WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:19.600 Sam Altman will be returning as CEO of OpenAI only five days after he was fired, to everyone 00:00:19.600 --> 00:00:23.840 who took a week-long digital detox retreat or got hit in the head with a rock on Friday 00:00:23.840 --> 00:00:29.960 afternoon. Well, you've missed a lot. Luckily for you, we're mostly back where we started, albeit with an entirely new 00:00:30.600 --> 00:00:34.960 board, with the exception of Adam DeAngelo, who will remain to represent the views of 00:00:34.960 --> 00:00:40.920 the former board and to maintain OpenAI leadership's all-important skinny twink quota. 00:00:40.920 --> 00:00:44.920 If you're looking for new info about why Altman was fired in the first place, don't 00:00:44.920 --> 00:00:50.000 ask Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella, who said even he still doesn't know. 00:00:50.000 --> 00:00:55.040 The prevailing hypothesis so far is that the difference in values between the cautious, 00:00:55.040 --> 00:00:59.920 safety-minded board and Altman's relatively gung-ho attitude towards AI development caught 00:00:59.920 --> 00:01:07.040 relatively. Doesn't know. The prevailing hypothesis so far is that the difference in values between the cautious, 00:01:07.040 --> 00:01:12.480 safety-minded board and Altman's relatively more gung-ho attitude towards AI development 00:01:12.480 --> 00:01:18.800 caused eschism. Altman's jet-setting search for investment in other AI-adjacent projects also led to 00:01:18.800 --> 00:01:23.800 concerns he may prioritize his own interests ahead of the goals of the organization. 00:01:23.800 --> 00:01:27.360 Which wouldn't be that surprising, given that Altman was asked to step down from his 00:01:27.360 --> 00:01:32.800 leadership position at Y Combinator in 2019 due to similar concerns. 00:01:32.800 --> 00:01:37.280 And of course, Altman will be returning as CEO just in time to deal with yet another 00:01:37.280 --> 00:01:43.920 copyright lawsuit, this time by nonfiction book authors against both OpenAI and Microsoft. 00:01:43.920 --> 00:01:48.400 In other words, if you were hit with a rock on Friday and then again at the beginning 00:01:48.400 --> 00:01:52.120 of this video, you haven't really missed anything. 00:01:52.120 --> 00:01:57.920 As you were, Google will resume rollout of its controversial Manifest V3 extension format 00:01:57.920 --> 00:02:02.080 for Chrome, which will block ad blockers even harder. 00:02:02.080 --> 00:02:09.940 You think they're blocked now? On June 2024, Google will turn off Manifest V2, the current format for Chrome extensions 00:02:09.940 --> 00:02:18.280 — Grom? Grom extensions? Meaning they'll be unavailable to install from the Chrome web store and will be automatically 00:02:18.280 --> 00:02:26.080 disabled in users' browsers. Google has argued that Manifest V3, by limiting extensions, will better protect user privacy 00:02:26.080 --> 00:02:33.880 and allow the browser to be lighter on resources. That's potentially a boon to users like this episode's main writer, Jessica, whose workstation 00:02:33.880 --> 00:02:38.200 craps its pants every time she opens more than four tabs in Chrome, seemingly out of 00:02:38.200 --> 00:02:43.520 spite. I don't think it likes you. 00:02:43.520 --> 00:02:47.800 However, civil liberties groups have criticized Google's pitch with the Electronic Frontier 00:02:47.800 --> 00:02:51.160 Foundation calling it deceitful and threatening. 00:02:51.160 --> 00:02:55.640 While Google is limiting potential harm done by malicious extension developers, it's also 00:02:55.640 --> 00:03:01.200 limiting users' ability to protect themselves, especially from Google, by kneecapping web 00:03:01.200 --> 00:03:05.240 filtering, which includes but is not limited to ad blockers. 00:03:05.240 --> 00:03:10.600 Manifest V3 has originally proposed limited web filters to 5,000 filtering rules, which 00:03:10.600 --> 00:03:16.440 it has gracefully loosened — thank you so much — to a limit of 30,000 rules. 00:03:16.440 --> 00:03:22.040 That sounds like a lot, until you realize that a tool like UBlock Origin has over 300,000 00:03:22.040 --> 00:03:28.960 filtering rules available to users. And much like a bicycle, or hair, you can't just remove 90% of something and expect it 00:03:28.960 --> 00:03:33.320 to be the same. Unless and I learned the hard way. I mean, unicycles only have one wheel. 00:03:33.320 --> 00:03:38.560 Warning to all tech news citizens, your Plex account just emailed your mom an itemized 00:03:38.560 --> 00:03:44.560 list of all your favorite adult films. It was inevitable. 00:03:44.560 --> 00:03:49.920 On November 1st, media hosting slash sharing slash streaming service Plex publicly launched 00:03:49.920 --> 00:03:55.920 Discover Together, with several social network-esque features like user profiles, user ratings, 00:03:55.920 --> 00:04:03.040 and personalized recommendations. Plex also altered its Week in Review email that summarizes their weekly activity — feature 00:04:03.040 --> 00:04:10.000 users already hated — so that it also sends users a summary of their friend's weekly activity, 00:04:10.000 --> 00:04:13.960 including media that they uploaded to their own personal server. 00:04:14.360 --> 00:04:19.280 That's a feature that might appeal to some people, people with innocent minds and squeaky 00:04:19.280 --> 00:04:25.920 clean hard drives. But Plex made it opt-out rather than opt-in, meaning that over the past three weeks, many 00:04:25.920 --> 00:04:31.080 users have been unknowingly broadcasting their obsession with Desperate Housewives and Big 00:04:31.080 --> 00:04:38.440 Booty Babes Deluxe Edition to their sweet old Nana. 00:04:38.440 --> 00:04:44.440 You might be doing her a favor, you don't know. So changing your privacy settings now might be prudent, especially for Plex users with 00:04:44.440 --> 00:04:48.520 certain specific tastes. Ah, quick bits. 00:04:48.520 --> 00:04:53.800 One moment they're here, the next they're gone. I'll catch them one day. 00:04:53.800 --> 00:04:59.720 The UK's National Health Service has signed a 330 million pound contract with Pellantier, 00:04:59.720 --> 00:05:05.080 the US-based data management giant founded by billionaire Peter Thiel to build a Central 00:05:05.080 --> 00:05:11.480 Federated Data Platform, or FDP. It's not expensive, it's just really heavy. 00:05:11.480 --> 00:05:15.800 This has triggered concerns overhanding what is reportedly the world's largest single 00:05:15.800 --> 00:05:21.120 repository of health info to a data-hungry company best known for its shoddy human rights 00:05:21.120 --> 00:05:24.760 record and collaboration with spy agencies. Should be fine. 00:05:24.760 --> 00:05:29.520 While Pellantier telling the CIA about your ER visit involving a misplaced jar of marmalade 00:05:29.520 --> 00:05:33.960 might be embarrassing, would you rather have one of the other 11 tech companies tastelessly 00:05:33.960 --> 00:05:37.440 named after Lord of the Rings? I thought it was named after Planter's warts. 00:05:37.440 --> 00:05:41.320 I mean, it's just rude to talk it really, like, have some respect. 00:05:41.320 --> 00:05:48.920 I'm actually a little upset about it, about the naming. Reports indicate a disturbing pattern of accidents and injuries at Tesla's giant factory in 00:05:48.920 --> 00:05:55.000 Austin. According to OSHA data, at least one out of every 21 workers at the factory was injured 00:05:55.000 --> 00:05:58.640 in 2022. And we're not just talking minor boo-boos here. 00:05:58.640 --> 00:06:03.720 Reports describe exploding casting machines, falling overhead beams, and at least one engineer 00:06:03.880 --> 00:06:11.840 who got mauled by a robot. But hey, in lighter Tesla news, some supercharger stations will begin charging users $1 for 00:06:11.840 --> 00:06:16.680 every minute they charge above 90% battery as a way of reducing congestion. 00:06:16.680 --> 00:06:21.200 They could reduce congestion even further by attacking patrons who charge over 95% with 00:06:21.200 --> 00:06:29.360 murderous robots. Just an idea. Sony has completed a field trial in collaboration with the Associated Press for its in-camera 00:06:29.360 --> 00:06:34.400 authenticity technology, which, like similar tech announced by Leica last month, adds a 00:06:34.400 --> 00:06:48.680 digital signature to photos at the moment of capture. 00:06:48.680 --> 00:06:52.800 Seriously though, digital authentication like this is becoming increasingly necessary as 00:06:52.800 --> 00:06:57.160 it gets easier and easier to create photorealistic images with AI. 00:06:57.240 --> 00:07:09.520 Amazon has confirmed that it will be laying off several hundred workers in its Alexa division 00:07:09.520 --> 00:07:13.800 as part of a shift towards generative AI, despite the fact that many of their recent 00:07:13.800 --> 00:07:16.880 efforts involved integrating AI into Alexa. 00:07:16.880 --> 00:07:21.960 Amazon stated that laid off workers only represent a relatively small percentage of the total 00:07:21.960 --> 00:07:25.520 number of people in the device's business, which is a fun way of saying your company 00:07:25.520 --> 00:07:30.160 can casually fire the population of a large village and not even notice. 00:07:30.160 --> 00:07:34.320 These workers joined the over 27,000 employees Amazon has laid off over the course of the 00:07:34.320 --> 00:07:39.200 past year, who, collectively, are a big enough community to deserve their own mayor and post 00:07:39.200 --> 00:07:45.440 office. And NASA is testing ground to space optical communication technology by using lasers to 00:07:45.440 --> 00:07:51.000 transmit information. The hope is this technology will help send higher data rate communications to distant 00:07:51.000 --> 00:07:56.640 places like Mars, as the space agency prepares for more study of the red planet, red also 00:07:56.640 --> 00:08:03.280 being a common color of lasers. So, I ad-lib that, don't blame Jessica. 00:08:03.280 --> 00:08:07.280 Their experiment could even expand the use case for optical data transmission. 00:08:07.280 --> 00:08:12.280 Right now, the only message a laser can accurately convey is, you are in danger from either 00:08:12.280 --> 00:08:16.000 bullets or a cat. 00:08:16.000 --> 00:08:20.640 I liked it, and to make sure the only thing you're in danger of is more tech news, make 00:08:20.640 --> 00:08:25.600 sure to come back on Friday.