Tech Brew Ride Home - Wed. 05/08 – Bethesda Bloodbath

Episode Date: May 8, 2024

Multiple Bethesda studios are being shut down by Xbox and gamers are worried. The new Pixel phone announcement yesterday that probably nobody heard about. What if OpenAI decides to go after web search? And the surprising fact that FTX investors could be made whole, and then some. With interest! Links: Microsoft Closes Redfall Developer Arkane Austin, Hi-Fi Rush Developer Tango Gameworks, and More in Devastating Cuts at Bethesda (IGN) US revokes licences for supply of chips to China’s Huawei (Financial Times) Exclusive: In Tesla Autopilot probe, US prosecutors focus on securities, wire fraud (Reuters) Google’s New $500 Pixel 8A Smartphone Will Get 7 Years of Software Updates (Wired) OpenAI Is Readying a Search Product to Rival Google, Perplexity (Bloomberg) TikTok Sues U.S. Government Over Law Forcing Sale or Ban (NYTimes) FTX Has Billions More Than Needed to Pay Bankruptcy Victims (Bloomberg) 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 Wednesday, May 8, 2024. I'm Brian McCullough today. Multiple Bethesda studios are being shut down by Xbox and gamers are worried. The new pixel phone announcement yesterday that probably nobody heard about,

what if OpenAI decides to go after web search and the surprising fact that FTX investors could be made whole and then some with interest. Here's what you miss today in the world of tech. IGN has seen a memo that indicates Microsoft's Xbox plans to shut down multiple Bethesda studios, and consolidate teams to prioritize high-impact titles and invest in Bethesda's existing portfolio. Quote, Microsoft has closed a number of Bethesda studios, including Redfall Maker Arcane Austin, Hi-Fi Rush and the Evil Within developer Tango Gameworks, and more in devastating cuts at Bethesda, IGN, can confirm. Alpha Dog Games, maker of mobile game Mighty Doom, will also close. Roundhouse Studios will be absorbed by the Elder Scrolls online developer ZenniMax Online.

online studios. Microsoft currently valued it over $3 trillion. Did not say how many staff will lose their jobs, but significant layoffs are inevitable. IGN has asked Bethesda for comment. Microsoft declined to expand further when contacted by IGN. On Redfall, the disastrous vampire co-op game will now not receive promised updates, including an offline mode and new character DLC, as Microsoft has ended all development on the game. Microsoft said Redfall will remain online to play, and it will provide a make-a-good for those who bought the Hero DLC. Arcane Leon, which is working on Marvel's Blade, survives the call, as does Bethesda Game Studios, Fallout the Elder Scrolls Starfield,

and Machine Games, Indiana Jones, and The Great Circle. Doom developer id software is also unaffected, end quote. So, basically, as I understand all that, the long and short of it is, gamers are concerned that Xbox might be prioritizing blockbuster franchises at the expense of smaller games in sort of the way that Hollywood only puts $100 million superhero movies in theaters anymore and basically nothing else. As Agent Strange tweeted, quote, is Bethesda softworks going to be reduced to Fallout Elder Scrolls and Doom? Is that what's going to happen? No more experimentation, no more risks. Ah! End quote. The U.S. has revoked some licenses that allow companies to ship chips and other goods to Huawei. Sources say the decision

affects Intel and Qualcomm the most. In fact, on this news, Intel had to come out and say it now expects Q2 revenue to be, quote, below the midpoint of the previously guided 12 and a half to 13.5 billion dollar range it had projected during its most recent earnings call, quoting the Financial Times. The move by the U.S. Department of Commerce affects the supply of chips for Huawei's laptop computers and mobile phones, according to people familiar with the situation. The Commerce Department confirmed to the Financial Times that it has, had revoked certain licenses for exports to Huawei, but did not name which U.S. companies would be affected. We continuously assess how our controls can best protect our national security and foreign

policy interests, taking into consideration a constantly changing threat environment and technological landscape said a spokesperson for the department. As part of this process, as we have done in the past, we sometimes revoke export licenses, end quote. One person familiar with the situation said the Commerce Department had notified the companies that would be affected but did not provide details. Washington already has tough restrictions on the sale of U.S. technology to Huawei, but Republican lawmakers have urged President Joe Biden to take even tougher action against the Chinese group, which national security officials say helps Beijing engage in cyber espionage around the world. Huawei has denied the claims. Marco Rubio, Republican Vice Chair of the Senate Intelligence Committee, and Elise Stefaniac,

the fourth-ranking Republican in the House of Representatives, last month urged the Department of Commerce to revoke Huawei licenses after reports emerged that the Shenzhen-based group had built laptops using chips from Intel. It is clear from these trends that Huawei, a blacklisted company that was on the ropes just a few years ago, is making a comeback, the lawmakers wrote in their letter. After the release of the letter, Intel said it, quote, strictly complies with all the laws and regulations in the countries where we do business. Huawei's Maitbook X-Pro laptop, which was released last month, uses Intel's Core Ultra-9 chip. Michael McCall, Republican chair of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, has repeatedly urged

the Commerce Department's Bureau of Industry and Security to take a tougher stance on Huawei. And a letter last year, he raised concerns that the Chinese group, quote, can still buy significant amounts of U.S. technology, end quote. Sources have told Reuters that U.S. prosecutors are examining if Tesla committed securities or wire fraud by misleading investors and consumers about autopilot and full self-driving, quoting Reuters. Investigators are exploring whether Tesla committed wire fraud, which involves deception in interstate communications by misleading consumers about its driver assistance systems, the sources said.

They are also examining whether Tesla committed securities fraud by deceiving investors, two of the sources said. The Securities and Exchange Commission is also investigating Tesla's representations about driver assistance systems to investors. One of the people said, the SEC declined to comment. Tesla did not respond to a request for comment. Last October, it disclosed in a filing that the Justice Department had asked the company for information about autopilot and full self-driving. The Justice Department declined to comment. The probe, which is not evidence of wrongdoing, could result in criminal charges, civil sanctions, or no action. Prosecutors are far from deciding how to proceed, one of the sources said in part because they are sifting through voluminous documents

Tesla provided in response to subpoenas. Reuters could not determine the specific statements prosecutors are reviewing as potentially illegal. Elon Musk has aggressively touted the prowess of Tesla's driver assistance technology for nearly a decade, end quote. Companies tend to avoid announcing new products on the same day as other companies to avoid attention confusion. That's why I was surprised. Google announced a new Pixel 8 yesterday the same day as the Apple iPad event. I'm not saying yesterday's iPad event was whelming. It was definitely underwhelming. But I had to go back and look up the fact that the new Pixel 8 was indeed announced yesterday at a $499 price tag shipping May 14th, because I thought I hallucinated seeing that yesterday afternoon.

Quoting Wired. The company announced its latest pixel phone virtually one week before its Google I.O. Developer Conference, where expectations are high for the latest Android and artificial intelligence improvements and potential updates on the mixed reality headset, it's developing in partnership with Qualcomm and Samsung. Google says it's giving its new handset time to shine ahead of the event. The Pixel A8 is available for pre-order today and goes on sale May 14th. While the price of these handsets has slightly increased since the first Pixel 3A in 2019,

the new Google Pixel 8A seems to have everything you'd want in a smartphone at a palatable price of $500. The Pixel 8A retains the 6.1-inch screen size of its predecessor, but the OLED panel is now fitted with what Google calls its Actua display. That's marketing mumbo-jumbo, just like Apple's retina display, but this new OLED purportedly offers a 40% higher peak brightness than the Pixel 7A, up to 2,000 nits or 1,400 nits with HDR. It also supports a 120-hertz refresh rate for smooth scrolling. One area where Google cut corners is the cover glass, which is Corning's dated Gorilla Glass 3 from 2013. You'll probably want to apply a screen protector to be safe.

The back is a matte plastic composite with a matte aluminum frame. Google says the housing and camera bar are made from 100% recycled aluminum, and the rear plastic is 76% recycled plastic. It's still IP67 dust and water resistant, so it can survive a dip in the pool or a walk in the rain. The Pixel 8A is powered by Google's Tensor G3 chip set with 8 gigabytes of RAM, just like the Pixel 8 series. That means it'll be capable of much of the same software wizardry Google showed off last year with the debut of its flagship, including Audio Magic Eraser, which lets you erase unwanted sounds in video clips like sirens, magic editor, where you can move subjects around and have the software generate a backer

to fill in the space, and best take, which can replace a person's face in a photo by clipping it from a similar photo, which is useful in case someone blinked and ruined an otherwise perfect shot. This phone will also be able to tap into Google's Gemini Nano large language model. To enable Gemini Nano, you'll have to go into the Pixel's developer settings and check a box that says you agree to run experimental features that may or may not work perfectly yet. When enabled, Gemini Nano lets you access specific on-device AI features like Summarize in Google's Recorder app and Smart Reply in Gboard. Gemini Nano will be available in a future software update, but Google confirmed that while the default assistant in this handset remains Google Assistant,

you can replace it with its Gemini Assistant easily out of the box, just like you can on most other Android phones today. Speaking of, just like the Pixel 8 series, Google is promising seven years of software updates on this phone. that makes the Pixel 8A one of the only sub-500 devices to get such a long software support window. Google's also offering the same built-in VPN function 2. The device comes with 128 gigabytes of storage, and there's now a 256 gigabyte option, though that's restricted to the obsidian color. The Pixel 8A's other colors include bay, porcelain, and a lovely new aloe, end quote. Interesting.

According to a source, OpenAI is developing a feature for chat GPT that can search the web and show results with citations to sources and images. I say this is interesting because while Microsoft is clearly diversifying, how do you think the folks at Bing would think about this? Also, who said perplexity has to be the only company to go after Google search, quoting Bloomberg. The feature would allow users to ask chat GPT a question and receive answers that use details from the web with citations to sources such as Wikipedia entries and blog posts, according to the person who asked to remain anonymous discussing private information. One version of the product also uses images alongside written responses to questions when they're relevant.

If a user asks chat GPT how to change a doorknob, for instance, the results might include a diagram to illustrate the task, the person said. The information reported on a search product in development back in February. The details on how the product might work have not previously been reported. OpenAI declined to comment. Open AI is under immense pressure to expand the capability of its most well-known product as a growing list of rivals are pushing out chatbots, and search has proven to be a key area of interest for the AI industry. Perplexity has gained popularity and a $1 billion valuation by offering an AI-powered search engine that emphasizes accuracy and citations.

Google has also been racing to rethink its core search experience around AI and is expected to reveal the latest plans for its Gemini AI models at its annual IEO event next week. On social media, there has been tremendous speculation about open A's search plans. Some users on X, formerly known as Twitter, recently pointed to the existence of the web page, search.chatGPT.com, as an indicator that a search feature could be coming from OpenAI. Visitors to that URL will see a not-found message and small type on the page, but over the weekend, it briefly rerouted to chatgpt.com, the official website where users can interact with the chatbot. Such a feature would expand on what OpenAI currently offers to

some users. ChatGPT can automatically pull up search results online for certain queries, such as the current weather in San Francisco, but the feature is currently limited to those who pay for the chatbot. In some cases, this option also provides citations, but the product can have hiccups when asked on Sunday, what did President Biden do this weekend? It said he was in Delaware. While accurate, it cited a news story from 2023, end quote. Real quick, as expected, TikTok has sued the U.S. government arguing that law forcing a sale or ban violates its U.S. user's First Amendment rights and divestager is, quote, simply not possible. Quoting the New York Times. For the first time in history, Congress has enacted a law that subjects a single-named speech platform to a permanent

nationwide ban and bars every American from participating in a unique online community with more than one billion people worldwide. The company said in the 67-page petition, which initiated the lawsuit. There is no question. The act will force a shutdown of TikTok by January 19th, 2025, end quote. At the heart of the case will be lawmakers' intent to defend the United States from what they and some experts say is a national security threat. They assert that the Chinese government could lean on bite-dance to turn over sensitive TikTok user data or use the app to spread propaganda. But the mandate to sell or block the app could result in changes to TikTok's content policies and shape what users are able to freely share on the platform, potentially violating their free speech rights,

according to legal experts. These are hugely consequential questions being dealt with in an unprecedented manner, said Evelyn Doick, an assistant professor at Stanford Law School, who has done research on the First Amendment and the Internet. TikTok basically throws the First Amendment sink at this challenge, she said. TikTok filed its suit in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit Court, arguing that selling its U.S. operations was not, quote, commercially, technologically, or legally feasible. A part of that argument hinges on how TikTok and its competitors are global in nature and content is accessible across country borders with international videos as part of its appeal. It is also impossible to move the apps underlying

coding to a new owner, TikTok argued, adding that it would take years for a new set of engineers to familiarize themselves with that code to develop and maintain the platform. In addition, the engineers would need access to byte dance software to keep TikTok functioning, which the new law prohibits, the company argued. TikTok's success also hinges on its recommendation algorithm, which helps surface tailored content to users, something the Chinese government has said it would not sell the suit notes, end quote. And finally, is it possible that FTX investors could be made most of the way whole, even more than whole? FTCS says it will have as much as $16.3 billion to distribute after finishing selling all of its assets. FTX owes customers and other non-governmental

creditors only around $11 billion. Quoting Bloomberg. Cryptocurrency exchange, FTCS has amassed billions of dollars more than it needs to cover what customers lost in its November 2022 collapse, setting them up to receive full recoveries plus interest, a rare outcome in U.S. bankruptcy proceedings. Lower-ranking creditors typically receive just pennies on the dollar for their holdings, but FDX benefited from a strong rally in cryptocurrencies, including Solana, a token heavily backed by convicted fraudster and FDX founder Sam Bankman-Fried.

has also sold dozens of other assets, including various venture capital projects like a stake in the artificial intelligence company Anthropic. In any bankruptcy, this is just an unbelievable result, said FTX chief executive officer John Ray, who took over the firm when it collapsed. Prices for FTCS claims jumped Wednesday morning to 101 cents on the dollar from 95 cents last week, according to Cherokee acquisition. There have only been a handful of large corporate U.S. bankruptcies that saw creditors get all their money back in recent times. In 2021, car rental company Hertz exited bankruptcy with money left over to repay shareholders following a strong run-up in used car prices. In 2013, American Airlines parent company also exited bankruptcy with a plan to give a distribution to shareholders and repay unsecured creditors in full, end quote.

Nothing more for you today. Talk to you tomorrow.