Elon Musk has announced plans for a new Twitter CEO. He did not reveal the identity of the new CEO, but some sources say that it will be Linda Yaccarino, an advertising executive currently at NBC Universal. Musk will become Twitter's executive chair and chief technology officer. He will still maintain ownership of Twitter. The new CEO will be starting in around six weeks.
Anthropic has expanded the context window for its flagship AI model, Claude, from 9,000 tokens to 100,000 tokens. Claude will now be able to understand and recall conversations and texts for a longer period. The updated model can retrieve information across multiple documents or a book. The average person reads 100,000 tokens of text in around five hours, but Claude can do this in less than a minute while retaining full comprehension.
Stability AI has launched the Stable Animation SDK, a set of tools for creating animations using Stable Diffusion models. The SDK is aimed at artists and developers. It allows users to create animations with prompts, images, or videos. The SDK offers access to all the Stable Diffusion models for animation generation. A video demo is available in the article.
A group of cancer scientists has developed a novel vaccine against pancreatic cancer. The vaccine elicited an immune response in half of the patients treated. There was no relapse of cancer in the patients who responded to the treatment. The vaccine is personalized and designed to teach each patient's immune system to attack the tumors. The current cost of personalized vaccines is a significant barrier to their widespread use.
There is a debate on Wall Street about whether AI-generated code will create or destroy jobs for developers. While there are still opportunities to digitize more products and services, there will be room for more developers. The use of AI in programming can actually enable more people to fill the gaps in technology development. AI is an accelerator, rather than a detractor, of developer growth.
Meta is providing an option for developers to adopt individual React features earlier without having to wait for the next release cycle. The features will be rolled out through Meta’s Canary release channel. This approach will allow a tighter feedback loop and comprehensive testing in the community. It will help bridge the gap between when a feature is ready to use and when it is released in open source.
Startups are attracting a rising number of laid-off software developers, data scientists, and engineers. These companies offer workers the opportunity to build software capabilities from scratch and permanent remote or hybrid-work models. Working for startups also includes equity stakes with higher predicted returns than those at mature companies, as well as the chance to play a broader role in decision-making. Many tech workers perceive startups as a way to develop their proficiencies and progress their careers.
Microsoft's compliance training videos have gained a cult following since launching in 2017. 'Trust Code' has inspired watch parties, viral memes, and T-shirts. It was initially planned to run for only two or three years, but the show is now headed into its seventh season. While new employees are not mandated to watch previous seasons, the show's popularity has led to group binge-watching to catch up on early episodes.