TLDR 2023-11-14

Google-Apple revshare leaks 💰, OpenAI's $10M pay packages 🤖, Nvidia's next-gen chip ⚡

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Big Tech & Startups

Google witness accidentally blurts out that Apple gets 36% cut of Safari deal (2 minute read)

Google pays Apple 36% of its search advertising revenue from Safari to keep its search engine set as the default. Google and Apple had objected to making this information public, but a witness from Google let it slip during their testimony. It is unclear how much money this amounts to, but it is estimated that Apple likely gets paid tens of billions of dollars out of the deal. Google pays a total of $26 billion for its default contracts.

Nvidia introduces the H200, an AI-crunching monster GPU that may speed up ChatGPT (3 minute read)

Nvidia has revealed the HGX H200 Tensor Core GPU, a follow-up of the H100GPU released last year. The H200 utilizes the Hopper architecture to accelerate AI applications. It could lead to far more powerful AI models and faster response times for existing ones. The lack of computing power has been a major bottleneck for AI progress. Amazon Web Services, Google Cloud, Microsoft Azure, and Oracle Cloud Infrastructure will be the first cloud service providers to deploy H200-based instances starting next year. The H200 will be generally available starting in Q2 2024.
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Science & Futuristic Technology

Joby, Volocopter fly electric air taxis over New York City (2 minute read)

Joby Aviation and Volocopter performed brief demonstration flights of their electric aircraft in New York City over the weekend. New York City Mayor Eric Adams wants to electrify two of the three heliports located in Manhattan. The city aims to reduce emissions by 80% from a 2005 baseline by 2025. Joby is aiming to initially roll out a commercial service in New York and Los Angeles as part of a city-to-airport service deal with Delta Airlines.

Disrupting a Single Gene Could Improve CAR T Cell Immunotherapy, New Study Shows (5 minute read)

CAR T cell therapy is a powerful type of immunotherapy that has begun to revolutionize cancer treatment. It involves engineering a patient's T cells so they recognize and attack cancer cells. New research has shown that disrupting a single gene in CAR T cells can make them more potent and able to fight tumors longer. The approach improved the therapy's effectiveness against multiple cancers in mice.
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Programming, Design & Data Science

OpenGPTs (GitHub Repo)

This repository is an effort to create a similar experience to OpenAI's GPTs. It allows developers to configure over 60 LLMs, prompts, over 100 tools, vector databases, retrieval algorithms, and chat history databases. The project uses LangChain, LangServe, and LangSmith.

My mental model for building and using LLM-based applications (7 minute read)

This article presents a mental model of LLMs and how their limitations can be overcome. A mental model of LLMs is needed to know where they work well, where they don't, and how best to use them. Most people already have a similar model for Google without realizing it - it's assumed everyone knows how to talk to Google, but that wasn't always the case. LLMs are basically like booksmart Harvard graduates who can Google anything to answer any question you ask them.
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Miscellaneous

Bay Area tech company reportedly trying to poach Google workers with $10M pay packages (2 minute read)

OpenAI recruiters are trying to poach senior researchers from Google's AI teams with pay packages ranging from $5 million to $10 million. Workers joining the company will receive stock that could potentially quickly triple in value. They will also receive large stock grants later on. The movement of employees is not only one way - some employees have jumped in the other direction from OpenAI to Google as well.

The right-to-repair movement is just getting started (20 minute read)

Apple came out in support of a right-to-repair bill in California in August. The Right to Repair Act guarantees everyone access to parts, tools, and manuals for fixing their electronic devices. Apple had pledged to honor the new law nationwide, but its newest iPhone release appears impossible to fully repair without paying Apple money. This article looks at the right-to-repair movement and how the industry is responding to it.
Quick Links

OpenAI’s six-member board will decide ‘when we’ve attained AGI’ (6 minute read)

Any system determined to have achieved artificial general intelligence will be excluded from IP licenses and other commercial terms with Microsoft.

Tesla's drive-in restaurant is finally taking shape (3 minute read)

Construction for Tesla's 1950s-style diner and drive-in movie theater Supercharger station has begun at 7001 West Santa Monica Blvd in LA.

Tragedy of Return to Hostile Offices (13 minute read)

Too many office environments are hostile to collaboration - return-to-office mandates can tear teams apart, at a huge cost.

A Coder Considers the Waning Days of the Craft (27 minute read)

Coding as a valuable skill might soon fade from the world.

Loro (GitHub Repo)

Loro is a Conflict-free Replicated Data Types (CRDTs) library that makes building local-first apps easier.

OpenAI reveals new details about its AI development roadmap and fundraising plans (5 minute read)

OpenAI is working on GPT-5 and it plans to raise more capital from Microsoft to support its development efforts.
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