OpenAI in trouble, Blue Origin competes with SpaceX, and AI deteriorates the hiring process
Also, Zuckerberg turns 40, iOS brings deleted photos to life, and Bill Gates raises $12 million
Welcome to Tech Pills, the weekly newsletter about technology, innovation and startups. My name is Jose, and you can follow me on LinkedIn. Let’s begin!
🔊 OpenAI was forced to change one of the voices in ChatGPT 4.0 after users noticed that Sky, its name, was very similar to actress Scarlett Johansson's voice. The actress confirmed that she rejected an offer from OpenAI to voice the system. The company claims they didn’t intend to deliberately imitate the voice of any celebrity. Furthermore, the owners of ChatGPT declared that the voice belongs to a real actress and wasn’t generated using AI. Scarlett Johansson used the opportunity to advocate for the protection of individual rights concerning the use of generative artificial intelligence.
The staff at OpenAI have a good sense of humor. Not only have they created a similar scenario to what occured in the movie Her, but they also used the voice of Scarlett Johansson, who played the virtual girlfriend in the original version.
Allegedly, the actress's refusal wasn't going to stop them from making a good joke until they heard the word "lawsuit."
🚀 Blue Origin successfully resumes space flights for tourists. The company owned by Jeff Bezos completed a round trip to space with six tourists on board. This was the twenty-fifth flight of the New Shepard rocket and the seventh with humans on board. The last mission was two years ago, and since then, they haven’t been able to launch more rockets due to a previous anomaly. This issue is now resolved, but it was a significant challenge.
As a matter of fact, Jeff Bezos previously stated on the Lex Fridman podcast that solving this obstacle was one of the biggest engineering problems he has seen in his life. Blue Origin wants to compete with SpaceX in rocket manufacturing, but with everything we’ve seen the previous weeks, the owner of Tesla probably has enough on his plate.
💼 According to this interesting article, AI complicates the hiring process for both candidates and recruiters. Job seekers face an impersonal process riddled with obstacles as they have to interact with chatbots and automated processes. There are reports of biased AI algorithms when filtering candidates. Despite promises of efficiency, hiring using AI still presents significant limitations. Recruiters complain that the flaws of these tools result in them having to review a larger number of applications. It's still too early to draw conclusions, but the trend of forcing AI into everything doesn't seem a good medium-term solution.
📺 Netflix launches its new innovative advertising system. This new structure will allow them to offer more personalized ads to their subscribers. As we mentioned last week, the use of ads in tech products based on user attention is almost inevitable nowadays. This new technology allows them to avoid repetitive ads and leaves room for innovation.
For example, they can introduce episodic ad campaigns that play throughout the viewing experience and have a chronological sense. Netflix also highlighted the popularity of its ad-supported subscription. Since its launch six months ago, they gained 40 million new users thanks to the reduced price in exchange for ads.
❌ The internet is shrinking. According to this study, the content available on the web is decreasing due to the removal of websites. Since 2013, 38% of existing websites have been removed. This decline affects the availability of news and content for reference. The loss of information due to the migration of web pages is another of the causes of this reduction.
Innovation & Startups
🎂 Mark Zuckerberg turns 40. The Facebook founder received an unexpected gift from his wife. They recreated very significant spaces for him so he could have a photo session. The photos are published here. Many celebrities attended his birthday party. In fact, they made a congratulatory video featuring some of the guests. As we mentioned a few weeks ago, his change in appearance is quite striking. Especially, considering the evolution over time.
🔐 The latest iOS update revives deleted photos on some iPhones. In addition to the problem with alarms not sounding, some users reported that their iPhones brought back photos that should have been deleted. In theory, photos aren’t deleted instantly. They stay in the trash for 30 days. After that time, they are permanently deleted. However, this issue raises concern about the reliability of the deletion system. The jackpot went to users who found intimate photos they thought no longer existed.
🍃 AirLoom Energy, a wind energy startup owned by Bill Gates, raises $12 million for developing its innovative wind energy production system. This technology uses vertical blades instead of massive turbines, aiming to reduce electricity production costs significantly. Their long-term goal is to reduce conventional wind energy costs by 50%. One of the main problems with AI-powered algorithms is the energy cost of the data centers where the computers are stored.