I wanted to surprise you with a little gift today, okay? In this episode, I'm gonna list all my favorite things
about you. Number one. Ah, I guess we'll do tech news.
Telegram CEO Pavel Durov was arrested last weekend
on suspicion of failing to moderate criminal activity on the messaging app.
But on Wednesday, that suspicion was upgraded to preliminary charges as Durov was released on bail
and barred from leaving France pending further investigation.
The move seemed sudden, but it makes some sense
given that back in March, Durov told the Financial Times
he doesn't think they should be policing the way people express themselves
unless they cross red lines. Which red lines?
Unclear, although it seems like one red line he won't cross is being a tad more specific.
And the specifics matter here, especially concerning Telegram's optional use of encryption
which was implemented without proper declaration.
According to a statement from French authorities that we translated into English.
So hopefully we got that right. A declaration that other encryption using platforms
like WhatsApp and Signal have apparently done properly
and now they're worried about Telegram making them look bad by association.
Debate over encryption has been raging in the EU,
especially after they just passed all these laws that let them boss tech giants around.
What, are we gonna let encrypted platforms get a pass
by just putting a sock on the door? Don't look in here.
The EU is also investigating whether Telegram deliberately undercounted its users
to stay under the 45 million user threshold
which would subject the service to stricter regulation. So we'll see how that goes.
All in all, this is a weird story, not just because it's complex,
but also because while the EU has gotten serious about holding companies responsible
for content hosted on their platforms, that usually hasn't involved arresting the CEO,
crossing red lines indeed. A non-tech, the website known for publishing
in-depth technical reporting for 27 years
is shutting down according to a post from editor-in-chief Ryan Smith.
In the latest example of written journalism just not making investors happy enough.
They just see a wall of letters. It means nothing to them. They need zoom ins and vine booms.
Keep them stimulated. They're like incredibly wealthy toddlers.
I feel insecure at my job. A non-tech has been a rock of the tech journalism world
and one of the only reasons I had a shred of understanding of what the hell I've been talking about
for the past 10 years. Founder Anand Lal Shimpi left work on chips for Apple
back in 2014, but the site was left in good hands.
Two of which were attached to Dr. Ian Cuttrust,
otherwise known as Tech Tech Potato for reasons I'll never understand
because a non-tech isn't here anymore to explain it to me. Thankfully, the site itself will remain
up for presumably as long as publisher Future PLC
decides it wants to. And some non-tech writers have moved over
to their sister site named after a different guy,
Tom's Hardware. It's just not the same.
Sounds like it plays you by two by fours. Welcome to Tom's Hardware. You want Cedar or Maple?
Apple and NVIDIA are both in talks to join forces with Microsoft
in launching truckfuls of cash at OpenAI
who have apparently burned through a good chunk of their billions of dollars of investment money.
It's a bit of a strange development, given recent speculation that AI hype
is steadily descending from its peak into the trough of disillusionment,
but it would make more sense if OpenAI is considering removing its cap
on investor profits as reported by the Financial Times.
But OpenAI insists their for-profit company
is still controlled by the non-profit company
who will absolutely ignore their for-profit investors
and refuse to release extremely capable models
that threaten to turn the internet into a bubbling soup of AI slop.
Yes, they released chat GPT that was one time. With like four or five updates.
And actually OpenAI is kind of backing that up
with an agreement also signed by Anthropic
to give the US government's Artificial Intelligence Safety Institute,
as well as the UK's Equivalent Organization, early access to both companies' newest models
to conduct safety testing before they're released to the public.
I mean, sounds pretty good.
And it maybe explains why Sam Altman thought it was okay to disband OpenAI's safety team.
They're just outsourcing it to the federal government.
Why do the work? They've got time. They're watching TV shows at their desk most days anyway.
Okay, I thought of something. You kind of like computers.
Okay, here's a quick bit. AMD has confirmed the existence
of the long-rumored Ryzen 5 7600X3D,
but you're only allowed to be excited about it if you're American.
Turns out the processor will be exclusive to US retailer Micro Center,
which currently has 28 locations in some of the 50 United States.
In a statement, the chief merchandising officer for Micro Center said
the chip is a significant step forward in making high-performance, cash-rich processors
more accessible, despite it being largely inaccessible.
It's been six days since the port of Seattle was hit by a possible cyber attack,
and the Seattle Tacoma Airport, aka C-TAC,
is still mostly offline with no clear timeline for recovery.
The airport's internet, baggage routing, and gate updates are all down,
and staff have resorted to taping paper with flight numbers on them
to the blank screens by each gate. Luckily, the TSA and air traffic control
are on separate systems from the rest of the airport, which is great news for fans of getting groped
by the government and not dying in a ball of fire.
Microsoft is rebranding its remote desktop app,
an eminently-googleable name, to Windows app.
In an astounding act of branding self-sabotage.
And the people who brought you five different co-pilots. The so-called Windows app was released in preview
under its stupid new name back in November of last year,
but yesterday, they confirmed this idiocy
by adding a notification to the current app and their website.
We're just being harsh. We're being little stinkers.
Now, you can say the completely true sentence,
the Windows app is available for macOS, iOS, and iPadOS,
and really confuse your grandma. Anyway, hope you don't run into technical difficulties
and wind up needing to bing Windows app help anytime soon.
Just install the Windows app. Which one? Who's unvoiced?
Scientists have developed a chemical process to vaporize plastic that could be used
to recycle bags and bottles indefinitely.
You see, plastic is a polymer. The substance with very large molecules
composed of repeating subunits. A polymer is not, and this was news to me,
a fish person with multiple partners.
That's a polymer person. Polymer person.
By vaporizing certain unfortunate polymers,
they can be reduced to their building blocks to make new plastics.
Now, does this solve the whole microplastics inside of us
and also the ocean and in our brains? Issue?
Probably not, given that we're vaporizing them.
But Chinese researchers are having success making a robust yet compostable hard plastic out of bamboo.
And that could help keep the ocean cleaner, saving many non-monogamous fish people.
And Mid Journey, the company behind AI image generator Mid Journey, is getting into hardware.
But they haven't been very forthcoming about what kind of hardware.
The company did hire engineer Ahmad Abbas back in February,
who previously helped design the Apple Vision Pro.
Mid Journey is also continuing to develop AI models
to generate video and 3D environments.
Maybe the hardware will be a headset that generates 3D worlds, or maybe it's an orb.
Back in January, Mid Journey CEO David Holtz replied to a pondering my orb meme on Twitter
by saying, we will make the orb.
We will make the orb. What does that mean?
I don't know. But stay tuned for orb.
The best way to stay tuned is to literally stay tuned
by coming back on Monday for more tech news. Just kidding, I made a horrible mistake.
We're not actually uploading anything on Monday, not a talk link, not a regular tech link.
It's a holiday, so believe it or not,
we're taking a holiday, we're taking a day off. So come back on Wednesday for more tech news, please.