Alphabet's self-proclaimed moonshot factory is carving out a path in
which projects can spin off as startups
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TLDR
TLDR 2024-05-23
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BIG TECH & STARTUPS
GOOGLE'S MOONSHOT FACTORY FALLS BACK DOWN TO EARTH (28 MINUTE READ)
[4]
Alphabet's self-proclaimed moonshot factory is carving out a path in
which projects can spin off as startups. While the company was
initially reluctant to let outsiders share the fruits of its
investments or risk compromising intellectual property, executives
ultimately decided it was better than letting promising technology
wither. The new policy opens up more possibilities, but it also
signals that Alphabet will be shutting off funding to more mature
projects that haven't proven themselves financially viable.
LEAKED OPENAI DOCUMENTS REVEAL AGGRESSIVE TACTICS TOWARD FORMER
EMPLOYEES (15 MINUTE READ) [5]
OpenAI has had a provision in place since 2019 that means employees
leaving the company risk losing their vested equity in the company if
they criticize the company. Employees who refuse to cooperate risk
being locked out of future tender offers, stopping them from selling
their stock. A company threatening to claw back already-vested equity
is unusual. OpenAI's behavior towards former employees in the past
suggests that the executive team knew about the provision.
¨
SCIENCE & FUTURISTIC TECHNOLOGY
MAKING STEEL WITH ELECTRICITY (7 MINUTE READ) [6]
Steel production is one of the dirtiest industries on the planet,
accounting for around 7 to 9 percent of humanity's greenhouse gas
emissions worldwide. Boston Metal is using an electrochemical process
called molten oxide electrolysis, which releases only oxygen as a
byproduct, to produce steel. The company has raised more than $370
million to scale rapidly and transform steel production in every
corner of the world. Its process can help recover high-value metals
from mining waste without undergoing costly treatment or storage.
MARS ROVER MISSION WILL USE PIONEERING NUCLEAR POWER SOURCE (3 MINUTE
READ) [7]
The European Space Agency's upcoming Mars mission will use a
nuclear-powered device that harnesses the radioactive decay of
americium to keep its components warm. Devices that harness the heat
produced by the decay of radioactive elements are known as
radioisotope heater units (RHUs). The ESA has historically relied on
the US and Russia to provide RHUs that use plutonium-238, but it has
been working on its own RHUs since 2009. The European RHUs will heat
components in the mission's landing platform, which will extend the
lander's life, allowing it to become a backup power source in case
there are issues in deploying the rover.
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PROGRAMMING, DESIGN & DATA SCIENCE
NEOSYNC (GITHUB REPO) [8]
Neosync is a developer-first way to anonymize PII, generate synthetic
data, and sync environments for a better testing, debugging, and
developer experience. It can be used to safely test code against
production data, reproduce bugs locally, fix broken staging
environments, reduce compliance scope, and seed development databases.
Neosync can generate synthetic data, anonymize existing production
data, subset production databases, and more. It has pre-built
integrations with Postgres, MySQL, and S3.
S3 IS SHOWING ITS AGE (6 MINUTE READ) [9]
While S3 is undoubtedly a feat of engineering, its feature set is
falling behind its competitors. S3 doesn't have a compare-and-swap
operation, something every other competitor has, and it also lacks
multi-region buckets and object appends. Engineers wanting any of
these features have to either abandon S3 or build around these gaps.
¨
MISCELLANEOUS
HUMANE IS LOOKING FOR A BUYER AFTER THE AI PIN'S UNDERWHELMING DEBUT
(2 MINUTE READ) [10]
Humane is hunting for a potential buyer for its business. Despite its
AI Pin launching to poor reviews, the startup is seeking a price of
between $750 million and $1 billion. The company was valued at $850
million by investors in 2023. While its product contained novel and
clever ideas, it had many hardware and software issues. Humane has
pledged to address some of the bugs with firmware updates.
BUILDING PRODUCTS IS AN UNFORGIVING GRIND (5 MINUTE READ) [11]
This thread contains a list of advice on building consumer social
apps. It covers a wide range of topics, including product testing, how
to measure success, consumer psychology, marketing, and mindset. Very
few people in the industry have seen the inflection point of
product-market fit firsthand - take everyone's advice with caution.
¨
QUICK LINKS
NVIDIA'S SALES TRIPLE, SIGNALING AI BOOM'S STAYING POWER (2 MINUTE
READ) [12]
Nvidia delivered a record quarter - its stock price was recently up
above $1,000 a share.
MICROSOFT'S NEW WINDOWS COPILOT RUNTIME AIMS TO WIN OVER AI
DEVELOPERS (2 MINUTE READ) [13]
Windows Copilot Runtime includes a library of APIs with AI frameworks
and toolchains designed for developers to ship their own on-device
models on Windows.
AMAZON PLANS TO GIVE ALEXA AN AI OVERHAUL Ä AND A MONTHLY
SUBSCRIPTION PRICE (3 MINUTE READ) [14]
Amazon has yet to nail down a price point for the service, which will integrate generative artificial intelligence technology into the voice assistant.
GARRY TAN HAS REVEALED HIS `SECRET SAUCE' FOR GETTING INTO Y
COMBINATOR (2 MINUTE READ) [15]
YC is looking for founders who see a technology no one has envisioned
yet - someone who can create a market.
MICROSOFT'S NEW WINDOWS 11 RECALL IS A PRIVACY NIGHTMARE (8 MINUTE
READ) [16]
Window 11's AI-powered Recall feature works by taking a screenshot of
the active window every few seconds, recording everything a user does
for up to three months by default.
HACKING HARD-WORK (1 MINUTE READ) [17]
Everyone has a different brain and how you choose to program it will
be personal to you - one way to make work feel less mundane is to make
the task feel grand.
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