1 00:00:00,000 --> 00:00:03,600 I wish I could prepare you for what you're about to hear. I really do. 2 00:00:04,240 --> 00:00:08,960 High doses of tech news can overwhelm the senses and trigger a catatonic state. 3 00:00:10,000 --> 00:00:17,760 Ah, you'll be fine. NVIDIA, fueled by rabid demand for its AI accelerators, briefly hit a $2 trillion 4 00:00:17,760 --> 00:00:23,040 market cap for the first time this morning, joining an exclusive club occupied by Apple and 5 00:00:23,040 --> 00:00:28,240 Microsoft, who immediately started talking about how their neighborhoods really going downhill. 6 00:00:28,240 --> 00:00:34,480 But Axios notes that NVIDIA's climb can't go on forever. The companies that want all those 7 00:00:34,480 --> 00:00:40,000 expensive NVIDIA GPUs to power their fancy new AI features like Microsoft and Google 8 00:00:40,000 --> 00:00:43,840 recently reported earnings that disappointed their own investors. 9 00:00:43,840 --> 00:00:48,480 Because as cool as it is to give everyone free access to a Bing that doesn't suck, 10 00:00:48,480 --> 00:00:55,840 when something is free, it means users don't pay for it. And that is financial advice. 11 00:00:55,840 --> 00:00:59,120 You can take that one to the bank. Where they'll ask you to leave. 12 00:00:59,120 --> 00:01:05,360 Come on, it's a joke. NVIDIA could also soon face competition, as companies continue developing their own 13 00:01:05,360 --> 00:01:11,600 custom AI chips. Microsoft just made a $15 billion deal with Intel on that front. 14 00:01:11,600 --> 00:01:16,400 Although NVIDIA doesn't seem too worried about that, the company listed its top competitors as 15 00:01:16,400 --> 00:01:20,960 Huawei, AMD, Amazon, Microsoft, and Broadcom in its annual report, 16 00:01:20,960 --> 00:01:29,040 which I assume had the Thanos meme as an attachment. But in a sign that NVIDIA hasn't forgotten that some people play games on its GPUs, 17 00:01:29,040 --> 00:01:35,440 it also launched a beta for the NVIDIA app, a supposed replacement for and merging of 18 00:01:35,440 --> 00:01:39,120 GeForce Experience and the NVIDIA control panel on Windows. 19 00:01:39,120 --> 00:01:44,320 It doesn't require you to log in, unless you care about potential account-based rewards. 20 00:01:44,320 --> 00:01:49,520 And overall seems like a much better option than splitting graphics settings across two 21 00:01:49,520 --> 00:01:53,280 separate apps. Some of them just like feel like a control panel thing, you know. 22 00:01:53,280 --> 00:01:58,000 I only hope that NVIDIA doesn't pull a Windows and keep their old control panel around while 23 00:01:58,000 --> 00:02:02,240 they make the new settings app more and more garbage for fun. 24 00:02:02,240 --> 00:02:08,080 Google has paused its Gemini chatbot's capability to generate images after widespread 25 00:02:08,080 --> 00:02:13,680 complaints about how hesitant it was to create images of white people. 26 00:02:13,680 --> 00:02:17,200 Sure, there's no real reason why drawing a hypothetical 27 00:02:17,200 --> 00:02:21,760 pope of color would be problematic, but I'm not sure the same could be said about 28 00:02:21,760 --> 00:02:27,680 depicting your average racially diverse platoon of German soldiers circa 1943. 29 00:02:27,680 --> 00:02:30,160 They were trying to correct historical injustices. 30 00:02:31,200 --> 00:02:36,240 Gemini would even refuse to generate anything if asked about white people specifically, 31 00:02:36,240 --> 00:02:41,520 leading to increasingly creative prompts asking for pictures of a medieval knight 32 00:02:41,520 --> 00:02:45,040 or someone eating a mayo sandwich on white bread. 33 00:02:45,040 --> 00:02:48,240 Which I'm not gonna lie, I would eat. It's all you eat. 34 00:02:49,440 --> 00:02:55,760 Sure, call me out like that. In some cases, the model also refused to specifically depict Latino people, 35 00:02:55,760 --> 00:02:59,120 who, I'm sorry to report, are no longer diverse. 36 00:02:59,120 --> 00:03:03,600 In their blog post, Google explained that when they added Gemini's image generation feature 37 00:03:03,600 --> 00:03:06,800 three weeks back, back when it was still barred, ripped, 38 00:03:06,800 --> 00:03:11,360 they tuned it to ensure that it represented a wide range of types of people, 39 00:03:11,360 --> 00:03:17,920 to avoid the real documented phenomenon of AI models waiting images of white people 40 00:03:17,920 --> 00:03:20,960 more heavily than images of non-white people, 41 00:03:20,960 --> 00:03:25,200 causing a prompt for something like Black Tech News host to give you this. 42 00:03:27,040 --> 00:03:30,960 And if you didn't know I'm white, uh, it's not. 43 00:03:31,520 --> 00:03:36,480 OpenAI does something similar, but it seems like they've managed to do so without turning 44 00:03:36,480 --> 00:03:42,880 all the dials up to 11. If you want to test how well open source image generator stable diffusion did, 45 00:03:42,880 --> 00:03:46,400 version three was just released in early preview. 46 00:03:46,400 --> 00:03:54,960 While its diversity quotient is still unclear, it seems to have largely caught up with mid-journey and dolly in terms of depicting shapes and pets. 47 00:03:54,960 --> 00:03:59,200 The most important. So hopefully Google tunes up their AI models a bit better, 48 00:03:59,200 --> 00:04:05,680 because with Chrome's new Help Me Write feature, AI-generated schlock is going to be just a right click away. 49 00:04:07,040 --> 00:04:09,200 Shapes, pets, and one day Hispanics. 50 00:04:11,360 --> 00:04:15,680 Reddit has confirmed leaks from last week that it would go public, 51 00:04:15,680 --> 00:04:21,600 but because it's Reddit, they had to do so in a quirky way. It's kind of charming, as long as you do it in the right sub. 52 00:04:21,600 --> 00:04:26,320 The company filed its initial public offering yesterday to be listed on the New York Stock 53 00:04:26,320 --> 00:04:31,440 Exchange as Reddit. Sticker symbols are usually just your company name, but cuter. 54 00:04:31,440 --> 00:04:36,480 Interestingly, in addition to offering stocks to your standard institutional investors, 55 00:04:36,480 --> 00:04:40,080 Reddit says they'll also offer them to its top users, 56 00:04:40,080 --> 00:04:44,080 including moderators, as determined by their Reddit karma, 57 00:04:44,160 --> 00:04:50,320 proving that it's not worthless. It's worth the chance to lose your money gambling. 58 00:04:50,320 --> 00:04:55,520 Reddit also confirmed a leak claiming it had struck a content licensing deal with a major 59 00:04:55,520 --> 00:05:03,680 AI company, which turned out to be Google, who will have direct access to Reddit's API for a rumored $60 million a year. 60 00:05:03,680 --> 00:05:07,600 If your Reddit data being collected to train AI rubs you the wrong way, 61 00:05:07,600 --> 00:05:12,880 Reddit points out in their filing that, well, everyone was already doing that anyway, 62 00:05:12,880 --> 00:05:18,480 including OpenAI, whose CEO, Sam Altman, is apparently one of Reddit's biggest investors, 63 00:05:18,480 --> 00:05:22,400 which isn't doing much to dispel the notion that he has a plan to take over the world 64 00:05:22,400 --> 00:05:27,680 through the power of shrewd investments. And scanning everyone's eyes into the crypto ball, that'll help, I'm sure. 65 00:05:27,680 --> 00:05:30,800 Now we have your eyes. Leave my balls alone, Altman. 66 00:05:32,160 --> 00:05:36,720 I don't know about you, but I need me some quickity bits of lickety-split. 67 00:05:36,720 --> 00:05:40,640 You know what I mean? All right, you can cut anytime. 68 00:05:41,520 --> 00:05:45,280 A small number of Vision Pro owners have reported identical issues, 69 00:05:45,280 --> 00:05:49,360 where hairline cracks form on their headsets cover glass. 70 00:05:49,360 --> 00:05:54,160 An unfortunately noticeable problem when more than half of the product's visible surface 71 00:05:54,160 --> 00:06:00,080 is that glass. Even worse, the cracks only make the creepy eyesight feature creepier. 72 00:06:00,640 --> 00:06:07,040 Even worse, some affected owners are being told they need to pay up to $800 to repair the glasses, 73 00:06:07,040 --> 00:06:11,040 since Apple doesn't recognize the issue as a manufacturing defect. 74 00:06:11,040 --> 00:06:16,000 I mean, anything could have caused a group of complete strangers to all develop perfectly 75 00:06:16,000 --> 00:06:21,200 straight hairline cracks in the exact middle of the front cover glass of their $3,500 spatial 76 00:06:21,200 --> 00:06:26,320 computers. Maybe they all have toddlers. Toddlers with the hands of surgeons. 77 00:06:26,320 --> 00:06:32,160 It's a scourge, and we need to do something about it. Surgeon toddlers sweeping across America. 78 00:06:32,160 --> 00:06:36,720 In happier Apple news, the company has announced iPhone 15 batteries live 79 00:06:36,720 --> 00:06:39,840 twice as long as they initially thought. 80 00:06:39,840 --> 00:06:45,520 If you renounce the corrupt so-called European Union and swear fealty to the divine fruit. 81 00:06:46,560 --> 00:06:53,360 Okay, the last part's optional. Apple retested the batteries found in all iPhone 15 models, and they now claim 82 00:06:53,360 --> 00:06:59,600 the phones can maintain at least 80% of their original capacity for 1,000 charging cycles. 83 00:06:59,600 --> 00:07:02,960 Previously, they said it was 500. They found the lightning cable of youth. 84 00:07:02,960 --> 00:07:07,280 However, no one knows why the result has changed so massively. 85 00:07:07,280 --> 00:07:14,400 Did Apple change how they test? Did they initially underestimate the lifespan to avoid a repeat of the iPhone 14's battery 86 00:07:14,400 --> 00:07:20,080 gate class action lawsuit? Did Tim Cook beguile the batteries with his southern charm? 87 00:07:20,080 --> 00:07:23,360 Who's to say? Tim Apple, you saucy mix. 88 00:07:23,920 --> 00:07:29,280 I know you can last for longer, and if you know what's good for you, you will. 89 00:07:29,280 --> 00:07:35,440 Canada's University of Waterloo will be removing M&M-branded vending machines from campus 90 00:07:35,440 --> 00:07:40,080 after it came to light that the machines may have been covertly collecting customers' 91 00:07:40,080 --> 00:07:46,000 facial recognition data. This story was blown wide open when a Waterloo student posted a strange error 92 00:07:46,000 --> 00:07:54,160 message from the machine to Reddit, reading invenda.vending.facialrecognition.app.exe. 93 00:07:54,160 --> 00:07:59,360 Leading to the obvious question of, hey, so why do the stupid M&M machines have facial recognition? 94 00:07:59,920 --> 00:08:06,080 Adaria Vending Services says that the technology acts as a motion sensor that detects faces and 95 00:08:06,080 --> 00:08:11,360 activates the purchasing interface, but does not collect user data, okay? 96 00:08:11,360 --> 00:08:15,920 But maybe this glorified snack dispenser doesn't need to know whether or not I have a face. 97 00:08:15,920 --> 00:08:20,640 Ever thought of that? If Slenderman wants a stickers, that's his own damn business. 98 00:08:20,640 --> 00:08:30,240 Which is what I call myself at home. U.S. Space Exploration Company Intuitive Machines has successfully landed its odysseus spacecraft 99 00:08:30,240 --> 00:08:36,240 near the moon's south pole, making it the first privately developed spacecraft to successfully 100 00:08:36,240 --> 00:08:42,480 land on the lunar surface and the first U.S.-based craft to land there since 1972. 101 00:08:42,480 --> 00:08:47,200 The landing was delayed by an additional two hours due to the discovery that the lander's 102 00:08:47,200 --> 00:08:52,080 laser rangefinders were malfunctioning, meaning that it would be unable to accurately measure 103 00:08:52,080 --> 00:08:57,680 its altitude and velocity, which are important factors in not slamming face-first into the moon. 104 00:08:57,680 --> 00:09:02,320 Luckily, controllers back on Earth were able to upload a software patch that allowed the lander 105 00:09:02,320 --> 00:09:06,800 to use a Doppler LiDAR from NASA to help it land instead. 106 00:09:06,800 --> 00:09:12,000 Presumably, odysseus will stay where it is for the next 10 years and spend the 10 years after 107 00:09:12,000 --> 00:09:17,120 that slowly journeying home, where upon arrival, it will murder everyone who hit on its wife. 108 00:09:18,560 --> 00:09:24,400 If you're not laughing, you just read more. And in commemoration of Doom's 30th anniversary, 109 00:09:24,400 --> 00:09:30,800 Husqvarna will be adding support for the game to their Nera line of robot lawnmowers. 110 00:09:32,000 --> 00:09:36,720 So you'll be able to spend your summer mowing down demons and also dandelions. 111 00:09:38,720 --> 00:09:44,320 You literally play it on the little, like, three-inch screen or whatever with a dial. 112 00:09:44,320 --> 00:09:49,200 Okay, support will begin on April 9th, which is about eight days late for this sort of thing. 113 00:09:50,160 --> 00:09:53,840 And it will end on September 9th, when it's just about time to pack 114 00:09:53,840 --> 00:09:58,160 your devil destroyer back in the shed. It may seem like a strange alliance, 115 00:09:58,160 --> 00:10:01,920 but nowadays, most people who played the OG Doom when it was first released 116 00:10:01,920 --> 00:10:05,600 are now middle-aged dads blowing off steam by beheading weeds. 117 00:10:06,160 --> 00:10:14,720 So it's something for them. And we'd really like it if you steam ahead to the next episode of TechLinked this coming Monday 118 00:10:14,720 --> 00:10:18,240 for more tech news. Did we make a steam blowing off steam? 119 00:10:18,240 --> 00:10:22,880 Oh, I thought it was about the steam like the game. Well, okay.