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SAM BANKMAN-FRIED SENTENCED TO 25 YEARS FOR FTX FRAUD

FTX co-founder Sam Bankman-Fried has been sentenced to a total of 300 months in prison for seven counts of conspiracy and fraud charges. He has also been ordered to forfeit more than $11 billion, including property. The sentence is shorter than the 40 to 50 years requested by the prosecutors, but longer than the six and a half years his lawyers asked for and far less than the maximum of 110 years. Bankman-Fried has been residing in custody since August 2023, where he has been subjected to multiple extortion attempts.

FACEBOOK LET NETFLIX SEE USER DMS, QUIT STREAMING TO KEEP NETFLIX HAPPY

Facebook Watch, announced in 2017, never really took off. Recently revealed documents show the company's plans for the platform and how it was confident in its ability to compete with Netflix. Mark Zuckerberg abruptly announced a change in strategy in May 2018, suddenly slashing the budget for the platform. He claimed the budget changes were based on his knowledge of the company's strategy and financial outlook. Months later, Facebook and Netflix announced a new data-sharing agreement that involved Netflix reaching $200 million in advertising spend by 2019. The companies also had a data-sharing agreement that may have allowed Netflix to access Facebook users' private messages.

HOW WE’LL REACH A 1 TRILLION TRANSISTOR GPU

Recent achievements in AI have been due to three factors: innovation in efficient machine-learning algorithms, the availability of massive amounts of data to train neural networks, and progress in energy-efficient computing through the advancement of semiconductor technology. The industry will need much more powerful devices to continue at its current pace. For the past 50 years, the industry has focused on shrinking the transistor, but now, there are many more possibilities. Future GPUs will not be restricted to the sizes and form factors of current devices - integrated AI systems will be composed of as many energy-efficient transistors as is practical.

MEMORIES ARE MADE BY BREAKING DNA — AND FIXING IT

A study in mice shows that memories are formed from breaks in DNA. These breaks occur due to a rush of electrical activity and are repaired using an inflammatory response. The findings suggest a mechanism for faulty memory in people with neurodegenerative diseases.

VALKEY: THE OPEN SOURCE ALTERNATIVE TO REDIS BACKED BY AWS, GOOGLE, ORACLE

Valkey is a high-performance data structure server that primarily serves key/value workloads. It is an open-source fork of the popular Redis data store. The project started as Redis Labs, the company behind the original Redis codebase, changed Redis to more restrictive licensing. The Valkey fork has assembled an impressive roster of maintainers and contributors and has wide-ranging industry support.

SPICE

Spice is a runtime that makes querying data by SQL across one or more data sources simple and fast. It provides developers with a unified SQL query interface that can locally materialize, accelerate, and query data tables sourced from any database, data warehouse, or data lake. Spice makes it easy to build data-driven and data-intensive applications. It leverages industry-leading technologies like Apache DataFusion, Apache Arrow, Apache Arrow Flight, and DuckDB.

A FEW THOUGHTS ON THE DOJ’S ANTITRUST CASE AGAINST APPLE

None of the things mentioned in the DOJ's case against Apple should be a surprise to anyone who has been following in the Apple space for years. People have been hoping the company would change or tweak its ways in many of these areas. While Apple's actions may be disagreeable, they may not be illegal. The DOJ is fighting an uphill battle with its case, but it will hopefully apply some pressure on Apple to loosen its grip on some things.

GOOGLE SAYS APPLE IS BRINGING RCS TO THE IPHONE IN ‘FALL OF 2024’

The Android website has added a new landing page for Google Messages which notes that RCS is coming to the iPhone in the fall of 2024. It is not clear whether RCS will arrive with the initial release of iOS 18 or in an update in the last few months of the year. The updated landing page also notes that animated emoji reactions are coming soon to RCS. Screenshots of the landing page are available in the article.

PYPI HALTED NEW USERS AND PROJECTS WHILE IT FENDED OFF SUPPLY-CHAIN ATTACK

New project creation was halted on PyPI for around 10 hours while the site dealt with an onslaught of package uploads that executed malicious code on any device that installed them.

4.5 MILLION TIMES FASTER INTERNET? ASTON UNIVERSITY MAKES IT POSSIBLE

Researchers at Aston University achieved an internet data transmission speed of 301 terabits per second by utilizing wavelength bands that have not been previously used in fiber-optic systems.

MEET HUME’S EMPATHIC VOICE INTERFACE

Hume can understand peoples' tone of voice and use that to inform its generated voice language.

GOOGLE NOW INDEXING BITCOIN’S BLOCKCHAIN TO SHOW WALLET BALANCES

Google Search can now display balances for wallets on the Bitcoin, Arbitrum, Avalanche, Fantom, Optimism, and Polygon networks.

MOJO IS OPEN SOURCE!

Modular has shared its full commit history and open sourced Mojo, a programming language that combines Python's syntax and ecosystem with systems programming and metaprogramming features.

MY LIST OF CHALLENGING SOFTWARE PROJECTS SOME PROGRAMMERS SHOULD TRY

A list of project ideas for those interested in exploring new areas of knowledge - most of the ideas may not be relevant to today's job market.

“THE KING IS DEAD” — CLAUDE 3 SURPASSES GPT-4 ON CHATBOT ARENA FOR THE FIRST TIME

Anthropic's Claude 3 Opus has surpassed OpenAI's GPT-4 for the first time on Chatbot Arena. Chatbot Arena is a leaderboard run by the Large Model Systems Organization, a research organization dedicated to open models. Its site allows visitors to rate outputs from various models, enabling it to calculate the best models in aggregate. While Claude's rise is notable, GPT-4 is now over a year old.

GOOGLE’S PIXEL 9 WILL REPORTEDLY COME IN THREE SIZES THIS FALL

Google plans to release three models of the upcoming Pixel 9 this year. There will be two versions in the premium range, the Pixel 9 Pro and Pixel 9 Pro XL. The Pixel 9 will have a 6.03-inch display, the Pixel 9 Pro will have a 6.2-inch display, and the Pixel 9 Pro XL will have a 6.5-inch display. Both Pro models will include a triple-camera system on the back. The new Pixels aren't expected to be released until October.

ELON MUSK SAYS TESLA OPTIMUS ROBOT SHOULD COST ‘LESS THAN HALF OF A CAR’

Elon Musk says that Tesla's general-purpose humanoid robot Optimus, designed to take over repetitive tasks from humans, should cost less than half the price of a car. He has previously claimed that the demand for the robot could be as high as 10 to 20 billion units and that it would account for a majority of Tesla's long-term value. There is no clear timeline for when the robot will begin production, but Tesla has been listing more jobs for its robot program lately, including positions related to supply chains and manufacturing.

SCIENTISTS FIND HUMAN BRAINS ARE GETTING LARGER AND LARGER

A study on MRIs of people born in the 1930s through to the 1970s found that babies in the 1970s had nearly 15% more brain surface area and 6.6% more brain volume than in the 1930s. Parts of the brain associated with memory and learning have also increased in size. It is unclear if larger brains make people more intelligent, but it could still be a plus as there are links to better brain health. Larger brain structures may reflect improved brain development and health. The percentage of people diagnosed with Alzheimer's Disease has decreased every decade.

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THE ONE ABOUT THE WEB DEVELOPER JOB MARKET

The developer job market is the worst it has been in over two decades, even with the AI bubble in full force. It is unlikely to ever fully bounce back. Finding a good job is only going to get harder - the overall market might fluctuate, but there isn't much on the horizon that seems likely to turn the decline around. Effective documentation, information, and training will likely start getting harder to find, especially in areas where AI is even less effective than normal.

42.PARQUET – A ZIP BOMB FOR THE BIG DATA AGE

Apache Parquet, the de facto standard for tabular data exchange, uses a binary, columnar, and compressed data representation and comes with enough metadata so that files can be correctly interpreted without additional information. The format is supported by most modern data tools and services. Parquet files come with some risks - even perfectly valid files can be problematic. This article discusses how to exploit one of the vulnerabilities in the Parquet file format to create a 'zip bomb' that is only 42 kilobytes large but contains 622 trillion values, requiring over 4 petabytes of memory to decompress.

THE FIGHT FOR AI TALENT: PAY MILLION-DOLLAR PACKAGES AND BUY WHOLE TEAMS

The AI boom is pushing the industry's talent wars to new extremes, with companies offering million-dollar annual compensation packages and accelerating stock-vesting schedules to draw people with expertise and experience to develop generative AI technologies. This is happening as layoffs continue in other areas of tech. While there is a surplus of software engineers, the number of candidates who have trained large language models from scratch or can help solve vexing problems in AI is scarce. Salespeople in AI are also in demand.

HOW AI COULD EXPLODE THE ECONOMY

Artificial intelligence is already making people rich, but some researchers think this is only the beginning. AI may be set to make society much richer by causing economic growth at a scale it has never experienced before. This article looks at arguments for why such a dramatic explosion in economic growth might be possible. Explosive growth without causing a loss in jobs may be possible, but even a small boost can wind up changing all of our lives.

AMAZON SPENDS $2.75 BILLION ON AI STARTUP ANTHROPIC IN ITS LARGEST VENTURE INVESTMENT YET

Amazon will maintain a minority stake in the company but won't have an Anthropic board seat.

THE DISNEY PLUS-HULU MERGER IS WAY MORE THAN A STREAMING BUNDLE

Hulu's integration into Disney involved a large transfer of assets and a huge reworking of underlying infrastructure that will change the way Disney thinks about, creates, and distributes content.

USAGE-BASED GPT EARNINGS

OpenAI is partnering with a small group of US builders to test usage-based GPT earnings with the goal of creating a vibrant ecosystem where builders are rewarded for their creativity and impact.

HOW TO MAKE $1M, $5M, OR $10M+ IN SILICON VALLEY

APPLE TURNS TO LONGTIME STEVE JOBS DISCIPLE TO DEFEND ITS ‘WALLED GARDEN’

Phil Schiller says that the whole developer ecosystem has benefited from the work Apple has done together with them.

LEAKED IMAGES REVEAL MICROSOFT’S WHITE DISC-LESS XBOX SERIES X CONSOLE

The leaked images, available in the article, show a disc-less system with the same exterior design as the existing black Xbox Series X.

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MICROSOFT’S NEW ERA OF AI PCS WILL NEED A COPILOT KEY, SAYS INTEL

Microsoft's new specifications for OEMs building AI PCs includes a requirement that they must have a Copilot key. To be recognized as an AI PC, OEM partners must also provide a combination of hardware and software including a Neural Processing Unit (NPU), the latest CPUs and GPUs, and access to Copilot. It is unclear what OEMs will get in return for adhering to Microsoft's AI PC definition. Intel recognizes some laptops without the Copilot key as AI PCs due to their integrated NPUs.

APPLE’S WWDC 2024 IS SET FOR JUNE 10TH

Apple's Worldwide Developers Conference will start with a keynote on June 10 and run through until June 14. This year's event should be similar to previous years, with announcements likely focusing on the company's fall software updates and new hardware. Apple has reportedly spent millions per day training its own AI models and it has been rumored to be courting news outlets for training content partnerships. The company may be planning a deal with third parties to supply cloud-based AI features. It may also be planning to open up an ecosystem for AI developers to create deep integrations into its devices.

STARTUP PLANS LARGEST OCEAN GEOENGINEERING PLANT

Californian startup Ebb Carbon plans to use seawater to remove tons of carbon dioxide from the air. Its pilot carbon dioxide removal plant, codenamed Project Macoma, could start operations as soon as this year. It will pump hundreds of thousands of liters of seawater every day, splitting the water into acidic and alkaline streams using an electrochemical process. The alkaline outflow mixes with carbon dioxide in ambient seawater to create bicarbonate, a stable way to store carbon. While the impact of the plant will be small, the process, if scaled up, could help mitigate the effects of climate change.

IT'S HEARTY, IT'S MEATY, IT'S MOLD

One of the most promising sources of alternative foods is fungi, which contain nutritious proteins, fats, antioxidants, and flavor molecules. Scientists are exploring the many possibilities for new flavors and textures that can be made by modifying genes already present in fungi, as opposed to introducing genes from wildly different species. Researchers have modified a fungus called koji mold, usually used in East Asia to ferment starches, to be more meat-like, offering an alternative route for creating meat substitutes. The approach can create meat substitutes without the complex ingredients lists, costs, and technical difficulties of cultured meat.

WHAT COMPUTERS CANNOT DO: THE CONSEQUENCES OF TURING-COMPLETENESS

This article helps readers understand the limits of computers and what computers cannot do. Most programmers seem to not understand these hard limits or what they mean. Understanding Turing-completeness and its consequences for our finite machines, which are technically not Turing-complete, is important for programming.

WHY GOOGLE FAILED TO MAKE GPT-3 + WHY MULTIMODAL AGENTS ARE THE PATH TO AGI — WITH DAVID LUAN OF ADEPT

This article contains an interview with David Luan, one of OpenAI's early hires, a past leader of Google's LLM efforts and co-leader of Google Brain, and founder of Adept, one of the leading companies in the AI agents space, where he discusses his time with early OpenAI and how Adept is building agents that can do anything humans can do on a computer. Google had a huge lead with AI in 2017, but it was OpenAI that ended up making GPT 1/2/3. While Google's team created Transformers, the company's internal processes made it difficult for its researchers to get work done. OpenAI was able to beat Google because it took big swings and focused.

HERE’S WHY AI SEARCH ENGINES REALLY CAN’T KILL GOOGLE

Google Search seems to be getting worse as AI tools get better. Google is complex and people use it for many different things. Large language model-based bots may be genuinely more useful than a page of Google results in some cases, but it will be difficult for AI to replace Google as the center of the web for most use cases. This article looks at how search works and explains how Google is still much better than LLM-based systems for the majority of queries.

HOW TO TRADE SOFTWARE FOR SMALL MONEY?

It's easy for system engineers to make something that is valuable and widely used, but quite a lot harder to get paid for it. The competition is often free software maintained by well-funded teams and there is a community norm where it is seen to be mildly immoral to charge money for software. Pricing models for systems software is also tricky. This post looks at various options for pricing models. SaaS software is likely more prevalent as VCs don't think that non-SaaS companies make money.

FACEBOOK SNOOPED ON USERS’ SNAPCHAT TRAFFIC IN SECRET PROJECT, DOCUMENTS REVEAL

Facebook had a secret project that intercepted and decrypted Snapchat network traffic to understand user behavior and help Facebook compete with Snapchat.

THOUGHTS ON APPLE VISION PRO

A review of the Apple Vision Pro from the developer who built the largest open-source projects for both of Apple's AR frameworks: ARKit and RealityKit.

A NATIVE VERSION OF CHROME ARRIVES FOR ARM-BASED WINDOWS PCS

Chrome users with Windows machines powered by Arm-based processors will have access to a much faster native browser starting this week.

ROBINHOOD LAUNCHES 3% CASH BACK CREDIT CARD

The Robinhood Gold Card, which offers 3% cash back on all categories, doesn't have any annual fees but will require a Robinhood Gold membership, which costs $5 per month or $50 annually.

ASK HN: WHAT NON-AI PRODUCTS ARE YOU WORKING ON? (HACKER NEWS THREAD)

Projects discussed in this thread include a synthetic DNA assembly company, a Christian app and tool discovery and distribution platform, and a trading terminal tailored to scalping traders, prop firms, and brokerages.

ELON MUSK REQUIRES ‘FSD’ DEMO FOR EVERY PROSPECTIVE TESLA BUYER IN NORTH AMERICA

Tesla employees are now required to install and show customers how to use the latest version of the company's Full Self-Driving (FSD) premium driver assistance system before completing a vehicle delivery in North America. All Tesla vehicles have a standard driver assistance system called Autopilot. The FSD option costs $199 per month for most customers. Drivers must remain attentive to the road and ready to steer or brake at any time when using FSD.

ADAM NEUMANN MAKES A $500 MILLION BID FOR WEWORK THAT COULD HIT $900 MILLION IF FINANCING AND DILIGENCE FIRM UP

Adam Neumann, former WeWork CEO, has submitted an unsolicited bid in excess of $500 million to acquire WeWork out of bankruptcy. The bid could potentially go up to $900 million pending due diligence. It is unclear how Neumann will finance the offer. The bid may make WeWork's bankruptcy proceedings more complex. The company is seeking to walk away from some of its longer-term commitments in less lucrative markets, but some of its lessors are fighting these efforts.

AS AI BOOMS, LAND NEAR NUCLEAR POWER PLANTS BECOMES HOT REAL ESTATE

Land near power plants is set to become a hot commodity due to AI. Several data center operators, including AWS and Microsoft, have explored nuclear-powered options for their operations. While most projects are looking to build on the land surrounding nuclear plants, some projects, like Microsoft's, are exploring the idea of installing tiny modular plants to power existing data centers. While small modular reactors are not yet ready for production, there are still more than 400 reactors around the globe to collocate with.