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- Microsoft's AI Chip Innovation 🤖, Google and Meta's Billion-Dollar News Debt 📡, and Zeliq's AI Sales Revolution 📱
Microsoft's AI Chip Innovation 🤖, Google and Meta's Billion-Dollar News Debt 📡, and Zeliq's AI Sales Revolution 📱
11/16/2023
Tech News 📡
This article discusses the significant financial obligations Google and Meta (formerly Facebook) have towards news publishers, especially in light of Australia's News Media Bargaining Code. The code has led these tech giants to strike deals with Australian media organizations, setting a precedent for other countries. The article reveals that Google and Meta owe news publishers in the U.S. between $11 billion and $14 billion annually, a figure much higher than current payouts, highlighting the need for fair compensation in the digital news distribution landscape.
Microsoft has announced two new chips at its Ignite conference: the Maia 100 AI chip and the Cobalt 100 Arm chip. The Maia 100 is set to rival Nvidia's AI GPUs, while the Cobalt 100 targets general computing tasks, potentially competing with Intel processors. These chips, part of Microsoft's expanding cloud infrastructure offerings, reflect a growing trend among tech giants to provide diverse cloud solutions. The Maia 100 is being tested with various AI applications, including Bing's AI chatbot and OpenAI's GPT-3.5-Turbo, while the Cobalt chip has shown promising performance improvements in preliminary tests.
Trending Startups📱
Zeliq offers an all-in-one sales solution that leverages AI to identify and convert leads more efficiently. It provides up-to-date prospect data and outreach automation, allowing sales to scale up to three times faster. Zeliq integrates with various tools, saving hours of manual work and enabling the creation of perfect buyer lists and high-engagement conversations across multiple platforms. It's designed to supercharge any sales strategy with smart insights, automated mail sequences, and flawless follow-ups, catering to a global clientele.
OpenMeter is an open-source platform designed for engineers, providing scalable usage metering for AI, DevOps, and billing. It enables the collection and aggregation of millions of events per second, offering precise metering for usage-based billing and real-time insights. OpenMeter is easy to integrate, scalable, and reliable, handling idempotency and deduplication effectively. It combines Kafka and ClickHouse technologies and is available both as open-source and in a managed cloud version, addressing the needs of high-scale, real-time usage metering.
AI 🤖
Microsoft has rebranded its Bing Chat to Copilot, shifting its focus from competing with Google's search engine to rivaling ChatGPT. Initially integrated into Bing, Microsoft Edge, and Windows 11, Copilot now stands as a standalone AI chat interface. This move comes as a response to ChatGPT's growing popularity, with Microsoft aiming to position Copilot as a leading choice for both consumers and businesses. The rebranding includes a free version accessible in Bing and Windows, and a paid version for Microsoft 365, reflecting Microsoft's strategic pivot in the AI assistant market.
This article compares Bard and ChatGPT, two leading AI language models, highlighting their distinct features and applications. Bard, developed by Google, focuses on precision and quality, offering features like internet access for sourcing information and the ability to choose from multiple solutions. ChatGPT, while popular, is critiqued for occasional inaccuracies. The author prefers Bard for its consistent updates, comprehensive features like syntax-highlighted code display, and potential integration with Google services. The comparison aims to provide users with insights into the strengths of each tool, rather than discouraging the use of either.
Coding & Development 🖥️
Aryan Bharti, an ethical hacker, discovered significant vulnerabilities in the websites of IIT Bombay's cultural and tech festivals, Moodi and Techfest. These vulnerabilities included client-side OTP verification, HTML injection in email endpoints, and a severe data breach exposing personal data of over 58,000 individuals. Bharti's exploration began with a slow registration process, leading to the discovery of these flaws. Despite attempts to contact the coordinators, the vulnerabilities remained unaddressed for a time. This incident highlights the importance of cybersecurity awareness and the potential risks of neglecting it in large-scale websites.
Mensur Durakovic presents a candid view of the software engineering profession, debunking the rosy perceptions often held by new graduates. He emphasizes that college education is insufficient for real-world challenges, most projects are not greenfield, and clean code often goes unrecognized. Durakovic also points out the prevalence of working with incompetent colleagues, the inevitability of long meetings, and the constant need for estimates. He highlights the omnipresence of bugs, the reality of uncertainty, the difficulty in disconnecting from work, and the greater value of soft skills over technical skills. This article serves as a reality check for those entering the field, stressing the importance of practical experience and soft skills.
Miscellaneous 🌀️
Super Mario RPG, a unique collaboration between Nintendo and Square (now Square Enix), remains a standout title nearly 30 years after its initial release. The game, known for its isometric 3D art style and turn-based encounters, broke away from traditional Mario games with its innovative gameplay and humorous narrative. The Switch version retains the original charm with quality-of-life updates, including an easier mode, team attacks, updated visuals, and a modern soundtrack. The game's plot involves Mario teaming up with Peach, Bowser, and two original characters to collect seven stars and defeat the villain Smithy. Its quirky side quests, minigames, and unconventional storylines, such as rescuing Peach from an unwanted wedding, showcase its distinctiveness in the Mario series. Super Mario RPG's enduring appeal lies in its ability to blend humor, creativity, and engaging gameplay, making it a beloved classic in Nintendo's catalog.
A new report by Scoop, in partnership with the Boston Consulting Group, analyzed 554 public companies and found that those with flexible remote work policies outperformed others in revenue growth over the past three years by 16 percentage points. The study, which normalized data for industry performance, revealed that companies offering employees the choice of working remotely or in-office (termed 'fully flexible') had a 21% industry-adjusted revenue growth rate, compared to just 5% for firms with more restrictive policies. This correlation suggests that flexible work arrangements might be a symptom of a culture that values trust, innovation, and employee engagement, potentially leading to higher revenues. The findings challenge the notion that remote work hinders performance, indicating that flexibility could actually support business growth.
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