The Daily Index — Thursday, February 22, 2024 · TLDR Index

Across today’s newsletters

Today’s Index

TLDR

GOOGLE GOES “OPEN AI” WITH GEMMA, A FREE, OPEN-WEIGHTS CHATBOT FAMILY

Google's new family of AI language models, Gemma, are free open-weights models built on technology similar to Gemini. Gemma models can run locally on a desktop or laptop computer. There are two models, one with 2 billion parameters and the other with 7 billion. Each model has pre-trained and instruction-tuned variants available. Google claims the 7 billion parameter model outperforms Meta's Llama 2 7B and 13B models on several benchmarks in math, Python code generation, general knowledge, and commonsense reasoning tasks. This is Google's first significant open large language model release since OpenAI's ChatGPT was revealed in late 2022.

arstechnica.com · 2 min

TLDR AI

GOOGLE DEEPMIND OPEN SOURCES GEMMA BASED ON GEMINI

Google has released the weights for its Gemma 2B and 7B parameter models, available via HuggingFace. The models are decoder-only Transformers trained on 2T and 6T tokens. They substantially outperform Llama 2 on a wide range of benchmarks and come in base and instruction-tuned versions.

blog.google · 3 min

TLDR Web Dev

REACT TRENDS IN 2024

React has multiple trends in 2024 in various categories. On the UI side, headless libraries with barebones components are gaining popularity along with utility-first CSS like Tailwind CSS. There are multiple emerging frameworks and tools, like Astro for static websites, authentication solutions like Supabase, tRPC for maintaining type safety, and TanStack Router for routing in single-page React apps. Some paradigm shifts that will continue in 2024 are the usage increase of React Server Components, better compilers and bundlers, and a push towards the edge of better performance.

robinwieruch.de · 10 min

TLDR Crypto

HACK VC CLOSES ‘OVERSUBSCRIBED’ $150M FUND FOR CRYPTO STARTUPS

Hack VC has secured $150 million in funding for a web3-focused fund. The firm was intending to raise less, but the round ended up being oversubscribed, reflecting shifting sentiment amongst crypto investors. Among other things, Hack VC aims to invest in tokenized real-world assets and modular infrastructure. Other firms, like Lightspeed, Faction, and RW3 Ventures have also raised impressive funds.

blockworks.co · 2 min

TLDR Design

34 YEARS AGO TODAY, ADOBE CHANGED THE WAY WE EDIT PHOTOS WITH PHOTOSHOP

Despite much competition, Photoshop is still a huge design tool in 2024. The Knoll brothers developed the first version of Photoshop on February 19, 1990. It was immediately popular, and Adobe bought the rights for $34.5M in 1995. After over three decades, with AI taking the world by storm, Adobe has integrated generative AI software into its suite of applications. The company remains a design powerhouse in the industry.

xda-developers.com · 5 min

TLDR

75K LOYAL REDDITORS CAN SNAG SHARES BEFORE REDDIT GOES PUBLIC

Reddit hopes to entice its users to become shareholders to help drive change and make the market more fair to individual traders. 75,000 of the most prolific Redditors will have the opportunity to buy shares before trading starts when the company goes public later this year, possibly as soon as March. The privilege is usually reserved for big investors. Reddit announced its IPO in December 2021, when it was valued at about $10 billion. The site experienced widespread protests in June last year after it killed off many third-party apps by charging for access to its API. Users are still questioning the company's leadership over the decision.

arstechnica.com · 4 min

TLDR

A PEEK AT INTEL’S FUTURE FOUNDRY TECH

Intel has revealed new chip technologies for its foundry customers. The advances include more dense logic and a 16-fold increase in the connectivity within 3D-stacked chips. Intel is moving from being a company that only produces its own chips to becoming a foundry that makes chips for others. This article takes a look at the new technologies that Intel will be offering in its new business model.

spectrum.ieee.org · 8 min

TLDR

NASA FACES A QUANDARY WITH ITS AUDACIOUS LUNAR CARGO PROGRAM

Flying to the Moon is expensive, so NASA decided to reach out to private companies for help. NASA's Commercial Lunar Payload Services (CLPS) program originally aimed to launch its first missions by 2020. Years later, the first vehicles are now ready. Astrobotic's Odysseus lander will attempt to land on the Moon on Thursday. No private company has successfully landed on the Moon yet. If the CLPS program is successful, in a few years, NASA will have laid the foundation for a highway to the Moon.

arstechnica.com · 9 min

TLDR

I RAN A BACKGROUND CHECK ON A STARTUP

Employers regularly run background checks on potential employees. However, companies don't always make their history public - there's only so much you can learn from career pages and recruiter emails. This article presents an example of what a background check on an employer might look like. The check goes through checking a company's funding rounds, Glassdoor reviews, and court orders. Performing a background check on a company can turn up interesting facts that could help you decide whether you really want to work with them.

careerfair.io · 27 min