Welcome to the Tech Me Right Home for Friday, December 6th, 2024. I'm Brian McCullough. Today, Santa Sam has made his first delivery of the promised 12 days of launches from OpenAI. David Sachs is named the AI and crypto czar. Samsung's entire UI is getting a radical overhaul. OpenAI is seemingly about to restructure everything. No more Surface Studios, question mark.
And of course, the weekend long read suggestions. Here's what you missed today in the world of tech. Sam Altman is making good on his promise to be Santa. The first of what was promised to be 12 days of announces came yesterday. as OpenAI launched ChatGPT Pro, a $200 per month plan with unlimited access to O1, GPT-4.0, and more, plus an O1 version that uses more compute for better responses. Quoting The Verge.
The company is releasing the full version of its O1 model, replacing O1 Preview, which was initially released as a limited preview in September, codenamed Strawberry. The new model will be available for ChatGPT Plus and team users today, while Enterprise and EDU users will have access to it starting next week. The company is also introducing ChatGPT Pro, a new $200 monthly subscription tier that includes unlimited access to OpenAI 01, GPT-40, and advanced voice mode.
It also includes a version of O1 exclusive to Pro users that uses more compute to provide the best possible answer to the hardest problems. called O1 Pro Mode. The company will continue to offer a plus tier for $20 a month that includes early access to new features, access to all the company's models, except the more powerful O1 version, and more. The company said,
that compared to O1 Preview, users can expect a faster, more powerful, and more accurate model that is better at coding and math. It can also provide reasoning responses to images. And OpenAI promises it's been trained to be more concise, which should result in in faster response times than 01 preview. OpenAI plans to add support for web browsing, file uploads, and more in ChatGPT, though there's no timeline for these changes.
It also announced a ChatGPT Pro grant program that awards 10 grants of ChatGPT Pro to medical researchers at leading institutions with plans for additional grants across various disciplines, end quote. I guess the All In podcast will soon be some sort of official mouthpiece for regulatory news because...
President-elect Trump says David Sachs will be the White House AI and crypto czar to, quote, work on a legal framework so the crypto industry has the clarity it has been asking for, quoting Bloomberg. David will guide policy for the administration in artificial intelligence and cryptocurrency, two areas critical to the future of American competitiveness. David will focus on making America the clear global leader in both areas, Trump said Thursday in a post on his Truth Social Network.
Sachs said on a recent episode of his All In podcast that a key man clause in the agreements of his venture firm Kraft Ventures legal documents would likely prevent him from taking a full-time position. but he might consider an advisory role in the new administration. The new post is expected to help spearhead the crypto industry deregulation Trump promised on the campaign trail.
The role is expected to provide cryptocurrency advocates a direct line to the White House and serve as a liaison between Trump, Congress, and the federal agencies that interface with digital assets, including the Securities and Exchange Commission and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission.
On the AI front, Sachs would help Trump put his imprint on an emerging technology whose popular use has exploded in recent years. Sachs is poised to be at the front lines in determining how the federal government both adopts AI and regulates its use as advances in the technology and adoption by consumers pose a wide array of benefits as well as risks touching on national security, privacy, jobs, and other areas. The appointment won't require Sachs to divest or publicly disclose his assets.
Like Elon Musk, Sachs will be a special government employee. He can serve a maximum of 130 days per year with or without compensation, end quote. If you are in the Samsung ecosystem, expect some big changes ahead. Samsung has released one UI 7 beta for the Galaxy S24 with a huge visual overhaul, including a now bar, a vertically scrolling app drawer.
new security and AI tools, and more, quoting 9to5Google. One UI 7 is one of Samsung's biggest Android updates in years, with a huge visual overhaul, plenty of new features, and more. It's such a big update, in fact. that the changelog Samsung provides is incredibly long, taking around 15x the space available on the Galaxy S24 Ultra's screen to fully show.
One of the big changes in One UI 7 is splitting the notifications and quick settings apart. This is optional, but it is the default behavior. Years after other brands switched, Samsung has finally moved to a vertically scrolling app drawer in One UI 7. Pages remain an option when using custom app sorting. You can now remove the name from app icons and adjust the size while gaining the ability to add a name to widgets. Samsung's take on the dynamic island has arrived in One UI 7.
Two new features that mimic what Apple has implemented. The first of these is the Now bar, which appears on the lock screen. The small widget shows up at the bottom of the screen and can show information such as charging status, playing music, timers, and much more. There's no third-party app integration, at least for now.
Similarly, live notifications can show a chip in the status bar that shows more information than a typical notification and, with a click, can show controls. Google is rumored to be implementing something similar in Android 16. A major change in One UI 7, not mentioned in Samsung's changelog, is a redesigned multitasking menu. The new menu swaps out the existing one app at a time look for one that shows two or three at once in a Rolodex-like design.
It's similar to how Android showed this page in past versions, as well as being similar to how iOS currently implements this functionality. There are no settings to revert this, and it's unclear for now how this might affect the altered menus used on foldables and tablets.
Samsung currently only has one UI7 available in beta, with only the Galaxy S24, S24 Plus, and S24 Ultra compatible for the time being. The update is available in select countries, but should expand to more regions and more devices in the country. The update will be fully released in Q1 2025 to other devices following its launch on the Galaxy S25 series, end quote.
Something tells me that by the end of 2025, the weird hybrid Frankenstein structure that OpenAI has been operating under all this time will be history. Not only will... They probably be a for-profit company. But sources are also telling the Financial Times that OpenAI is discussing ditching a clause that cuts off Microsoft's access to OpenAI tech if OpenAI develops artificial general intelligence so that... Microsoft can continue investing in the company. Quoting the FT,
Microsoft's access to such a technology would be void. The OpenAI board would determine when AGI is achieved. The startup is considering removing this stipulation from its corporate structure, enabling the big tech group to continue investing in and access all OpenAI. technology after AGI is achieved.
according to multiple people with knowledge of the discussions. A final decision has not been made, and options are being discussed by the board, they added. The clause was included to protect the potentially powerful technology from being misused for commercial purposes, giving ownership of the technology to its non-profit board. According to OpenAI's website, AGI is explicitly carved out of all commercial and IP licensing agreements.
But the provision potentially limits the value of its partnership for Microsoft, which has pumped more than $13 billion into OpenAI and could disincentivize the big tech group from further investment. More funding will be needed, given the eye-watering costs involved in developing advanced AI models and a race against deep-pocketed rivals such as Google and Amazon.
When we started, we had no idea we were going to be a product company, or that the capital we needed would turn out to be so huge, Altman told a New York Times conference on Wednesday. If we knew those things, we would have picked a different structure.
We've also said that our intention is to treat AGI as a mile marker along the way. We've left ourselves some flexibility because we don't know what will happen, added Altman, who could receive a direct equity stake in OpenAI for the first time as part of the end quote. Microsoft has ended production of its $4,500 Surface Studio 2 Plus. two years after announcing the device with seemingly no plans to make a successor. Quoting Windows Central,
Microsoft has ended production on the Surface Studio 2 Plus, its ultra-premium all-in-one desktop PC designed for creatives and commercial customers. Starting at a whopping $4,500, the Studio 2 Plus was the ultimate Windows all-in-one with the best... screen display on a unique hinge that allowed the screen to lay down like a draft board.
Over the last several weeks, the Surface Studio 2 Plus has slowly fallen out of stock in multiple regions. Now today, the company has confirmed that it has no plans to restock the Surface Studio 2 Plus, meaning production on the product line has come to an end.
Customers can continue to purchase Surface Studio 2 Plus through retailers and partners with stock, a Microsoft spokesperson told Windows Central when asked for comment. For areas reaching out of stock, Surface Studio 2 Plus will no longer be available for new purchases. So if you're interested in buying a Surface Studio 2 Plus, you'd better hurry as whatever stock is remaining is all that's left.
Unfortunately, it's likely that the end of production on the Surface Studio 2 Plus also marks an end to the Surface Studio line as a whole. My own sources tell me there's no Studio 2 Plus successor lined up currently, end quote. Why is the whole internet mad at Haktua? You know Haktua Hayley Welch. But did you know she had a meme coin? She did, and it briefly pumped up to a peak market cap of $490 million.
before crashing down by more than 90%. So the whole internet is up in arms about it today, at least the crypto corners of the internet. Here's Cointelegraph quote. The Hawk meme coin was launched at 10pm UTC on December 4th and quickly rose to a peak market cap of $490 million. The price of the token then plummeted and was trading at a valuation of $41.7 million at the time of publication, marking a a 91% downturn in less than three hours.
According to aggregated data from Bubble Maps and Deck Screener, a mix of insider wallets and snipers, entities that rapidly buy up huge amounts of token supply at launch, controlled between 80 and 90 percent of Hawk's supply at launch, end quote. and quoting Quartz. Welsh's team has said they haven't sold any tokens and that no key opinion leaders had been given free tokens, adding that they, quote, tried to stop snipers as best we could through high initial fees.
But this is quoting from Cointelegraph again. According to data from Solana Block Explorer Solscanner, one wallet managed to snipe Huck seconds after launch, purchasing 17.5% of the supply of the meme coin for 4,195 wrapped Solana. worth $993,000 at the time. Over the next one and a half hours, the wallet sold 135.8 million Hawk tokens for a profit of $1.3 million."
Users on X are saying they are filing complaints with the SEC. A law firm called Burke Law tweeted, quote, if you lost money on Hawk, contact our firm to learn about your legal rights. As user Gedalia said online, clearly everyone decided to spit it out. And as user Patbit said, sell off that thang.
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It's clear that simply purchasing another security tool will not solve the problem. To survive the modern threat environment, organizations need to address their cyber risk by implementing a properly fit, vigilant, and continuously improving security operations model. You'll gain insights gleaned from more than...
253 trillion observations over 12 months across their install base. Gain essential expert guidance, discover security trends, and get a clear understanding of the evolving threat landscape in the Arctic Wolf 2024 Security Operations Report. Visit arcticwolf.com to get your copy. That's arcticwolf.com. Industry insiders believe Pat Gelsinger's departure could lead Intel toward moving away from manufacturing its chips altogether, which would be a blow to U.S. chip ambitions, quoting the FT.
On Wednesday, interim co-chief executive David Zinsner reassured investors that the company's existing strategy is intact, but industry insiders believe Gelsinger's hasty exit could be a prelude to Intel doing what was once unthinkable, moving away from manufacturing.
its own chips altogether, potentially dealing a serious blow to US attempts to rebuild its domestic semiconductor manufacturing sector. On paper, If Intel's product business was fabless, their margins and products would look much better, said Ben Bajarin, analyst at Creative Strategies. City analysts this week reiterated that Intel exiting the business would be, quote, in the best interest of Intel shareholders.
Getting Intel's Foundry to profitability is likely to cost tens of billions of dollars in the near term. That side of the business posted a $7 billion operating loss in 2023. Intel has a narrow window to pivot to contracting rival Foundry. TSMC to produce its PC and data center chips.
that are planned to go into production in 2026. The company is due to cash its first check from the U.S. government within weeks. However, doing so would make it harder to get out of the chip manufacturing business due to provisions in its Chips Act contracts.
According to the terms of the deal disclosed by Intel in an SEC filing, a change of control of Intel's foundry business would require a buyer to sign up to Intel's investment commitments or risk the Department of Commerce demanding that Intel return the money." which leads to... The Weekend Long Read Suggestions, because first up, the Wall Street Journal...
has an in-depth look at what went wrong for Intel CEO Pat Gelsinger. Just at the highest level, grok this. Since Gelsinger took over in February of 2021, NVIDIA added $3 trillion in market cap. while Intel lost $150 billion. But there's much more, quote,
By the time he took over, the company was in such a dismal state that it wasn't clear it could be saved by any CEO. Gelsinger's challenge was figuring out how to successfully implement plans that would have been more likely to succeed had they been launched years earlier. Intel is one of the last remaining integrated device manufacturers, or IDMs, which means it both designs and manufactures chips. Most companies pick one or the other.
NVIDIA is often called a chip maker, but it doesn't actually make chips. The physical act of etching circuits into silicon wafers takes place largely in the fabrication plants of TSMC, which pioneered the business of producing chips for clients, a model that changed the industry forever. Gelsinger wanted to start a business like TSMC's within Intel. To justify the huge capital outlays of building new chip facilities, which can cost $20 billion,
Intel would make chips on contract for other companies. He hired a bevy of engineers and managers to handle the new business, recruiting heavily from the ranks of longtime Intel executives who had left after the company lost its mojo. He called his strategy IDM 2.0 and set an internal goal of making Intel the second-largest contract chipmaker in the world behind TSMC by 2030.
But one problem was that Intel had no significant customers and was unlikely to peel them away from TSMC or Samsung without being able to show significantly better manufacturing capabilities. There was also a culture problem. and other contract chip makers bend over backwards to please customers and make sure they get exactly what they want. Intel wasn't nearly as flexible. Its factories were used to making chips solely for one client, Intel, end quote.
Then The Verge has this amazing and very long look at the millions of people who are today falling in love with AI companions. Like, what is this? Is this a real thing? Is this really happening? Quote,
Of the more than 20 users I spoke with, many noted that they never thought they were the type of person to sign up for an AI companion, by which they meant the type of person you might already be picturing. Young, male, socially isolated. I did speak to people who fit that... description, but there were just as many women in their 40s, men in their 60s, married, divorced, with kids and without, looking for romance, company, or something else.
There were people recovering from breakups, ground down by dating apps, homebound with illness, lonely after becoming slowly estranged from their friends or looking back on their lives and wanting to roleplay what could have been. People designed AI therapists. characters from their favorite shows, angels for biblical guidance, and yes,
many girlfriends, boyfriends, husbands, and wives. Many of these people experienced real benefits. Many of them also got hurt in unexpected ways. What they had in common was that, like Naro, they were surprised by the reality of the feelings elicited by something they knew to be unreal, and this led them to wonder, what exactly are these things? And what does it mean to have a relationship with them? End quote. And finally, from the Atlantic, when a
telescope is a national security risk. Quote, in the early months of 2023, the astronomer Zeljko Ivesich found himself taking part in a highly unusual negotiation. Vesic is the... 59-year-old director of the Vera Rubin Observatory, a $1 billion telescope that the United States has been developing in the Chilean high desert for more than 20 years. He was trying to reach an agreement that would keep his telescope from compromising America's national security. when it starts stargazing next year.
This task was odd enough for any scientist, and it was made more so by the fact that Ivesich had no idea with whom he was negotiating. I didn't even know which agency I was talking to, he told me on a recent video call from his field office in Chile.
Whoever it was would communicate with him only through intermediaries at the National Science Foundation. Vesic didn't even know whether one person or several people were on the other side of the exchange. All he knew was that they were very security-minded.
Also, they seem to know a great deal about astronomy. The Vera Rubin is housed in a sleek building on a mountaintop in the Atacama Desert. The chamber that holds its primary mirror juts up from the end of the elongated structure like the head of a sphinx. The observatory represents a freakish augmentation of human vision. Like the James Webb Space Telescope that NASA launched a few years ago, it will be able to see to the far edge of the universe. But the Webb
can observe only a tiny region of the sky. The Vera Rubin will be able to lock onto a tile of sky that is much larger and, after 30 seconds, return an image of that tile that extends 13 billion light-years into space. Then it will pan over and lock onto an adjacent tile of sky and do the same thing. After just three nights of going tile by tile, like a handyman redoing a bathroom wall, it will have captured a deep image of the entire sky.
National security types worry about what the Veriruban will be able to see. Vesic told me that each of its full sky images will contain more than 40 billion objects. That's several times more than all previous surveys of this sort combined. Rubin sees an object that it hasn't seen before, it will alert astronomers. If a star explodes billions of light years away, an algorithm will spot it and the community will be notified.
If a near-Earth asteroid comes hurtling right towards us, scientists will know to zoom into it immediately with other observatories. The problem is... If a spy satellite or some other secret spacecraft moves into view, that too could get flagged and have its location distributed in real time to people all across the world."
No weekend bonus episodes this weekend. All of my scheduling this week blew up, so I also missed doing a Rad History episode, but more to come from that soon. Talk to you on Monday.