Tech Brew Ride Home - Fri. 07/21 – Reddit Doesn’t Blink

Starting point is 00:00:00 On April 4th, 2023, around 2 in the morning, a man was found stabbed multiple times on a sidewalk in downtown San Francisco. Hey, who did this to you? What happened next turned the story into a political firestorm. Reports have identified the victim as Bob Lee, the founder of Cash App. From Bloomberg Podcasts, this is Foundering, the Killing of Bob Lee, beginning April 16. Welcome to the Tech meme right home for Friday, July 21st, 2023. I'm Brian McCullough today. Reddit is choosing violence with their biggest subreddit holdouts. More data on the ebbing of threads usage.

Starting point is 00:00:45 AI seems to be bringing Sergey Brin back into the office. Why you should be getting your paycheck quicker soon. And a special Oppenheimer-themed edition of the weekend long-reed suggestions. Here's what you missed today in the world of tech. This is the part of the movie where there has been some sort of lengthy stage. standoff situation. And finally, the police just decided, you know, we're not blinking. We're going in. Reddit has removed the moderators from R-slash-Mail Fashion Advice, one of the biggest subreddits, to close protesting those Reddit API changes. They've taken charge of the subreddit themselves.

Starting point is 00:01:27 They've stormed the building, quoting the verge. The subreddit is now open, meaning Reddit users can browse content in the community once again, though in a restricted mode, only certain users can make new posts. As we reported last week, the moderators of R-slash Mail Fashion Advice, a subreddit with more than 5 million subscribers, had taken the community private and were pushing its users toward Discord and Substack instead. At the time, the moderators expected to be removed after receiving a message from a Reddit admin mod code of conduct telling them they would be replaced if they didn't reopen. Three former moderators of R-slash-Mail Fashion Vice tell the verge that they were removed from

Starting point is 00:02:06 the subreddit on Thursday. quote, we more or less have been expecting the removal for the past few days, one former mod, who asked to go by Walker, says in an email to the verge. Now the community's mod list currently has just one moderator, Mod Code of Conduct. Though despite the subreddit's restricted status, somebody was able to make a post on Thursday that encourages community members to join the Discord. It sounds like that Discord is getting some traction. Another former mod, Zach, told The Verge last week that it had 2,000 users.

Starting point is 00:02:34 Now he says it's up to 5,000. The community and regulars coming to the Discord have been on the whole courteous and good company, Walker says. Now based on the Redark tracker, the biggest subreddit still private is R slash streetware. According to Zach, who told me last week, he is also a mod of that community. It has more than 4 million subscribers. The subreddit also has a Discord, end quote. According to Censor Tower, Threads, daily active user count, declined to 13 million, down 70% from the July 7.000. Peeke. Similar web reports that average time spent on the Threads app declined to just four minutes a day,

Starting point is 00:03:18 down from 19, quoting the journal. Twitter's daily active users remain steady at about 200 million, and average time spent is at 30 minutes a day, according to Censor Tower estimates. Meta executives have said they expected an eventual decline after the app gained more than 100 million signups within a week of its launching earlier this month. They have signaled that they don't see the falloff as worrisome and have said they are working on additional features. Meta aims to increase the number of users and improve the experience before trying to monetize the platform. It's clear by the drop-off that people are seeing they can't do as much, and there are certain things that they want to be able to do that perhaps they can do on other

Starting point is 00:03:58 apps, said Richard Hanna, a professor at Babson College who studies social media strategy and digital marketing. There is a need to increase what the app can do, he said. Some writers and reviewers have said that threads, which was built using Instagram's infrastructure, might seem dull to certain users if they choose to follow the same people they follow on Instagram, since some of those accounts may not be posting nearly as frequently as they do on Twitter. Company brands have been prevalent so far on threads, an issue that some users have complained about on the platform. The official threads account on Thursday reiterated the company's plans to add new features. It reposted a video of Adam Mosseri, the head of Meta's

Starting point is 00:04:33 Instagram unit, which produced threads from about a week ago in which he promised a laundry list of new features. Quote, in case you missed it, we're working on getting you these new features, the threads post said, among the features promised by Mosseri, are support for multiple accounts, the ability to edit posts, and a chronological feed option, like the ones on Instagram and Facebook, end quote. Look, I'm a prolific user of Twitter in terms of following a million people and refreshing obsessively, as you know, but I've never been that prolific of a poster. Still, if I were going to post something right now, I'd be more likely to do it on Twitter than threads because threads is only on my phone and I'm on my desktop all day doing work.

Starting point is 00:05:13 I wonder how much of this is power users and specifically power posters, needing a desktop, or at least, the very least, a web interface for greater volume of posting to happen. Like, it's almost lunchtime and I checked threads as I was starting my tovala. And yeah, I was able to swipe through and see threads from this morning after only about two or three minutes. To continue to give you my anecdotal experiences with this, everyone I follow in order to do this show is on threads now, but they're just not posting as much on threads as they did on Twitter or still continue to do on Twitter. As I said, I can reach the end of threads very often, which is something I've never been able to do even recently with Twitter. So take from that what you

Starting point is 00:06:01 will. Again, I think folks need desktop. OpenAI, meta, Google, Microsoft, at all have made voluntary AI governance pledges to the White House, including cybersecurity investment and watermarking systems. Quoting the verge, the companies, Amazon, Anthropic, Google, inflection, meta, Microsoft, and Open AI have all agreed to a series of asks from the White House to address many of the risks posed by artificial intelligence. The promises consist of investments in cybersecurity, discrimination research, and a new watermarking system informing users when content is AI generated. The companies have entered into these agreements voluntarily, so there are currently no consequences if they fail to live up to their promises. Many of these commitments are not

Starting point is 00:06:49 expected to roll out on Friday, but the companies are expected to work on implementing them immediately. In a call with reporters Thursday, a White House official said that the Biden administration was currently working on an executive order to address some of the risks posed by AI. The official declined to give specifics but said actions could take place across federal agencies and departments. Over the last few months, the Biden administration has met with tech executives and labor and civil rights leaders to discuss AI. In May, the White House announced more funding and policy guidance for companies developing artificial intelligence tech, including $140 million to the National Science Foundation to launch seven new National AI Research Institutes. Google, Microsoft, Nvidia, OpenAI, and other

Starting point is 00:07:29 companies also agreed to allow their language models to be publicly evaluated at this year's DefCon, end quote. The U.S. Federal Reserve has launched FedN. now. It's a long-awaited real-time payment system that will eventually let individuals and businesses transfer money in seconds because it's crazy, but in this day and age, the year of our lord 2023, the fact that you can't send money instantly or even settle stock sales, even overnight, it's kind of why crypto and the entire fintech space exists in the first place, quoting the verge. First announced in 2019, Fed Now acts as a, quote, common network between banks and credit unions, making it easier for them to route funds across different institutions.

Starting point is 00:08:18 So far, there are only 35 participating banks and credit unions, along with the U.S. Department of the Treasury's Bureau of the Fiscal Service. Once it's widely adopted, though, it will let you transfer funds between different bank accounts instantly or even pay your credit card bill on a bank holiday without worrying about it being late. And if you have direct deposit, your paycheck should surface in your account as soon as you're paid. Fed now doesn't compete with apps like Venmo or Zell, which act as middlemen for peer-to-peer transactions, since there's no app to install, and it only operates between the banks or credit unions. However, it does require having both financial institutions as participants in the

Starting point is 00:08:55 network, and it could take months or years for those numbers to grow substantially. While the Federal Reserve has a $500,000 cap on the amount of money you can send, participating financial institutions will start with a default limit of $100,000, with the ability. to raise or lower that amount. Financial institutions can also use negative lists to help protect against fraud. The Federal Reserve doesn't name the financial institutions that currently have access to FedNow, but it said in June that JPMorgan Chase, Bank of New York Mellon, U.S. Bank Corp and Wells Fargo are among those ready to support FedNow. The Federal Reserve built the FedNow service to help make everyday payments over the coming years faster and more convenient. Federal Reserve Chair Jerome H.

Starting point is 00:09:34 Pall says in a statement, over time, as more banks choose to use this new tool, the benefits to individuals and businesses will include enabling a person to immediately receive a paycheck or a company to instantly access funds when an invoice is paid, end quote. It's about time that the U.S. implements an instant payment, as other parts of the world, including the European Union, the U.K., India, and others have long had similar systems. I don't know about you, but I'm pretty pumped about getting my paycheck faster, end quote. Sources are telling the journal that Sergei Bryn has increased his visits to Google in recent months to as much as three to four days a week working with AI researchers building Google's Gemini.

Starting point is 00:10:19 For billionaires, I guess, the first midlife crisis is when you quit working completely to live on that Tahitian island you bought because who cares, you're rich, right? But the second midlife crisis is when you're like, you know, life is boring when you have nothing to do, and so you go back to work. Quote, Bryn participated in meetings about AI at Google's offices late last year, but the frequency and intensity of his involvement has picked up, said people familiar with the matter. His new stance is a notable change from the relatively hands-off approach he adopted after stepping down from an executive role at Parent Company Alphabet in 2019.

Starting point is 00:10:55 He has worked closely with a group of researchers building Google's long-awaited AI model Gemini. They have discussed technical matters such as lost curves, a way of measuring an AI program's performance over time, and Bryn has convened weekly discussions of new AI research with Google employees. He also has intervened in personnel matters, such as the hiring of sought-after researchers, the people said. Gemini is Google's attempt to build a general-purpose AI program that can rival OpenAI's GPT4 model, which powers a paid version of chat GPT. Demasasasabis, the Google executive overseeing the project told employees during a recent company-wide meeting that the program would become available later this year, according to people who heard the remarks.

Starting point is 00:11:32 Bryn's increased presence at Google reflects the pivotal moment in AI and his long-standing interest in the technology, which Google pioneered but was slower than rivals to turn into new products, said current and former employees. While Bryn has been an occasional presence at Google headquarters in recent years, his attention had been largely directed toward outside interests such as airships and new forms of disaster aid, along with efforts to give away portions of his considerable wealth. He is Alphabet's second largest individual shareholder behind Page with a stake valued at close to $90 billion, according to S&P Capital IQ data. Brin has spent much of his time sitting alongside Mountain View-based AI researchers at the newly constructed Charleston East Building,

Starting point is 00:12:11 A short walk from the original heart of Google's corporate campus said people familiar with the matter, Zundar Pichai, chief executive of both Google and Alphabet, has also an office in the building. When the founders stepped back from their daily roles four years ago and elevated Pichai to Alphabet's CEO, they said they would speak with him regularly and offer, quote, advice and love, but not daily nagging. They still control a majority of Alphabet voting power and sit on an executive board committee with Pichai. Pichai is excited about Bryn's involvement and has encouraged his contributions, according to people familiar with his thinking. end quote. Time for the week on long read suggestions. First up a few months ago, I idly speculated about maybe getting into collecting meteorites, but as this piece from the journal suggests,

Starting point is 00:12:59 maybe I should actually switch careers and get into the profession of meteorite hunting. Quote, when Roberto Vargas got an alert that a meteorite had exploded above Junction City, Georgia, he knew he had to move fast. He immediately booked a flight from Connecticut and was airborne within hours. He found a piece of the meteorite within minutes of parking his rental car in the area where fragments had landed. Some of what he found sold for $100 a gram. Vargas, 38 years old, said he is one of roughly 15 people in the U.S. pursuing an unusual vocation, professional or semi-professional meteorite hunter. As soon as somebody sees something or hears about something they post on Facebook, and that basically prompts me to get into gear, he said. After quitting his job as

Starting point is 00:13:42 a mental health therapist to pursue the passion full time about two years ago, Vargas said he has been super, super blessed. His earnings from hunting, collecting, and selling meteorites just helped him buy a house. Hunters like Vargas chased down space rocks that have been spotted as they streak through the atmosphere, what are known as falls. Sometimes only a single stone hits Earth, but other times hundreds of fragments. Recovering these falls, scientists say, helps expand our knowledge of the solar system and even perhaps how life on Earth began. Because many meteorites into the ocean, only a dozen or so falls are recovered worldwide each year. For the folks who find them, it can be lucrative. Buyers include museums, academic institutions, and private collectors, end

Starting point is 00:14:22 quote. There's apparently been a fall recently in Maine that no one has been able to find the fall yet, and so I guess around $25,000 is up for grabs, if you head up there. Then, since we didn't get to talk about it from Venture Beat, the story about showrunner AI, a new AI system that can generate an animated show entirely, shows like South Park. Also, not tech, but read the piece from New York Mag about what it's like to fly PJs, as they called them in succession, what it's really like to fly in private jets with the super rich. But finally, I got it all wrong. All of you are going to see Barbenheimer this weekend, not last weekend, as I thought. And the Oppenheimer movie is, of course, based off the book American Prometheus, which is a straight biography of

Starting point is 00:15:12 Robert Oppenheimer, but not too long ago, I recommended the book The Making of the Atomic Bomb if you want to have the fuller picture. It really does paint the full history of how physics evolved as a science to the point where an atomic bomb was possible. It's a huge book. So if that's too much for you instead, read this profile of the author of that book, Richard Rhodes. Quote, Rhodes is the 86-year-old author of the making of the atomic bomb, a Pulitzer Prize-winning book that has become a kind of holy text for a certain type of AI researcher, namely the type who believes their creations might have the power to kill us all. On Friday afternoon, he will take his seat in a West Seattle theater and, like many other moviegoers,

Starting point is 00:15:53 watch Oppenheimer, Christopher Nolan's summer blockbuster about the Manhattan Project. The film is not based on his book, though he suspects his text served as a research aide. He's excited to see it anyway. I first encountered the making of the atomic bomb in March when I spoke with an AI researcher who said, he carts the doorstop size book around every day. It's a reminder that his mandate is to push the bounds of technological progress, he explained, and a motivational tool to work 17-hour days. Since then, I've heard the book mentioned on podcasts and cited in conversations I've had

Starting point is 00:16:24 with people who fear that artificial intelligence will doom us all. I know tons of people working on AI policy who've been reading Rhodes's book for inspiration. Fox's Dylan Matthews wrote recently, A New York Times profile of the AI Company Anthropic notes that Rhodes' book is, quote, popular among the company's employees, some of whom, quote, compared themselves to modern-day Robert Oppenheimer's, end quote. Like Oppenheimer before them, many merchants of AI believe their creations might change the course of history, and so they wrestle with profound moral concerns. Even as they build the technology, they worry about what will happen if AI becomes smarter than

Starting point is 00:16:58 humans and goes rogue, a speculative possibility that is morphed into an unshakable neurosis as generative AI models take in vast quantities of information and appear ever more capable. More than 40 years ago, Rhodes set out to write the definitive account of one of the most consequential achievements in human history. Today, it's scrutinized like an instruction manual, end quote. So, no bonus episodes this weekend, because again, I figure y'all are going to see Barbenheimer. I'm going to try to see Oppenheimer maybe some afternoon next week, because we actually have a full 70-millimeter iMacs theater here in New York City. I think there's only like 15 or 20 of these in all of North America. But I was also wrong yesterday when I told you the alpha testing of the AI thing was just around the corner.

Starting point is 00:17:50 It is not. We hit a major roadblock yesterday. It's a week out at best, which, you know, if you're a software developer or a startup participant of any kind, you know how this goes. Just when you think you've got it locked. So no more keeping you updated about the progress of the AI thing. I'll just send out the alpha test emails whenever I can. today is not that day. Talk to you on Monday.

Tech Brew Ride Home - Fri. 07/21 – Reddit Doesn’t Blink

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