The Daily Index — Monday, February 12, 2024 · TLDR Index

Across today’s newsletters

Today’s Index

TLDR

SAM ALTMAN SEEKING TRILLIONS FOR AI CHIP FABRICATION FROM UAE, OTHERS

OpenAI CEO Sam Altman is in talks with investors to raise up to $7 trillion for AI chip manufacturing. The project aims to address GPU scarcity as the chips are crucial for training and running large language models. Potential investors include sovereign wealth funds and government entities, which may raise geopolitical concerns. The US has been cautious about allowing foreign control over the supply of microchips - it recently announced a $5 billion investment in R&D to advance US-made semiconductor technologies.

arstechnica.com · 4 min

TLDR AI

LAION RELEASES ASSISTANT BUD-E

The Laion research group has released an open assistant that uses natural voice and extremely optimized language models that can run on a gaming laptop. The project aims to provide a low-resource assistant that is easy to install and powerful for personal use.

laion.ai · 12 min

TLDR Web Dev

FROM MANY TO ONE: MOVING OUR JAVASCRIPT CODE INTO A MONOREPO

Aha! transitioned JavaScript code into a monorepo to streamline development. Initially, the company used private npm packages for code reuse, but the process required them to make changes to private npm packages, which quickly slowed them down. Its team evaluated several tools to do the repo migration efficiently, ultimately choosing Turborepo in conjunction with pnpm. This setup maintained git history, simplified its codebase, and enhanced the development workflow without adding unnecessary complexity. The transition has led to significant time savings and reduced frustration for its engineering team.

aha.io · 10 min

TLDR InfoSec

FAKE LASTPASS PASSWORD MANAGER SPOTTED ON APPLE’S APP STORE

A fake clone of LastPass called LassPass was listed on the Apple App Store. Malicious clones like this rarely make it through Apple’s review process. Apple has confirmed that it has since been removed.

bleepingcomputer.com · 3 min

TLDR Crypto

NY ATTORNEY GENERAL TRIPLES HER ACCUSATIONS AGAINST GEMINI, DCG, SEEKS $3B

New York Attorney General Letitia James increased the restitution demand from Gemini Trust and Digital Currency Group to $3 billion over alleged fraud with its Gemini Earn product. Initially, the lawsuit sought only $1.1 billion for allegedly swindling investors. This increase comes from additional investors coming forth claiming they had been defrauded. The complaint accuses Gemini of falsely promoting Earn as a highly liquid investment and misleading investors about Genesis Capital's creditworthiness.

blockworks.co · 2 min

TLDR

OPENAI'S NEXT AI PRODUCT COULD BE AFTER YOUR JOB (AGAIN)

OpenAI has been reportedly developing two types of AI agent software for over a year. The first type can be used to automate complex tasks by taking over a customer's device. The second AI agent class handles web-based tasks and can gather public data. It is unclear when the company plans to release these agents.

androidauthority.com · 2 min

TLDR

WITH DISNEY’S MAGIC, FORTNITE IS POISED TO WIN THE METAVERSE

Epic Games and Disney are designing an entertainment universe text full of Disney-flavored games to play and things to buy. The project will use Epic's technology and Fortnite's social gaming ecosystem to bring Disney characters to life. Disney has invested $1.5 billion into Epic as part of the deal. While Meta has been busy trying to make the Oculus a mainstream consumer product, companies like Epic have been building avatar-driven virtual worlds that are widely available and hardware agnostic.

techcrunch.com · 9 min

TLDR

HOW TO FAKE A ROBOTICS DEMO FOR FUN AND PROFIT

Developments in robots and CGI are making it harder and harder to tell what's real. Even if the footage is real, video demos are often the best-performing clips - behind every video is likely hours and hours of video that didn't make it into the final cut. CES lacked cool robotic demos, yet there are many amazing videos out there. Viewers should approach these videos with discernment and skepticism. This article covers several ways that robotics videos can be enhanced or faked.

techcrunch.com · 14 min

TLDR

(ALMOST) EVERY INFRASTRUCTURE DECISION I ENDORSE OR REGRET AFTER 4 YEARS RUNNING INFRASTRUCTURE AT A STARTUP

This article looks at some of the core decisions that an infrastructure lead had to make for a startup over the past four years. It notes whether they recommend or regret the decision and provides details on why. The decisions covered areas such as AWS, processes, SaaS, software, and more.

cep.dev · 19 min