Good morning! This is your daily ☕️ Techpresso.
In today's Techpresso:
🌏 New AI transforms images into 3D worlds
🍎 Apple sued for spying on employees
💥 ChatGPT crashes when specific names are mentioned
❌ China retaliates, bans exports of rare metals after US chip ban
🤔 Meta says it’s mistakenly moderating too much
🚘 Elon Musk’s $56 billion Tesla pay rejected
🎁 + 9 other news you might like
🔮 + 5 handpicked research papers and tools
🌏 New AI transforms images into 3D worldsLINK
World Labs, founded by AI pioneer Fei-Fei Li, has developed an AI system capable of generating interactive 3D environments from a single photo, enhancing user control and consistency in digital creations.
The technology creates dynamic scenes that can be explored with keyboard and mouse, featuring a live-rendered, adjustable camera and simulated depth of field effects, while maintaining the basic laws of physics.
Despite being an early preview with limitations, such as restricted movement areas and occasional rendering errors, World Labs aims for improvement and a product launch in 2025, having raised $230 million in venture capital.
🍎 Apple sued for spying on employeesLINK
A new lawsuit alleges that Apple unlawfully spied on employees by requiring them to install software on personal devices, allowing the company to access emails, photos, health records, and home data.
The lawsuit claims Apple enforced strict policies that silenced discussions about pay and workplace conditions, prohibiting public discourse and whistleblowing activities, thus infringing on free speech rights.
Apple has dismissed the allegations, stating the lawsuit is unfounded, while asserting that its employee policies are in place to protect intellectual property and include yearly rights training for staff.
💥 ChatGPT crashes when specific names are mentionedLINK
ChatGPT users found that entering the name "David Mayer," as well as "Jonathan Zittrain" or "Jonathan Turley," causes the program to terminate the conversation with an error message.
The issue has sparked conspiracy theories, especially about "David Mayer," leading to multiple discussions on Reddit, despite no clear reasons for these errors.
Both Jonathan Zittrain and Jonathan Turley, who have written extensively about AI, were mentioned in error reports, yet there is no obvious reason for ChatGPT's refusal to discuss them.
❌ China retaliates, bans exports of rare metals after US chip banLINK
Following US restrictions on Chinese businesses accessing foreign products containing US-made chips, China has banned exporting certain rare metals to the US in retaliation.
The ban includes dual-use items related to gallium, germanium, antimony, and superhard materials, which are essential for both civilian and military technological applications.
The new restrictions may limit US access to rare materials crucial for manufacturing, as China intends to protect its national security by reviewing the end-usage of exports more strictly.
🤔 Meta says it’s mistakenly moderating too muchLINK
Meta is removing too much content by mistake, with President of Global Affairs Nick Clegg stating that moderation error rates remain too high and affect free expression.
The company regrets being overly aggressive in removing COVID-19 posts due to external pressures, acknowledging that users have rightfully criticized these strict enforcement measures.
Despite these ongoing moderation issues and a public apology for recent errors, Meta has yet to implement significant changes to its content policies, but suggests adjustments may be forthcoming.
🚘 Elon Musk’s $56 billion Tesla pay rejectedLINK
A Delaware judge has denied Elon Musk's effort to reinstate a Tesla compensation package originally valued above $50 billion, which has now exceeded $100 billion due to rising share prices.
The court ruled against reversing a prior decision nullifying the pay plan, citing improper procedural grounds and inconsistencies with settled legal principles regarding shareholder votes.
Judge McCormick noted that any shareholder ratification of the plan was invalid due to several critical issues, including misleading statements in the proxy materials distributed before the June 2024 vote.
Other news you might like
SpaceX eyes $350 billion valuation, setting the stage for Elon Musk to become the world’s first trillionaire.LINK
Meta says AI-generated content was less than 1 precent of election misinformation.LINK
Jeff Bezos backs RISC-V chipmaker at $2.6 billion valuation.LINK
The race is on to make AI agents do your online shopping for you.LINK
World’s smallest walking robots redefine force measurement at microscales.LINK
Intel announces $249 Arc B580 and $219 Arc B570 ‘Battlemage’ graphics cards.LINK
Data brokers may be banned from selling your personal data without good reason.LINK
Two decades after Enron’s bankruptcy, the company is back as a crypto firm?.LINK
European twin satellites to create perfect artificial solar eclipse soon.LINK
Latest research and tools
Copper: an open-source Rust-based framework for robotics that offers deterministic log replay, tools for aligning synchronized inputs, and enhances Windows compatibility, while simplifying task implementation and improving project generation, simulation stability, and serialization processes.LINK
Flow: a lightweight task engine enabling dynamic scheduling and flexible construction of AI agents without needing predefined workflows.LINK
Optimality of Gerver's Sofa: gerver’s sofa problem demonstrates the challenge of determining the largest area covered by a pivoting shape within constrained hallways.LINK
Open Road Traffic Counter: an open-source application that counts road traffic using video feeds and can be deployed on various devices for traffic analysis and monitoring purposes.LINK
OSCBridge: a tool that automates operations with audio and streaming equipment by triggering tasks like camera movement or scene switching based on conditions such as unmuting a microphone or specific OBS scenes being active.LINK
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