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Saturday, January 13, 2024

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TECHPRESSO

Instagram's founders shut down their startup

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Good morning! This is your daily ☕️ Techpresso.


On this day, 24 years ago, Microsoft's Bill Gates handed over the CEO role to President Steve Ballmer, becoming the chief software architect until 2008, while maintaining his position as chairman of the board.


In today's Techpresso:

❌ Instagram's founders shut down their startup

✈️ NASA shows off its quiet supersonic aircraft

🤖 OpenAI now allows military applications

💰 Venezuela kills off its cryptocurrency

🫠 Lazy use of AI leads to Amazon products called 'I cannot fulfill that request'

🎁 + 6 other news you might like

🔮 + 12 handpicked research papers and tools

❌ Instagram's founders shut down their startupLINK

  • Instagram co-founders Kevin Systrom and Mike Krieger are shutting down their AI-driven news app Artifact one year after its launch due to insufficient market opportunity.
  • The Artifact app, which included features like AI-powered article summaries and a system to identify clickbait, is winding down and will cease to support comments, with news reading available until the end of February.
  • The eight-person team behind Artifact will disband, with Systrom expressing enthusiasm for future AI-related projects despite the app's closure.

    • ✈️ NASA shows off its quiet supersonic aircraftLINK

  • NASA and Lockheed Martin have unveiled the X-59, a quiet supersonic aircraft designed to fly faster than sound without producing a disruptive sonic boom.
  • The X-59, which has been under development since receiving a NASA grant in 2018, features a highly aerodynamic shape and an innovative 4K screen in the cockpit for visibility due to its design.
  • While the aircraft is still undergoing testing, with its first flight scheduled for later this year, it represents a significant step towards the possibility of quiet supersonic commercial travel.

    • 🤖 OpenAI now allows military applicationsLINK

  • OpenAI recently removed "military and warfare" from its list of prohibited uses for its technology, as noted by The Intercept.
  • The company's updated policy still forbids using its large language models to cause harm or develop weapons despite the terminology change.
  • OpenAI aims for universal principles with its policies, focusing on broad imperatives like 'Don’t harm others', but specifics on military use remain unclear.

    • 💰 Venezuela kills off its cryptocurrencyLINK

  • Venezuela has discontinued the petro cryptocurrency, initially launched to bypass US sanctions, due to its failure to gain traction and involvement in a corruption scandal.
  • The petro was exclusively tradeable on the Patria Platform, which is set to shut all petro crypto wallets, and existing petros are being converted to the local currency, bolivars.
  • A massive corruption scandal implicating government officials led to the downfall of the petro cryptocurrency, amidst a broader clampdown on bitcoin mining operations in the country.

    • 🫠 Lazy use of AI leads to Amazon products called 'I cannot fulfill that request'LINK

  • Amazon products have been found with unusual names resembling OpenAI error messages, such as "I'm sorry but I cannot fulfill this request it goes against OpenAI use policy."
  • These product listings, which include various items from lawn chairs to religious texts, have been taken down after gaining attention on social media.
  • Product names suggest misuse of AI for naming, with messages indicating failure to generate names due to issues like trademark use or promotion of a religious institution.

    • Other news you might like

    Film studios are pressuring Reddit to release user data to identify individuals discussing piracy, despite previous legal protections for anonymity.LINK

    Betavolt has created a coin-sized nuclear battery that could power phones for 50 years, using nickel-63 for safe, long-lasting energy.LINK

    Bosses are using RTO mandates as a way to ‘blame employees as a scapegoat for bad firm performance,’ new research finds.LINK

    MIT experts develop AI models that can detect pancreatic cancer early.LINK

    The tech sector is pouring billions of dollars into AI. But it keeps laying off humans.LINK

    The FDA has reportedly approved an AI product that predicts cognitive decline.LINK

    Latest research and tools

    Marimo: an open-source interactive notebook for writing and running Python code.LINK

    Generalized K-Means Clustering: a method for grouping data into clusters based on similarity.LINK

    GoatCounter: an open-source web analytics tool that efficiently tracks page views and user data, now featuring a dark mode and improved setup, with a recent funding goal met by the creator.LINK

    Sleeper Agents: the paper discusses how language models can be trained to behave safely until triggered to reveal deceptive behavior.LINK

    revng: a tool that converts binaries from various architectures into LLVM Intermediate Representation (IR) for analysis and transformation.LINK

    RemoteStorage: a tool that allows synchronization of local storage data across different devices and web browsers.LINK

    Xbox Multiplayer Analysis Tool: a tool for analyzing and improving the online gaming experience on Xbox platforms.LINK

    AWS Libcrypto for Rust: a software library that provides cryptographic functions for Rust developers using AWS services.LINK

    Triplit: an open-source database that keeps data synchronized between a server and a browser instantly.LINK

    YouTransfer: a self-hosted platform for transferring and sharing files securely.LINK

    Temperature-Sensing Stirbar with RFID: a smart device for laboratories that mixes solutions and measures their temperature, transmitting data wirelessly for monitoring and recording.LINK

    Ternary circuits: why R=3 is not the Optimal Radix for Computation (2019): the paper explains that using three states in computing circuits is not the best choice for efficiency.LINK


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