1 00:00:00,000 --> 00:00:05,680 It's time for tech news, where we bring you all the news and none of the old's from the world of technology. 2 00:00:05,680 --> 00:00:09,280 Oh, is that a VCR? Get it out of here! 3 00:00:09,280 --> 00:00:16,320 Blehh, it makes me nauseous! Amazon Web Services just announced its own chatbot, two new server chips, 4 00:00:16,320 --> 00:00:22,320 as well as an expansion of its partnership with NVIDIA to use their chips. Just in case. 5 00:00:22,320 --> 00:00:25,440 The new chips include the ARM-based Graviton 4, 6 00:00:25,440 --> 00:00:30,240 with 96 cores and up to 45% faster performance than its predecessor, 7 00:00:30,240 --> 00:00:36,880 and the Tranium 2, an AI accelerator with four times the performance and twice the energy efficiency. 8 00:00:36,880 --> 00:00:42,480 Announcing these chips while acting as if they're not going to drop NVIDIA as soon as they physically can 9 00:00:43,200 --> 00:00:48,640 actually isn't that weird. Being able to offer customers access to hardware from either company 10 00:00:48,640 --> 00:00:54,400 helps Amazon. What is weird is the name they gave their new enterprise-focused chatbot. 11 00:00:55,120 --> 00:01:00,480 Q. Now, if that sounds familiar, it may be because of last week's story about Open AI's 12 00:01:00,480 --> 00:01:06,320 secret algorithm called Q-Star, said to be a massive breakthrough in the development of AGI, 13 00:01:06,320 --> 00:01:11,840 which supposedly led to all that Sam Altman drama, although it's largely being dismissed as rumors 14 00:01:11,840 --> 00:01:15,760 now. AI researchers are notorious for their love of hot goss. 15 00:01:15,760 --> 00:01:20,960 They call it hallucinating! You will never guess what my chatbot said. Wow. 16 00:01:20,960 --> 00:01:26,720 Now, it's unlikely that Amazon's Q has anything to do with that, because it's not built on Open 17 00:01:26,720 --> 00:01:33,040 AI's tech, but rather on multiple LLMs from Anthropic and Meta, as well as Amazon's own 18 00:01:33,040 --> 00:01:41,120 Titan family of models. The Q name is apparently a reference to the character Q from James Bond, 19 00:01:41,120 --> 00:01:46,240 the franchise that Amazon owns through its subsidiary MGM. Because asking a chatbot to 20 00:01:46,240 --> 00:01:51,440 produce a questionably accurate summary of your Q4 sales is just like getting a cool laser watch. 21 00:01:52,160 --> 00:01:55,280 It's not. And I'm upset about it. I want the watch. 22 00:01:55,760 --> 00:02:01,040 Nearly 4,000 auto dealers throughout the U.S. have published an open letter asking the federal 23 00:02:01,040 --> 00:02:07,280 government to slow down its plans for mass EV adoption, because even with a significant tax 24 00:02:07,280 --> 00:02:14,240 credit subsidy, unsold EVs are clogging their lots, like oil clogged dinosaur arteries millions 25 00:02:14,240 --> 00:02:21,440 of years ago. That's how they died. Strangely, U.S. EV sales are on course to hit a record 26 00:02:21,440 --> 00:02:28,160 high this year, at 9% of all vehicles sold. Yet those are still rookie numbers, compared to EVs 27 00:02:28,160 --> 00:02:36,080 making up 33% of vehicle sales in China, 35% in Germany, and 90% in Norway. Those guys love 28 00:02:36,080 --> 00:02:43,360 electricity. They shock themselves for fun. Oh, Sven, stop! The White House wants half of new 29 00:02:43,360 --> 00:02:50,080 cars sold in the U.S. to be EVs by 2032, and nine states have plans to ban the sale of new 30 00:02:50,080 --> 00:02:56,320 gasoline vehicles by 2035, not including plug-in hybrids. Now, this wouldn't eliminate gas vehicles, 31 00:02:56,320 --> 00:03:01,360 because the average car stays on the road for around 12 years, which may come as a shock if you, 32 00:03:01,360 --> 00:03:05,920 like the writer of this episode, Jessica, own a car that's old enough to legally marry. 33 00:03:05,920 --> 00:03:13,120 But still young enough to date Leonardo DiCaprio? I hope you get to drive it down the aisle one day. 34 00:03:13,120 --> 00:03:18,320 The federal government has earmarked $5 billion to invest in a national network of charging 35 00:03:18,320 --> 00:03:23,600 stations, but most people are buying new cars for where they can go now, not where they think 36 00:03:23,600 --> 00:03:28,400 they might be able to go a few years from now. Hybrids, meanwhile, are apparently flying off 37 00:03:28,400 --> 00:03:33,920 the shelves even faster than traditional gas vehicles, validating the more cautious approach of 38 00:03:33,920 --> 00:03:39,360 Akio Toyoda, chairman of Toyota, who isn't saying, I told you so, 39 00:03:39,360 --> 00:03:41,200 but that's probably because he's speaking Japanese. 40 00:03:45,360 --> 00:03:51,920 Online developer conference DevTernity has been cancelled following the revelation that an organizer, 41 00:03:51,920 --> 00:03:58,160 Eduard Cizovs, apparently just made up several female speakers at the conference, 42 00:03:58,160 --> 00:04:02,160 fabricating their biographies and credentials entirely from whole cloth. 43 00:04:02,160 --> 00:04:05,280 If he had used cloth, that might have been a bit better. It was just nothing. 44 00:04:08,880 --> 00:04:13,760 These fake speakers first came to broad attention after Gerge Oroch, 45 00:04:13,760 --> 00:04:19,200 writer of tech newsletter Pragmatic Engineering, pointed out on Twitter that two out of three 46 00:04:19,200 --> 00:04:25,360 of the event's female speakers didn't appear to exist. Not only that, but many female speakers 47 00:04:25,360 --> 00:04:31,200 at other events, run by the same organizer, didn't exist either, except as a fake bio and 48 00:04:31,200 --> 00:04:37,120 an AI-generated image of a pretty young woman. At least one of the fake women, Julia Cursina, 49 00:04:37,120 --> 00:04:42,640 had a social media account that often posted the exact same content as that of the organizer, 50 00:04:42,640 --> 00:04:47,600 word for word, but with the addition of a flirty wink or kiss emoji. 51 00:04:48,560 --> 00:04:50,960 Are you a woman and haven't been using those? You're doing it wrong. 52 00:04:52,320 --> 00:04:58,560 Cizovs claimed that one of the fake women was a demo persona from their test website 53 00:04:58,560 --> 00:05:04,000 that was mistakenly included in the speaker list. Yeah, he totally wasn't trying to catfish 54 00:05:04,000 --> 00:05:08,400 prominent male tech speakers with inclusivity requirements into participating in his conference 55 00:05:08,400 --> 00:05:13,600 by pretending that a bunch of hot chicks were going to be there. Who would do that? 56 00:05:13,600 --> 00:05:19,040 He's doing totally cool guys. It's an online only conference. 57 00:05:20,240 --> 00:05:25,280 What now? What is it boy? The quick bits fell down a well? It's the sixth time this week. 58 00:05:26,240 --> 00:05:32,000 Apple has reportedly sent a proposal to Goldman Sachs to end their banking partnership within 59 00:05:32,000 --> 00:05:36,240 the next 12 to 15 months, according to sources familiar with the matter who spoke to the Wall 60 00:05:36,240 --> 00:05:41,040 Street Journal. That doesn't necessarily mean that Apple's savings accounts and credit cards 61 00:05:41,040 --> 00:05:45,840 are coming to an end, just that Apple would need to find another issuing partner sometime over 62 00:05:45,840 --> 00:05:50,480 the coming year. It would be a major surprise, however, because the program was extended to 63 00:05:50,560 --> 00:05:56,480 2029 only last year as part of Goldman's Pivot to Main Street, where they would offer services 64 00:05:56,480 --> 00:06:02,800 to retail customers, aka people without yachts. However, shortly after that effort led to 65 00:06:02,800 --> 00:06:08,480 significant losses, leading Goldman to really reconsider this whole working with the pores 66 00:06:08,480 --> 00:06:13,200 thing. It's just not reliable. Was it the whales? Did the whales get your yacht too? 67 00:06:14,240 --> 00:06:20,400 Some U.S. Postal Service offices are apparently unable to deliver mail on time because of a service 68 00:06:20,400 --> 00:06:26,080 agreement to cheaply deliver packages for Amazon in rural areas. In November, this deal was 69 00:06:26,080 --> 00:06:32,240 implemented in Bemidji, Minnesota, where carriers are now being told to prioritize Amazon packages 70 00:06:32,240 --> 00:06:37,120 and being forced to work overtime with scheduled sick days banned for the rest of the year. 71 00:06:37,120 --> 00:06:41,760 Delivery companies in San Juan County, Washington are accusing Amazon of diverting 72 00:06:41,760 --> 00:06:47,760 more packages to USPS since November as the county's post offices face similar issues. 73 00:06:47,760 --> 00:06:52,880 But don't worry, any overworked mail carriers with prime memberships can get same-day delivery 74 00:06:52,880 --> 00:06:59,040 on a new piss jug. Sony has announced a new firmware license that will allow photography 75 00:06:59,040 --> 00:07:06,560 enthusiasts to add four custom original grid lines to their Alpha 7.4 camera's viewfinder, 76 00:07:06,560 --> 00:07:14,640 all for the low low price of $150 for a JPEG, sorry, PNG. 77 00:07:14,640 --> 00:07:20,800 A7-4 users have been asking for more significant firmware updates, but this is probably not what 78 00:07:20,800 --> 00:07:26,400 they had in mind. According to Sony, these fancy new lines will help shutterbugs take more consistent 79 00:07:26,400 --> 00:07:31,280 photos. In their announcement, Sony then listed a random assortment of places you could take those 80 00:07:31,280 --> 00:07:38,800 photos, like schools, photo studios, theme parks, cruise ships, and malls, followed by a bunch of 81 00:07:38,800 --> 00:07:43,280 large block quotes in a manner that says, be student desperately trying to fill a word count. 82 00:07:45,200 --> 00:07:52,960 Think of all the things you could take pictures of. I mean, rocks. Maybe it is worth 150 bucks. 83 00:07:52,960 --> 00:08:00,240 Benchmarks for the first Ryzen Z1 mini PC, the Phoenix Edge, are out. Unfortunately, 84 00:08:00,240 --> 00:08:06,160 even though the unit is rated for 54 watts, testing by YouTuber ETA Prime indicates it 85 00:08:06,160 --> 00:08:12,080 maxes out at 40 watts before throttling. The Ryzen Z1 is best known for powering the 86 00:08:12,160 --> 00:08:18,480 non-extreme version of the ROG Ally. The manufacturer has plans for an Z1 extreme mini PC, 87 00:08:18,480 --> 00:08:22,480 likely meaning that this particular product is going straight into the bargain bin if it ever 88 00:08:22,480 --> 00:08:30,720 manages to hit shelves. Dried. So we're going to miss. And a web browser for Android TV keeps 89 00:08:30,720 --> 00:08:38,560 getting banned for being a web browser. First, Israeli TV companies DMCA the app called Downloader 90 00:08:38,560 --> 00:08:45,120 for allowing users to view a pirating website. Just looking at it. You can't do that with other 91 00:08:45,120 --> 00:08:51,680 browsers. And this week, an anti-piracy group called MarkScan issued a DMCA because Downloader 92 00:08:51,680 --> 00:08:56,800 was infringing on the copyrighted work of properties of Warner Bros. Discovery, Inc. 93 00:08:56,800 --> 00:09:02,720 and an authorized example of the work could be seen at WarnerBros.com. You can't actually 94 00:09:02,720 --> 00:09:09,680 watch anything on Warner Bros. website. So I guess they're accusing Downloader of accessing a website. 95 00:09:10,240 --> 00:09:18,000 Man, wait until they find out about Google Chrome. It can access all the websites. Google.com, 96 00:09:18,720 --> 00:09:24,960 Rocks. And you'll have to wait until Friday to find out more tech news. I mean, unless you go 97 00:09:24,960 --> 00:09:33,680 somewhere else for your news, but you wouldn't do that, right? It would be kind of cringe.