Meta's annual Connect conference has started, which means lots of new hardware announcements. This article sums up the most important announcements from the keynote. The announcements covered the Meta Quest 3, Xbox Cloud gaming on the Quest, a new foundational model for image generation called Emu, Ray-Ban Meta smart glasses, and Meta AI.
Jony Ive and Sam Altman are reportedly working on the design of a new AI device. It is unclear what the device may be. Many people are speculating that it is a re-imagining of a smartphone that relies heavily on generative AI. Masayoshi Son, the CEO of SoftBank, is also reportedly part of the talks. Not much else is known about the device.
The Nxu One Charging System is an electric vehicle charger that supports up to 4.5 MW of bi-directional DC power. It can provide far more power than any current EV can accept. EV drivers in Mesa, Arizona with a Combined Charging Standard plug will be able to trial the system this weekend at power outputs of up to 700 kW. Tesla's North American Charge Standard plugs will be installed in future charging stations. Nxu is charging $1 per charge between September 28 and October 1.
A newly developed compound called SLU-PP-332 appears to imbue mice with the benefits of exercise without physical activity. The drug appears to lead to a faster metabolism and more energy and endurance. It works by targeting proteins that activate the body's most energy-hungry tissues. Research on the compound has so far been restricted to mouse models only.
BinDiff is a comparison tool for binary files. It is able to quickly find differences and similarities in disassembled code. BinDiff helps researchers identify and isolate fixes for vulnerabilities in vendor-supplied patches and can be used to port symbols and comments between disassemblies of multiple versions of the same binary, making tracking changes over time easier and allowing organizations to retain analysis results.
Vertical is a pipe-like function for verticalizing JavaScript code. It makes hard-to-read code less nested and more vertical. Examples are available in the repository.
This article features an interview with Mark Zuckerberg on Threads, his vision for how generative AI will reshape Meta's apps, the Quest 3, what motivates him, and other news from Meta's Connect conference. Meta's reputation was in a completely different place a year ago. Zuckerberg is now dead set on Threads reaching a billion users and is bullish on decentralized social media. In the near term, he's most excited about infusing generative AI into Meta's family of apps.
A provision in Apple's deal with Google requires that Apple defend the deal should it come under any regulatory challenges. The clause could color how the court views testimonies given by Apple executives. Apple petitioned the court to seal off testimony regarding the terms of the Google default search deal on Monday as it was worried that the testimony would reveal confidential business information. The amount of secrecy allowed in the Google antitrust trial is unprecedented.
Workers AI is an AI Inference-as-a-Service platform powered by a global network of GPUs that enables developers to run AI models with just a few lines of code.
The introduction of AI may mean that the subject that a student decides to major in is less important than their ability to think conceptually about the various problems the technology can solve.
Having deep relationships is strongly correlated with health and happiness - Live Near Friends is a project that helps people live within a five-minute walk from a close friend or family member.
While the field of AI could currently be described as unscientific, that doesn't mean that it might not evolve into something more scientific in the future - alchemy paved the way for modern chemistry after all.
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