1 00:00:00,000 --> 00:00:05,840 If you find TechLink to be an enrichment in your life, I invite you to write a kind little comment 2 00:00:05,840 --> 00:00:11,680 below. When I'm all snuggled up in bed tonight, I'll read some of them to my cat. Then he'll have to 3 00:00:11,680 --> 00:00:18,560 respect me. In the wake of an Oxford study that suggested barely anyone uses AI tools on a daily 4 00:00:18,560 --> 00:00:23,920 basis, three major AI companies have rolled out feature updates for their chatbots in an attempt 5 00:00:23,920 --> 00:00:29,600 to make them useful for someone other than coders and tech bros left over from the crypto bubble. 6 00:00:29,680 --> 00:00:35,280 OpenAI's ostensibly less evil cousin, Anthropic, announced tool use for Claude, 7 00:00:35,280 --> 00:00:41,520 allowing it to perform tasks and manipulate data. AI search engine Perplexity announced pages, 8 00:00:41,520 --> 00:00:47,360 which will create research reports on any topic that can be customized, shared, or presumably 9 00:00:47,360 --> 00:00:53,680 handed into your teacher. And OpenAI just gave free chat GPT users the ability to upload images 10 00:00:54,480 --> 00:01:00,320 and files and use custom GPTs. Those features were previously paywalled, which, as this fan points 11 00:01:00,320 --> 00:01:15,600 out, obviously points towards something special coming for paying users. OpenAI also just announced 12 00:01:15,600 --> 00:01:23,200 chat GPT EDU, which basically gives schools an education discount to convince them to use it, 13 00:01:23,200 --> 00:01:28,400 and it comes on the heels of a report claiming the company finally signed that rumored Apple deal 14 00:01:28,400 --> 00:01:33,840 to put their AI tech in the next iPhone. That same report claims Sam Altman has discussed 15 00:01:33,840 --> 00:01:40,960 transforming OpenAI from a wacky capped profit controlled by a non-profit into either a B 16 00:01:40,960 --> 00:01:46,720 corporation, allowed to care about something other than benefiting shareholders, or a regular old 17 00:01:46,720 --> 00:01:52,160 for-profit company. But it's only because that might be necessary to achieve a utopia designed by 18 00:01:52,160 --> 00:01:56,640 Sam's machine god and populated by sentient robots after they've killed us all off, okay? 19 00:01:58,000 --> 00:02:03,040 Trust him, it's worth it. TikTok is working on a modified version of its recommendation algorithm 20 00:02:03,040 --> 00:02:09,520 that would not share any backend with its Chinese counterpart, Duyen, and thus potentially save 21 00:02:09,520 --> 00:02:15,120 the app from being banned in the US. That's all according to insider sources who spoke to Reuters, 22 00:02:15,120 --> 00:02:21,680 but not according to TikTok, who immediately tweeted that the report is misleading and inaccurate. 23 00:02:21,680 --> 00:02:27,680 But seemed to be referring specifically to the claim that a US-centric algorithm 24 00:02:27,680 --> 00:02:33,920 would enable ByteDance to sell TikTok. They didn't explicitly deny they're working on such an 25 00:02:33,920 --> 00:02:38,880 algorithm. In fact, Crystal Hu, the report's co-author, says that when she reached out for 26 00:02:38,880 --> 00:02:45,520 comment on the story, TikTok told her the info was correct. To be fair, they probably didn't 27 00:02:45,520 --> 00:02:49,680 read the whole thing before getting bored and swiping up. But even if TikTok survives in the 28 00:02:49,680 --> 00:02:54,800 US, it may have to deal with upcoming bills like this one from New York's governor that could 29 00:02:54,800 --> 00:03:00,240 ban smartphones in schools. And then how will kids ignore their history class to watch another 30 00:03:00,240 --> 00:03:12,720 kid tell them that Helen Keller wasn't real? On TikTok? Yeah, Google has confirmed that this 31 00:03:12,720 --> 00:03:17,680 week's massive document leak revealing key details about how its search algorithm works 32 00:03:17,680 --> 00:03:23,120 is real after taking two days to cover their ears and pretend everything's fine as required by law. 33 00:03:23,120 --> 00:03:28,080 The tech giant didn't get into specifics. They only cautioned against making inaccurate assumptions 34 00:03:28,080 --> 00:03:33,600 about search based on out-of-context, outdated, or incomplete information, suggesting that the 35 00:03:33,600 --> 00:03:38,480 public trust Googles demonstrably inaccurate public statements instead. Google also took a 36 00:03:38,480 --> 00:03:43,840 moment to put up a blog post explaining why Google's search's new AI overviews told people it was 37 00:03:43,840 --> 00:03:49,440 okay to put glue in pizza sauce and eat rocks last week. Step one, it's good for you. It gave 38 00:03:49,440 --> 00:03:55,280 those answers simply because prior to those screenshots going viral, practically no one 39 00:03:55,280 --> 00:04:00,800 asked Google how many rocks they should eat. How would Google's search know that it wasn't okay 40 00:04:00,800 --> 00:04:06,720 to eat one little rock if it had never thought about it before? Google says AI overviews cited 41 00:04:06,720 --> 00:04:12,560 a satirical article recommending eating rocks because of a data void issue. There's just hardly 42 00:04:12,560 --> 00:04:17,360 any info on the web about whether eating rocks is okay, formatted as an answer to the question of 43 00:04:17,360 --> 00:04:26,400 how many rocks one should eat. We can all chuckle at this understandable error. It's quick bits time. 44 00:04:28,080 --> 00:04:32,800 Why haven't you written a comment yet? Spotify has announced that they will be giving refunds to 45 00:04:32,800 --> 00:04:38,240 customers who bought car thing. After the company announced they would be remotely bricking all 46 00:04:38,240 --> 00:04:44,880 car things, they initially offered purchasers nothing. Some who complained were offered a 47 00:04:44,880 --> 00:04:49,440 few months of Spotify premium, but wouldn't you know it? The company suddenly started offering 48 00:04:49,440 --> 00:04:55,680 refunds not long after a class action lawsuit was filed accusing Spotify of misleading customers by 49 00:04:55,680 --> 00:05:00,480 selling a product that would quickly be rendered unusable. But are they doing anything about all 50 00:05:00,480 --> 00:05:06,960 the e-waste they're creating? Has the ocean or any of the fish hired a lawyer? I didn't think so. 51 00:05:07,040 --> 00:05:12,160 Say you're a fish. Prove it. Google Cloud has released a public explanation for how it wound 52 00:05:12,160 --> 00:05:17,760 up accidentally deleting a customer account two weeks ago. Namely, somebody on Google's end 53 00:05:17,760 --> 00:05:23,840 accidentally left a parameter blank. Now that might not sound like an issue worthy of an entire 54 00:05:23,840 --> 00:05:29,440 blog post from a multi-billion dollar company, but the customer in question was Unisuper, 55 00:05:29,440 --> 00:05:36,240 an Australian pension fund charged with managing 135 billion Australian dollar-y-dos. 56 00:05:37,120 --> 00:05:41,760 On the bright side, the accounts have been successfully restored. On the less bright side, 57 00:05:41,760 --> 00:05:46,800 apparently your life savings can be wiped out in an instant if a dude named Robert Droptable 58 00:05:46,800 --> 00:05:55,520 decides to sign up for a 401k. The internet archive, the organization that runs the Wayback 59 00:05:55,520 --> 00:06:00,880 Machine, was hit with a several-day-long DDoS attack involving tens of thousands of fake 60 00:06:00,880 --> 00:06:05,360 information requests per second, according to the Archives Director of Library Services. 61 00:06:05,360 --> 00:06:10,640 While the exact motivation for the attack is unknown, a group called SN Blackmetta has taken 62 00:06:10,640 --> 00:06:15,600 credit for the assault by posting what appears to be the profile picture of an edgy 14-year-old 63 00:06:15,600 --> 00:06:20,400 from the early 2000s. Who could possibly understand what's going on in his dark mind? 64 00:06:20,480 --> 00:06:27,920 AI company The Simulation has announced ShowRunner, an app that wants to be the Netflix of AI, 65 00:06:27,920 --> 00:06:34,480 with AI-generated original series. The TV shows are pretty creative. There's one about super 66 00:06:34,480 --> 00:06:40,560 intelligent AI devices, a family drama about two siblings that create an AI version of their dead 67 00:06:40,560 --> 00:06:45,920 mom. There's even a horror anime about a future where humans choose to physically augment themselves 68 00:06:45,920 --> 00:06:52,480 with AI technology. Even worse, they want watchers of these shows to generate their own episodes. 69 00:06:52,480 --> 00:06:57,760 Yes, because the thing that will surely make AI-generated TV shows better is fan fiction. 70 00:06:57,760 --> 00:07:02,560 And a creator on Chinese video site Billy Billy has gone viral on social media, 71 00:07:02,560 --> 00:07:07,600 thanks to an incredibly intricate custom tank simulator for World of Tanks, 72 00:07:07,600 --> 00:07:13,760 using soda bottles for shells, MetaQuest 2 as a periscope, a Logitech driving wheel, 73 00:07:13,760 --> 00:07:19,840 and some kind of crank situation to control the main gun. It looks awesome. And frankly, 74 00:07:19,840 --> 00:07:24,080 if we could take all the resources currently being used to generate AI slop for the internet 75 00:07:24,080 --> 00:07:28,960 and build more stuff like this, I wouldn't have to fish for nice comments to read to my cat to be 76 00:07:28,960 --> 00:07:34,720 happy. I was joking. I don't have a cat. What I actually require to be happy is that you come back 77 00:07:34,720 --> 00:07:39,760 on Monday for more tech news, okay? Or I will cry. No pressure.