The Daily Index — Thursday, February 15, 2024 · TLDR Index

Across today’s newsletters

Today’s Index

TLDR

IS OPENAI THE NEXT CHALLENGER TRYING TO TAKE ON GOOGLE SEARCH?

OpenAI is working on a web search to compete more directly with Google. It is unclear if the product will be standalone or part of ChatGPT. Competition in the search space is filling up quickly with the addition of Copilot on Bing, newcomers like Perplexity, and Google's Gemini Copilot. A YouTube Short featuring Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella talking about competing with Google is available in the article.

theverge.com · 1 min

TLDR AI

OPENAI STOPPED STATE-SPONSORED ACTORS

OpenAI discovered and terminated accounts affiliated with nation-states using GPT models for malicious cases.

openai.com · 12 min

TLDR Web Dev

THE PERFORMANCE INEQUALITY GAP, 2024

Just how much HTML, CSS, and (particularly) JavaScript can a new project afford? The answer is “more than in years past, but much less than frontend developers are still burdening users with”. This post digs deep into this topic, particularly on how updated devices, networks, and new metrics (INP) influence this, particularly for websites that work on low-end devices.

infrequently.org · 24 min

TLDR Crypto

BITCOIN SPOT ETF NET INFLOWS NOW TOTAL OVER $4 BILLION SINCE LAUNCH

Net inflows to the newly launched spot bitcoin ETFs have reached over $4 billion in the first month since their launch, far surpassing bitcoin issuance rates from mining. This buy pressure has tipped Bitcoin past the $50k mark. The bitcoin halving, just three months away, is set to reduce bitcoin's inflation to 1%. Current investment trends are yielding a daily ETF inflow 4.6 times higher than average bitcoin issuance post-halving, creating even greater buy pressure on the asset.

theblock.co · 2 min

TLDR Design

AIRBNB LOOKS TO AI TO REVOLUTIONIZE USER EXPERIENCE AND EXPAND INTO NEW MARKETS

Airbnb's CFO David Stephenson says that the company should harness the power of generative AI to create cutting-edge interfaces that provide users with highly personalized and adaptive experiences. Implementing AI will require many years of effort. Airbnb recently bought GamePlanner.AI, a stealth AI startup led by Adam Cheyer, one of the developers behind Apple's Siri, as part of its AI expansion.

ai2.news · 3 min

TLDR

WHY WALKING AROUND IN PUBLIC WITH VISION PRO MAKES NO SENSE

The passthrough on Apple's Vision Pro gives users all the fidelity and depth perception they need to comfortably see what they're doing and navigate safely on foot. Its limited field of view and poor low-light visibility could pose issues when driving. While critics of the device say it takes people's attention away from reality, the Vision Pro may actually make users more aware of their surroundings as their eyes are always up and taking in the world (when in passthrough mode). This article details a first-hand experience of what it feels like to use the device in public.

arstechnica.com · 7 min

TLDR

MAGICLAB'S HUMANOID CAN TOAST MARSHMALLOWS, FOLD CLOTHES, AND DANCE

MagicLab has unveiled MagicBot, a humanoid robot that can roast marshmallows and dance. The robot has exceptional balance and dexterity - it has the capability to execute somersaults. MagicBot has sub-millimeter positioning accuracy and a load capacity reaching several kilograms. Videos of the robot in action are available in the article.

interestingengineering.com · 6 min

TLDR

OPEN-SOURCE SECURITY CHIP RELEASED

The OpenTitan coalition has announced the first commercial silicon chip that includes built-in open-source hardware security. The chip, called Earl Grey, features a number of built-in hardware security and cryptography modules in a self-contained microprocessor. It uses a security protocol called Root of Trust, which provides an on-chip source of cryptographic keys that is inaccessible remotely. As part of the project, OpenTitan developed a framework for open-source hardware design that provides rules for documentation, pre-defined interfaces and quality standards, and a governance structure that lays out how different partners make decisions as a collective.

spectrum.ieee.org · 3 min

TLDR

THE TEXT FILE THAT RUNS THE INTERNET

robots.txt has kept the internet from chaos for three decades. The simple text file represents a deal between some of the earliest pioneers of the internet to respect each other's wishes and build the internet in a way that benefits everybody. It allows anyone who runs a website to tell the web who's allowed on the site and who isn't. The system used to work, but AI is now threatening to change everything. This article takes a look at the history behind robots.txt, how it works, different types of web crawlers, the tradeoff between sites and the search engineers crawling them, and how AI changes the balance of the internet.

theverge.com · 16 min