Latest Thoughts
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đ§ Over Half of Fortune 500s List AI as a Threat
According to Arize, over 56% of Fortune 500 companies now list AI as a risk factor in their annual reports to the SEC.
The risk is undeniableâgenerative AI will be one of the most transformative revolutions weâve ever witnessed, and companies that are slow to adapt could face substantial losses.
This reminds me of Nvidia CEO Jensen Huangâs quote: âWhile some worry that AI may take their jobs, someone whoâs an expert with AI will.â As I often say when discussing the role of the CAIO, the same principle applies to business: the companies that succeed will be those who learn to deeply understand and leverage AI.
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đ§ Donât Connect Your TV to the Internet
It’s no secret that companies like Vizio have long subsidized the cost of their TVs by selling data about what you watch.
As Vizio increasingly subsidized the cost of the TV with other revenue sources its made it harder and harder for other brands to compete, forcing them to follow suit. Now the practice of monetizing user data is becoming the norm with many top manufacturers joining the trend by injecting ads and, in some cases, overlaying them on top of your content.
While this strategy might reduce the upfront cost of a TV, many manufacturers know that customers dislike these features and often obscure them in settings. Even those convenient buttons for streaming apps on your remote, or the apps pre-installed on your TV, result from licensing deals that are more about revenue than user convenience.
The evolution of the smart TV is not just about advancing technology but also about finding ways to monetize a product with traditionally low margins long after the initial sale.
Here’s my rule: avoid buying a smart TV if possible, which is increasingly difficult. If you do end up with one, resist connecting it to the Internet. Opt instead for an external device like a Google TV or Apple TV, which generally offer a cleaner experiences. Oh, and avoid Roku (https://www.theverge.com/2024/4/30/24145177/roku-home-screen-video-ads)!
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đ§ Epic Game Store Launches in the EU
The EU’s Digital Markets Act (DMA) is finally paving the way for competing app stores. Available exclusively in EU countries, residents can now download the Epic Game Store. You might recall, particularly in the US, that Epic introduced changes to Fortnite to circumvent app store rules, leading to its ban from both the Apple App Store and Google Play Store.
Epic took legal action against Apple and Google, claiming their app stores operated as monopolies. While Apple mostly prevailed in its legal battle, Google lost, yet little has shifted in the US market, leaving Fortnite still largely inaccessible on iOS and iPadOS devices.
With this new launch, Fortnite makes a comeback in the EU. For a glimpse into what it takes to install a new marketplace and what the Epic Store offers, check out the video below.
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đ§ Exploring Yelpâs Response to Googleâs Monopoly Status
Yelpâs CEO, Jeremy Stoppelman, recently weighed in on Google’s long-standing monopoly, highlighting the distinction between general and vertical search engines. Yelp, for instance, specializes as a vertical search engine, focusing narrowly on areas like restaurant reviews and local businesses, unlike Googleâs broad scope.
Back in 2011, Google acquired Zagat, a strategic move that showcased its intention to dominate not just general search but also specific verticals such as restaurant reviews. This acquisition was part of Google’s broader strategy to keep users within its ecosystem by providing extensive information directly on its properties. For example, Googleâs “zero-search” approach enables users to see restaurant menus, reviews, and other details directly on Google, reducing the need to visit vertical search engines like Yelp or the actual restaurant websites.
With the rise of AI-driven search tools like OpenAI’s SearchGPT and PerplexityAI, which aim to directly answer users’ queries, traditional search engines like Google could face real competition. This shifts the landscape for specialized platforms like Yelp. Should Yelp build higher walls around its content and profit from licensing its data, much like it does with Apple Maps?
A watershed decision for fair competition, innovation, and consumer choiceThis week marks a historic turning point in the fight for fair competition. U.S. District Court Judge Amit Mehtaâs landmark decision in U.S. v. Google has unequivocally found that Google willfully used illegal means to maintain its monopoly in the general search market. -
đ§ đ Stranded in Space
Are any of you following the unfolding space drama? Iâm wondering whether the astronauts on the space station will return on a Boeing craft or if SpaceX will be called in for a mic drop pickup. What started as a mission as brief as Gilligan’s Island’s “three-hour tour” has spiraled into potential year-long stranding. Boeing sunk $1.6 billion into this spacecraft, and it’s shocking to think their tech might be as underwhelming as a ship controlled by a Logitech joystick (Infamous $30 Logitech F710 called out in $50M lawsuit over Titan sub implosion).
What are your thoughts? Should they take Boeingâs Starliner, or will SpaceX need to step in and save the day?
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đ§ Will Battery Tech Ease Range Anxiety?
One silver lining for future EV owners is the rapid advancement in battery technology. I own a Tesla Model 3 with a lower range, and for my daily commuting and city errands, it provides more than enough charge.
Where range anxiety kicks in is on longer trips. Sadly, as noted in my earlier post, Americaâs charging infrastructure is still not quite there. But imagine this: future EVs with these new batteries could boost ranges to 600-900 miles. You could drive from Charlotte, NC, to New Orleans (about 700 miles) without needing to recharge.
Of course, these long-range capabilities will be available in premium models, but as technology progresses, each new generation of EVs will benefit from these advancements. This battery trickle-down effect ensures continual improvements across the market – and over the next decade battery tech could kill range anxiety.
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đ§ Guess what? EV Charging Still Sucks
I keep hoping for better news, but Tesla’s Supercharger network remains the gold standard, which is concerning considering their recent decision to lay off the entire Supercharger division.
Earlier this year, I rented an EV in New Orleans and had a frustrating experience. The nearest charger was at least 20 minutes away, and none of the downtown hotels seemed to offer charging. Even in areas with great charging infrastructure, the inability to charge at your destination can be a significant inconvenience, and itâs especially challenging in rural and southern regions, where options are even scarcer.
The move to EV is clearly a transition, not an overnight revolution. However, the persistent narrative of unreliable charging networks stokes fear and hesitation with potential buyers. Sometimes it feels like sabotage that no other company can provide a reliable, large-scale charging network at par with Tesla.
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đ§ Is CrowdStrikeâs Mishap A Blow for Test Driven Development Enthusiasts?
TDD, or Test Driven Development, is a coding practice where tests are written before the actual code. It’s designed to validate functionality and improve code quality. However, a deep dive into the recent CrowdStrike incident reveals potential weaknesses in this approach.
A critical error was outlined in their analysis:
âThe new IPC Template Type defined 21 input parameter fields, but the integration code that invoked the Content Interpreter with Channel File 291âs Template Instances supplied only 20 input values to match against.â
Also, on July 19, 2024:
âTwo additional IPC Template Instances were deployed, introducing a non-wildcard matching criterion for the 21st input parameter. These new Template Instances resulted in a version of Channel File 291 that required the sensor to inspect the 21st input parameterâa condition not met by previous versions.â
Essentially, the test expected 21 parameters, and always filled in the 21st parameter, even if one was not provided. This allowed the test to pass, but when only 20 were delivered, the app failed leading to a null reference for the missing 21st parameter. This highlights a oversight in the testing process where the test did not accommodate real-world application changes.
While TDD and unit testing are valuable, they are not foolproof. I find development teams often write poorly designed tests sometimes with the goal of meeting a quote on code coverage, or with the idea that they can update the test later. This incident serves as a reminder that quality in testing should never be sacrificed for coverage metrics.
Do you employ TDD in your projects? What has been your experience with balancing test quality and coverage?’
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đ§ Is Meta Building A Celebrity Voice Assistant?
Meta is reportedly in discussions with several celebrities about licensing their voices for upcoming AI projects. The buzz is that they’re aiming to launch a voice assistant like Siri or Google Assistant, but allow users to choose from a list of celebrity’s voices.
This concept isn’t entirely new. Remember Waze and its popular feature allowing users to select celebrity voices for navigation? However, it raises questions about the potential restrictions such licensing deals might impose on the assistant’s dialogue capabilities. Could celebrity-endorsed voices limit what your AI can say?
The Morning After: Meta is reportedly offering millions to get Hollywood voices into its AI projectsThe biggest news stories this morning: OpenAI is looking into text watermarking for ChatGPT, which could expose cheating students, Nintendo profits fall 55 percent as people save their cash for the Switch 2. -
đ§ Microsoft lists OpenAI as a competitor
In a shift, Microsoft has officially listed OpenAI as a competitor in its latest SEC filing. As the two giants roll out increasingly overlapping productsâfrom ChatGPT versus CoPilot to Bing versus SearchGPTâthe dynamics of their relationship seem to be evolving. The addition of a new CEO to Microsoft’s AI division only adds to it.
This might also be seen as a strategic move to placate regulatory concerns from the FTC, which has expressed concerns about the closeness of their partnership. It begs the question: are Microsoft and OpenAI partners, competitors, or perhaps something in betweenâfrenemies?
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đ§ OpenAI Unveils Structured Outputs
OpenAI has introduced a groundbreaking feature that lets developers define a schema to receive responses from ChatGPT models using that schema. This enhancement moves beyond the traditional text responses, opening up dynamic ways to use the information across various systems.
Previously, prompt responses were limited to text answers, which restricted their application in feeding other systems. Now, you can define a schemaâfor instance, a data structure for a recipeârequiring the model to break down each step into an array or list and organize ingredients similarly.
This structured approach simplifies integrating the data directly into databases or crafting interfaces and formats for the response data, making developers’ lives easier and unlocking exciting new possibilities.
Iâm looking forward to testing out these new structured outputs!
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đ§ Is Suno a Modern-Day Napster Saga?
It feels like the Napster days are back as the RIAA gears up to sue AI music companies Udio and Suno. Interestingly, these companies have countered the allegations by claiming fair use of copyrighted data.
âWe train our models on medium- and high-quality music found on the open internet⊠Much of this indeed contains copyrighted materials, some of which are owned by major record labels,” says Shulman. He firmly believes that “Learning is not infringing. It never has been, and it is not now.”
The RIAA has substantial reasons to pursue this case, especially as signs emerge of a slowdown in music streaming (https://www.bloomberg.com/news/newsletters/2024-08-04/is-the-music-industry-slowdown-a-crisis-or-a-blip), with some analysts suggesting the industry may have peaked. This could prompt the organization to aggressively seek new revenue streams through litigation.
AI music startup Suno claims training model on copyrighted music is âfair useâ | TechCrunchFollowing the recent lawsuit filed by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) against music generation startups Udio and Suno, Suno admitted Suno admitted that it trained its AI model using copyrighted music but doing so was legal under the fair-use doctrine. -
đ§ AI Companies are Forcing Websites to Play Whack-a-Bot
404 Media has an insightful piece on the complexities of correctly blocking botsâa topic perfectly aligned with my recent newsletter on AI and the robots.txt file.
Anthropic, the creators of Claude, are actively indexing content on the public web. However, the names of the bots and crawlers they employ seem to be in flux or are changing frequently. This makes it difficult, if not impossible, to tell AI tools not to consume your content.
I believe this isnât necessarily a nefarious action, particularly from a company that emphasizes making AI safe. However, this constant name-changing makes it challenging to ensure youâre blocking the intended bots.
In an ideal scenario, robots.txt would allow for a whitelist approach, enabling us to specify who can access our content and compelling companies to maintain consistent bot names. Alternatively, it might be time to adopt Redditâs approach and block everything, sending both search engines and AI bots a 404 error page.
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đ§ The First Taste of Apple Intelligence is Here
Apple has forked its betas, with iOS and iPadOS 18 releases continuing, likely targeting a general release in September with brand new iPhones.
Developers on Macs, iPhones, and iPads that meet the Apple Intelligence requirements (Apple Intelligence Requirements) can now download iOS and iPadOS 18.1, as well as macOS 15.1, giving a short peek at some of the early features.
The current suggestion is that Apple Intelligence features will ship in October. I still expect we will see some new features not announced at WWDC specific to the new round of devices.
I have the features enabled on my laptop, but sadly Iâm one generation behind on my phone, so Iâll have to wait and see. For now, 9to5Mac has a rundown of the features available in the beta.
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đ§đŸâđ» Having Problems with Drupal, Lando, and Pantheon?
I just spent forever trying to pull a new Drupal 10 website repo from Pantheon and get it running locally with Lando. Brutal. Iâm documenting my path in hopes it helps some person some day, which started with this Reddit post: Problem getting Lando set up with Pantheon.
Steps to Get Your Drupal Site Running Locally with Lando and Pantheon:
- Clone the Site from Pantheon:
git clone <pantheon-repo-url>
This command clones the repository from Pantheon to your local machine. - Initialize Lando:
lando init- Do not select Pantheon as your environment.
- Select the working path where you pulled the site.
- For the second option, select Pantheon.
- Start Lando:
lando start
This command starts the Lando environment for your site. - Pull the Database and Files:
lando pull
This command pulls the database and files from Pantheon. (This step WILL fail due to database access issues.) - Destroy the Current Environment:
lando destroy
This command destroys the current Lando environment, which can help resolve issues with database access. - Rebuild the Environment:
lando start
This command starts the Lando environment again, which should rebuild the database correctly. - Pull the Database and Files Again:
lando pull
This command pulls the database and files from Pantheon again, which should now be successful. - Clear All Caches:
lando drush cr
This command clears all caches, which can help resolve errors and stability issues. If you haven’t you may need to install Drush first with this commandlando composer require drush/drush
Now, if youâre lucky, the gods have smiled upon you and you have a running site. Hoping to see this updated in the Pantheon docs or the Lando recipe updated sooner than later.
- Clone the Site from Pantheon:
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đ§ Zuckerbergâs Thoughts on Open Source AI
Metaâs release of the largest open-source AI model, Llama 3.1, with 405 billion parameters, continues to position the company as a leader in open AI. This move is helping to build a growing ecosystem around these models thatâs simply not possible with commercial models from OpenAI, Claude, and others.
I have found the freedom of running the smaller Llama 2 model on my local environment to be liberating, providing a low-stakes way to experiment with new data approaches. The substantial investment in building these models is sure to pay off.
Of course, Llama is not the only open-source AI model available. Hugging Face is filled with AI models of all sorts, and the French AI developer Mistral continues to release more powerful models. Notably, Mistral has released some of its newer models under non-production or research licenses that forbid commercial use and deployment (Mistral License).
Meta also requires a license, which is thankfully simple and easy to read. As you can see (Meta Llama 3 License), it offers flexibility but requires applications using it to state âBuilt with Meta Llama 3â and to prefix model names with “llama” before sharing them. Open-source purists are sure to disagree with these stipulations, seeing them as a departure from the true spirit of open-source freedom.
This may be a small price to pay for access to frontier-level models, but I wish more companies would embrace the idea of exploration and open source, providing last-generation releases to the developer community.
Zuckerbergâs blog post on Metaâs place in AI is a worthwhile read. I plan to dive into it in a future newsletter, so subscribe and stay tuned.
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