The Daily Index — Wednesday, November 27, 2024 · TLDR Index

Across today’s newsletters

Today’s Index

TLDR

ARTISTS LEAK OPENAI'S SORA VIDEO GENERATOR

A group of artists recently made a post claiming that OpenAI was using them as unpaid beta testers for Sora, OpenAI's video generator, and that the company was pressuring them to spin a positive narrative around the tool. OpenAI required every video clip to be approved before sharing, suggesting that the early access program was less about creative expression and critique and more about PR and advertisement. The artists leaked a version of Sora on Hugging Face that could create 10-second clips but OpenAI shut down early access for all artists three hours after it was posted. The artists said in their post that they hope OpenAI becomes more open, more artist friendly, and supports the arts beyond PR stunts.

links.tldrnewsletter.com · 3 min

TLDR AI

GENMO MOCHI FINE-TUNING

Mochi 1, the leading open source video model, has LoRA fine tuning available. It runs on a single GPU. This repository shows a number of uses, including custom effects and character consistency.

github.com · 6 min

TLDR Web Dev

THE COMPUTING INDUSTRY DOESN'T CARE ABOUT PERFORMANCE: HOW I MADE THINGS FASTER IN MY PAJAMAS

A software engineer, working independently, was able to make huge performance improvements in various apps, including a 30% faster Uber app startup, a 3x speed increase in Android UI display, and an 11% speedup in Lucene. These optimizations were accomplished through the use of automated tools and techniques that focused on identifying and resolving inefficiencies in code, such as overly broad synchronization blocks and dynamic method dispatches. While there's often a lack of incentive to make significant performance improvements, there are many cases where there's low-hanging fruit.

deviantabstraction.com · 4 min

TLDR InfoSec

HACKERS ABUSE AVAST ANTI-ROOTKIT DRIVER TO DISABLE DEFENSES

Trellix researchers have discovered a malware campaign that utilizes an old and vulnerable Avast anti-rootkit driver to evade detection. The malware drops the vulnerable driver in the default Windows user folder, then creates a service using sc.exe and registers the driver. The driver then leverages the DeviceIOControl API to terminate processes from a hardcoded list of 142 processes associated with various security solutions.

bleepingcomputer.com · 2 min

TLDR Crypto

FIFTH CIRCUIT RULES OFAC OVERSTEPPED IN SANCTIONING TORNADO CASH'S IMMUTABLE SMART CONTRACTS

The U.S. Fifth Circuit Court has ruled that the Treasury Department exceeded its authority by sanctioning Tornado Cash's immutable smart contracts, determining that autonomous software lacking centralized control cannot be classified as sanctionable property under existing law. While marking a significant victory for privacy advocates and blockchain developers, the ruling specifically applies only to self-executing code without administrative control, leaving Tornado Cash's broader designation and blocked status intact. The case is returning to district court for further consideration under the new legal framework.

decrypt.co · 3 min

TLDR

AI'S FUTURE AND NVIDIA'S FORTUNES RIDE ON THE RACE TO PACK MORE CHIPS INTO ONE PLACE

The most ambitious players in the AI race are now building super clusters of computer servers that cost billions of dollars and contain unprecedented numbers of Nvidia's most advanced chips. The push towards superclusters could help Nvidia sustain its growth trajectory. The trend is fostering demand for Nvidia's networking equipment, which is fast becoming a significant business. Nvidia's Blackwell chips, which are several times as powerful as its current chips, are set to start shipping in the next couple of months.

links.tldrnewsletter.com · 3 min

TLDR

NASA'S SEARCH FOR LIFE: SPACEX TO LAUNCH DRAGONFLY MISSION TO SATURN'S MOON

NASA has announced a $256.6 million contract with SpaceX to support the launch of the Dragonfly mission. Dragonfly is a nuclear-powered spacecraft about the size of a Mars Rover that is capable of flight like a drone. It will be sent to Saturn's moon Titan to characterize the habitability of Titan's environment, investigate the progression of prebiotic chemistry on the moon, and search for chemical indications of whether water-based or hydrocarbon-based life ever existed on the Titan. The mission is expected to launch in July 2028 on SpaceX's Falcon Heavy rocket from NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida.

cnet.com · 2 min

TLDR

CHINA PLANS TO BUILD EGG IGLOOS ON LUNAR SURFACE

China has unveiled a mock-up of a moon colony that shows a handful of egg-shaped gray igloos and space rovers with Lego-like spacemen grounding between them. The model is a result of careful examination of the conditions on the moon, where there is a lack of raw materials, extreme temperature fluctuations, and cosmic radiation. China is planning to establish a permanent base on the moon by 2035 and is developing detailed plans accordingly. Pictures of the model are available in the article.

thetimes.com · 4 min

TLDR

GOOGLE AND THE DOJ MAKE THEIR FINAL ARGUMENTS IN THE AD TECH MONOPOLY CASE

Google and the Department of Justice have made their closing arguments in the antitrust case against Google. The DOJ argued that Google used a suite of ad tech products to strong-arm site owners and advertisers. Google countered that it faces competition from other sources and shouldn't have to cut deals with competitors. US District Court judge Leonie Brinkema is expected to rule on the case by the end of 2024.

theverge.com · 4 min