WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:03.600 I wish I could prepare you for what you're about to hear. I really do. 00:00:04.240 --> 00:00:08.960 High doses of tech news can overwhelm the senses and trigger a catatonic state. 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 00:00:17.760 --> 00:00:23.040 market cap for the first time this morning, joining an exclusive club occupied by Apple and 00:00:23.040 --> 00:00:28.240 Microsoft, who immediately started talking about how their neighborhoods really going downhill. 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 00:00:34.480 --> 00:00:40.000 expensive NVIDIA GPUs to power their fancy new AI features like Microsoft and Google 00:00:40.000 --> 00:00:43.840 recently reported earnings that disappointed their own investors. 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, 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. 00:00:55.840 --> 00:00:59.120 You can take that one to the bank. Where they'll ask you to leave. 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 00:01:05.360 --> 00:01:11.600 custom AI chips. Microsoft just made a $15 billion deal with Intel on that front. 00:01:11.600 --> 00:01:16.400 Although NVIDIA doesn't seem too worried about that, the company listed its top competitors as 00:01:16.400 --> 00:01:20.960 Huawei, AMD, Amazon, Microsoft, and Broadcom in its annual report, 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, 00:01:29.040 --> 00:01:35.440 it also launched a beta for the NVIDIA app, a supposed replacement for and merging of 00:01:35.440 --> 00:01:39.120 GeForce Experience and the NVIDIA control panel on Windows. 00:01:39.120 --> 00:01:44.320 It doesn't require you to log in, unless you care about potential account-based rewards. 00:01:44.320 --> 00:01:49.520 And overall seems like a much better option than splitting graphics settings across two 00:01:49.520 --> 00:01:53.280 separate apps. Some of them just like feel like a control panel thing, you know. 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 00:01:58.000 --> 00:02:02.240 they make the new settings app more and more garbage for fun. 00:02:02.240 --> 00:02:08.080 Google has paused its Gemini chatbot's capability to generate images after widespread 00:02:08.080 --> 00:02:13.680 complaints about how hesitant it was to create images of white people. 00:02:13.680 --> 00:02:17.200 Sure, there's no real reason why drawing a hypothetical 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 00:02:21.760 --> 00:02:27.680 depicting your average racially diverse platoon of German soldiers circa 1943. 00:02:27.680 --> 00:02:30.160 They were trying to correct historical injustices. 00:02:31.200 --> 00:02:36.240 Gemini would even refuse to generate anything if asked about white people specifically, 00:02:36.240 --> 00:02:41.520 leading to increasingly creative prompts asking for pictures of a medieval knight 00:02:41.520 --> 00:02:45.040 or someone eating a mayo sandwich on white bread. 00:02:45.040 --> 00:02:48.240 Which I'm not gonna lie, I would eat. It's all you eat. 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, 00:02:55.760 --> 00:02:59.120 who, I'm sorry to report, are no longer diverse. 00:02:59.120 --> 00:03:03.600 In their blog post, Google explained that when they added Gemini's image generation feature 00:03:03.600 --> 00:03:06.800 three weeks back, back when it was still barred, ripped, 00:03:06.800 --> 00:03:11.360 they tuned it to ensure that it represented a wide range of types of people, 00:03:11.360 --> 00:03:17.920 to avoid the real documented phenomenon of AI models waiting images of white people 00:03:17.920 --> 00:03:20.960 more heavily than images of non-white people, 00:03:20.960 --> 00:03:25.200 causing a prompt for something like Black Tech News host to give you this. 00:03:27.040 --> 00:03:30.960 And if you didn't know I'm white, uh, it's not. 00:03:31.520 --> 00:03:36.480 OpenAI does something similar, but it seems like they've managed to do so without turning 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, 00:03:42.880 --> 00:03:46.400 version three was just released in early preview. 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. 00:03:54.960 --> 00:03:59.200 The most important. So hopefully Google tunes up their AI models a bit better, 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. 00:04:07.040 --> 00:04:09.200 Shapes, pets, and one day Hispanics. 00:04:11.360 --> 00:04:15.680 Reddit has confirmed leaks from last week that it would go public, 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. 00:04:21.600 --> 00:04:26.320 The company filed its initial public offering yesterday to be listed on the New York Stock 00:04:26.320 --> 00:04:31.440 Exchange as Reddit. Sticker symbols are usually just your company name, but cuter. 00:04:31.440 --> 00:04:36.480 Interestingly, in addition to offering stocks to your standard institutional investors, 00:04:36.480 --> 00:04:40.080 Reddit says they'll also offer them to its top users, 00:04:40.080 --> 00:04:44.080 including moderators, as determined by their Reddit karma, 00:04:44.160 --> 00:04:50.320 proving that it's not worthless. It's worth the chance to lose your money gambling. 00:04:50.320 --> 00:04:55.520 Reddit also confirmed a leak claiming it had struck a content licensing deal with a major 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. 00:05:03.680 --> 00:05:07.600 If your Reddit data being collected to train AI rubs you the wrong way, 00:05:07.600 --> 00:05:12.880 Reddit points out in their filing that, well, everyone was already doing that anyway, 00:05:12.880 --> 00:05:18.480 including OpenAI, whose CEO, Sam Altman, is apparently one of Reddit's biggest investors, 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 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. 00:05:27.680 --> 00:05:30.800 Now we have your eyes. Leave my balls alone, Altman. 00:05:32.160 --> 00:05:36.720 I don't know about you, but I need me some quickity bits of lickety-split. 00:05:36.720 --> 00:05:40.640 You know what I mean? All right, you can cut anytime. 00:05:41.520 --> 00:05:45.280 A small number of Vision Pro owners have reported identical issues, 00:05:45.280 --> 00:05:49.360 where hairline cracks form on their headsets cover glass. 00:05:49.360 --> 00:05:54.160 An unfortunately noticeable problem when more than half of the product's visible surface 00:05:54.160 --> 00:06:00.080 is that glass. Even worse, the cracks only make the creepy eyesight feature creepier. 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, 00:06:07.040 --> 00:06:11.040 since Apple doesn't recognize the issue as a manufacturing defect. 00:06:11.040 --> 00:06:16.000 I mean, anything could have caused a group of complete strangers to all develop perfectly 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 00:06:21.200 --> 00:06:26.320 computers. Maybe they all have toddlers. Toddlers with the hands of surgeons. 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. 00:06:32.160 --> 00:06:36.720 In happier Apple news, the company has announced iPhone 15 batteries live 00:06:36.720 --> 00:06:39.840 twice as long as they initially thought. 00:06:39.840 --> 00:06:45.520 If you renounce the corrupt so-called European Union and swear fealty to the divine fruit. 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 00:06:53.360 --> 00:06:59.600 the phones can maintain at least 80% of their original capacity for 1,000 charging cycles. 00:06:59.600 --> 00:07:02.960 Previously, they said it was 500. They found the lightning cable of youth. 00:07:02.960 --> 00:07:07.280 However, no one knows why the result has changed so massively. 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 00:07:14.400 --> 00:07:20.080 gate class action lawsuit? Did Tim Cook beguile the batteries with his southern charm? 00:07:20.080 --> 00:07:23.360 Who's to say? Tim Apple, you saucy mix. 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. 00:07:29.280 --> 00:07:35.440 Canada's University of Waterloo will be removing M&M-branded vending machines from campus 00:07:35.440 --> 00:07:40.080 after it came to light that the machines may have been covertly collecting customers' 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 00:07:46.000 --> 00:07:54.160 message from the machine to Reddit, reading invenda.vending.facialrecognition.app.exe. 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? 00:07:59.920 --> 00:08:06.080 Adaria Vending Services says that the technology acts as a motion sensor that detects faces and 00:08:06.080 --> 00:08:11.360 activates the purchasing interface, but does not collect user data, okay? 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. 00:08:15.920 --> 00:08:20.640 Ever thought of that? If Slenderman wants a stickers, that's his own damn business. 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 00:08:30.240 --> 00:08:36.240 near the moon's south pole, making it the first privately developed spacecraft to successfully 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. 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 00:08:47.200 --> 00:08:52.080 laser rangefinders were malfunctioning, meaning that it would be unable to accurately measure 00:08:52.080 --> 00:08:57.680 its altitude and velocity, which are important factors in not slamming face-first into the moon. 00:08:57.680 --> 00:09:02.320 Luckily, controllers back on Earth were able to upload a software patch that allowed the lander 00:09:02.320 --> 00:09:06.800 to use a Doppler LiDAR from NASA to help it land instead. 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 00:09:12.000 --> 00:09:17.120 that slowly journeying home, where upon arrival, it will murder everyone who hit on its wife. 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, 00:09:24.400 --> 00:09:30.800 Husqvarna will be adding support for the game to their Nera line of robot lawnmowers. 00:09:32.000 --> 00:09:36.720 So you'll be able to spend your summer mowing down demons and also dandelions. 00:09:38.720 --> 00:09:44.320 You literally play it on the little, like, three-inch screen or whatever with a dial. 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. 00:09:50.160 --> 00:09:53.840 And it will end on September 9th, when it's just about time to pack 00:09:53.840 --> 00:09:58.160 your devil destroyer back in the shed. It may seem like a strange alliance, 00:09:58.160 --> 00:10:01.920 but nowadays, most people who played the OG Doom when it was first released 00:10:01.920 --> 00:10:05.600 are now middle-aged dads blowing off steam by beheading weeds. 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 00:10:14.720 --> 00:10:18.240 for more tech news. Did we make a steam blowing off steam? 00:10:18.240 --> 00:10:22.880 Oh, I thought it was about the steam like the game. Well, okay.