TLDR 2023-03-29

Google is partnering with Replit, a startup with software that helps computer programmers write code. The partnership will see Google combine its artificial intelligence language models with Replit's Ghostwriter, which has 20 million users. Ghostwriter will rely on Google’s AI to suggest blocks of code and answer developers' questions. Replit will expand its use of Google's cloud services and aims to attract more corporate customers. Google will distribute Replit's software as part of the partnership.

Apple has launched its buy now, pay later service. Apple Pay Later allows users to apply for loans between $50 to $1,000 via the Apple Wallet with no fees or interest. Users will have six weeks to repay the loan amount through four payments. Although Apple claims Pay Later loans won't affect users' credit, the fine print warns that loan and payment history may be reported to credit bureaus and could impact credit. The service is currently available for randomly selected users in the US for in-app and online purchases on iOS 16.4 and iPadOS 16.4.

Researchers at Boise State University have developed a new plastic called PECA made from the same monomer used to make Super Glue. Small-scale lab experiments suggest that 93% of the plastic can be recycled into clean starter materials, even if mixed together with other types of plastic waste, paper, or aluminum. PECA plastic thermally 'cracks' at 210 °C. The resulting monomers can be distilled for reuse. If introduced on an industrial scale, PECA plastic could replace polystyrene plastics that are typically non-recyclable.

Researchers at the University of California, Irvine, have replicated the properties of squid skin cells in human cells in the lab. The team introduced squid-derived genes that encode reflectin into human cells. Reflectin is a protein that clumps together into nanoparticles to scatter light. The study focused on understanding the characteristics of the protein and its ability to self-assemble into structures. The resulting human cells were able to create reflectin structures that were very similar, and with comparable refractive indices, to those in squid cells.

Safari for macOS now supports standard push notifications. Safari for iOS and iPadOS supports push notifications in version 16.4, but only for Home Screen apps. An example of how to implement push notifications in JavaScript is available in the article.

OpenFlamingo is an open-source reproduction of DeepMind's Flamingo model. It enables the training and evaluation of large multimodal models. OpenFlamingo features a Python framework for training Flamingo-style LMMs, a large-scale multimodal dataset, an in-context learning evaluation benchmark for vision-language tasks, and the OpenFlamingo-9B model based on LLaMA.

Research by Goldman Sachs suggests that AI could automate a quarter of the work done in the US and eurozone. The technology could spark a productivity boom that could raise annual gross domestic product by 7% over a 10-year period. It will likely bring significant disruption to the labor market and affect an estimated 300 million full-time workers. Around 7% of workers in the US are in jobs that could be completely replaced by AI.

ChatGPT may have started out as a demo, but it is now on its way to being the next major consumer tech platform. The integration of plugins last week signaled a major shift in ambition. It could mean that OpenAI may eventually kill its API in favor of the ChatGPT platform. While this is unlikely, startups building on OpenAPI's API should consider alternatives.

This post covers Interaction Nets, Combinators, and Calculus at a medium level, with just enough depth to see how the pieces fit together but without too many details.

Lemon8's quick rise to the top may be due to paid user acquisition.

Vow has grown meat in the lab using mammoth DNA, but it won't be available to consumers any time soon.

Amazon Sidewalk, a network that covers more than 90% of the US population, is now open for developer testing.

Starting on April 15, only verified accounts will be recommended on Twitter's For You page.

Meta will also more frequently assess employee performance.

Pinata is hiring a Principal Software Engineer to make the experience of creating and distributing media easier through client-side tools and applications for a company that is building the tools and infrastructure for a more free and empowering web3 generation through IPFS.

Sojern is hiring a Principal Software Engineer to work closely with the product, data science, and SRE teams to design, build, and deploy highly scalable and efficient core platform services for a travel marketing platform that serves thousands of hotels, attractions, airlines, and destinations worldwide.