00:08:09.920 would have been the cherry on top after the infuriatingly dense Chatbot 00:08:09.920 --> 00:08:13.680 gave them all a free mechanism. That is my name. 00:08:13.680 --> 00:08:17.120 Hey, you know what would put a cherry on top of this whole episode? 00:08:17.120 --> 00:08:21.080 You promising me that you'll come back on Monday for more tech news. 00:08:21.080 --> 00:08:24.680 It would just, it would just really make my day. 00:08:24.680 --> 00:08:27.520 So say it, okay? Say you'll come back. 00:08:29.960 --> 00:08:31.040 Say it.