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2024.12.24
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2024.12.24
app.dollarflightclub.comTLDR
XAI IS TESTING A STANDALONE IOS APP FOR ITS GROK CHATBOT
xAI is currently testing a standalone iOS app for its Grok chatbot in Australia and a few other countries. The app can access real-time data from the web and X. xAI is also preparing a dedicated site to make the chatbot accessible on the web. Grok was previously only available to X's paying subscribers, but the company rolled it out to all users for free earlier this month.
2024.12.24
M5 PRO CHIP COULD SEPARATE CPU AND GPU IN ‘SERVER GRADE' CHIPS
Apple's System-on-a-Chip (SoC) design tightly integrates all components, including both CPU and GPU, into a single package. TSMC's latest chip packaging process, known as SoIC-mH (System-on-Integrated-Chips-Molding-Horizontal), integrates different chips into a package in a way that improves thermal performance, allowing chips to run at full power for longer before they need to be throttled back to reduce heat. This approach may be used for the Pro, Max, and Ultra variants of the M5 chip. The M5 Pro chips will be used to power Apple Intelligence servers.
2024.12.24
HOW HALLUCINATORY A.I. HELPS SCIENCE DREAM UP BIG BREAKTHROUGHS
AI hallucinations can be remarkably useful. Scientists are using them to track cancer, design drugs, invent medical devices, uncover weather phenomena, and even win the Nobel Prize. This article looks at how AI hallucinations have been used to advance science. AI Hallucinations are giving scientists the chance to explore ideas they might not have thought about otherwise.
2024.12.24
A LOOMING THREAT TO BITCOIN: THE RISK OF A QUANTUM HACK
Quantum computing could one day enable hackers to break the encryption that keeps bitcoin secure. A quantum device powerful enough to do this is still likely a decade or more away. The technology poses a long-term risk unless bitcoin's community of developers beef up its technology. A breakthrough that threatens bitcoin's security would also threaten many other industries, including traditional finance.
2024.12.24
LOGGING, THE SENSIBLE DEFAULTS
Logging is critical for failure analysis and debugging, making it a major pillar for well-designed applications. It is also essential for observability in production. This post lists the most important logging traits for modern cloud applications.
2024.12.24
MY COLLEAGUE JULIUS
This article tells the story of Julius, a guy who managed to succeed through his way with words. Julius would receive praise for his work despite knowing nothing about many of the things he worked on. People believed him even when he said things that made no sense. More knowledgeable people would be responsible for checking his work - these people knew how poor the work was, but management liked him so much they couldn't see it. His story is analogous to AI - Julius is now everywhere.
2024.12.24
ASK HN: PREDICTIONS FOR 2025? (HACKER NEWS THREAD)
2024 is almost over, so it's time to start thinking ahead to next year. Some of the predictions for 2025 in this thread include more restrictions aimed at stopping kids using social media, the world's first trillionaire, and the hottest weather in recorded history. Links to previous years' threads are available.
2024.12.24
news.ycombinator.comTLDR
VENTURE CAPITAL PARTNERS ARE LEAVING BIG FIRMS IN DROVES
Dozens of investors at some of the biggest venture capital firms quit or were pushed out in 2024. An unusual number of investors are working on new firms. This is being caused by a protracted startup downturn and a broader shift in the role of VC firms. Bleak market conditions have led to less funding and leaner operations, so it makes sense for firms to employ fewer investors.
2024.12.24
ELON MUSK'S XAI LANDS $6B IN NEW CASH TO FUEL AI AMBITIONS
The funding round comprised 97 investors who gave a minimum of $77,593.
2024.12.24
MICROSOFT LOOKING TO PURSUE AN OPEN RELATIONSHIP WITH OPENAI
Microsoft is looking to add more models to its 365 Copilot product that aren't built by OpenAI.
2024.12.24
A POPULAR TECHNIQUE TO MAKE AI MORE EFFICIENT HAS DRAWBACKS
AI quantization is a technique that involves lowering the number of bits needed to represent information.
2024.12.24
YOAST'S FORMER CEO CALLS FOR A ‘FEDERATED' APPROACH TO WORDPRESS REPOSITORY
The WordPress community needs to decide if it's okay with being led by a single person who controls everything.
2024.12.24
CAN AI DO MATHS YET? THOUGHTS FROM A MATHEMATICIAN
AI systems will be passing undergraduate mathematics exams within a year.
2024.12.24
NARRATIVE JAILBREAKING FOR FUN AND PROFIT
Attempting to make AI chatbots break their narratives can help you learn a lot about different chatbot platforms.
2024.12.24
OPENAI ANNOUNCES O3 AND O3-MINI, ITS NEXT SIMULATED REASONING MODELS
OpenAI's latest AI 'reasoning models', o3 and o3-mini, are now available for public safety testing and research access. The model family was called 'o3' rather than 'o2' to avoid potential trademark conflicts with British telecom provider O2. o3-mini will offer low, medium, and high processing speeds, with the higher compute settings producing better results. It outperforms o1 on the Codeforces benchmark.
2024.12.23
APPLE REPORTEDLY DEVELOPING NEW SMART HOME DOORBELL WITH SUPPORT FOR FACE ID
Apple is rumored to be working on a new smart home doorbell with advanced facial recognition. It will be able to integrate wirelessly with smart home locks and allow people to automatically unlock their doors with just a face scan. Apple is expected to expand its reach in the smart home market significantly next year. It plans to release a new smart home control device that will attach to walls and potentially a speaker base.
2024.12.23
WE'RE ABOUT TO FLY A SPACECRAFT INTO THE SUN FOR THE FIRST TIME
The Parker Solar Probe will make its closest approach yet to the Sun on Christmas Eve. It will fly into the solar atmosphere for the first time. It is estimated that the probe's heat shield will have to endure temperatures in excess of 2,500 degrees Fahrenheit. The mission is aimed at finding the birthplace of solar wind.
2024.12.23
THE RISK OF CANCER FADES AS WE GET OLDER, AND WE MAY FINALLY KNOW WHY
While the risk of cancer rises in our 60s and 70s, it drops past the age of around 80. A study in older mice found that they had higher levels of a protein that caused cells to act as if they were deficient in iron, which in turn limited their regeneration rates, restricting both healthy growth and cancerous tumors. The same processes were found to be occurring in human cells too. Cell growth capabilities were boosted when levels of the protein were artificially lowered or iron was artificially increased.
2024.12.23
MONOLITH
Monolith is a deep learning framework for large scale recommendation modeling. It features collisionless embedding tables, which guarantees unique representation for different ID features, and real time training, which captures the latest hotspots and helps users to discover new interests rapidly. Monolith supports batch/real-time training and serving.
2024.12.23
BUILDING EFFECTIVE AGENTS
The most successful implementations of large language models across industries were built with simple, composable patterns rather than with complex frameworks or specialized libraries. This article guides readers on how to build effective AI agents. AI agents are systems that dynamically direct their own processes and tool usage. They maintain control over how they accomplish tasks. Most applications won't need agents - they are the best option when flexibility and model-driven decision-making are needed at scale.
2024.12.23
THE NEXT GREAT LEAP IN AI IS BEHIND SCHEDULE AND CRAZY EXPENSIVE
OpenAI's GPT-5 project is expensive and behind schedule. It isn't clear when, or if, it will work. Microsoft had expected to see the model around mid-2024. There may not be enough data to train the model to make it smart enough. OpenAI recently turned to a technique called 'reasoning' to make its large language models smarter. It just released a new reasoning model smarter than anything else the company has released before, but there is still no word on when GPT-5 is coming.
2024.12.23
GOOGLE CEO SUNDAR PICHAI SAYS SEARCH GIANT HAS SLASHED MANAGER ROLES BY 10% IN EFFICIENCY DRIVE
Google has slashed a tenth of its managerial roles since last year. Some of the managers were shifted to individual contributor roles and are no longer responsible for other employees. The company had identified 'durable cost savings' as one of its key goals for the year. Google this year has also slashed hundreds of jobs across multiple divisions, including ad sales, core engineering, and the hardware division responsible for the Pixel, Nest, and Fitbit.
2024.12.23
GOOGLE PROPOSES MULTIPLE CHANGES TO ITS STRATEGY FOLLOWING ANTITRUST RULING
Google has responded to the Justice Department's suggestions to curb its monopoly in the search business with a proposal that allows flexibility in browser deals and preloading search engines while ensuring compliance measures.
2024.12.23
HOW BLOOM FILTERS MADE SQLITE 10X FASTER
Bloom filters required minimal memory overhead, went well with SQLite's simple implementation, and worked within an existing query engine.
2024.12.23
PALANTIR AND ANDURIL REPORTEDLY BUILDING A TECH CONSORTIUM TO BID ON DEFENSE CONTRACTS
Palantir and Anduril are talking to tech companies, including SpaceX, OpenAI, Saronic, and Scale AI, about forming a consortium to bid on Pentagon contracts to challenge the dominance of 'prime' defense contractors like Lockheed Martin, Raytheon, and Boeing.
2024.12.23
ARE AMAZON'S DRONES FINALLY READY FOR PRIME TIME?
Amazon hopes to one day deliver millions of packages to customers in 30 minutes or less using its drone delivery service.
2024.12.23
HOW TO MAKE LLMS SHUT UP
A clustering technique helped Greptile reduce the number of comments that its AI was generating.
2024.12.23
IN PRAISE OF THE HUNDRED PAGE IDEA
100 pages is about the perfect size for a book - it lets ideas be substantial, but not substantiated to death.
2024.12.23
GOOGLE TO OFFER AI-GENERATED CONVERSATIONAL ANSWERS IN SEARCH
Google is reportedly planning to add an AI Mode option to Search that will enable users to get conversational answers instead of search results. AI Mode will be accessible via a tab near the top of the search results page. It will include links to external websites below its conversational answers. Other companies, such as Perplexity AI, Reddit, and OpenAI also offer conversational AI search capabilities.
2024.12.20
STARLINK'S FIRST NATIONWIDE SATELLITE TEXTING SERVICE GOES LIVE IN NEW ZEALAND
SpaceX's satellite-to-cell Starlink texting service is now operational in New Zealand through telecommunications company One NZ. Starlink texting can take up to 10 minutes or longer, but most messages should be sent and received within three minutes during the initial rollout. The service is only supported on the Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 6, Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 6, Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra, and OPPO Find X8 Pro - the list of eligible devices is expected to grow next year. The satellite service is free for existing One NZ customers on paid-monthly plans.
2024.12.20
THE NEW GLENN ROCKET'S SEVEN POWERFUL ENGINES MAY LIGHT UP AS SOON AS TODAY
Blue Origin may ignite the seven main engines on its New Glenn rocket soon at Launch Complex-36 in Florida. It will be the final test before the rocket goes on its debut flight. This will be the first time Blue Origin has ever fired all of the BE-7 engines together. Blue Origin could still launch New Glenn this year - some employees have been asked to work on Christmas Day.
2024.12.20
‘WORLD'S FIRST' GRID-SCALE NUCLEAR FUSION POWER PLANT ANNOUNCED IN THE US
Virginia may become the site of the world's first grid-scale nuclear fusion power plant - if all goes to plan. Commonwealth Fusion Systems is a startup that plans to make a multibillion-dollar investment into building the facility near Richmond. The plant will be able to produce enough energy to power 150,000 homes. The path forward for the project is unlikely to be smooth as the technology has not yet been proven viable.
2024.12.20
MIZU
Mizu is a lightweight and customizable JavaScript library that makes building powerful web apps easy. It allows developers to render content wherever it is needed however they want through user-friendly APIs. Mizu is compatible across a wide range of JavaScript and TypeScript runtimes and all major browsers. It adapts to developers' needs, whether they're serving content, generating static websites, or creating dynamic pages in the browser, without the hassle of bundlers, transpilers, or countless dependencies.
2024.12.20
I'M LOVIN' IT: EXPLOITING MCDONALD'S APIS TO HIJACK DELIVERIES AND ORDER FOOD FOR A PENNY
Flaws in the API for the McDonald's McDelivery system in India enabled several exploits such as the ability to order any number of menu items for ₹1, the ability to retrieve the details of any order, the ability to view admin KPI reports, and more. This article covers how these flaws were discovered and how they could be exploited. It looks at the technologies that the fast food company uses and explains how to secure them against attacks. McDonald's India has a bug bounty (McDonald's USA doesn't) - the researcher was rewarded a $240 Amazon gift card.
2024.12.20
THE GHOSTS IN THE MACHINE
Spotify is rumored to be filling its most popular playlists with stock music attributed to pseudonymous musicians, or 'ghost' or 'fake' artists, presumably to reduce royalty payouts. The company might be making the tracks itself. Playlists created by the company are becoming crucial sources of revenue for independent artists and labels. Spotify denies claims that it is creating its own fake-artist tracks. This article looks at these ghost artists and the evidence pointing to Spotify's role in them.
2024.12.20
THIS MAY BE THE BEST LOOK AT THE NINTENDO SWITCH 2 YET
A Redditor claims that they have a final release Switch 2 and its dock. A moderator said that the user offered sizable proof of their claim. The Redditor confirmed that the Switch 2 will have magnetically attached JoyCons rather than the slide-on controls in the original Switch. They say they will release pictures of their console on Christmas Day. Nintendo may be revealing the device as early as January.
2024.12.20
HUMANOID ROBOTS COMING SOON, INITIALLY UNDER REMOTE CONTROL
1X Technologies' Neo humanoid robot is scheduled to debut in 2025 - it will not be fully autonomous but will be paired with a human operator capable of directing the robot from afar.
2024.12.20
APPLE WATCH WITH ANDROID
It's possible to make an Apple Watch work with an Android phone using open source applications, interoperable protocols, and third-party services.
2024.12.20
CLAY
Clay is a high performance 2D UI layout library that features microsecond layout performance, a flex-box-like layout model for complex, responsive layouts, WebAssembly support, and more.
2024.12.20
LG'S TRANSPARENT TV IS FINALLY AVAILABLE TO BUY—FOR $60,000
The LG Signature OLED T is a fully wireless and transparent 77-inch OLED TV.
2024.12.20
MICROSOFT WON'T LET CUSTOMERS OPT OUT OF PASSKEY PUSH
Microsoft recently published a post lauding its success in convincing users to use passkeys instead of passwords - it credited the uptake to unavoidable passkey solicitations.
2024.12.20
GOOGLE RELEASES ITS OWN ‘REASONING' AI MODEL
Google's Gemini 2.0 Flash Thinking Experimental, available in AI Studio, has the ability to reason over complex problems in fields such as programming, math, and physics.
2024.12.20
U.S. SUPREME COURT AGREES TO HEAR CHALLENGE TO TIKTOK BAN
The US Supreme Court has agreed to hear arguments on a law that would effectively ban TikTok if ByteDance doesn't sell it. TikTok is arguing that the law violates the US Constitution's free speech protections. Oral arguments are scheduled for January 10, nine days before the law is set to take effect. Congress passed the law due to concerns that TikTok's Chinese ownership presented a national security risk.
2024.12.19
APPLE HALTS EFFORT TO BUILD IPHONE HARDWARE SUBSCRIPTION SERVICE
Apple has halted work on a project to build an iPhone hardware subscription service. The service would have allowed customers to pay a monthly fee and receive a new phone each year. It would have competed with Apple's wireless carrier partners, who rely on installment programs to sell devices and retain customers. Apple may have canceled the program due to stricter rules by the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.
2024.12.19
FIRST BABY CONCEIVED VIA BREAKTHROUGH FERTILITY TECH BORN
Gameto's Fertilo procedure differs from traditional IVF because it takes ovarian support cells derived from human induced pluripotent stem cells and co-cultures them with an immature egg to mimic the natural egg maturation process in the lab. It significantly improves egg maturation and embryo formation. The procedure avoids 80% of the hormone injections that traditional IVF requires and reduces the duration of a treatment cycle to three days. The first live human baby conceived using the technique was recently born. Gameto has partnered with Australian IVF clinic chain IVFAustralia to make the procedure available to patients at select clinics throughout the country.
2024.12.19
AFTER DECADES OF TALK, SEAGATE SEEMS READY TO ACTUALLY DROP THE HAMR HARD DRIVES
Seagate has been experimenting with heat-assisted magnetic recording (HAMR) since at least 2002. The company is set to release HAMR hard drives based on its Mozaic 3+ platform in standard drive sizes. Getting from the theoretical concept of HAMR to an actual drive required countless engineering hours. Seagate has not released prices yet, but the product page for the Exos M shows 30 and 32TB capacities.
2024.12.19
GITHUB LAUNCHES A FREE VERSION OF ITS COPILOT
Microsoft has launched a free version of its popular Copilot code completion/AI pair programming tool that will ship by default with VS Code. The free version is geared towards occasional users and not major work on big projects. It gives developers access to 2,000 code completions per month. Users on the free plan are restricted to Anthropic's Claude 3.5 Sonnet and OpenAI's GPT-4o. The free version of Copilot Chat is limited to 50 chat messages.
2024.12.19
GENESIS
Genesis is a physics platform designed for general purpose Robotics/Embodied AI/Physical AI applications. It comprises a universal physics engine, a lightweight and user-friendly robotics simulation platform, a powerful and fast photo-realistic rendering system, and a generative data engine that transforms user prompts into various modalities of data. The project is aimed at lowering the barrier to using physics simulations, unifying a wide spectrum of state-of-the-art physics solvers into a single framework, and minimizing human effort in collecting and generating data for robotics and other domains.
2024.12.19