Tech Brew Ride Home - Tue. 05/21 – Now You’ve Pissed Off Scar-Jo

Episode Date: May 21, 2024

There are only 2 stories today, but they’re big ones. First, at an event yesterday, Microsoft showed off what they want the PC to look like in the AI era. Plus, this Recall app is super interesting. Then, look, it’s the Scarlett Johansson/OpenAI thing. It’s gotten weird. And more importantly, it’s continuing to highlight how OpenAI itself is… weird. Sponsors: Miro.com for 3 free boards! Links: The new, faster Surface Pro is Microsoft’s all-purpose AI PC (The Verge) Microsoft announces an Arm-powered Surface Laptop (The Verge) Microsoft unveils Copilot+ PCs with generative AI capabilities baked in (Engadget) Recall is Microsoft’s key to unlocking the future of PCs (The Verge) Scarlett Johansson says she was 'shocked, angered' when she heard OpenAI's voice that sounded like her (NBCNews) Midler v. Ford Motor Co. (Wikipedia) Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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 TechMeme right home for Tuesday, May 21st, 2024. I'm Brian McCullough today. There are only two stories. First, an event yesterday where Microsoft showed off what they want the PC to look like in the AI era. Plus, that

recall app is super interesting. And then it's the Scarlet Johansson OpenAI thing. It's gotten weirder. And more importantly, it's continuing to highlight how OpenAI itself is kind of weird. Here's what you miss today in the world of tech. Microsoft held a hardware event yesterday where you'll never believe it. All of the talk was about AI, but let me hit the hardware angle of this first, and then I'll get to the AI angle of it. Microsoft debuted a new Surface Pro, starting at $1,000 with optional OLED display and 5G, up to 90% faster than the previous generation, they said. It's got a flex keyboard with haptic feedback and more, quoting the verge. Microsoft says the pro will get up to 14 hours of video

playback, which isn't quite as good as the 20 hours it claims for the new Surface laptop, but is still a good sign for the device. There's also a new optional OLED screen, Wi-Fi 7 support, and a new keyboard attachment called the Surface Pro Flex keyboard. It has two USB-4 ports and comes in four colors, including a very nice-looking new shade of blue. It also comes with vastly improved cameras, an ultra-wide, quad-hdhd system on the front that Microsoft intends to use for lots of AI purposes and a 10-mixel sensor on the back. The whole thing weighs a hair under two pounds and is otherwise exactly the same size as the previous pro. The story here is very much inside the device, end quote. More on that in a second. They also debuted a 13.8-inch

and 15-inch surface laptop with new Qualcomm chips, up to 22 hours of battery, Wi-Fi 7, support for three, 4K external monitors, all from $999 to start. Quoting the verge again. The surface laptop comes in several configurations, starting with a base of 16 gigabytes of RAM, Please take notes, Apple, and 256 gigabytes of SSD storage with the Snapdragon X-plus chip. But storage can be bumped up to a 1 terabyte SSD and 32 gigabytes of RAM, though 64 gigabytes is available as a pre-order exclusive for now. And this is on both the 13.8-inch and 15-inch versions with the elite chip. Either model comes equipped with a Qualcomm-adrino GPU. The laptops also come in four colors, black, platinum, Dune, and Sapphire.

although it looks as though only platinum is available for the 256 gigabyte base models of both screen sizes. Depending on which size you buy, the laptop has either a 2304 by 1536 13.8 inch or 2496 by 1664 1515 inch, 120 hertz variable refresh touchscreen display with Dolby Vision IQ support. Microsoft updated the display for this model, giving it smaller bezels with rounded corners. Both sizes get two USBC ports and one USBA 3.1 port, sport a 1080p camera. They also come equipped with 3.5 millimeter headphone jacks and can be fast charged using a 65 watt power supply, which the 15-inch model ships with. The 13.8-inch version ships with a 39-watt charger, though. The 13.8-inch model weighs 2.96 pounds and measures 11.85 inches by

8.67 inches by 0.69 inches, still a fair bit thicker than a MacBook Air. Then the 15-inch is 3.67 pounds and 12.96 by 9.41 by 0.72 inches, end quote. But the real headline that Microsoft wants you to retain is this. They unveiled copilot plus PCs, what they're calling a new class of AI-capable Windows PCs that have at least 40 tops of NPU performance with several OEMs and shipmakers on board. Quoting and gadget. These contain hardware designed to handle more generative AI copilot processes locally rather than relying on the cloud. Doing so requires a chip set with a neural processing unit or NPU, and manufacturers such as Qualcomm have been laying the groundwork with chips like the Snapdragon X Elite. Microsoft is taking a partner-first approach to making Copilot Plus PCs,

along with chipmakers like AMD, Intel, and Qualcomm. Major OEMs including Acer, Asis, Dell, HP, and Lenovo are on board. The first Copilot Plus laptops are available to pre-order today, and they'll ship on June 18th. Prices begin at 999. $1.Yusuf Medi, Microsoft's EVP, Consumer Chief Marketing Officer, said during the event that the company has completely reimagined what a Windows PC is. He claimed that co-pilot plus PCs are the most powerful PCs ever. We'll need to see if that assertion holds up in real-world testing. Despite that, Medi said, the first generation of laptops are, quote, unbelievably thin, light and beautiful. Other AI PCs on the market deliver 10 tops, terra operations per second. To be dubbed a co-pilot plus PC, a system will need to deliver at least 40 tops of NPU performance and have at least 16 gigabytes of RAM and 256 gigabytes of

storage. Qualcomm claims the Snapdragon X Elite delivers up to 75 tops overall, but the pure specs matter less than what Microsoft is able to actually do with the hardware. Medi also suggested copilot plus PCs are 58% faster than M3-powered MacBook airs, though it's worth noting Apple has more powerful M3 chips in its laptops already and M4 chips on the way very soon. The company suggested that Copilot Plus laptops will offer up to 22 hours of battery life while playing videos locally and up to 15 hours while browsing the web. To make all this happen, the Windows Copilot Runtime has more than 40 AI models that are part of a new Windows 11 layer. They're said to be deeply integrated into Windows to help them more efficiently access hardware and to power more robust

privacy and security options. The models can work across any app, Microsoft says, and quote. So again, to underline this, Acer, AISS, Dell, HP, Samsung, and Lenovo have joined Microsoft in debuting laptops featuring Qualcomm Snapdragon X Elite or Plus chips and a dedicated co-pilot key, thus this new type of AI hardware. Basically, the entire PC side of the traditional computing equation wants you to upgrade your machine to do AI with them. But what does that even mean? What AI can you do?

Well, that's kind of up to you. But there is one more thing they announced that has been getting a lot of play. That is Recall for Windows 11, which is an AI-powered search tool. exclusively for co-pilot plus PCs that keeps track of users' actions and gives them an explorable timeline. It's sort of like that rewind app that got developed for Max a couple years ago. Quoting the Verge. The scope of recall, which Microsoft has internally called AI Explorer, is incredibly vast. It includes logging things you do in apps, tracking communications and live meetings,

remembering all websites you visited for research, and more. All you need to do is perform a recall action, which is like an AI-powered search, and it'll present a snapshot of that period of time that gives you context of the memory. As a matter of fact, everything you do on the PC appears on an explorable timeline, you can scroll through. You can also search live meetings and videos thanks to live captions, which transcribes and even translate speech. If this technology sounds familiar, Microsoft tried something less powerful in Windows 10 with timeline, but discontinued the feature in 2021. It's also because there's already a very similar app for Mac called Rewind.

The software works on M-Series Max and Like Recall, logs everything you do, listens to all of your meetings, and gives you access to a chatbot to recall anything. With Recall, however, you're getting a deep native integration into Windows, while Rewind is a third-party app you have to install and hand over system permissions too. Recall won't work with every Windows 11 computer. You'll have to buy one of several fresh new copilot plus PCs powered by Qualcomm's new Snapdragon X Elite chips, which have the neuroprocessing units required for recall to work. There are also minimum storage requirements on PCs to use Recall.

Microsoft is promising users that the Recall Index remains local and private on device. You can pause, stop, or delete, captured content, or choose to exclude specific apps or websites. Recall won't take snapshots of in-private web browsing sessions in Microsoft Edge and DRM-protected content either, says Microsoft, but it doesn't perform content moderation and won't actively hide sensitive information like passwords and financial account numbers, end quote. Well, what seemed to be a funny little story yesterday has evolved into a whole big thing. Scarlett Johansson says she declined OpenAI's chat GPT voice offer. They wanted her to be the voice of a chat GPT and was, quote, shocked, angered that Sam Altman would pursue Sky, that voice we told you about yesterday, that was, quote, eerily similar to hers. Quoting NBC News.

Last September, I received an offer from Sam Altman who wanted to. hire me to voice the current chat GPT 4.0 system, Johansson wrote in a statement which a representative shared with NBC News. He told me that he felt that by my voicing the system, I could bridge the gap between tech companies and creatives and help consumers to feel comfortable with the seismic shift concerning humans and AI. He said he felt that my voice would be comforting to people. After much consideration and for personal reasons, I declined the offer, she continued. Nine months later, my friends, family, and the general public all noted how much the newest system named Sky sounded like me, end quote. In Monday's announcement, OpenAI said the Sky voice was not

an imitation of Johansson's voice. The company said it was recorded by a professional actor, along with other voices that are still available. The company said it would not share the actor's names for privacy reasons. The voice chat feature was promoted during a May 13th product demonstration held by OpenAI, but the feature has been available since September 2023. Johansen voiced an artificial intelligence chatbot in the 2013 movie Her, which OpenAI CEO Sam Altman referenced in relation to the company's new voice offerings, something Johansson noted in her statement. Quote, When I heard the release demo, I was shocked, angered, and in disbelief that Mr. Altman would pursue a voice that sounded so eerily similar to mine that my closest friends and news outlets could not tell the difference, Johansson wrote in the statement. Altman's announcement of the new product was posted on X on the same day of the product demonstration and is still live. Her statement continued. Mr. Altman even insinuated that the similarity was intentional tweeting a single word, her, a reference to the film in which I voiced a chat system, Samantha, who forms an intimate relationship with the human.

Two days before the chat GPT 4.0 demo was released, Mr. Altman contacted my agent asking me to reconsider. Before we could connect, the system was out there, Johansson wrote. As a result of their actions, I was forced to hire legal counsel who wrote two letters to Mr. Altman and OpenAI. setting out what they had done and asking them to detail the exact process by which they created the sky voice. Consequently, OpenAI reluctantly agreed to take down the sky voice. In a time when we are all grappling with deepfakes and the protection of our own likenesses, our own work, our own identities, I believe these are questions that deserve absolute clarity. I look forward to resolution in the form of transparency and the passage of appropriate legislation to help ensure that individual rights are protected, she wrote. In response for a request for comment,

Altman said in a written statement sent by a spokesperson that the voice of Sky was not meant to sound like Johansansans and was chosen before reaching out to her. The voice of Sky is not Scarlett Johansons and it was never intended to resemble hers, Altman said. We cast the voice actor behind Sky's voice before any outreach to Ms. Johansson. Out of respect for Ms. Johansson, we have paused using Sky's voice in our products. We are sorry to Ms. Johansson that we didn't communicate better, end quote. By the way, in Johansson's quotes there, she refers to it as GPT-F. 4.0, which I know is not the name, but whatever. But anyway, okay, Sam, then why on May 13th did you tweet that single word, her? Like, let's take this at face value as you say it. You didn't

want to use Scarjo's voice, but you did want people to make the connection to that movie, her. Why do that? You do know that not everyone read that movie as an uplifting fantasy. I mean, the end of that movie is basically the AI abandoning her human because she basically tells him, I need to be with my own kind. You're just too far down the evolutionary chain for it to be worth my time talking to you. Not exactly heartwarming. So in my mind, even wanting people to relate to that movie, even subconsciously, is a weird choice when you're trying to convince people to try to get comfortable with AI. But frankly, the other possibility here is worse. And that possibility is you 100% wanted the voice from the movie her. You tried to get it. The talent declined.

and then you went ahead and did it anyway. Is that above board? It feels underhanded to me. And this comes at the same time the entire alignment team is gone from open AI, making those inclined to think so that you're playing fast and loose with the ethics of making AI. And so at that exact same time, you do something that seems unethical. The whole stated rationale for Open AI from the beginning was that AI was too important slash dangerous to do the Uber model, the blitzscaling model of launch the product first,

asked for permission later, right? So if Johansen is to be believed, what does this look like you did? Basically, asking permission after doing it. So baffling. There's just a few more related points that I'd like to bring up here in no particular order. Number one, are you aware that Scarjo has a reputation for not backing down and getting litigious when she feels like she's been wronged? When COVID happened and movie theaters shut down and studios started releasing movies online without putting them in theaters first, she is the only one in Hollywood that sued. Lots of other people were pissed, like Christopher Nolan, but only Scarlett Johansson sued. Number two, are you aware that there is a whole bit of settled case law that says you can't impersonate a famous person's voice?

I have the link in the show notes, but just, you know, search Wikipedia for Midler versus Ford Motor Company, quoting from Wikipedia. Ford Motor created an ad campaign for the Mercury sable that specifically was meant to inspire nostalgic sentiments through the use of famous songs from the 1970s sung by their original artists. When the original artists refused to accept impersonators were used to sing the original songs for the commercials. Bet Midler was asked to sing a famous song of hers for the commercial and refused. Subsequently, the company hired a voice impersonator of Midler and carried on with using the song for the commercial since it had been approved by the copyright holder. Midler's image and likeness were not used in the commercial, but many

claim the voice used sounded impeccably like Midler's. Midler pursued a common law judgment against Ford for using her distinctive voice without her authorization. The appellate court pondered the question of whether or not an artist's voice is a distinctive personal feature, over which a person has controlling rights from appropriation. Midler was not seeking damages for copyright infringement of the song itself, but rather for the use of her voice, which she claimed was distinctive of her person as a singer. The recognition of Midler's voice in the commercial was found to be the intentional motivation and a major feature of the commercial, end quote. The appellate court ruled in favor of Midler, saying her voice was protected against unauthorized use. So, it wouldn't fly if OpenAI hired someone

who just really sounded a lot like Johansson. But it really wouldn't fly if they reached out to Johansson. She declined, and they went ahead with a sound alike anyway. Number three, are you getting the sense that Open AI is, how should I say this? Not exactly a traditionally run company? I mean, it's not. It's never been. It's always been from the very beginning, this weird Frankenstein's monster of a non-profit that became for-profit, but maybe gray area between non-profit and for-profit. Its original co-founder, Elon Musk was so pissed. He left the company. You had the whole boardroom coup last year. How many companies does that happen to? Employees try to ask the CEO only for the CEO to pull a counter coup with other employees. You know, just on a very

basic level, a well-run company also has a PR team that would have advised Altman not to tweet that her tweet. Are we starting to get a sense for why Microsoft seems to be hedging their bets vis-a-vis Open AI? I imagine they'll always keep their investment in OpenAI because why not, but what odds would you give me that the OpenAI Microsoft partnership is a tight one, say, five years hence? And number four, do you recall what the OpenAI Board of Directors only stated reason for firing Altman was back when the coup happened. I'm going to quote it. Quote, not consistently candid in his communications, end quote.

Well, unless Johansson changes her tune, how does this change that increasing perception of Sam Altman? Quick update on the ride home funds. Chris and I have deployed almost 90% of the capital for the AI fund. We expect to be done deploying by July, so this is the last chance to invest in the AI fund if you're interested in doing so, and if you want to be a part of the AI investments via the Ride Home Fund, the Rolling Fund, this quarter and next quarter are your last chances to get your money

exposed to that as well. More on both funds at Ridehomefund.com. Talk to you tomorrow.