Welcome to the Techmeme Ride Home for Wednesday, July 24th, 2024. I'm Brian McCulloch. Today, Metas Lama 3.1 shows that open models can at least go toe-to-toe with proprietary AI models. Why did the Google Wiz-deal fall apart with the crowd-strike outage a part of it? Kamala Harris, AI's R, question mark, and what do the reviews of the recent Samsung foldable phone say to us about those Apple foldable phone rumors? Here's what you missed today in the world of tech.
As alluded to yesterday, Meta debuted Lama 3.1 405 B, the first Frontier-level open-source AI model according to Mark Zuckerberg, as well as new Lama 3.1 70B and 8B models. Meta also says it's working on Lama 4 already, which you'd expect, quoting Ben's Bites. Lama 3.1 405 B is the biggest Lama of them all. Using it as a teacher, Meta has retrained its 8 billion and 70 billion versions too. Together, these models have a context window of 128,000 tokens. This means you can enter hundreds
of pages worth of content in your prompts. There are multilingual, in eight languages, English, German, French, Italian, Portuguese, Hindi, Spanish, and Thai. They come with support for using tools like web search, math reasoning, and code execution. They are open source. You can download the weights and use them in your applications. Lama 3.1 models are not multimodal, however. They don't understand or create images, but multimodal Lama's are coming soon. Not only Lama 3.1 405 B
is the smartest LLM ever released openly, it also humbles the closed giants. It's benchmark scores near and sometimes top GPT-40 and clawed 3.5 sonnet. Although nothing is truly open source in AI, this launch is more than just open weights. Meta has released a massive technical report outlining what the challenges they faced building a model of this size were and how they overcame them. A couple things to touch on there. Let me underline that the 405B model represents the
first time an open source model has been able to go toe-to-toe with the state of the art. In this case, GPT-40, second, note how they mentioned that they use the bigger model to train the littler ones. Well, looks like you can do that too, as Meta says, that for the first time ever, it will allow developers to use the outputs from Lama models, including the 405B1, to improve other models. In other words, to create synthetic data to train your own models on.
This all came with a 2,300-word manifesto that Zuck posted on his Facebook page yesterday outlining why he believes open models are the way to go. Alphabet earnings, not sure there's much really to discuss here. Q2 revenue was up 14% year over year. Net income was up 29%. Search revenue was up, so no negative effects from AI that we can see yet, at least when it comes to the revenue side of the search equation. They noted that
their head count was down 1%. The stock opened down more than 5% this morning, so the street has concerns, I guess, it's around capital spending, but everybody's doing capital spending right now, right? But the stock has been on a bit of a run up over the last six months or so, so who knows, maybe it's just profit-taking. On the cloud side, revenue grew 29%, and Google Cloud exceeded 10 billion in quarterly revenue and 1 billion in operating profit for the first time ever. YouTube
revenue was up 13% to 8.66 billion, but that was below estimates. I wonder if that YouTube number has become so important that it too can move the stock these days. I may be more interested in this.
Sources tell Bloomberg that the Google Wiz deal fell apart in part due to antitrust fears, but also maybe the crowd strike outage, which increased the potential value of a cloud security company, like Wiz, quote, a large reason the advanced talks between Google and Wiz failed, according to people familiar with the situation, a faulty software update from crowd strike holdings that
caused Microsoft Windows to crash on millions of devices around the world. That episode increased interest in and the potential value of companies that offer cloud security features like Wiz,
said the people asking not to be identified, discussing private matters. The first thing I thought of when I saw the crowd strike news was, oh, the 23 billion dollar valuation for Wiz has just gone up a little bit, said Stefan Silwinski, global head of software research at BNP Parabas, but also looming over both of Google's failed deals, they're referring to the recent HubSpot
deal there, was the specter of antitrust. Google has faced a litany of monopoly cases around the globe over the last decade with scrutiny growing even after the company stopped pursuing as many deals. Now that Google is back on the market, it's once again dealing with the regulatory pressures that have scuttled multiple high profile tech purchases in the past year. Wiz turned down the deal partly over concerns it would lead to a protracted approval process Bloomberg news
previously reported. One of the last big proposed tech takeovers, Adobe's $20 billion over to web design startup Figma fell apart at the end of 2023 after clashes with regulators in the UK and Europe. A month later, Amazon dropped its bid to buy Roomba Maker iRobot for similar reasons. Amazon's abandoned bid quote spooked a lot of people, Silwinski said, Leonicon had the
impact of preventing some large M&A just by being present. More from Parmi Olsen also in Bloomberg quote, Wiz's rejection combined with the testy regulatory environment puts Google in an even more awkward position in its efforts to grow its cloud business, which has 11% of the market behind Microsoft's Azure with 25% and Amazon's AWS, the leading player with 31% according to Synergy research group a market intelligence firm. But grow it must as the company's longtime reliance
on advertising leaves it exposed to slowing growth or interest rate hikes. Acquisitions are the way to go since Google has a spotty history in turning its own innovations into lucrative products. Google researchers invented the transformer for instance, but it was open AI that first
commercialized it successfully. Transformer is the T and chat GPT. Two years ago, Google managed to buy cybersecurity firm Mandient for $5.4 billion, the addition of Wiz, which specializes in cybersecurity for cloud-based applications, could have rounded out that security offering and given Google Cloud a strong selling point against its bigger competitors. Google didn't respond
to request for comment. Wiz will have its own price to pay for the snub according to people close to the company its founders haven't walked away from Google as a negotiating tactic, but genuinely want to become as big as rival Pollo Alto Networks, which similarly has Israeli founders,
went public in 2012 and has a market cap of $100 billion. Wiz's founders previously sold a security company to Microsoft for $320 million and are already multi-millionaires who aren't lured by the prospect of a sudden jump in personal wealth or keen on being plugged into a legacy tech giant two people close to the company. Fine, but in the meantime, many of Wiz's engineers will
be disgruntled at having lost out on a windfall. Snubbing an acquirer isn't unheard of in Silicon Valley, Mark Zuckerberg said no to $1 billion from Yahoo in 2006, and the founders of Snap declined $3 billion in 2013 from Zuckerberg, but $23 billion is a different conversation. A founder of WhatsApp once explained to me that when Zuckerberg came to him with a $19 billion takeover offer in 2014, the Facebook billionaire quote made us an offer we couldn't refuse. The WhatsApp founders surmised
that if they rejected the offer, they'd face a revolt from staff. Of course, WhatsApp's tiny workforce of 50 stood to become multi-millionaires and Wiz has a larger staff of 1200, but they are still missing a life-changing payout. It's hard to overstate how audacious Wiz appears by leaving $23 billion on the table, but it does leave both companies and something of a bind. Google must now find another route to augmenting its lagging cloud business. Wiz must also live
up to the very high expectations it has set for itself. Okay, maybe that's another reason why Google's stock is down. Investors might be realizing that Google won't be able to acquire their way to growth in the cloud after all. All right, politics once again, and it's for the same reason we did this last time. Details like this seem relevant to our interest. Did you know Kamala Harris took a leading White House role on AI, including meeting with executives, so a win for her might
mean a continued relatively smooth runway for AI companies. Quoting the Times. As AI's are, she brought the chiefs of OpenAI, Microsoft, Google, and Anthropic to the White House to agree on voluntary safety standards for the technology. She let a White House executive order, mandating how the federal government should use and develop AI, and she pushed Congress to adopt regulations to protect individuals from AI-killing jobs and other harms, although little legislation
has emerged and the companies have so far faced few roadblocks. We quote, reject the false choice that suggests we can either protect the public or advance innovation. Miz Harris said in a speech in November calling for both global regulation and further accountability from companies,
we can and must do both, she said. Now as the Democratic Party's presumptive presidential nominee, a win for Miz Harris could mean a continued relatively smooth runway for AI companies, which have enjoyed little US regulation and the chance to shape White House and congressional views on the technology. Miz Harris has previously taken a tougher stance on big tech as the former district attorney of San Francisco and then Attorney General of California. She pushed for laws
against cyberbullying and to promote greater privacy for children online. As the state's attorney general, she worked to stem the spread of intimate images taken without their subjects consent on big tech platforms. She brings a very kind of lawyerly kind of thoughtful mindset about thinking about all sides of the issue, said, Alondra Nelson, a former director of the White House Office of Science
and Technology Policy, end quote. There's also some talk in Silicon Valley that folks hope Kamala Harris could provide a chance for a reset after years of bipartisan criticism in Washington, DC, towards big tech companies. Quoting Politico, the feedback I'm getting, but certainly not confirmed by the VP is that she will be far more open to business, artificial intelligence crypto, and government as a service billionaire investor, Mark Cuban himself once rumored to be a possible presidential
contender said in an email to Politico. He added quote, changing the policies, changes the message and lets everyone know she's in charge and open literally for business. End quote. On one hand, Harris took steps as California's attorney general to crack down on data privacy violations years before the state passed the country's toughest law protecting consumer data, including by creating a privacy enforcement and protection unit in her department.
The steps earned Harris praise from privacy advocate organizations that have complained about Congress's inaction on privacy, including organizations such as the Center for Democracy and Technology and the Electronic Privacy Information Center, which gave her an award for her work in 2015.
On the other hand, unlike Biden and Trump, Harris is not called for revoking the online industry's 28-year-old liability shield, Section 230 of the 1996 Communications Decency Act, which protects companies from being sued for user-posted content housed on their platforms. She did, however, vote for a package of bills signed by Trump that created an exception to Section 230
to hold platforms accountable for sex trafficking. One tech CEO said on Monday that Harris has an opportunity to win new support and perhaps donations from West Coast tech executives and venture capitalists who liked Obama's emphasis on innovation, but have largely sowered on Biden for what they call his failure to push for high-stakes immigration reform or to lay out clear rules for AI
cryptocurrency and other emerging technologies. If by the end of the week she had a tech policy framework out there, a 10-point plan for pro-business, pro-tech pro-entrepreneurship, and it was credible. I think she could very quickly rally a significant portion of the ecosystem said Aaron Levy,
the Silicon Valley-based CEO of the cloud computing company Box. If Harris does unveil such a plan, Levy said he's heard from, quote, a dozen-plus tech CEOs who would be absolutely willing to support her end quote. Big cyber attack headlines in the show today, we talk about hacks all the time on the show, unfortunately. In 2023, just 10 vulnerabilities accounted for over half of the incidents responded to by Arctic Wolf incident response. Wouldn't you like to know how to take those off the
table and make life more difficult for cyber criminals? That's just one of the essential insights you'll find inside the Arctic Wolf Labs 2024 threats report authored by their elite team of security researchers, data scientists, and security development engineers and backed by the data gain from trillions of weekly observations within thousands of unique environments. This report offers
expert analysis into attack types, root causes, top vulnerabilities, TTPs, and more. Discover the attack vector behind nearly half of all successful cyber crimes, why ransom demands climbed 20% from 2023, and find out why 2024 will be in a specially volatile year for cyber security. Learn more and get your copy now at ArcticWolf.com-flourtslash-tech-main. That's ArcticWolf.com-flourtslash-tech-main.
This message is sponsored by Green Light. Summer time is supposed to be an opportunity to slow down, but sometimes you can't help but notice that actually time is moving fast. Your kids are starting a new grade soon, maybe even a new school, and they're older, a little taller, and maybe a little wiser to help continue learning and build independence over the summer and stay connected as they
start spending more time out of the house. I recommend Green Light. Green Light is a debit card and money app for families where parents can keep an eye on kids spending and money habits while kids learn how to save, invest, and spend wisely. Then there's Green Light's Infinity Plan, which includes all the financial literacy education that makes Green Light a valuable resource for
millions of parents and kids. Plus, built in safety to give you peace of mind. There's even a feature that detects car crashes and will connect to your young drivers to 911 dispatch and alert emergency contacts if needed. Penny has been using her Green Light debit card all this summer and she loves it. Sign up for Green Light today and get your first month free when you go to GreenLight.com-slashride. That's GreenLight.com-slashride to try Green Light for free. GreenLight.com-slashride.
From this pops up every six months or so file sources tell the information that Apple is working on a foldable clamshell design iPhone that could debut as soon as 2026 and has gone so far as to reach out to Asian component suppliers in recent months. So you know, it's just a rumor that surfaces every six months until it stops being a rumor and starts getting real.
Quote. Apple recently created an internal code name for the product V68 signaling that the idea has moved beyond the conceptual stage and is now an official product in development with suppliers. The people said typical iPhone models take about 24 months to successfully manufacture from start to finish, though a foldable iPhone could take longer to develop given that foldable screens are
still a new technology. Two problems may stand in the way of a foldable iPhone. Apple's engineers have struggled for years to overcome the technical challenges of building such a device, such as eliminating the crease that forms in the middle of the display after repeated folds. Apple designers have also previously mandated that a foldable iPhone should be half as thin as current iPhone models so that it wouldn't be so thick when shut the information reported in
February. The company may have resolved that issue. Next year, the company plans to release a significantly thinner iPhone internally codenamed D23, the information reported in May. Apple's designers also have struggled to come up with enough compelling features that would make consumers want one, especially given its high retail cost compared to non-foldable phones
according to people with direct knowledge of its previous efforts. At the very least, though, a foldable would give you that stranger stopping you on the street and saying, oh, is that the new iPhone? What do you think of it moment that Apple hasn't had for years now?
More than again, maybe not. The Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 6 reviews are in, and the consensus seems to be very good battery life, easy multitasking, and seven years of updates is great, but it has a narrow cover screen, it's bulky and heavy, as that last segment suggests, and it's expensive. As ever, I'm going with the review from the Verge, which they've titled The Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 6 is a great phone that's out of ideas,
going to the conclusion. Samsung likes to emphasize the ways that foldables have reached parity with smartphones. That's basically true of the Fold's camera system, which is at its best taking photos of people. And while I don't agree that the cover screen feels as easy to use as a traditional smartphone, it does seem that the Fold 6's battery life is just as strong as the best smartphones. I tested the phone with the always on display, enabled full time, and put it through
the ringer on a couple of long bike rides using GPS and streaming music. Even so, I usually had at least 50% left at the end of the day. But the Z Fold 6 still falls short of smartphones in one significant way, durability. Samsung made some tweaks to the materials and the hinge mechanism to improve protection against traps, and it remains fully water resistant, but dust is still the enemy of a folding phone. Don't get me wrong, the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 6 is an amazing gadget.
The Fold has won a faithful following, and rightfully so, multitasking on the big screen is effortless, build quality is as good as foldables get, and the battery reliably lasts a day or more heck. You can plug the whole dang thing into a display and use it like a computer. Samsung pioneered the foldable phone, but now it's stubbornly iterating on that original concept, and it feels like the time for iteration is over. The company seems committed to its current long
and narrow template rather than adopting a wider format. Personally, I think the OnePlus Open is the ideal foldable design, and it's about halfway between the tall and skinny Z Fold 6 and the wide and short Google Pixel Fold. Not to mention this phone cost nearly $2,000. Can't we ask for a little more than improved flatness? I want an S Pen included, like it is for the less expensive Galaxy S24 Ultra, and some way to store it without having to buy a special case with a pen slot.
Or how about, I don't know, cool modular accessories, a better video conferencing experience, free screen protective replacements for everyone. Let's dream big people. The Z Fold 6 is one hell of a nice place to stay, but to me at least it doesn't feel like home. End quote. Nothing for you today, talk to you tomorrow.