Google faces mounting evidence of its search monopoly. A federal judge recently ruled – for the second time in a year – that Google illegally maintains a monopoly in ad tech. Google's response?
The United States set out to win a trade war with China. It failed. Years of tariffs, tech restrictions, and tough rhetoric have backfired, leaving America in a weaker position while China charges ahead with innovation and global influence.
Good Morning from San Francisco, Meta just kicked Apple's AI tools to the curb. All of them. 🥾 No
Good Morning from San Francisco,
James Cameron, king of expensive spectacles, discovers budgeting. The Avatar director joins AI firm Stability – not to replace artists but to save Hollywood from its own excess. Who knew cost-cutting could be so noble? 🎥
"Movies like Dune and Avatar need to get cheaper," Cameron declares, probably while sitting on a gold-plated director's chair. His solution? AI handles the tedious bits while humans keep the creative spark. Smart move from the guy who warned us about Skynet. 🤖
His next Avatar film lands in December – definitely AI-free. Though as Cameron notes, Hollywood's just "a wart" on OpenAI's backside. At least it's a very expensive wart. ✨
Stay curious,
Marcus Schuler
James Cameron wants to slash movie budgets in half, but he's not firing anyone. The Avatar director joined the board of AI firm Stability to speed up special effects work—not replace artists.
"If we want to keep seeing movies like Dune or Avatar, we've got to cut costs in half," Cameron said in a podcast with Meta's CTO. He sees AI as a tool to help artists work faster, not replace human creativity.
Cameron dismisses fears about AI training data. He argues we should focus on the output, not the input. "I'm an artist. We're all models," he says. "We move through space and time reacting to our training data."
The director stays practical about Hollywood's place in the AI landscape. "Movies are just a tiny use case," he notes. "OpenAI wants to make products for 8 billion people. We're just a wart on their butt."
His next film Avatar: Fire and Ash hits theaters in December. In a subtle jab at the AI hype, it will proudly declare: No generative AI was used in creating this film.
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Prompt:
Full size photo with legs of a mum white cat dressed in a dress and slippers and her daughter white cat dressed in the same dress, they are cuddling like mum and daughter tenderly, 100% white flat background
Anthropic launched Claude Max, a premium subscription that lets power users push their AI harder. The plan comes in two flavors: $100 monthly for 5x usage or $200 for 20x compared to the basic $20 tier.
Max subscribers get first dibs on new features, including Claude's upcoming voice mode. They'll also see shorter wait times and higher output limits for complex tasks during busy periods.
The move mirrors OpenAI's ChatGPT Pro pricing at $200 monthly. But unlike its rival, Claude Max caps usage - though Anthropic hints at possible pricier tiers ahead.
The timing makes sense. Anthropic just hit a $61.5 billion valuation and claims $1 billion in annual revenue. Companies like Zoom, Snowflake, and Pfizer already use Claude for business. Now Anthropic wants to capture serious individual users, too.
Scott White, Anthropic's product lead, says demand comes from coding, finance, media, and marketing professionals who need more AI horsepower. The company spent a year fielding requests for higher usage limits.
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The Nasdaq staged its biggest rally since 2001, surging 12% after Trump announced a 90-day tariff timeout for select countries – though China got stuck with a rather spicy 125% rate. Apple bounced back with a 15% gain, reclaiming its "most valuable company" tiara from Microsoft after what could only be described as its worst week since flip phones were cool, while Tesla investors enjoyed a 22% sugar rush that marked the company's second-best day in its history.
Apple pulled off a high-stakes logistics dance, rushing 600 tons of iPhones from India to the U.S. by air just before Trump's tariffs kicked in. The tech giant sweet-talked Indian officials into slashing customs clearance time from a leisurely 30 hours to a brisk 6 hours at Chennai airport, proving that when Apple wants to move fast, even bureaucracy gets out of the way.
Trump scraps planned H20 chip export ban to China after Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang attended a Mar-a-Lago dinner and promised new U.S. investments in AI data centers. The reversal comes as Chinese tech giants ByteDance, Alibaba, and Tencent have ordered $16 billion worth of these advanced AI chips in 2024's first quarter alone.
Trump signed an order targeting Chris Krebs, his former cybersecurity chief who called the 2020 election secure. The order demands all federal agencies revoke Krebs' clearances and investigate both him and his current employer SentinelOne, settling a score that's been simmering since Trump fired Krebs by tweet in 2020 for refusing to back election fraud claims.
A DHS task force now scans 1.5 million foreign students' social media posts and criminal records, searching for reasons to revoke their visas. The department has also begun counting what it labels antisemitic activity as grounds for denying immigration benefits.
AI chip production created four times more emissions in 2024, as manufacturing giants in Taiwan, South Korea, and Japan burned fossil fuels to meet soaring demand. The surge challenges tech leaders' claims that AI will help fight climate change, with Nvidia and Microsoft's Asian suppliers planning to build more gas-powered plants near their chip factories.
Intel's incoming CEO Lip-Bu Tan controls stakes in more than 600 Chinese tech firms, including eight linked to China's military, through his venture capital operations. While some praise Tan as a "legend" perfect for reviving Intel, critics question whether the leader of a key U.S. defense contractor should maintain such extensive Chinese business ties.
Amazon CEO Andy Jassy told shareholders the tech giant needs to shed its bureaucratic weight and sprint like a startup to stay competitive in AI. In his annual letter, Jassy said companies that don't embrace AI's rapid advances "will not be competitive," while revealing that 1,000 frustrated employees had flagged internal red tape when asked about obstacles slowing them down.
OpenAI launches its Pioneers Program to help companies build better AI tools through custom benchmarks and fine-tuned models. The program pairs startups with OpenAI researchers to create industry-specific testing standards and optimize model performance for real-world applications in fields like healthcare, finance, and law.
Imagine you're part of an interdisciplinary research team studying climate change impacts on ecosystems. What innovative methods could you develop to integrate data from different scientific disciplines (biology, meteorology, oceanography, sociology)? Describe a specific research approach that uses new technologies and is both scientifically sound and practical.
This prompt challenges creative scientific thinking, connects multiple disciplines, and encourages development of concrete solutions for a current global problem.
Since September 2024, a sophisticated spam bot has hit over 80,000 websites, using AI to generate unique messages that bypass security filters. The tool, dubbed AkiraBot, targets small business sites to push questionable SEO services.
The bot uses OpenAI's API to analyze each target website and craft personalized spam messages. This means no two messages are alike, making them harder to detect and block. The bot also rotates through different domains to advertise its services, further complicating defense efforts.
AkiraBot goes beyond simple form submissions. It employs multiple techniques to dodge CAPTCHAs and network detection, including browser fingerprinting and proxy services. The bot even manipulates audio settings and graphics rendering to make its traffic look legitimate.
The creators put special effort into bypassing website protections. When its built-in evasion tricks fail, the bot uses services like Capsolver and FastCaptcha. It also taps into proxy networks marketed to advertisers but popular with cybercriminals.
OpenAI has disabled the API keys used by AkiraBot after being alerted. But SentinelLabs, which discovered the campaign, warns that AI can help spammers create more convincing messages at scale.
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Three AI giants have planted their flags on your desktop. OpenAI, Anthropic, and Perplexity offer standalone applications that bring their chatbots directly to your computer. 🖥️
👉 ChatGPT leads with versatility. It handles everything from creative writing to coding with equal aplomb. Its voice mode makes conversation feel natural, and it can analyze documents or generate images on command. The app integrates with your workflow through keyboard shortcuts and IDE connections. 🎭
👉 Claude counters with memory muscle. It devours documents up to 75,000 words long without breaking a sweat. Developers praise its clean code and thoughtful explanations. The interface remains spartan but effective, focusing on text-based interactions rather than bells and whistles. 🧠
👉 Perplexity takes the factual high ground. It combines AI chat with live web search, delivering answers backed by cited sources. This makes it ideal for research and up-to-date information. Its voice input and document analysis features add convenient touch points throughout your work. 🔍
All three offer free tiers with $20 monthly subscriptions for power users. The battle evolves as each platform sharpens its unique strengths.
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Good Morning from San Francisco, Meta just kicked Apple's AI tools to the curb. All of them. 🥾 No
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Good Morning from San Francisco, OpenAI wants to play social media kingmaker. Sam Altman's crew is quietly testing
Good Morning from San Francisco, OpenAI just fired another shot in the AI race 🎯. Their new GPT-4.1 devours text
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