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WHEN ONLINE CONTENT DISAPPEARS

38% of web pages that existed in 2013 are no longer accessible.

WHY OPENAI IS FORCED TO ENTER THE SEARCH BUSINESS

Google and Meta have made it so GenAI is now free and ad-supported, forcing OpenAI to compete in search just to stay relevant.

Pretty insane, huh? Well you can try calling it yourself: BLAND.AI

AND TLDR READERS CAN SIGN UP HERE AND ACCESS SOMETHING EVEN CRAZIER...

OPENAI STRIKES REDDIT DEAL TO TRAIN ITS AI ON YOUR POSTS

OpenAI has signed a deal that will grant it access to real-time content from Reddit's data API. The deal will allow OpenAI to surface discussions from Reddit within ChatGPT and other products and enable Reddit to bring new AI-powered features to users and mods. OpenAI has also signed up to become an advertising partner on Reddit. It is unclear what the financial terms of the deal are and whether it involves access to training data.

TIKTOK TESTS 60-MINUTE VIDEO UPLOADS AS IT CONTINUES TO TAKE ON YOUTUBE

A limited group of TikTok users in select markets are now able to upload 60-minute videos onto the platform. The feature marks a shift from TikTok's original format. While the company rose to popularity due to its short-form video format, it has been slowly embracing long-form content to compete with YouTube. The platform has also been testing a horizontal full-screen mode and video-scrubbing thumbnails. It is unclear if or when TikTok plans to launch the 60-minute video upload option widely.

THE LONGEST CLINICAL TRIAL YET OF BLOCKBUSTER WEIGHT LOSS DRUG WEGOVY REVEALS SIGNIFICANT SIDE EFFECTS

A study on semaglutide that assessed around 17,600 adults in multiple countries from 2018 to 2021 found that participants lost an average of 10% of their body weight. 17% of the participants left the trial due to side effects that included nausea, diarrhea, vomiting, and constipation, which were most often felt during the initial months of treatment. The drug reduced major cardiovascular events by 20% - this effect was evident even in participants who didn't lose weight. The study suggests the drug could be potentially used for other purposes and could help make a case for more widespread insurance.

FEMTOSECOND LASERS CREATE 3-D MIDAIR PLASMA DISPLAYS YOU CAN TOUCH

Laser-induced plasma displays ionize air molecules to create glowing points of light. Japanese researchers have created a laser plasma display that is safe to touch. It uses femtosecond lasers, which create a pulse duration so minuscule that it doesn't result in any appreciable skin damage unless fired at the same spot at one shot per millisecond for a duration of 2,000 milliseconds. Touching the plasma produces a physical sensation, as if the light has a physical substance. The displays are still very small, but researchers suggest that it is possible to scale them with different optical devices. A video explaining the system and showing holograms generated by the display being touched is available in the article.

try it for free!

REACT COMPILER

React Compiler is an experimental compiler that automatically optimizes React apps. It is a build-time-only tool that works with plain JavaScript. React Compiler understands the Rules of React, so developers don't need to rewrite any code to use it. The compiler also includes an eslint plugin that surfaces analyses from the compiler inside editors. React Compiler is still new and not yet fully ready for production.

WHAT I'VE LEARNED BUILDING INTERACTIVE EMBEDDING VISUALIZATIONS

This post discusses a process for building high-quality interactive embedding visualizations for a variety of different kinds of entity relationship data. It provides observations about what works and what doesn't and a background on embeddings and embedding visualizations. Embedding visualizations are useful for targeted searches and they are fun to browse around and explore.

OPEN SOURCE IS NEITHER A COMMUNITY NOR A DEMOCRACY

Using open source software doesn't entitle one to a vote on the direction of that project. Democratic decision-making never existed in the open source world. The majority of open source projects are run by a small group of core contributors who advance the project, review patches, and guard the integrity of the vision. Open source is first and foremost a method of collaboration between programmers who show up to do the work. It is not a program for users to get free stuff or a seat at the table where decisions are made.

THE MAKER OF STABLE DIFFUSION IS COLLAPSING, CONSIDERING SALE

Stability AI is in big financial trouble and is in talks to be sold off. The company generated less than $5 million in revenue in the first quarter of this year while losing more than $30 million. It is reportedly sitting on $100 million worth of outstanding bills. The company lost its CEO Emad Mostaque in March and it is currently facing legal troubles over using Getty Images' intellectual property to train AI models.

AT&T GOES UP AGAINST T-MOBILE, STARLINK WITH AST SPACEMOBILE SATELLITE DEAL

AT&T and AST SpaceMobile have signed an agreement that will last until 2030 to provide a space-based broadband network to everyday cell phones.

MICROSOFT ASKS HUNDREDS OF CHINA-BASED AI STAFF TO CONSIDER RELOCATING AMID U.S.-CHINA TENSIONS

Around 700 to 800 Microsoft employees based in China involved in machine learning and other cloud-computing tasks have been offered the opportunity to transfer to countries including the US, Ireland, Australia, and New Zealand.

VISUAL DESIGN RULES

A list of visual design rules (with examples) that are safe to follow.

VCS AREN'T YOUR FRIENDS

While VCs may act friendly, their funds come first.

THE MORAL CASE FOR MAKING MONEY

Money allows builders to create things that can benefit many other people.

D&D STORY, REAL-TIME DATA, AND PROBLEM SOLVING

This post presents a series of experiments testing GPT-4o's abilities.

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NETFLIX GETS THE NFL: THREE-YEAR DEAL STARTS THIS SEASON ON CHRISTMAS

Amazon and Netflix have signed a three-year deal that will put exclusive Christmas games on the streaming service. The first two games will be aired on Christmas Day. 2025 and 2026 will see at least one game on the service each Christmas. The NFL is able to cancel all of its TV deals at the same time in 2029 - this could lead to an unprecedented bidding war that could upend the entire NFL content world.

HERE'S THE INSIDE STORY OF WHY ELON MUSK FIRED THE ENTIRE TESLA SUPERCHARGER STAFF

This article presents the story of Tesla's Supercharger firings based on interviews with eight former charging-division employees, one contractor, and an email that Tesla sent to outside vendors. Charging chief Rebecca Tinucci went to meet with Elon Musk about the network's future the day before the firings. Tinucci had recently cut between 15% to 20% of staff, but Musk wanted more layoffs. She balked at the request, saying that deeper cuts would undermine the charging businesses' fundamentals. Musk responded by firing Tinucci and her entire 500-member team.

HOW TO PUT A DATA CENTER IN A SHOEBOX

The world's need for computing requires colossal amounts of power that will soon exceed what the planet can provide. Superconductors offer the possibility of drastically lower energy consumption as they do not dissipate energy when passing a current. While they require cryogenic temperatures to work, they offer many benefits like zero-resistance interconnects, digital logic built on ultrashort pulses that require minimal energy, and the capacity for incredible computing density due to easy 3D chip stacking. Superconducting computers can be more power efficient than their classical cousins at large scales.

INTRODUCTION TO CANCER VACCINES

This post presents notes on various topics related to cancer vaccines. It covers cancer neoantigens, protein characterization, AlphaFold, different cancer treatments, vaccine production, and more. Cancer vaccines that target neoantigens are expensive as they have to be personalized. While individualized cancer vaccines are not yet practical, they present a promising possibility for significantly better cancer treatments.

QUARY

Quary is an open source business intelligence tool for engineers. It allows engineers to connect to databases; write SQL queries to transform, organize, and document tables in databases; create charts, dashboards, and reports; test, collaborate, and refactor iteratively through version control; and deploy organized, documented models back into databases. Quary supports Amazon Redshift, Google BigQuery, PostgreSQL, Snowflake, Supabase, DuckDB, and SQLite.

GOOGLE LETS THIRD-PARTY DEVELOPERS INTO HOME THROUGH NEW APIS

Google is opening up its Home platform to third-party developers through new APIs that build on the foundation of Matter. Developers looking to tap into the APIs will need to pass certification before rolling out their apps. Apps won't be able to access users' smart home devices without their explicit consent. Google plans to open up access to the APIs on a rolling basis. The first apps using them will hit the Play Store this fall.

INSTAGRAM'S CO-FOUNDER IS ANTHROPIC'S NEW CHIEF PRODUCT OFFICER

Mike Krieger, one of the co-founders of Instagram, is Anthropic's new chief product officer. Krieger spent the last few years working on an AI news-reading app that was recently acquired by Yahoo. His background in developing intuitive products and user experiences will be invaluable for Anthropic as it creates new ways for people to interact with its AI chatbot Claude.

FOR SELF-DRIVING CARS, THE FREE RIDE IS OVER

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) has opened investigations into almost all of the major companies testing autonomous vehicles or advanced driver-assist systems. The agency is examining hundreds of crashes for safety lapses. The investigations signal a new phase in the relationship between safety regulators and the private sector.

SPACEX STARSHIP'S NEXT LAUNCH 'PROBABLY 3 TO 5 WEEKS' AWAY, ELON MUSK SAYS

The objective for Starship's next test flight is for the ship to get past max heating, or at least further than last time.

"IS THIS PROJECT STILL MAINTAINED?"

This post looks at what it means to 'maintain' an open source project, the nature of succession, and how expectations differ between maintainers, contributors, and users.

MERGING REMIX AND REACT ROUTER

React Router and Remix are merging into one project - what was planned to be released as Remix 3 is now going to be released as React Router v7.

IDEA LIST

A list of project ideas for developers.

RASPBERRY PI IS GOING PUBLIC TO EXPAND ITS RANGE OF TINY COMPUTERS

Raspberry Pi has announced plans to file for a UK stock market listing to expand its current talent pool and product offerings.

APPLE BRINGS EYE-TRACKING TO RECENT IPHONES AND IPADS

Eye-tracking for iPhones and iPads, available for devices with the A12 chip or later, allows users to move through elements like apps and menus just by looking at their screen.

TRY IT STRESS-FREE WITH A 3-DAY MONEY-BACK GUARANTEE.

GOOGLE IS REDESIGNING ITS SEARCH ENGINE — AND IT'S AI ALL THE WAY DOWN

Billions of Google users will soon see AI-generated summaries at the top of many of their search results. The AI Overviews are designed to take out the hard work of searching so users can focus on the important things. Google announced several other AI-powered features at its I/O developer conference, such as a feature in Lens that lets users search by capturing a video, a planning tool that can generate trip itineraries and meal plans with a single query, and suggestions within search results. While similar products have come under scrutiny for summarizing content and not directing users to the actual sources of information, Google says that early data shows that the new way of searching will actually lead to more clicks to the open web.

OPENAI CHIEF SCIENTIST ILYA SUTSKEVER IS OFFICIALLY LEAVING

Ilya Sutskever, OpenAI's co-founder and chief scientist, is officially leaving the company. Sutskever helped lead the coup against Sam Altman and then later changed his mind. His employment status had been ambiguous since the ouster. Jakub Pachocki, the company's director of research, will be OpenAI's new chief scientist.

WEIGHT LOSS FROM WEGOVY SUSTAINED FOR UP TO FOUR YEARS, TRIAL SHOWS

A large long-term trial of semaglutide found that early weight loss from the drug is generally maintained for up to four years, with the participants in the study receiving weekly injections. The participants in the study tended to lose weight over the first 65 weeks on the drug but then hit a plateau. Semaglutide reduced participants' risk of heart attack, stroke, and cardiovascular-related deaths by 20% over the span of a little over three years. 52.4% of participants who received the drug in the study moved to a lower category of body mass index during the trial.

NEW GEL BREAKS DOWN ALCOHOL IN THE BODY

A protein-based gel developed by researchers at ETH Zurich can break down alcohol in the gastrointestinal tract without harming the body. The gel, made from whey protein fibrils, uses individual iron atoms to convert alcohol in the intestine into harmless acetic acid. It has been shown to reduce blood alcohol levels in mice by up to 50%. The gel is only effective as long as there is still alcohol in the gastrointestinal tract, so it can't help with alcohol poisoning. While it has yet to be tested in humans, the researchers are confident it will be a success, so they have already applied to patent the gel.

it yourself [9] or sign up for something even crazier…

PROJECT IDX, GOOGLE'S NEXT-GEN IDE, IS NOW IN OPEN BETA

Project IDX is an AI-centric, browser-based development environment that was launched as an invite-only service in August. Over 100,000 developers have already tried the service, which is now available in open beta. Google has added an integration with the Google Maps Platform into the IDE and integrations with the Chrome Dev Tools and Lighthouse to help debug applications. It will soon enable deploying apps to Cloud Run, Google Cloud's serverless platform for running front- and back-end services, and integrate with Checks, Google's AI-powered compliance platform.

PIKO

Piko is a reverse proxy to connect to external networks. It can be used to expose services in a customer network, as a bring-your-own-cloud service, or to connect to IoT devices. The proxy server may be hosted as a cluster of nodes for fault tolerance, scale, and zero downtime deployments. Piko was designed to serve production traffic rather than as a tool for testing and development.

GOOGLE I/O 2024: HERE'S EVERYTHING GOOGLE JUST ANNOUNCED

Google kicked off its I/O developer conference with a two-hour presentation containing a rapid-fire stream of announcements. This article summarizes these announcements into an easy-to-read list. The announcements include Firebase Genkit, an addition to the Firebase platform aimed at making it easier for developers to build AI-powered applications in JavaScript/TypeScript; LearnLM, a family of generative AI models fine-tuned for learning; AI-generated quizzes on YouTube; a new discovery feature for apps in Google Play; scam call detection; Ask Photos, a feature that lets users search across their Google Photos collection using natural language queries; and much more.

ASK HN: DISILLUSIONED AFTER AI? (HACKER NEWS THREAD)

In this thread, developers discuss how they feel about AI technology and its impact on their careers. Advances in AI may leave some developers feeling disillusioned. Some developers feel that whatever they build will just get gobbled away by some big tech company. AI is de-democratizing tech in a big way - a handful of giga-scale companies hold all the cards. The field is still very much in its hype phase, so while the technology is impressive, there is still a lot it cannot do.