Tech Brew Ride Home - Mon. 10/05 – Nvidia’s Zoom-Killer, “Maxine”

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 Monday, October 5th, 2020. I'm Brian McCullough today. InVIDIA's new platform to fix video calls.

Starting point is 00:00:41 Surprisingly, Facebook says breaking up Facebook is impossible. Google slow rolls enforcement of the 30% take on the Play Store in India, a couple of direct COVID-related tech stories, and I catch you up on the whole D-5 phenomenon in crypto that has made transaction volume on the Ethereum blockchain skyrocket 12,000% in just three months. Here's what you missed today in the world of tech. InVIDIA this morning announced Maxine, a set of GPU-accelerated AI conferencing tools that they promise will greatly improve video quality on video calls. In other words, they think their AI can fix all the problems we've been having with our video conferences and video chat,

Starting point is 00:01:24 and they'll be letting people in for early access to work on these tools as early as next week, quoting Venture Beat. InVitya says Maxine, quote, dramatically reduces how much bandwidth is required for video conferencing. calls. Instead of streaming an entire screen of pixels, the platform analyzes the facial points of each person on a call and then algorithmically reanimates the face in the video on the other side. This ostensibly makes it possible to stream with far less data flowing back and forth across the internet. InVIDIA claims developers using Maxine can reduce bandwidth to one-tenth the requirements of the H-264 standard. Maxine's other spotlight feature is face alignment, which enables faces to be automatically adjusted so participants can be facing each other during a call.

Starting point is 00:02:10 Gaze correction helps simulate eye contact, even if the camera isn't aligned with the user's screen. Autoframe allows the video feed to follow a speaker as they move away from the screen, and developers can let call participants choose their own avatars with animations automatically driven by their voice and tone. Maxine also leverages Nvidia's Jarvis SDK for conversational features, including AI language models for speech recognition, language understanding, and speech generation. Developers can use them to build video conferencing assistants that take notes and answer questions in human-like voices.

Starting point is 00:02:43 Moreover, the tool sets can power translations and transcriptions to help participants understand what's being discussed. Developers, software partners, and service providers can apply for early access to Maxine starting this week, end quote. So, despite the title that I went with for this episode. Maybe this is not a Zoom killer because maybe Zoom could be one of those applying to make use of this platform as well. By the way, in the show notes, I also linked to a post from the Verge that shows you some video of all of the cool things we just talked about that this platform can do. For instance, face alignment, as we said, what that actually means in practice is you would always be looking at the camera during video calls even when you're not, because essentially

Starting point is 00:03:26 in real time, the tech creates a sort of deep fake that makes it seem like you're looking at the camera. We've been talking about Facebook unifying its apps across several different segments recently, and at least obliquely, I suggested that part of that effort was an attempt to make Facebook unbreakupable. We can't divest ourselves of Instagram, because it's so core too, and wound up in our overall system would be the argument. Well, actually, over the weekend, and the Wall Street Journal got a look at a document from Facebook's law firm that actually shows the argument the company might use to fight any antitrust lawsuit and specifically any attempts to force a divestager of, say, WhatsApp or Instagram, quote, Facebook's acquisitions of Instagram in 2012 and

Starting point is 00:04:13 WhatsApp in 2014 were examined by the Federal Trade Commission, which closed its reviews without issuing an objection. The company made big investments to boost growth on those platforms, and they now share numerous operations that are integrated. In the paper, Facebook says, unwinding the deals would be nearly impossible to achieve, forcing the company to spend billions of dollars maintaining separate systems, weakening security, and harming users' experience. Quote, a breakup of Facebook is thus a complete non-starter, the paper declares. Facebook's contention that past government inaction on the acquisition should limit current action is, quote, surprisingly weak, said Tim Wu, a Columbia University law professor, tech

Starting point is 00:04:51 critic and author who has said Facebook should be broken up. A government antitrust case against the company would likely rely on the argument that Facebook made serial acquisitions to reduce competition, a question that wasn't considered when the Federal Trade Commission originally chose not to oppose the Instagram and WhatsApp deals, he said. Quote, there's no way a decision on one merger would be preclusive, he said, noting that the FTC's reviews of both acquisitions had reserved the right to revisit the deals at a later time. Facebook's claim regarding the difficulty of a potential breakup would also be unlikely to carry legal weight. Quote, there is no, it's too hard, defense, Mr. Wu said, end quote. Yeah, but they can try. And then there's also the idea that until

Starting point is 00:05:33 recently, these were separate systems. You would have to think that regulators could make the case that, you know, Facebook operated WhatsApp and Instagram at arm's length for how many years. So just because they quickly Frankenstein monstered them altogether doesn't mean much. And also, Ma Bell was pretty friggin' centralized and unitary. And yet how many baby bells were they able to create out of that. So, also as Jason Calacanis tweeted, and I've heard him make this case several times before, quote, there is such an easy solution. Force Facebook to A, have a paid tier that collects zero data and has no ads. B, make the social graph portable with one click for users, C, open messenger platforms up and make them interoperable. Privacy protected and competition opened,

Starting point is 00:06:18 end quote. In other words, there are many different definitions of the word breakup, you know. Not sure what this means for all of the various app store controversies that are raging other than that India is a hell of important market for Google, or that really all of these controversies might have to end up being adjudicated on a country-by-country basis. But worth noting that after pushback from Indian developers, Google says it will delay the enforcement of its 30% cut on in-app purchases on the Play Store in India until April of 2022. Everywhere else, globally, as we told you, I think last week, enforcement of these policies is set to begin September 2021. So, sweet deal for India, quoting the Economic Times of India. The company is, quote, listening to the Indian startup and app developer community to understand its concerns and is ready to, quote, find ways to ensure both sides can be successful together. Samir Samat, VP of Product Management at Google told ET, quote, it's not good for anyone if our part

Starting point is 00:07:26 partners feel they can't grow and be successful, he said. So we're deeply committed to the Indian ecosystem. We will be engaging. We will be finding ways so that we can grow together, end quote. E.T. had reported earlier that more than 50 technology entrepreneurs were joining hands to petition the government for support to create an overarching Indian digital app ecosystem to counter what they view as the dominance of U.S. technology giants, Google and Apple. The government has responded positively to the demand and has said it's open to launching an alternative. Following the concerns that have been raised, Google has decided to delay applying the fee, said Samat, who's based in the company's headquarters in Mountain View, California.

Starting point is 00:08:05 This has been communicated to the developers privately, he said, end quote. And quoting from TechCrunch, last week Google said it would no longer allow any apps to circumvent its payment system within the Play Store. The move, pitched by Google as a clarification of its existing policy, would allow the company to ensure it gets as high as a 30% cut on in-app purchases made through Android apps operating in a range of categories. Google's announcement today is a direct response to the loudest scrutiny it has received in a decade in India, its biggest market by users, but also a place where, compared to Western markets, it generates little revenue. More than 150 startups in India last week

Starting point is 00:08:41 formed an informal coalition to fight the company's stronghold on the Indian app ecosystem. Google commands 99% of the smartphone market in India, according to research firm Counterpoint. Among the startups that have expressed concerns over Google's new policy are pay ATM, India's most valuable startup, payments processor razor pay, fantasy sports firm Dream11, social network share chat, and business e-commerce, India Mart. More than 50 Indian executives relayed these concerns to India's Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology over a video call on Saturday, according to three people who attended the call, end quote. This segment is an example of a story that I haven't been covering yet, but I figure I need to

Starting point is 00:09:26 catch you up on at this point. Here's the headline. According to doubt, App radar, Ethereum's transaction volume skyrocketed to $119.5 billion in Q3 2020, growing nearly 12,000 percent just from Q2. Notice that we're talking about transaction volume here, not price. People are actually using Ethereum more, 12,000 percent more. Why? Well, that's what I need to catch you up on. It's all because of a boom in something called DeFi apps, quoting Decrypt. Per the report, Ethereum's transaction volume amounted to only $10.2 billion just a few months ago in Q2 2020. Such a sharp increase became possible mostly thanks to the ongoing decentralized finance or defy craze that keeps attracting yield farmers. Among the 13 blockchains listed on DAP radar, Ethereum accounted for 96% of the total transaction volume,

Starting point is 00:10:24 retaining its mantle as the biggest network by far. At the same time, the defy ecosystem was responsible for, for 99% of those figures. We spot that the Defy ecosystem is not only the number one category, but also holds 99% of the value within the Ethereum blockchain in Q32020, DAPR radar noted, end quote. So yes, defy has been all the rage in crypto circles over the summer. So what is it? Quoting CoinDesk. Defy draws inspiration from blockchain, the technology behind the digital currency Bitcoin, which allows several entities to hold a copy of a history of transactions, meaning it isn't controlled by a single central source. That's important because centralized systems and human

Starting point is 00:11:05 gatekeepers can limit the speed and sophistication of transactions while offering users less direct control over their money. Defi is distinct because it expands the use of blockchain from simple value transfers to more complex financial use cases. Bitcoin and many other digital native assets stand out from legacy digital payments methods, such as those run by Visa and PayPal, in that they remove all middlemen from transactions. When you pay with a credit card for coffee at a cafe, a financial institution sits between you and the business with control over the transaction, retaining the authority to stop or pause it, and record it in its private ledger. With Bitcoin, these institutions are cut out of the picture. Direct purchases aren't the

Starting point is 00:11:43 only type of transaction or contract overseen by big companies. Financial applications such as loans, insurance, crowdfunding, derivatives, betting, and more are also in their control. Cutting out middlemen from all kinds of transactions is one of the primary advantages of defy. Most applications that call themselves defy are built on top of Ethereum, the world's second largest cryptocurrency platform, which sets itself apart from the Bitcoin platform in that it's easier to use to build other types of decentralized applications beyond simple transactions. These more complex financial use cases were even highlighted by Ethereum creator Vitalik Buteran back in 2013 in the original Ethereum white paper. That's because of Ethereum's platform for

Starting point is 00:12:25 smart contracts, which automatically execute transactions if certain conditions are met, offering much more flexibility. Ethereum programming languages such as solidity are specifically designed for creating and deploying such smart contracts. For example, say a user wants his or her money to be sent to a friend next Tuesday, but only if the temperature climbs above 90 degrees Fahrenheit according to weather.com. Such rules can be written in a smart contract, end quote. So, among the applications popular in the DFI space over the last few months, stable coins, which

Starting point is 00:12:59 we've talked a lot about, prediction markets, decentralized exchanges. In fact, decentralized exchanges think alternatives to centralized crypto exchanges have been where a lot of the action has been at. There have been days recently when crypto trading volume through decentralized exchanges or dex has outstripped volume on major centralized exchanges, like your coin bases, of course. In other words, you can read this whole phenomenon as the very promise of Ethereum, which many people touted as so revolutionary that it might represent an evolution of the internet itself, of that original promise finally starting to be actually realized. Let's end with a couple of COVID-related tech stories today. Remember contact tracing apps

Starting point is 00:13:50 using Apple and Google's jointly developed API? Whatever happened to that? Well, it turns Turns out that 10 U.S. states, including New York and New Jersey, which collectively account for around 21% of the U.S. population, have released COVID-19 tracing apps based on that API, quoting CNBC. New York and New Jersey both released COVID-19 alert apps this week, bringing the total to 10 states plus Guam that have published apps using technology from the Apple Google Partnership. 70 million people now have access to a COVID-19 app, according to a CNBC analysis using U.S. Census data. More are coming soon, too. Five other states plus Washington, D.C., have announced plans to use the Google Apple exposure notification system, and California and Arizona are currently testing apps in pilot programs. If the system works properly, the apps will provide push alerts to any user who came in

Starting point is 00:14:41 close contact with another app user who tested positive for the coronavirus. Users can also use the apps to alert everyone they were near that they tested positive without revealing their name or phone number. For health agencies and governments, the apps, could help slow the spread of the coronavirus by identifying people who might test positive that could be missed by other methods such as contact tracing, end quote. In fact, I downloaded my app from the state of New York last week. It's pretty easy to do. If you go into settings on iOS and turn on exposure notifications, it automatically sends you to the app your locality has,

Starting point is 00:15:17 if in fact it has one so that you can easily download it. So far, so good. But if that's good news, This is bad news. The New York Times reported yesterday about ransomware attacks on clinical trials and other projects working on a COVID-19 vaccine that has reportedly slowed some of these vaccine trials, quote. A Philadelphia company that sells software used in hundreds of clinical trials, including the crash effort to develop test treatments and a vaccine for the coronavirus, was hit by a ransomware attack that has slowed some of those trials over the past two weeks. The attack on e-research technology, which has not previously been reported, began two-weeks. ago when employees discovered that they were locked out of their data by ransomware, an attack that holds victims' data hostage until they pay to unlock it. ERT said clinical trial patients were never at risk, but customers said the attack forced trial researchers to track their patients with pen and paper. Among those hit were IQVIA, the contract research organization helping manage AstraZeneca's

Starting point is 00:16:21 COVID vaccine trial, and Bristol-Myers Squibb, the drugmaker leading a consortium of companies to develop a quick test for the virus. ERT has not said how many clinical trials were affected, but its software is used in drug trials across Europe, Asia, and North America. It was used in three quarters of trials that led to drug approvals by the Food and Drug Administration last year, according to its website, end quote. So, super. So, yeah, in other COVID-related news,

Starting point is 00:16:58 my son's preschool adventure lasted two weeks and all of only four in-person days, because we got a call late last night that one of his classmates tested positive for COVID. Now, the kid in question was in cohort A, and my son is in cohort B, so they've never even met each other, never been in the same room at the same time, but, you know, would have been in the same room within 24 hours of each other. So the teachers that cover both cohorts are now quarantined, and yeah, Max isn't going to school again for at least two weeks, I guess. He did get tested for COVID last Thursday and he tested negative, so I guess we're going to try to get another test today or sometime this week to be on the safe side. But I don't know, man. It's just frustrating.

Starting point is 00:17:44 You do all the things to be safe for all these months and then you stick your neck out just a little bit and you're still playing by all the rules and yet it still feels like there's just this thin line between risk and safe. It's just, it's frustrating. That's what it feels like at the moment at least. Anyway, thanks Brady Dale. of CoinDesk for helping me out with that Ethereum segment. Talk to y'all tomorrow.

Tech Brew Ride Home - Mon. 10/05 – Nvidia’s Zoom-Killer, “Maxine”

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