Tech Brew Ride Home - Tue. 10/15 – Tech Going Nuclear

Episode Date: October 15, 2024

The Nuclear Energy sector is clearly getting back in business, thanks to big tech and their AI needs. The latest back and forth in the Wordpress brouhaha. The US is considering caps on the chips Nvidia can deliver to a bunch of countries worldwide. And is Tether getting deeper into the global finance game? Sponsors: 1Password.com/ride ArcticWolf.com/register Links: Google Backs New Nuclear Plants to Power AI (WSJ) DHH's Original Post Matt Mullenweg's Original Response Matt's 2nd Response Apple Unveils New iPad Mini With A17 Pro Chip and Apple Intelligence (MacRumors) US Weighs Capping Exports of AI Chips From Nvidia and AMD to Some Countries (Bloomberg) Crypto Company Tether Talking to Commodity Traders About Lending Them Its Billions (Bloomberg) The War on Passwords Is One Step Closer to Being Over (Wired) 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 Tech meme right home for Tuesday, October 15th, 2024. I'm Brian McCullough today. The nuclear energy sector is clearly getting back in business thanks to big tech and their AI needs. The latest back and forth in the WordPress

Bruhaha, a new iPad mini. The U.S. is concerning caps on the chips Nvidia can deliver to a bunch of countries worldwide and is tether getting deeper into the global finance game. Here's what you miss today in the world of tech. Did not have on my bingo card at the beginning of the year that there would be a slate of headlines like this one. Google has signed a deal to buy nuclear energy generated from multiple small modular reactors developed by U.S.-based startup Kairos Power, quoting the journal. Google will back the construction of seven small nuclear power reactors in the U.S., a first of its kind deal that aims to help feed the tech company's growing appetite for electricity to power AI and jumpstart a U.S. nuclear revival. Under the deal's terms, Google committed to buying

power generated by seven reactors to be built by nuclear energy startup Kairos Power. The agreement targets adding 500 megawatts of nuclear power starting at the end of the decade, the company said Monday. The arrangement is the first that would underpin the commercial construction in the U.S. of small modular nuclear reactors. Many say the technology is the future of the domestic nuclear power industry, potentially enabling faster and less costly construction by building smaller reactors instead of behemoth bespoke plants. The end goal here is 24-7 carbon-free energy, said Michael Terrell, Senior Director for Energy and Climate at Alphabet's Google. We feel like in order to meet goals around round-the-clock, clean energy, you're going to need to have technologies that complement wind and solar and lithium ion storage, end quote.

The nuclear power industry's fortunes are increasingly getting hitched to big tech. Power demand is rising in parts of the U.S. for the first time in years, much of it driven by the need to build more data centers for AI. has sent the tech industry on the hunt for massive amounts of energy. Last month, Constellation Energy and Microsoft struck a deal to restart the undamaged reactor at Pennsylvania's Three Mile Island, the site of the country's worst nuclear power accident. Earlier this year, Amazon purchased a data center at another Pennsylvania nuclear plant. The 500 megawatts of generation that would be built by Kairos for Google is about enough to power a mid-sized city or one AI data center campus. The agreement answers questions that have bedeviled smaller reactor designs.

What customer would pay the higher price for a first-of-a-kind project, and who would order enough to get an assembly line started? The concept, which remains to be proven, is that building the same thing over and over in a factory would drive down costs. Cairo's plans to deliver the reactors between around 2030 and 2035. Financial terms weren't disclosed, but the companies entered into a power purchase agreement similar to those used between corporate buyers and when and solar energy developers. The project site, or whether there could be reactors at multiple locations, hasn't been determined, the companies said. Google would have data centers somewhere in the region near the kairos reactors, but it hasn't been determined whether they would receive power directly

from the nuclear power plants or from the grid. Google could count the addition of nuclear power towards meeting its carbon reduction commitments. Instead of water, which is used in traditional reactors, the kairos design uses molten fluoride salt as a coolant. The units for the units for, for Google will include a single 50-Mawatt reactor with three subsequent power plants that would each have two 75-m-watt reactors, Cairo said. That compares with about a thousand megawatts at reactors at conventional nuclear power plants. Kairos will have to navigate complex approvals through the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission, but already has clearance to build a demonstration reactor in Tennessee, which could start operating in 2027. Kairos has a manufacturing

development facility in Albuquerque, New Mexico, where it is building test units. They don't have nuclear fuel components, but are something of a practice run at building and operating full-sized plants to test systems, components, and the supply chain. Nearly 20% of U.S. power comes from nuclear plants currently, but the pipeline of big new projects has been halted because of high costs and long timelines. The second of two new reactors at Georgia's votal nuclear plant was completed this spring. Before that, the most recent nuclear power reactors in the U.S. were completed in 2016 and 1996 by the Tennessee Valley Authority, end quote. I also did not have this on my bingo card, because seriously, when did we ever talk about WordPress in the past?

Well, Matt Mullenweg has responded to DHS's recent claims that, quote, automatic is doing open source dirty, pointing out Rails's own trademark policy and taking some jabs at 37 signals. Actually, he took the original post down, but here is what DHS said to kick this whole thing off. I can see where this is coming from. Ruby on Rails, the open source web framework I created, has been used to create businesses worth hundreds of billions of dollars combined. Some of those businesses express their gratitude and self-interest by supporting the framework with dedicated developers, membership of the Rails Foundation, or conference sponsorships. But many also do not. And that is absolutely their right, even if it occasionally irks a little.

That's the deal. That's open source. I give you a gift of code. You accept the terms of the license. There cannot be a second set of shadow obligations that might suddenly apply if you strike it rich using the software. Then the license is meaningless, the clarity all muddled and certainly lost. Look, Automatic can change their license away from the GPL any time they wish. The new license will only apply to new code, though, and WP Engine or anyone else are eligible to fork the project. That's what happened with Redis, after Redis Labs dropped their BSD license and went with a commercial source available alternative. Valki was forked from the last free Redis version, and now that's where anyone interested in an open source Redis implementation is likely to go. But I suspect automatic wants to have their cake and eat it too.

They want to retain WordPress's shine of open source, but also be able to extract their pound of flesh from any competitor that might appear whenever they see fit. Screw that, end quote. Now here is Malinweg's original post response to that post. quote, DHH claims to be an expert on open source, but his toxic personality and inability to scale teams means that although he has invented about half a trillion dollars worth of good ideas, most of the value has been captured by others. Let's look at 37 signals portfolio, end quote. He then writes a snarky list about things like Campfire being an idea taken and run with by Slack and base camp being something that Atlassian built into a bigger business and other things.

It's snarky, as I said. But also, as I said, he took that post down, replacing it with one that said this, quote, I've taken this post down, I've been attacked so much the past few days, the most vicious, personal, hateful words poisoned my brain, and the original version of this post was mean. I am so sorry. I shouldn't let this stuff get to me, but it clearly did, and I took it out on DHH, who, while I disagree with him on several points,

isn't the actual villain in this story, it's WP Engine and Silver Lake, end quote. To which D.H. responded on X, quote, Maybe I'm supposed to get mad at this, but instead I just get sad. Mullenweg clearly sees it as a failure to create much more value in the world than what you capture, and maybe that's the root of our differences. I see that as a proud achievement. I'm thrilled that Shopify came to be worth damn near $100 billion using Rails. I wouldn't want to trade base camp for Atlassian or any other company, and to me it's beautiful to inspire others without needing them to pay you a cut.

Different strokes, I guess. So I'll reaffirm my wish that WordPress finds a way out of this mess. and Matt 2, even automatic. I don't think people are irredeemable, and I know how stressful it can be under siege. But you have to stop digging to get out of a hole, end quote. As expected, Apple has unveiled an updated iPad Mini with an A17 Pro Chip, Apple Intelligence, and the same 8.3-inch display, starting at $499 with 128 gigabytes of storage, available to pre-order now. Quoting Mac rumors. The refreshed 7th Generation Tabletons, it maintains its compact 8.3-inch design while offering notable performance improvements and new

capabilities. The A17 Pro chip brings a 30% boost in CPU performance and a 25% increase in GPU performance compared to the previous generation, according to Apple. The new iPad Mini also gains support for Apple Pencil Pro, which introduces pressure sensitivity, haptic feedback, and gesture controls. Other improvements include Wi-Fi 6E support, faster USBC data transfer, and an upgraded 12-machixel-wide camera with smart HDR4. Apple Intelligence offers features improved writing tools, image generation, and enhanced task automation. The system utilizes both on-device processing and cloud-based models to balance performance

and privacy. The first set of Apple Intelligence features will be available in U.S. English this month for a free software update with iPad OS18.1. Available in four colors, including new blue and purple options, the new iPad Mini with Wi-Fi starts at $499 for $128 gigabytes of storage, double the minimum storage of the previous generation, and $6.49 for the Wi-Fi plus cellular model. The new iPad Mini is also available in 256 gigabytes and 512-gigabyte configurations. Pre-orders begin today with availability starting October 23rd. A new Smartfolio, available in charcoal, gray, light violet, denim, and sage is also

available for $59, end quote. sources are telling Bloomberg that the U.S. is considering capping AI chip sales from Nvidia and others on a country-specific basis with a focus on the Middle East for various national security reasons. Quote, the approach would set a ceiling on export licenses for certain countries in the interest of national security, according to the people who described the private discussions on condition of anonymity. Officials are focused on Persian Gulf countries that have a growing appetite for AI data

centers and the deep pockets to fund them, the people said. Deliberations are in early stages and remain fluid, the people said, noting that the idea has gained traction in recent weeks. The policy would build on a new framework to ease the licensing process for AI chip shipments to data centers and places like the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia. Commerce Department officials unveiled those regulations last month and said there are more rules coming. Setting country-based caps would tighten restrictions that originally targeted China's ambitions in artificial intelligence, as Washington considers the security risk. of AI development around the world. Already, the Biden administration has restricted AI shipments

by companies like Nvidia and AMD to more than 40 countries across the Middle East, Africa, and Asia over fears their products could be diverted to China. At the same time, some U.S. officials have come to view semiconductor export licenses, particularly for Nvidia chips, as a point of leverage to achieve broader diplomatic goals. That could include asking key companies to reduce ties with China to gain access to U.S. technology, but the concerns extend beyond Beijing. We will have to have a conversation with countries around the world about how they plan to use these capabilities. Taran Chabara, Senior Director of Technology at the National Security Council, said at a forum in June, without naming specific nations. If you're talking about countries that have a

really robust internal surveillance apparatus, then we have to think about how exactly they will use these capabilities to supercharge that kind of surveillance and what that will look like. There's also the question of how global AI development could affect American intelligence operations, said Meher Bitar, another NSC official, what are the risks? Not just on human rights grounds, but also in terms of the security and the counterintelligence risks to our personnel around the world, Bitar said at the same event. It's unclear how leading AI chipmakers would react to additional U.S. restrictions when the Biden administration first issued sweeping chip regulations for China, Nvidia redesigned its AI offerings to ensure it can keep selling into that market, end quote. from the what if stablecoins are the things that transform finance and money in ways that crypto imagined it would and maybe sometimes imagined it wouldn't file. Sources say Tether has talked to several commodities trading firms about lending to them as it hopes to face fewer regulatory restrictions than traditional lenders. Bloomberg again.

The crypto company, which is the issuer of the world's largest stablecoin USDT, has discussed U.S. dollar lending opportunities with several firms across the the credit-hungry sector, according to people familiar with the matter who asked not to be identified discussing private conversations. Tether's meetings with traders have also included conversations about how it's stablecoin, which has already gained traction as a way for traders and producers to avoid the dollar in countries like Venezuela and Russia that are subject to myriad U.S. sanctions might be used in more mainstream commodity trades, the people said. Credit lines are the lifeblood of the commodity trading firms that move multi-million dollar

cargoes of oil, metals, and food around the world. While industry heavyweights have vast networks of lenders to tap, Trafigura Group had $77 billion of credit lines with about 150 institutions at the end of March, smaller players can struggle to access the funds they need to keep shipments moving. Tether's pitch is particularly attractive because its funding would not be subject to the same stringent regulatory conditions as traditional lenders, potentially speeding up payments and trades, some of the people said. Private credit has been making some inroads into, commodity trade finance and Tether, which does not provide audited financial results, says it has the capital required to participate in its most recent financial attestation. Published in July,

Tether reported $5.2 billion in profits for the first half of 2024, end quote. Finally, today, the Fido Alliance has debuted the Credential Exchange Protocol, a specification to make pass keys portable across systems and also Pass Key Central a developer resource site. Quoting Wired, Credential Exchange Protocol or CXP promises a set of draft specifications developed by the Fido Alliance's credential provider special interest group. Development of technology standards can often be fraught bureaucratic processes, but the creation of CXP seems to have been positive and collaborative. Researchers from the password password, Bitwarden, Dashlane, Nordpass, and NPass all worked on CXP, as did those from the identity providers, ACTA, as well as Apple, Google, Microsoft, Samsung, and SK Telecom. The specifications are significant for a few reasons. CXP was created for pass keys

and is meant to address a long-standing criticism that pass keys could contribute to user lock-in by making it prohibitively difficult for people to move between operating system vendors and types of devices. In many ways, though, this problem already exists with passwords. Export features that allow you to move all your passwords from one manager to another are often dangerously exposed, and essentially just dump a list of all of your passwords into a plain text file. It's gotten much easier to sync pass keys across your devices through a single password manager, but CXP aims to standardize the technical process for securely transferring them between platforms, so users are free and safe to roam the digital landscape.

Importantly, while CXP was designed with pass keys in mind, it is really a specification that can be adapted to securely exchange other secrets as well, including passwords and other types of data. In the future, this could apply to mobile driver's licenses, say, or passports, any secrets that you want to export somewhere and import them into another system. Christian Brand, Identity, and Security Group product manager at Google TelsWired. We've got most of the rough edges sanded down with pass keys, but one of the main pieces of negative feedback over the past year has been around portability

and potential vendor lock-in. I think with this, we are signaling to the world that pass keys are growing up, end quote. The goal of the resource repository pass-key Central is similarly to help the ecosystem expand and mature. Product leads are security professionals who want to implement pass-key, for their user base may need to make a business case to executives to get budget for the project. The Fido Alliance is basically aiming to help them with the pitch, providing data and communications materials, and then support their rollout with prefab materials like implementation and rollout guides, user experience, and design guidelines, documentation around accessibility and

troubleshooting, end quote. Hopefully as you hear this, I will be in the middle of recording an 80s-90s history episode with John Gruber about the history of the video game GoldenEye. If that goes off without a hitch, the episode will be in the new podcast feed tomorrow morning. Note that I did take some advice from some of you all. I changed at least the formal title of the show in the RSS feed to Rad History. The better to search for, i.e., if you wanted to tell someone about the show, you could say, search Rad History.

Let me know if it does resolve like that on Apple Podcasts and Spotify search, try Rad History, and let me know if the show comes up. Thanks in advance. Talk to you tomorrow.