Google I/O happened overnight and The Verge has a list and a live blog of all the things announced so far at the conference. It's probably not a surprise that it's basically massive smearing of AI goop all over everything you might love about Google - Gmail, Chrome, Photos, Search, Docs, Workspace, even your calls on an Android phone to "protect you from scams" - nothing will be spared from Gemini's wrath, which has improvements like Live "to make voice chats with Gemini feel more natural" and Gems, that "lets users give instructions to Gemini to customize how it will respond and what it specializes in". There's also another AI/LLM, LearnLM. that'll "help students with homework". Veo, Google's version of OpenAI's Sora and Project Astra, "a research prototype that features similar video comprehension capabilities" to OpenAI's GPT-4o. All this stuff is really impressive, technically, but I'm not impressed or enthusiastic about it, if that makes sense?
The federal budget was handed down last night. Here's a list of tech related spending iTnews found that I think you might be interested in: $50m for a "TAFE Technology Fund, to improve workshops, laboratories, and IT facilities". $6.5m to start the pilot of age assurance technologies. $37.3m in funding over 4 years for ACMA, ASIC & ACCC to "administer and enforce mandatory industry codes for regulated businesses to address scams". $39.9m over 5 years to "support the adoption and use of AI technology in a safe and responsible manner". $50m on a pilot program to "help mobile coverage on regional highways and major roads". $68m for a range of "First Nations digital inclusion programs". $288m over 4 years to "boost adoption of Digital ID". $466m in equity and loans for PsiQuantum. $448m to build the next generation of the Landsat satellite earth observation program along with the USA. $580m over 4 years to "sustain and keep developing the myGov platform. $288m over 4 years for a National Digital Identity scheme and $23.4m over 2 years to "pilot the use of government digital wallets and verifiable credentials".
I don't hang out on X much these days, but apparently Elon Musk has been spreading shit about Signal, saying it contains "known vulnerabilities" in response to an article by Christopher Rufo - a classic right-wing bullshit artist, who has a beef with Signal board member Katherine Maher, because she's the CEO of NPR, which recently sacked some guy because he wasn't woke enough. I think. Anyway, this has been compounded by Telegram's CEO, who used Jack Dorsey sharing that same hyperbolic/"just asking questions!!" Rufo article as a launchpad for ranting about how Signal "has ongoing ties to the US government, casting doubt over its end-to-end encryption, and claiming a lack of software transparency". This X thread from Matthew Green is a bit more fact based about Signal, particularly compared to the hot mess that is Telegram.
Contact pad array, 500x magnification. Dr. Jacques Lefebvre & Dr. Pedro Barrios-Perez. National Research Council of Canada, Institute for Microstructural Sciences (2005 Nikon Photomicrography Competition)
📻 Mr. Mystery - Long
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