Ooh, haha, your chart does not look very good.
I see here you're diabetic, so you might just need insulin, but I'm a bit of a wildcard,
Gregory House type, so I'm gonna prescribe you more tech news.
That'll help. ASUS and NVIDIA are scrambling to set the record straight on rumors about the RTX 5070
Ti and 5060 Ti disappearing from your local computer store.
Yesterday, GPU lovers panicked after Hardware Unboxed reported that, according to multiple
retailers and board partners, the RTX 5070 Ti and 5060 Ti have been effectively killed
off and that no more shipments were coming. That quickly snowballed into headlines declaring the cards to be dead and speculation that
NVIDIA had pulled the plug entirely due to soaring memory prices.
However, this morning, ASUS publicly contradicted the narrative, stating that RTX 5070 Ti and
5060 Ti products were not cancelled and that some people may have received incomplete information
from an ASUS PR representative regarding these products.
He was just practicing for an improv show. He was just riffing.
He thought they knew that. NVIDIA followed up with its own statement, saying they continue to ship all GeForce SKUs
and are working closely with our suppliers to maximize memory availability, although
that doesn't actually verify if more memory is going towards gaming cards or not.
Regardless of the actual truth, what is clear is that the GPU situation is going to suck
for gamers here for a little bit. New leaks surfaced yesterday claiming that NVIDIA may reduce their overall GPU supply
by as much as 20% with no new GeForce GPU models expected until well into 2027.
Hey, remember when you could buy a GPU at MSRP for like a couple of months in 2025?
It's already fading. I feel like everyone should take out their current graphics card and give it a little
kiss to let it know you appreciate it. You'll be working the gaming minds a bit longer yet, old boy.
Chin up. The US government announced on Wednesday that they would take a 25% cut of both NVIDIA
and AMD's AI chip sales to China, which was promptly followed by China quietly telling
its own companies not to buy them, but that's neither here nor there. But we're just learning now how restrictive those US export rules are.
In order for this scheme to work, Team Red and Green must first import the chips from
the manufacturers in Asia to the US, put them through first and third party evaluations,
and then re-export them to China after paying the government that 25% tariff.
What a totally normal and cool and not weird or shady thing to do.
NVIDIA stated that this arrangement strikes a thoughtful balance that is great for America,
and AMD said that it complied with all US export laws and policies.
Why do NVIDIA and AMD sound like they own a grocery store in a mob-run neighborhood?
The Department of Commerce requirements also state that exporters must prove domestic US
demand is fully met first, and total shipments to China cannot exceed 50% of what's sold to
American customers, effectively treating China as a market for leftovers and not in the nice
Thanksgiving way either. Turkey sandwiches for weeks!
Chinese manufacturers have taken advantage of this, with companies like Huawei,
Canberracon, never heard of them, that's a fun name, and more threads projected to capture
roughly 80% of local demand. As a result of these restrictions, NVIDIA's share of China's AI
processor market is predicted to decline from 66% in 2024 to just 8% this year,
which is a big problem for Jensen Wong's plans for his jacket collection.
You'll have to imagine the cotton balls. Look how they massacred my boy. I know it was you, Huawei.
What's that?
Haven't seen the movie in a while. Hey, you know who it definitely wasn't, though? Our sponsor.
Here at the tech news hospital, our lady of tech news, we use quick bits to defibrillate our patients.
Google is rolling out personal intelligence for Google Gemini, letting the assistant connect
Gmail, photos, YouTube, and search to answer questions based on your own personal data.
It's currently a US-only beta, and most importantly, it is an opt-in program.
So while it may be an unsettling reminder of just how well Google has profiled your entire life,
having an AI actually be able to use that data to be useful is a small win.
Twitter claims it has implemented technological measures to prevent
grok from undressing images of real people, at least in jurisdictions where such content is
illegal. Everywhere else is that. The Verge tested the geo-blockings, effectiveness in the UK, and they were able to bypass it in
less than a minute. Grok still complied with requests to show cleavage, make breasts bigger,
put subjects in crop tops and low-rise shorts, and do sexualized poses,
all using free accounts protected only by a simple age checkbox.
I guess a checkbox counts as a technological measure. It uses technology.
Malaysia and Indonesia have now fully blocked grok, the Philippines says it will follow within
the week once they catch the little guy, and the UK's off-com investigation continues.
And I think I speak for everyone stuck on the out-of-control carnival ride that is this story
when I say I've barfed up the churro I ate earlier and I want to get off.
TSMC reported record fourth quarter earnings with $16 billion in net income,
up 35% year over year, and CEO CeCe Wei said AI chip demand looks endless for years to come.
Immediately after saying that, he scrambled to find some wood to knock on.
When asked if Intel Foundry poses a threat, Wei said competitors can't beat TSMC by
throwing capital at advanced chip processes, a likely reference to the US government's
$8.9 billion investment in Intel. Meanwhile, AMD and Intel are reportedly considering
raising server CPU prices by up to 15% after both companies sold out their 2026 inventories.
Hooray for them! Wikipedia announced that Microsoft, Meta, Amazon, Perplexity, and Mistral AI have all signed API
access deals through Wikimedia Enterprise to gain high volume data access for training their AI
models. The deals come as a slap in the face to every high school teacher in the world who
spent 25 years screaming at their students that Wikipedia is not a valid source of information,
who's not applying themselves now, Mr. Gillis?
Wikipedia founder Jimmy Wales said he welcomes AI training on Wikipedia because
it's human curated. He added, I wouldn't really want to use an AI that's trained only on X,
you know, like a very angry AI. So now we can all look forward to AIs asking us once a year to please donate $275 because
if everyone did that, then they'd be able to keep making slop for a million years.
Please consider. Security researchers found a nasty flaw they dubbed whisper pair in Google's fast-pair system
that lets attackers silently hijack Bluetooth headphones and speakers.
Because many accessories ignore the only pair when asked rule, a nearby attacker can force a
connection, blast audio, eaves drop through built-in mics, or even track users via Google's
find-mine network. And the bug affects millions of devices across multiple brands and platforms.
Patches are beginning to roll out, but those are on a per-device manufacturer basis,
meaning that this isn't something that can be blocked by just turning the feature off on your
phone. So remember, when you put your headphones on, someone might be listening.
So make sure you say hi to them and wish them a happy rest of their day.
And researchers from the University of Tokyo have developed a technique that could replace
blood draws with glowing green skin.
By injecting bioluminescent material that reacts to specific biomarkers like inflammation,
doctors can read health data visually through the skin, using specialized imaging no needles
required. The glow changes intensity based on what's happening inside your body, offering a swanky,
colorful new way of monitoring your body via random, glowy spots.
Also known as aura. And yes, this means we can all be freaky little guys just like ET.
His finger glowed too. And all you freaky little guys gotta come back on Monday for more tech news.
In the meantime, I have a few more tech news patients to help. You'd be shocked at how many AI waifu related injuries we see.
I bet my glow stick.
I need someone to look at it. Only four more hours until the night shift rotation.
Okay, see you later.