TLDR 2024-09-17

AMAZON TELLS EMPLOYEES TO RETURN TO OFFICE FIVE DAYS A WEEK

Amazon CEO Andy Jassy has instructed corporate staffers to spend five days a week in the office starting on January 2. The decision is a significant shift from Amazon's earlier return-to-work stance, which required corporate workers to be in the office at least three days a week. Amazon also plans to simplify its corporate structure by having fewer managers, with each S-team organization expected to increase its ratio of individual contributors to managers by at least 15% by the end of the first quarter of 2025. A copy of the full memo from Jassy is available in the article.

TIKTOK ARGUED AGAINST ITS U.S. BAN IN COURT TODAY. HERE'S WHAT HAPPENED

On Monday, a panel of three judges from the US Court of Appeals for the DC Circuit heard TikTok's arguments against a law that will force the company to find a non-Chinese buyer or be banned nationwide. It was unclear which way the court was leaning, but the judges appeared dubious of TikTok's plea that its right to free expression surpasses national security concerns. However, the judges did point out that shutting down the app could violate the rights of US TikTok users and TikTok's US operations. TikTok's strategy of trying to overturn the law by attacking Congress' legislative authority is unusual - it appears that it may be asking the court to send the law back to Congress to be amended.

"GOLDEN LETTUCE" GENETICALLY ENGINEERED TO PACK 30 TIMES MORE VITAMINS

A team from the Research Institute for Plant Molecular and Cellular Biology has genetically engineered lettuce to boost its nutrients. They increased levels of an antioxidant called beta-carotene, which the body uses to make vitamin A. The high levels of the antioxidant make the leaves of the lettuce a striking yellow color, giving it the nickname Golden Lettuce. Golden Lettuce has up to 30 times more beta-carotene than regular lettuce. Developing the lettuce involved accumulating the antioxidant in parts of the plant's cells where it is not normally found.

CHIPOTLE'S TESTING AN AVOCADO-PEELING ROBOT AND AN AUTOMATED BOWL ASSEMBLY LINE

Chipotle's Autocado machine can cut, core, and peel avocados by the case. It can get an avocado of any size peeled and seeded within 26 seconds. The Autocado is currently being tested in a store in California with the aim of freeing up employees for other tasks. Chipotle is also testing a machine that builds bowls and salads, which make up about 65% of its digital orders.

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KTY

kty is an SSH server that makes it easy to access Kubernetes resources without using kubectl. It provides a dashboard for interacting with clusters that enables users to run shells in pods, access logs for running and exited containers in a pod, forward traffic from a local machine into a cluster or from a cluster to a local machine, access clusters from any device with an SSH client, and more. kty relies on OpenID providers to verify identity.

PYTHON IN EXCEL

Python in Excel is now generally available for Windows users of Microsoft 365 Business and Enterprise. The feature makes it possible to seamlessly combine Python and Excel analytics within the same workbook. Python in Excel keeps data private by preventing Python code from knowing who users are and opening workbooks from the internet in further isolation within their own separate containers. The data does not persist in the Microsoft Cloud. This page provides examples of what is now possible with the integration.

WHAT IF OZEMPIC IS JUST A GOOD THING?

The public discussion of Ozempic's economics has so far been consistently fatalistic. Many doubt that the drug will benefit more than just the lucky few who can afford it. The people who most need the drug often struggle to get it. As long as it is talked about primarily as a weight loss drug, insurance companies will remain incentivized to treat it as a luxury good. The drug presents a radical opportunity to change the chronic disease landscape in the US, but it may require radical policy changes to make it accessible.

WORDS ON FOUNDER MODE

Founder Mode is the culture of a company, and a culture is defined by the character of the founders. It is when the whole team is involved with the details and work - when an organizational chart becomes more like a map than a power structure. While there is job specialization, there is also a belief that everyone is equally accountable for the product. A stratification of responsibility is a red flag in any company.

you. Browse available degrees (must be US-based)

SOME REFLECTION ON WHAT TODAY'S REASONING LAUNCH REALLY MEANS

OpenAI's o1 represents a new paradigm - people shouldn't expect the same pace, schedule, or dynamics of the pre-training era or for their GPT prompts to 'just work'.

BAN WARNINGS FLY AS USERS DARE TO PROBE THE “THOUGHTS” OF OPENAI'S LATEST MODEL

OpenAI has been sending out warning emails and threats of bans to users trying to probe how its latest AI model works.

HOW GOOGLE GOT AWAY WITH CHARGING PUBLISHERS MORE THAN ANYONE ELSE

Google never experienced any real pricing pressure despite knowing its fees were higher than competitors' and being aware of customer complaints about its tools due to its unshakable dominance in the market.

WHEN WILL AI OUTTHINK HUMANS?

If AI's growth rate were to remain consistent, its synthetic thought-hours will surpass human thought-hours by volume in about 10 years.

CHALLENGERS ARE COMING FOR NVIDIA'S CROWN

AMD and Intel are looking to use their own GPUs to rival Nvidia while upstarts like Cerebras and SambaNova have developed radical chip architectures that drastically improve the efficiency of generative AI training and inference.

TIKTOK'S OWNER WANTS TO DESIGN ITS OWN AI CHIPS

ByteDance has designed two chips with Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company that are planned to be mass-produced by 2026.