TOKYO – The Group of Seven (G7) spent the weekend calling for a pivot away from China’s sprawling supply chains and Beijing’s rising economic power.

Yet new data on pivots in the automotive world, released as G7 leaders were signing their communique, reminded investors why it’s too late for that.

China zoomed past Japan in the first three months of 2023 to become the world’s top auto exporter. Driving the milestone: a 58% year-on-year surge in China’s automobile exports in the January-March period to 1.07 million units.

Adding insult to injury, the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers noted that the increase is partly due to deliveries to Russia. It’s a stark reminder that global sanctions on Moscow over the Ukraine war are proving to be more Swiss cheese than the united front US President Joe Biden envisioned.

Tokyo got its own stark warning, too. The other big reason China is exporting more vehicles than Japan Inc is booming demand for electric vehicles (EVs). This is a market, of course, at which Toyota Motor and other Japanese giants looked askance – to their growing detriment.

China didn’t, which explains why Elon Musk built his first outside-the-US Tesla “Gigafactory” in Shanghai, not Yokohama. Tesla’s China operation is, for now, the top exporter of new energy autos. As of September 2022, Tesla had reached 90,000 domestic orders, according to local media reports.

“These are big market shifts happening at a quick pace,” says Jorge Guajardo, a partner at Dentons Global Advisors.

An aerial photo shows hundreds of Tesla Model Y and Model 3 inside its Gigafactory in Shanghai on January 2, 2020. Photo: Supplied

Economist Jack Gao at the Institute for New Economic Thinking adds: “You know this would happen one day. You know it’s EVs they were hoping to leapfrog the competition with, you know the domestic market size would play a key role here. Still, this happened fast.”

Shanghai scoring the Tesla factory was a major coup for then-local Communist Party boss, now national premier Li Qiang. China surpassing Japan in auto exports is arguably the most significant changing of the guard since 2011, when China pulled ahead of its regional rival in gross domestic product (GDP) terms.

It also highlights the kind of transformation Chinese leader Xi Jinping’s No 2 is pledging to unleash in Asia’s biggest economy. In March, Li reassured global investors that the regulatory crackdown since late 2020 had run its course.

In recent years, Li said, “there were some incorrect discussions and comments in the society, which made some private entrepreneurs feel worried. From a new starting point, we will create a market-oriented, legalized and internationalized business environment, treat enterprises of all types of ownership equally, protect the property rights of enterprises and the rights and interests of entrepreneurs.”

The new government, Li said, will “promote fair competition among various business entities, and support the development and growth of private enterprises.”

What’s more, China’s automobile success is apparently picking up increased momentum. Domestic auto groups generally expect Chinese exports to increase 30% year on year in 2023.

This milestone can’t make Japan or the broader G7 very happy. It’s been 14 years, in 2009, since China became the largest market for new vehicles.

Since then, Beijing has generally speaking been more proactive than the US or Japan in jumpstarting the EV market through tax or other incentives. China also saw building charging stations around the nation as a means of creating jobs and growth in regional economies. That’s now paying off.

In the first quarter alone, sales of EVs and other new energy vehicles jumped 93% year on year to 380,000 units. Such autos account for about 40% of China’s total exports. At present, the leading destinations for Chinese-manufactured new energy autos are Belgium, Australia and Thailand.

For Japan, the Thailand piece of the puzzle is particularly ominous. Though often called the “Detroit of Asia,” Thailand has long been dominated by Japan Inc icons. If Thai chieftains decide EVs are the more lucrative bet, Japan might have to relocate factories.

All this should be a wake-up call for Detroit, too, as Republicans attempt to reverse Biden’s policies to promote EVs and greener growth in general. As the global market pivots toward EVs, General Motors’ gas-guzzling trucks might meet no more demand overseas than Toyota’s hybrid vehicles.

Thailand has doubled down on electric vehicle production to stay competitive. Photo: Facebook

One question raised by all this: how could America, which invented the mass production of autos, have been this asleep at the wheel? Likewise, how could Japan, which created a better production mouse trap, have lost the plot this egregiously?

It’s worth noting that the China threat that the G7 is so sure it can contain is only just beginning in the auto space, many analysts say. China is still working to roll out its own mass-produced EV line priced US$10,000 lower than major Western brands.

This test for China Inc remains, of course. To be sure, mainland success stories Chery Automobile and Great Wall Motor are expanding sales in Russia at a rapid clip. It’s unclear, though, if such companies that are funded by entities linked to Chinese municipal governments have the capacity to thrive globally.

Yet the G7 is making it easier for China Inc to spread its wings. After Vladimir Putin’s soldiers invaded Ukraine in February 2022, Toyota, Volkswagen AG and others shuttered Russian production facilities. Mainland automakers promptly stepped into the void.

To strategist Yan Wang at Alpine Macro, new auto data solves a recent mystery. “Why,” he wondered, is China’s “trade surplus going through the roof? This is one of the reasons: Vehicle exports are exploding, while imports tumbled.”

It’s a big deal. To strategist James Thorne at Wellington-Altus Private Wealth, it’s a sign that “the globalization theme is not dead.” And that “China is evolving as it should – to high value-added manufacturing and consumption,” Thorne adds.

Risks abound, of course, as the G7 targets supply chains vital to China making high-quality autos – a likely sign of more tit-for-tat moves between the G7 and China.

In Hiroshima last weekend, G7 leaders stressed their plan is to “de-risk,” not decouple from China, while acknowledging challenges posed by the mainland’s practices which they said “distort the global economy.”

In its joint statement, the G7 stressed: “We are not decoupling or turning inwards. At the same time, we recognize that economic resilience requires de-risking and diversifying.”

G7 leaders added, “We will seek to address the challenges posed by China’s non-market policies and practices, which distort the global economy. We will counter malign practices, such as illegitimate technology transfer or data disclosure.”

Yet the odds of additional curbs from Washington or Brussels remain high. Goldman Sachs economist Hui Shan is doubtful that the US Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States, or CFIUS, is done clamping down on China. There may be “more focus on refining the existing tariff, export control and investment regimes once basic frameworks are in place,” Hui says.

“We expect them to be fairly narrowly focused on advanced semiconductors and related technologies, paralleling last autumn’s export controls, and do not anticipate significant restrictions on secondary market portfolio investments,” Hui adds.

Fully automated robots running at high speed at Geely Automobile’s Changxing base in the Changxing Economic and Technological Development Zone in Huzhou City, East China’s Zhejiang Province, August 4, 2021. Photo: AFP / Tan Yunfeng / Imaginechina

On Sunday, the Cyberspace Administration of China said products made by US memory chipmaker Micron Technology had failed security reviews and barred key infrastructure operators from buying from the company.

“US-China tensions and technological decoupling may continue to trigger bouts of volatility in 2023,” says strategist Norman Villamin at Union Bancaire Privée. “Supply chain relocations out of China could also drag on activity via weaker foreign direct investment.”

Despite all the noise, China’s auto industry is shifting into a higher gear faster than many expected. The G7 can try to slow things down, but Beijing is reminding Japan and its Western allies that China Inc isn’t sitting still – and indeed is racing ahead.

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What is quantum technology?

It is the field of technologies in which quantum physics is actively utilized. That is technologies that are only possible using quantum physical phenomena. These are typically phenomena such as superposition, where an object, such as an atom, can assume more than one value or be in more than one place at the same time, and entanglement, where an object, such as an atom, is physically separated from another atom, but where they are nevertheless connected so that an impact of one atom will also affect the other.

Quantum physics is more than 100 years old, so what's new?

The ideas are indeed old—from the time of Niels Bohr and Einstein—but we have now reached a stage where the theories have been demonstrated and we can begin to exploit them in practice. We can do this because today we can control quantum physical systems such as atoms, electrons, or photons in such a way that they can be used for technological solutions like encryption, sensors, and computers—although most of it is still only possible in laboratories.

Which quantum technology is most mature?

We are quite advanced in encryption and sensors. In the past year, DTU has participated in several demonstration experiments with quantum-encrypted data being sent between two geographical locations.

In quantum sensors, there are already many different types that can measure physical quantities with extreme precision. Some can measure tiny variations in the gravitational field. This can, for example, be utilized in construction works for subsoil mapping before construction, or to predict earthquakes. Other sensors measure magnetic fields from, for example, muscle activity and nerve paths and have great potential in fields such as medical diagnosis. Magnetic field sensors can also be used for military purposes like navigation.

The quantum computer is probably the most immature technology.

Why is there so much hype about the quantum computer?

There are several reasons. What started the hype, and is in some way still driving it, is an algorithm for quantum computers that Peter Shor, an American mathematician and professor at MIT, developed in 1994. Shor's algorithm makes it possible for a powerful quantum computer to break RSA encryption. This is the encryption that is widely used when we send data on the Internet.

But there is also a clear assumption that quantum computers will eventually be able to handle many other calculations that are impossible using an ordinary computer. Therefore, a huge market potential is predicted for quantum computers. In other words, there is a lot of money to be made for those who can realize the quantum computer.

And the hype is also partly due to the quantum computer being so difficult to develop and to its exploitation of quantum phenomena that are incomprehensible to many. The fascination with the technology itself contributes to the hype.

When will we have quantum computers?

We are still very far from having a fully developed quantum computer. It is still unclear which physical system will constitute the quantum bits that can be utilized quantum-mechanically inside the quantum computer. Some are testing photons, other atoms, or ions—and yet others electrons in superconducting material. In some places, mechanical oscillations are used. Research and development is being conducted within all these platforms worldwide.

Calculations show that it takes a quantum computer of 10–20 million quantum bits to break an RSA encryption. Right now, the largest quantum computer is in the region of 430 quantum bits. So there is still some way to go. So, at the risk of becoming a laughing stock for posterity, I would guess that it will take another 20 years before we have a quantum computer that meets these expectations.

Will I get a quantum computer at home?

I will answer this based on where the technology is today and what we think a quantum computer will be good at—and with this in mind—my guess would be that quantum computers will not be something we will have at home. It will be meant for very specific and large-scale calculations. It will not be a computer we can use to go on Facebook or watch YouTube videos.

I would think that the quantum computer will have a role like HPC (high performance computing), which you can buy access to today if you need to perform large-scale calculations. But I could be completely wrong. Technology often develops completely differently than we predict, so we may all be walking around with a quantum computer in our pockets in 30 years.

Do you need to be interested in quantum physics as a non-physicist?

Quantum phenomena such as superposition and entanglement are a highly fascinating part of nature that can cause wonder and inspire completely new thoughts in us as humans. Instead of racing through the world with blinkers on, it makes us stop up and recognize that there is much more to nature than what immediately meets the eye. It is like the firmament. We could basically be indifferent to black holes and "dark matter," but I think that it is about fascination, general education, and being aware of what nature actually contains.

Right now, we do not encounter the applications of quantum technology in our everyday lives. This means that when we talk about them, we have to talk about quantum phenomena. They challenge us, because we have no experience with, for example, superposition in our visible world, which is governed by conventional physics, where objects such as a chair can only be in one place in the room.

But I think that when we start using quantum technology, we will stop focusing on the underlying quantum phenomena. This is, in fact, the case with other technologies such as PCs and mobile phones. Most of us do not think about how they work. But we do know how to use them.

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Here are all of this week's biggest stories, plus a collection of our reviews, editorials, and deals we covered.

EU approves Microsoft purchase of Activision Blizzard

It seems like major news about Microsoft's purchase of Activision Blizzard drops every week. Just a few days ago, the European Commission approved the $69 billion deal. The governing body had previously shared concerns about the acquisition, but it is satisfied with the remedies provided by Microsoft. Namely, Microsoft offered a free license for users in the EEA, which includes the EU and other countries, to stream current and future Activision Blizzard titles.

"The European Commission has required Microsoft to license popular Activision Blizzard games automatically to competing cloud gaming services," said Microsoft Vice Chair and President Brad Smith "This will apply globally and will empower millions of consumers worldwide to play these games on any device they choose.” 

With the EU on board, a magnifying glass was placed on the UK CMA blocking the deal. UK parliamentary oversight committee posed several tough questions to CMA, which has doubled down repeatedly on its decision. Our Managing Editor Jez Corden recalled the key points of the saga and added insight on the situation.

Bing Chat changes and improvements

A ton of changes rolled out to Bing Chat this week, and even more are on the way. Bing Chat can now be used without a Microsoft account, though you are limited to five turns per conversation unless you sign in. Microsoft also added a new way to share messages from Bing Chat, including downloading them as text files, PDFs, or Word documents.

Several features that Microsoft announced earlier this month are now live. Charts, graphics, and improved formatting should make Bing Chat a more visual experience, helping people absorb additional information.

On the mobile side of things, Microsoft is rolling out an update to the Bing app that adds a widget for the application. That means you can pin Bing to your home screen on iOS and Android to quickly jump into a search. The ability to continue conversations across devices also shipped with the update, as did improvements to multilingual chats.

The Edge mobile apps on iOS and Android received a major update as well this week. It adds contextual capabilities that let Bing view the contents of the webpage you're on. The search engine can then respond to questions about what's on the site you're visiting.

Overwatch 2 co-op PvE mode canceled

Blizzard announced that its originally planned PvE campaign mode in Overwatch 2 has been canceled during a livestream. The news surprised many, which is understandable given the fact that visions of the mode have been shown since 2019. Instead of a single PvE release, Blizzard will make co-op experiences part of its roadmap. The updated Blizzard roadmap shows PvE story missions as part of Overwatch 2 Season 6.

Following the confusion regarding the status of PvE content, Overwatch 2 Executive Producer Jared Neuss said:

"A clarification that I wanted to make is that, while we made the decision to cut Hero Mode + Talents, we have a lot of great PvE content coming this year," wrote Neuss. "Big story missions, new cinematics, co-op events and single player Hero Mastery missions are all on the way."

The news shocked gamers and others in the industry. Our Brendan Lowry shared feelings that are likely shared by many in the community:

"There's really no beating around the bush here: this is a massive disappointment, and I'm genuinely shocked that Activision Blizzard would cancel its plans for Overwatch 2's dedicated PvE campaign experience. Not only was it used to advertise the game, but a vertical slice was even put into player hands at BlizzCon 2019.

I'm at least glad that Blizzard isn’t completely scrapping co-op and will blend new missions into Overwatch 2's live service content updates. But it's still heartbreaking to know that we'll never get the deep PvE gameplay with exciting hero upgrades and progression systems that was promised years ago. There's a massive amount of potential here that’s not being capitalized on, and that sucks"

Surface Duo with stock Android

Microsoft's Surface Duo and Surface Duo 2 currently run Android 12L, not the newer Android 13 or Android 14. That fact has caused quite a bit of frustration, and it feels like Microsoft has left the Surface Duo line behind. A former Microsoft engineer has taken it on themselves to get a more recent version of Android onto the Surface Duo.

Thai Nguyen posted a video on Twitter of the Surface Duo running stock Android. Impressively, the operating system recognizes the postures of the Surface Duo, which isn't something Android does out of the box.

The project is still in its early days, but it looks promising so far. If work on stock Android on the Surface Duo continues to progress well, it could be a way to give life to the forgotten foldable.

Mortal Kombat 1

Last week we exclusively revealed details about Mortal Kombat 1, a full reboot of the iconic franchise. This week, the game was officially announced, confirming our previous reports and giving us a glimpse of what's to come. While no gameplay of Mortal Kombat 1 was shown off, the announcement trailer set the stage for the reboot.

The plot of Mortal Kombat 1 centers around the events at the end of Mortal Kombat 11, so make sure you're up to date on that or expect to be spoiled in the announcement trailer.

If all this talk of a reboot makes you nervous, fear not. Based on the trailer, Mortal Kombat 1 will be as gory and violent as its predecessors that made the games unique.

Preorders for Mortal Kombat 1 go live on May 19, 2023. Those that get the Premium Edition will get early access on September 14, 2023. The game will then launch for everyone on September 19, 2023.

iMessage on Windows 11 PCs

Windows 11 PCs just gained the ability to send and receive iMessages. The new functionality came courtesy of an update to Microsoft Phone Link. That update also added the ability to send and receive calls and to see iPhone notifications on a PC.

While the new features are a welcome addition, there are several limits on Phone Link when connected to an iPhone. Most notably, you will not be able to see a full chat history of your iMessages. Group chats through iMessage are not supported either. As a result, Phone Link is much less capable when connected to an iPhone compared to when used with an Android phone.

Review Roundup

Our experts love to get their hands on gadgets, gizmos, and games. This week our team looked at the Dell UltraSharp 6K monitor, the Syntech 6-in-1 docking station for the Steam Deck, and much more.

• FlexiSpot BS11 Pro review: Breathable mesh makes this ergonomic office chair a dream
• Review: The GameSir T4 Kaleid would be perfect — if it worked with Xbox
• Review: Astro A30 Wireless — good enough, but far from a great headset
• Syntech 6-in-1 docking station review: An ultra-budget Steam Deck dock with unusual quirks
• Dell Ultrasharp 32 6K Monitor (U3224KB) review: All the pixels and a fantastic 4K UHD webcam make this one AMAZING display
• Redmagic 4K Gaming Monitor review: This Mini-LED monitor is magnificent for gaming
• Razer Nommo V2 Pro review - The PC speakers that take you from 'That's just a game' to 'IT'S. ABOUT. TO. GO. DOWN

Microsoft News Roundup: Activision Blizzard deal approved by EU, Bing Chat changes, Mortal Kombat 1, and more

A coil of wire within the charging pad generates the magnetic field necessary for charging. The pad's magnetic field creates a current in a suitable receiver coil when a device is placed on it. This current is then used to charge the device's battery.

How wireless charging works in detail?

The technology behind wireless charging relies on electromagnetic induction. According to this theory, an electric current is induced in a conductor when a changing magnetic field is supplied to the conductor.

For wireless charging, a coil of wire within the pad generates a varying magnetic field. A current is induced in a device's receiver coil by the pad's magnetic field when a device with a suitable receiver coil is placed on it. The battery is charged with this current.

The greater the distance between the charging station and the smartphone, the less power can be delivered wirelessly. Power transfer increases with device proximity to pad.

The use of wireless charging is on the rise, despite being a relatively new technology.

Benefits of wireless charging

There are several benefits to using wireless charging. These benefits include:

• Convenience: Wireless charging is a convenient way to charge your devices. You don't have to fumble with wires or worry about tangled cables.
• Safety: Wireless charging is a safe way to charge your devices. There is no risk of electric shock, as the current is transferred through a magnetic field.
• Efficiency: Wireless charging is an efficient way to charge your devices. Less energy is lost during the transfer process, so that you can get a longer charge from your battery.

Drawbacks of wireless charging

Wireless charging does have some limitations, though. Among the disadvantages are:

• Cost: Wireless chargers are typically more expensive than wired chargers.
• Speed: Wireless charging is slower than wired charging. It can take several hours to charge a device using wireless charging fully.
• Compatibility: Not all devices support wireless charging. You will need to check to see if your device is compatible before you purchase a wireless charger.

The future of wireless charging

Wireless charging is an emerging industry. As this technology advances, more and more gadgets will be able to be charged wirelessly. It's also likely that wireless charging will become both more practical and less expensive in the near future.

Ultimately, wireless charging might completely change how we power our electronic devices. It's a quick, secure, and effective way to charge our gadgets. Wireless charging will likely replace wired methods as the default for powering electronic gadgets.

Explained: How does wireless charging work?

Confirmed Windows Bugs and other troubles

This week, Microsoft confirmed several issues and bugs in its operating systems. It all started with multiple users reporting cryptic errors when installing the latest Windows 11 cumulative updates. In addition, some complained about VPN slowdowns that Microsoft subsequently confirmed. Later, Microsoft admitted it could not fix issues with the Local Security Authority feature and offered a temporary workaround.

Interestingly, LSA is not the only problem Microsoft has a hard time fixing: the company confirmed the return of the bug causing issues with the Start menu, Office apps, Window Search, UWP apps, and other components. This time, the only workaround as we wait for a real fix is to uninstall specific apps, which might not be acceptable for many.

Finally, Microsoft detailed a weird bug causing internal hard and solid-state drives to show as removable media in Windows 11. Funny enough, it is one of those ancient annoyances from the Windows Vista era, and it still haunts modern Windows versions, such as 11. Luckily, Microsoft has provided a workaround.

It is not all bad news

It is not all negative, though. This week also brought some good news, such as the updated Windows Clock app, in which Microsoft finally mended its "game-changing" feature. After months of neglect, one of Windows 11's productivity-boosting capabilities is working again.

Another great improvement (do not praise Microsoft for it) is the Weather app infected with ads and MSN News. After a wave of criticism, Microsoft removed all banners and news, resulting in a much cleaner and more pleasant application.

Other app-related news includes the global rollout of the Phone Link app for iOS that now allows you to send iMessage (sort of) from your PC, make calls, and receive notifications. Windows PCs now play much better with iPhones, and it is excellent. Besides, Microsoft has released an update for the Windows Photos app with support for the WebP image format. Windows 11's built-in photo viewer is now much better at handling still exotic and unconventional for many formats, such as WebP or AVIF.

Internet Explorer lives... wait, what?

This week, Microsoft reverted some of its initial plans to bury the good-old Internet Explorer for good. The company explained that Windows updates would no longer remove visual references from its operating system (icons on the taskbar or Start menu), leaving companies in control over determining the timing to remove IE11. Also, Microsoft would ensure some exceptional scenarios still allow access to IE11 within Edge. So there you go, Internet Explorer is still not dead™.

EU and China say "Go," and Microsoft loves GeForce Now

Every week brings new developments to the ever-going saga of Microsoft trying to get its hands on Activision-Blizzard. After failing to score the green light from the UK, the software giant received approval from the European Union and China.

One of the biggest and most interesting gaming-related news (especially in light of CMA's discontent with the Microsoft-ABK deal) is Microsoft bringing its games to Nvidia's GeForce Now streaming service. The company has announced its plans to let gamers stream Gears 5 and more projects in the future using GeForce Now and not just Xbox Cloud Gaming or xCloud.

Finally, if you are looking into something new to play, check out the latest addition to the Xbox Game Pass library that now includes FIFA 23, Railway Empire 2, Planet of Lana, and more.

Bing or be careful who you call ugly in Middle School

Bing is no longer Microsoft's unloved child; it gets new updates almost weekly. On May 16, Microsoft announced new AI-powered features to its mobile apps, such as Bing, SwiftKey, Edge, and Skype. Those updates will help you leverage the power of artificial intelligence in your daily life and make things much easier than before.

Not so long ago, Microsoft opened Bing Chat to all users, leaving no customer in the waiting line. This week, the company made another notable change with Bing no longer requiring a Microsoft Account to access its artificial intelligence power. It is worth noting, though, that you will not get all features when accessing Bing without an MSA, so the best experience still requires an account.

In addition, Microsoft is rolling out a bunch of features it promised to deliver earlier. Users can now share their conversations with Bing or export them into PDF, text, or Word documents. Finally, the character limit was increased from 2,000 to 4,000, and the service now supports video overlays and extra enhancements in Edge.

Bing's rapid growth and customer interest have made some manufacturers consider swapping Google with Microsoft's upgraded search engine. However, things are not changing in favor of Bing as Samsung has not decided to ditch Google on its smartphones.

No_builds week

The Windows Insider program was quiet this week, with no new builds for those rocking Canary and Dev Channels. All eyes of insiders are now on the upcoming Build 2023 conference, where we want to see some Windows 11-related announcements and details about future updates.

Regarding future updates, reliable sources confirmed this week that the upcoming Windows 11 23H2 update would still arrive as an enablement package based on the 22H2 version with a minor build bump.

Although we haven't got any preview builds to test, Microsoft released a few apps and Xbox updates for early trials. For example, the Windows Subsystem for Android received a few neat features improving security and performance thanks to anti-virus software support and memory reallocation. The Xbox app for Windows got a few bugs squashed, and Xbox Insiders received an updated Home experience with improved Reward points integration.

As for unofficial updates and projects, the original Surface Duo received another set of drivers that enabled this tiny dual-screen device to run Windows 11. Version 2305.45 brought improved sensor support, compatibility with the Surface app from the Microsoft Store, and more.

Accusations and a new investigation

This week, Twitter sent a letter to the Microsoft CEO complaining that the company has been "improperly using Twitter data" without paying and sharing it without permission. A Microsoft spokesperson was quick to react and told The New York Times that the software giant does not pay Twitter for its data and that Microsoft would review the complaint and respond to it accordingly.

Another not-so-positive story of the week is a new antitrust investigation from the EU. The watchdog is now looking into accusations of Microsoft behaving anti-competitively and abusing its access to confidential information to leverage and compete with other cloud providers.

Fun, useful, and free stuff

Internet Explorer is not the only Microsoft product refusing to die this week. In a surprising move, Microsoft announced a giveaway of an unopened Zune player to help promote Marvel's Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3. Although the giveaway sounds extremely exciting, there is one catch: Microsoft does not know if the never opened Zune works ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Adam Bottjen, your source of weekly tips, has published a new guide describing how to stop Edge from automatically loading on Windows startup. It is a handy tip for those wanting to maximize performance on startup and ensure Windows boots as "clean" as possible.

Now to the freebies and discounted stuff: Epic Games is giving away free copies of the highly acclaimed Death Stranding. Also, many games are discounted during the Epic Games Store Mega Sale (coupons included) and you can save up to 90% on games in this weeks Deals with Gold that remain live until Monday. Finally, John Callaham published a guide to all the major streaming gaming events in the next few weeks to help everyone keep up with the upcoming announcements. Dates, time, and where to watch—everything included.

Signing off

And that is all for the week of May 15, 2023. As we approach the annual Build conference, brace yourself for a massive drop of Microsoft news next week.

Microsoft Weekly: bugs, apps, IE not dead, and the overall calm before Build

OpenAI bled around $540 million last year as it developed ChatGPT and says it needs $100 billion to meet its ambitions, according to industry media The Information.

"We're going to be the most capital-intensive startup in Silicon Valley history," OpenAI's founder Sam Altman told a panel recently.

And when Microsoft, which poured billions of dollars in investment into OpenAI, is asked about how much its AI adventure will cost, the company answers with assurances that it is keeping an eye on its bottom line.

Building something even near the scale of what OpenAI, Microsoft or Google have on offer would require an eye-watering investment on state-of-the-art chips and recruiting prize-winning researchers.

"People don't realize that to do a significant amount of AI things like ChatGPT takes huge amounts of processing power. And training those models can cost tens of millions of dollars," said Jack Gold, an independent analyst.

"How man companies can actually afford to go out and buy 10,000 Nvidia H100 systems that go for tens of thousands of dollars a piece?" asked Gold.

The answer is pretty much no one and in tech, if you can't build the infrastructure, you rent it and that is what companies already do massively by outsourcing their computing needs to Microsoft, Google and Amazon's AWS.

And with the advent of generative AI, this dependency on cloud computing and tech giants deepens, leaving the same players in the driver's seat, experts warned.

'Heavily underestimated'

The unpredictable costs of cloud computing, "is a heavily underestimated problem for many companies," said Stefan Sigg, Chief Product Officer at Software AG, which develops software for businesses.

Sigg compares cloud costs to electricity bills and says companies that don't know better are in for "a big surprise" if they let their engineers run up bills in the mad rush to build tech, including AI.

Microsoft's signature cloud offer is Azure and some observers believe the giant's all-in bet on AI is really about protecting Azure success and guaranteeing the cash cow's future.

Azure has been the giant's unsexy bread-winner for years, bringing in huge profits but without attracting the headlines of an iPhone or social media that go straight to the consumer.

For Microsoft, "the golden goose is monetizing cloud with Azure because we're talking about what could be a $20, $30, $40 billion opportunity annually down the road if the AI bet is successful," said Dan Ives of Wedbush Securities.

Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella insists that generative AI is "moving fast in the right direction."

Deeply respected on Wall Street, Nadella will have a six- or nine-month grace period to show his bet is a winner, Ives predicted.

Microsoft acknowledges the risk, but insists that on AI, it must "lead this wave," CFO Amy Hood told analysts this month.

"We will charge for those AI capabilities, and then ultimately, we'll deliver operating profit," she said.

'Squashed out'

Piling up profit at the company founded by Bill Gates can only mean passing on the cost of AI to customers.

From Main Street to Fortune 500, the dependency on the AI-amped will be an expensive one and companies and investors are drumming up alternatives to at least reduce the bill.

"AI training, GPT training will become a very important cloud service going forward," said Spectro Cloud CEO Tenry Fu.

His company, like many others in the sector, helps companies optimize cloud technology to reduce expenses.

"But after training, a company will be able to get their model back for real AI application" and the dependence on the cloud giants will hopefully be reduced, he added.

Regulators are hoping that they can keep up, and not leave the giants in charge, imposing their terms on smaller companies.

"Law enforcers (must) ensure that... opportunities and openings for competition... are not getting squashed out by the incumbents," FTC chairwoman Lina Khan told CNBC.

But it might be too late, at least when it comes to which companies have the means to provide the groundwork of generative AI.

"It is absolutely true that the number of companies that can train the true frontier models is going to be small just because of the resources required," OpenAI's Altman told a US Senate panel on Tuesday.

"And so I think there needs to be incredible scrutiny on us and our competitors," he added.

© 2023 AFP

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While HP has yet to issue a public statement regarding these ongoing problems affecting a subset of its customer base, the company told BleepingComputer that it's addressing the blue screen errors seen by a "limited number" of users.

"Our teams are working diligently to address the blue screen error affecting a limited number of HP OfficeJet Pro 9020e printers," HP told BleepingComputer.

"We are recommending customers experiencing the error to contact our customer support team for assistance: https://support.hp.com."

Impacted printers include HP OfficeJet 902x models, including HP OfficeJet Pro 9022e, HP OfficeJet Pro 9025e, HP OfficeJet Pro 9020eAll-in-One, HP OfficeJet Pro 9025e All-in-One Printer

Affected customers report that their devices display blue screens with "83C0000B" errors on the built-in touchscreen.

Since the issues surfaced, multiple threads have been started by people from the U.S., the U.K., Germany, the Netherlands, Australia, Poland, New Zealand, and France who had their printers bricked, some with more than a dozen pages of reports.

"HP has no solution at this time. Hidden service menu is not showing, and the printer is not booting anymore. Only a blue screen," one customer said.

"I talked to HP Customer Service and they told me they don't have a solution to fix this firmware issue, at the moment," another added.

Others have said that the only to address the issue is to send the printer for servicing to HP and that "The firmware doesn't even load partially, it instantly fails... HP remotely bricked our devices! Some users said that HP would be sending out a replacement."

Since the buggy update seems to install automatically onto Internet-connected printers, HP customers are advised to disable their devices' Internet connection and wait for a firmware update to fix the bricking issue.

ASUS also apologized earlier today for a server-side security maintenance error that led to a wide range of impacted router models losing network connectivity.

HP rushes to fix bricked printers after faulty firmware update

Almost 3 decades ago, Intel and HP started working on a 64-bit micro-architecture for the Intel CPUs. After years of work, Intel finally announced IA-64, which was a 64-bit CPU architecture. The first CPU to launch in with this architecture was Intel Itanium (Merced) processor.

Standing far away, looking at what Intel was doing, was AMD. Intel and HP never invited AMD to contribute to the production of this new architecture and there weren’t any chances of Intel licensing it to AMD either.

So AMD decided to create its own architecture. It was named AMD64, which sometimes is also called x86-64. It’s an 64-bit instruction set extension to the original x86 architecture.

What AMD did with it’s AMD64 was that it created a 64-bit CPU architecture which supported backwards compatibility with x86 32-bit architecture. Something that Intel’s IA-64 didn’t have.

To put it in simple words. Intel’s 64-bit implementation didn’t fully support 32-bit. Whereas AMD’s 64-bit implementation did. The first CPU with the AMD64 support was AMD Opteron processor.

So good was AMD’s implementation that Intel had no option but to later buy a license from AMD to implement that in Intel’s own processors. So what is happening from years is that Intel licenses x86 to AMD and in return AMD licenses x86_64 to Intel. All the Intel and AMD processors made since then support these architectures, allowing 64-bit computing with 32-bit support.

Since then, we haven’t seen that many major changes to the x86 architecture. But that could soon change if Intel’s new proposal goes through.

Intel’s New x86S Proposal

In a blog post, Intel has proposed a new 64-bit mode only CPU architecture, which it has named x86S. Intel says that S here stands for simplified. There are many reasons it has given for the proposal. It has explained those reasons in detail in a PDF whitepaper.

First, Intel CPUs contain a lot of legacy functions going back decades, which are so outdated that they are not in use now. So doing away with them gives more space on the CPU to add other useful things. It could allow adding new instruction sets, which could help improve the speed of CPUs further.

Second, from the looks of it, whenever a computer boots, it runs the function in a 16-bit mode, then converts that into 32-bit. Then this 32-bit gets converted further into 64-bit mode. After which, these 16-bit and 32-bit instructions are not used anymore. So removal of 16-bit and 32-bit means the computer will boot in 64-bit mode directly, possibly improving the boot speed significantly.

Software Support For 32-Bit

Intel mentions that it’s been more than two decades since mainstream x64 operating systems are available. Then, it’s been more than a decade since 64-bit UEFI BIOS became a standard.

Not only the operating systems or UEFI BIOS, even users have changed. As 32-bit is technically limited to just 4GB RAM, most people have switched to a 64-bit OS and run 64-bit software on it. Some operating systems don’t even come in 32-bit mode anymore.

But what about 32-bit OS and software which are still required. No need to worry about them. Intel says you can still run them by emulation. Quoting the Intel page:

While running a legacy 64-bit operating system on top of a 64-bit mode-only architecture CPU is not an explicit goal of this effort, the Intel architecture software ecosystem has sufficiently matured with virtualization products so that a virtualization-based software solution could use virtualization hardware (VMX) to deliver a solution to emulate features required to boot legacy operating systems.

Honestly, common people don’t need to worry too much about 32-bit software these days. To understand that, one needs to do a simple thing. Run Task Manager > Click on More Details > Scroll and see how many software have 32-bit written next to them. One would find that at least 60% of the software they use are 64-bit. The ones which are still in 32-bit can be easily made available in 64-bit if the developer intends it.

Even then, if 32-bit software are emulated, they will run, only they will be not run natively, hence they will run slightly slower. But that slowness can be countered with even faster CPU speed which new CPU architecture can offer.

Licensing & Conclusion

For now, we don’t know what’s AMD’s views are on this. We don’t know if this proposal goes ahead, then whether AMD will get a license for it. It’s unlikely to be a problem for AMD to get the license, though. They own the license for the 64-bit instruction set which Intel and AMD implement in their processors. However, it would be interesting to hear from AMD about what they think about this proposal.

As for the proposal itself. It’s for now, it’s what it is, a proposal. Intel has invited the whole ecosystem to evaluate this proposal and send them feedback about what they think about this move.

From our view, a lot has changed since 64-bit was introduced. It supports RAM above 4GB and has a lot of other benefits too. Additionally, not only operating systems and software, even games these days come with 64-bit mode. Some games exclusively run in 64-bit mode, with no support for 32-bit process. So moving towards a 64-bit architecture should be welcomed.

It also depends on how well all the 32-bit software emulate on a 64-bit only CPU, though. Whether they run directly or then run only inside a virtualized environment where extensive user effort is required, that’s going to be a big difference. If they run normally, just like how they do currently on a 64-bit OS, then it’s a non-issue completely.

Either-way, even if this proposal does go ahead as suggested, it’s unlikely to be implemented soon. It can take years, if not a decade, for both Intel and AMD to come out with a 64-bit only CPU. By then, a lot of changes would have happened at software and even hardware level too.

Intel Proposes 64-Bit Only CPU, Names It x86S

WWDC 2023: what to expect at Apple’s Worldwide Developers Conference

Google CEO Sundar Pichai explains some of the company's many new AI models.

Google

 

That Google I/O show sure was something, wasn't it? It was a rip-roaring two hours of nonstop AI talk without a break. Bard, Palm, Duet, Unicorn, Gecko, Gemini, Tailwind, Otter—there were so many cryptic AI code names thrown around it was hard to keep track of what Google was talking about. A glossary really would have helped. The highlight was, of course, the hardware, but even that was talked about as an AI delivery system.

 

Google is in the midst of a total panic over the rise of OpenAI and its flagship product, ChatGPT, which has excited Wall Street and has the potential to steal some queries people would normally type into Google.com. It's an embarrassing situation for Google, especially for its CEO Sundar Pichai, who has been pitching an "AI first" mantra for about seven years now and doesn't have much to show for it. Google has been trying to get consumers excited about AI for years, but people only seemed to start caring once someone other than Google took a swing at it.

 

Even more embarrassing is that the rise of ChatGPT was built on Google's technology. The "T" in "ChatGPT" stands for "transformer," a neural network technique Google invented in 2017 and never commercialized. OpenAI took Google's public research, built a product around it, and now uses that product to threaten Google.

 

In the months before I/O, Pichai issued a "Code Red" warning across the company, saying that ChatGPT was something Google needed to fight, and it even dragged its co-founders, Larry Page and Sergey Brin, out of retirement to help.  Years ago, Google panicked over Facebook and mandated that all employees build social features in Google's existing applications. And while that was a widely hated initiative that eventually failed, Google is dusting off that Google+ playbook to fight OpenAI. It's now reportedly mandated that all employees build some kind of AI feature into every Google product.

 

"Mandatory AI" is certainly what Google I/O felt like. Each section of the presentation had some division of Google give a book report on the New AI Thing they have been working on for the past six months. Google I/O felt more like a presentation for Google's managers rather than a show meant to excite developers and consumers. The AI directive led to ridiculous situations like Android's head of engineering going on stage to talk only about an AI-powered poop emoji wallpaper generator rather than any meaningful OS improvements.

 

Wall Street investors were apparently one group excited by Google I/O —the company's stock jumped 4 percent after the show. Maybe that was the point of all of this.

An AI show with zero mentions of Google Assistant?

Would you believe Google Assistant got zero mentions at Google I/O? This show was exclusively about AI, and Google didn't mention its biggest AI product. Pichai's seminal "AI First" blog post from 2016 is about Google Assistant and features an image of Pichai in front of the Google Assistant logo. Google highlighted past AI projects like Gmail's Smart Reply and Smart Compose, Google Photos' magic eraser and AI-powered search, Deepmind's AlphaGo, and Google Lens, but Google Assistant could not manage a single mention. That seemed entirely on purpose.

 

Heck, Google introduced a product that was a follow-up to the Nest Hub Google Assistant smart display—the Pixel Tablet—and Google Assistant still couldn't get a mention. At one point, the presenter even said the Pixel Tablet had a "voice-activated helper."

Google's avoidance of Google Assistant at I/O seemed like a further deprioritization of what used to be its primary AI product. The Assistant's last major speaker/display product launch was two years ago in March 2021. Since then, Google shipped hardware that dropped Assistant support from Nest Wi-Fi and Fitbit, and it disabled Assistant commands on Waze. It lost a patent case to Sonos and stripped away key speaker functionality, like controlling the volume, from the cast feature. Assistant Driving Mode was shut down in 2022, and one of the Assistant's biggest features, reminders, is getting shut down in favor of Google Tasks Reminders.

 

The Pixel Tablet sure seemed like it was supposed to be a new Google Assistant device since it looks exactly like all of the other Google Assistant devices, but Google shipped it without a dedicated smart display interface. It seems like it was conceived when the Assistant was a viable product at Google and then shipped as leftover hardware when Assistant had fallen out of favor.

 

The Google Assistant team has reportedly been asked to stop working on its own product and focus on improving Bard. The Assistant hasn't really ever made money in its seven years; the hardware is all sold at cost, voice recognition servers are expensive to run, and Assistant doesn't have any viable post-sale revenue streams like ads. Anecdotally, it seems like the power for those voice recognition servers is being turned way down, as Assistant commands seem to take several seconds to process lately.

Google at I/O 2023: We’ve been doing AI since before it was cool

While the G7 leaders, meeting in Hiroshima, Japan, recognised that the approaches to achieving "the common vision and goal of trustworthy AI may vary", they said in a statement the rules for digital technologies like AI should be "in line with our shared democratic values".

The agreement came after the European Union, which participates in the G7, inched closer this month to passing legislation to regulate AI technology, potentially the world's first comprehensive AI law that could form a precedent among the advanced economies.

"We want AI systems to be accurate, reliable, safe and non-discriminatory, regardless of their origin," European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said on Friday.

The G7 leaders said they "need to immediately take stock of the opportunities and challenges of generative AI", a subset of the technology popularised by the ChatGPT app.

OpenAI's ChatGPT pushed Elon Musk and a group of AI experts to raise an alarm in March calling for a six-month pause in developing more powerful systems, citing potential risks to society. A month later, EU lawmakers urged world leaders to find ways to control AI technologies, saying they were developing faster than expected.

The United States so far has taken a cautious approach on governing AI, with President Joe Biden last month saying it remained to be seen whether AI is dangerous. Sam Altman, CEO of Microsoft-backed (MSFT.O) OpenAI, told a Senate panel on Tuesday that the U.S. should consider licensing and testing requirements for development of AI models.

Japan, this year's chair of G7, has been even more accommodative, pledging support for public and industrial adoption of AI while monitoring its risks. "It's important to properly deal with both the potentials and risks," Prime Minister Fumio Kishida told the government's AI council last week.

The Western nations' differing approaches to AI are in contrast to China's restrictive policy. Its cyberspace regulator in April unveiled draft measures to align generative AI-powered services with the country's core socialist values.

While acknowledging differences on how AI should be regulated, the G7 leaders agreed on Friday to create a ministerial forum dubbed the "Hiroshima AI process" to discuss issues around generative AI, such as copyrights and disinformation, by the end of this year.

The leaders also urged international organizations such as the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development to consider analysis on the impact of policy developments.

The summit followed a G7 digital ministers' meeting last month, where its members - the U.S., Japan, Germany, Britain, France, Italy, Canada and the EU - said they should adopt "risk-based" AI rules.

The EU and U.S. are also expected to exchange views on the emerging technologies at the Trade and Technology Council in Sweden on May 30-31.

Source

Also:  G7 leaders unite to regulate generative AI globally under the 'Hiroshima Process'

He was just 29 years old and at the height of Hollywood fame, a year after the release of the blockbuster Back to the Future III. This week, documentary Still: A Michael J. Fox Movie will be released. It features interviews with Fox, his friends, family and experts.

Parkinson’s is a debilitating neurological disease characterized by motor symptoms including slow movement, body tremors, muscle stiffness, and reduced balance. Fox has already broken his arms, elbows, face and hand from multiple falls.

It is not genetic, has no specific test and cannot be accurately diagnosed before motor symptoms appear. Its cause is still unknown, although Fox is among those who thinks chemical exposure may play a central role, speculating that “genetics loads the gun and environment pulls the trigger”.

In research published today in ACS Central Science, we built an artificial intelligence (AI) tool that can predict Parkinson’s disease with up to 96% accuracy and up to 15 years before a clinical diagnosis based on the analysis of chemicals in blood.

While this AI tool showed promise for accurate early diagnosis, it also revealed chemicals that were strongly linked to a correct prediction.

More common than ever

Parkinson’s is the world’s fastest growing neurological disease with 38 Australians diagnosed every day.

For people over 50, the chance of developing Parkinson’s is higher than many cancers including breast, colorectal, ovarian and pancreatic cancer.

Symptoms such as depression, loss of smell and sleep problems can predate clinical movement or cognitive symptoms by decades.

However, the prevalence of such symptoms in many other medical conditions means early signs of Parkinson’s disease can be overlooked and the condition may be mismanaged, contributing to increased hospitalization rates and ineffective treatment strategies.

Our research

At UNSW we collaborated with experts from Boston University to build an AI tool that can analyze mass spectrometry datasets (a technique that detects chemicals) from blood samples.

For this study, we looked at the Spanish European Prospective Investigation into Cancer and Nutrition (EPIC) study which involved over 41,000 participants. About 90 of them developed Parkinson’s within 15 years.

To train the AI model we used a subset of data consisting of a random selection of 39 participants who later developed Parkinson’s. They were matched to 39 control participants who did not. The AI tool was given blood data from participants, all of whom were healthy at the time of blood donation. This meant the blood could provide early signs of the disease.

Drawing on blood data from the EPIC study, the AI tool was then used to conduct 100 “experiments” and we assessed the accuracy of 100 different models for predicting Parkinson’s.

Overall, AI could detect Parkinson’s disease with up to 96% accuracy. The AI tool was also used to help us identify which chemicals or metabolites were likely linked to those who later developed the disease.

Key metabolites

Metabolites are chemicals produced or used as the body digests and breaks down things like food, drugs, and other substances from environmental exposure.

Our bodies can contain thousands of metabolites and their concentrations can differ significantly between healthy people and those affected by disease.

Our research identified a chemical, likely a triterpenoid, as a key metabolite that could prevent Parkinson’s disease. It was found the abundance of triterpenoid was lower in the blood of those who developed Parkinson’s compared to those who did not.

Triterpenoids are known neuroprotectants that can regulate oxidative stress – a leading factor implicated in Parkinson’s disease – and prevent cell death in the brain. Many foods such as apples and tomatoes are rich sources of triterpenoids.

A synthetic chemical (a polyfluorinated alkyl substance) was also linked as something that might increase the risk of the disease. This chemical was found in higher abundances in those who later developed Parkinson’s.

More research using different methods and looking at larger populations is needed to further validate these results.

A high financial and personal burden

Every year in Australia, the average person with Parkinson’s spends over $14,000 in out-of-pocket medical costs.

The burden of living with the disease can be intolerable.

Fox acknowledges the disease can be a “nightmare” and a “living hell”, but he has also found that “with gratitude, optimism is sustainable”.

As researchers, we find hope in the potential use of AI technologies to improve patient quality of life and reduce health-care costs by accurately detecting diseases early.

We are excited for the research community to try our AI tool, which is publicly available.

Source

SanDisk Extreme SSDs keep abruptly failing—firmware fix for only some promised

The problem has been extensively reported on social media and discussion platforms since May 16, 2023, with people appearing puzzled by the simultaneous connectivity issues on multiple ASUS routers and others complaining about the lack of communication from the vendor's side.

As the Taiwanese hardware maker explained in a statement published today and via a security bulletin, the problem was introduced by an error in the configuration of a server settings file.

"During routine security maintenance, our technical team discovered an error in the configuration of our server settings file, which could potentially cause an interruption in network connectivity on part of the routers," explains ASUS in a support bulletin.

While the company’s statement does not explicitly state what kind of error occurred and how exactly it impacted remote routers, a user on Reddit explained that the connectivity issues were caused by a corrupted definition file for ASD (ASUS AiProtection).

"Updating the firmware has pretty much universally fixed this, but so does simply resetting the router to factory defaults so long as it clears the NVRAM," explained the user on Reddit.

"In fact, any method that removes the offending file (/jffs/asd/chknvram20230516) will return the router to normal."

The ASD is a built-in security daemon supplied by Trend Micro, and it is used in a wide range of router models for real-time protection against emerging threats.

However, this component is updated regardless of whether the user has automatic security (firmware) updates enabled on their device or not.

Reportedly, the corrupted definition file for ASD was automatically pushed to all impacted routers, causing them to run out of filesystem space and memory and eventually crash.

Remediating the problem

ASUS says its technical team has addressed the server issue, so all impacted routers should return to normal operation now.

In some cases, though, users will have to manually reboot their devices to eliminate connectivity problems.

If that's still not enough, ASUS suggests performing a factory reset and re-uploading the settings file by following these step-by-step instructions.

For impacted users who cannot perform a reset, the vendor advises them to press and hold the RESET button on the device for 5-10 seconds until the power LED indicator starts blinking, which indicates a reset has been completed.

"We deeply apologize for any inconvenience this incident may have caused and are committed to preventing such an incident from happening again," concludes the vendor's statement.

Those who performed the recommended actions and still face problems are advised to contact ASUS support for additional help and guidance.

ASUS routers knocked offline worldwide by bad security update

In a blog post, Microsoft confirmed that its previously announced chat history feature for Bing Chat is now available for every user. Here's a quick breakdown of what you can expect:

Bing now remembers the history of previous chat threads and displays them on the right-hand side of the chat window. From here, you can return to any previously saved conversation and pick up where you left off. Chat history also has controls that allow you to easily delete, rename, export, or share a conversation with others. Names of chats are based by default on the first query in the thread.

Microsoft also confirmed some previously revealed export features, which now allow people to save chats and download them in a text, Word, or PDF file.

Microsoft also stated that some Bing Chat answers to questions will have the AI generate a chart. That might happen if you ask Bing Chat what the current stock price is for a company, or if you want to rank the populations of cities.

Other answers to questions might also result in a video from Bing Chat. Microsoft says:

When this happens, you can now click on the video to launch a full-screen video overlay. If it includes timestamps, these will appear on the right and you can use them to navigate inside the video.

The Bing Chat team has also continued to optimize answers to recipe-related questions and has also improved auto-suggested words when typed in for a question. It added some fixes to the Bing Chat Share feature that was causing the answer, and not the question as well, to be displayed in the Share dialog.

Finally, some improvements have been made to the Bing Chat sidebar in the Edge browser:

Chat in sidebar can summarize and answer questions about documents viewed in the Edge browser—whether online or on your PC. When you ask questions about content on your PC or private content that is otherwise not part of the search index, Bing chat will not record any logs of these conversations. With the introduction of chat history, you’ll also notice these conversations also do not appear as part of your history.

We would expect more Bing Chat info to be revealed next week as part of Microsoft's Build 2023 conference.

Bing Chat updates this week include video overlays, privacy improvements, and more

The headset is expected to feature Apple's M2 chip, 12 GB of RAM, 512 GB of SSD storage, Wi-Fi 6, and Bluetooth 5.3 for connectivity. The new report shows that the components cost around $1,400. The total manufacturing cost per unit reaches $1,600 when shipping costs are factored in.

The OLED displays, anticipated to be the most expensive components, are estimated to cost between $280 and $320 per unit. Additionally, the camera parts with 14 lenses contributes approximately $160 to the cost.

image via Apple Insider

An XR device expert, Brad Lynch, highlighted that the Meta Quest Pro's manufacturing cost is half that of Apple's headset. The Meta headset was initially priced at $1,500 but later reduced to $999, indicating a profit margin of around $250 per unit.

It is worth noting that it costs Apple approximately $500 to manufacture an iPhone 14 Pro Max, which retails at $1,099. This aligns with the speculation that the mixed-reality headset will cost $3,000. Sources familiar with the matter reveal that Apple has invested over $1 billion annually in headset development. However, the company has reportedly revised its sales expectations for the product, with analysts projecting sales of around 500,000 units in its first year.

While this report suggests that Apple is creating a premium headset with advanced technologies, the product's success remains to be determined. Even after more then a decade, the market for mixed reality headsets has yet to prove its widespread appeal, and it remains to be seen if consumers are willing to invest such a substantial amount of money in this new product.

Sources: Brad Lynch, Minsheng Electronics (Chinese)

Apple AR/VR headset manufacturing cost apparently exceeds $1,500

This suite aims to empower pharmaceutical giants like Pfizer and biotech leaders such as Cereval by providing them with a deeper understanding of biological targets, ultimately expediting the development of life-saving treatments.

By leveraging the suite's capabilities, scientists gain access to a wealth of information about proteins and amino acids, enabling them to design highly targeted therapies. This breakthrough has the potential to not only accelerate the drug discovery process but also significantly reduce the exorbitant costs associated with it. In fact, early adopters such as Pfizer are already exploring the suite's potential to enhance their drug development efforts.

Nicholas Labello, Pfizer's principal computational scientist, expressed enthusiasm about the partnership, stating, "We are partnering with Google to explore how AlphaFold2 can potentially accelerate our drug discovery process, allowing our researchers to conduct experiments on Google Cloud's scalable, accelerator-optimized compute platform".

This collaboration between industry giants and cutting-edge AI technology sets the stage for a future where drug discovery is more efficient and cost-effective.

Multiomics Suite gets us closer to personalized medicine

Google's Multiomics Suite emerges as a game-changing solution for genomic research capabilities. With its ability to analyze genomic data quickly and effectively, this suite empowers researchers to uncover how genetic variations contribute to diseases, paving the way for tailored and personalized therapies. The immense potential of the Multiomics Suite is evident in the success of early adopters such as Colossal Biosciences, which has embraced this transformative tool.

CEO Ben Lamm of Colossal Biosciences acknowledges the pivotal role the Multiomics Suite has played in their research efforts, stating, "We would not be where we are today without this tool." Lamm further emphasizes that building a similar infrastructure from scratch would have been a massive burden for his company. The suite's efficient access to pertinent data has allowed Colossal Biosciences to accelerate their development of effective treatments. This highlights the significant impact AI-powered solutions can have in propelling biomedical research forward.

AI-powered future of drug discovery

Google's entrance into the realm of drug discovery represents a significant milestone in the field. With the Target and Lead Identification Suite shedding light on protein structures and the Multiomics Suite uncovering genomic insights, the power of AI is poised to revolutionize the entire drug development process. As industry leaders like Pfizer embrace these cutting-edge solutions, the stage is set for a paradigm shift that promises faster, more cost-effective discoveries.

The synergy between AI and medicine holds the key to a brighter future, where diseases can be conquered with unprecedented precision and efficiency. Through Google's AI breakthroughs, the landscape of drug discovery is on the cusp of a transformative era.

Google is working with leading healthcare companies on personalized medicine

AudioLM's functionality involved converting input audio into a series of discrete tokens, enabling the model to learn patterns and structures inherent in the audio data. By utilizing this approach, AudioLM successfully generated audio sequences while maintaining long-term consistency.

Building upon this framework, Google MusicLM employs a similar methodology to generate music based on provided text descriptions. For instance, by inputting a descriptive prompt like "a soothing guitar melody in a 4/4 time signature riff," MusicLM can produce a corresponding musical composition that captures the essence of the given description. AudioLM comes with two tokenizers:

• SoundStream tokenizer which produces acoustic tokens
• w2v-BERT tokenizer which produces semantic tokens

Let's examine the hierarchical stages within AudioLM:

• Semantic modeling: This initial stage focuses on establishing long-term structural coherence. It involves extracting the high-level structure from the input signal, capturing the overall organization and arrangement.
• Coarse acoustic modeling: In this stage, acoustic tokens are generated, which are then concatenated or conditioned based on the semantic tokens. This process helps establish a coarse representation of the audio, considering both its semantic and acoustic aspects.
• Fine acoustic modeling: The third stage enhances the audio further by processing the coarse acoustic tokens alongside fine acoustic tokens. This additional refinement adds depth and intricacy to the generated audio. To reconstruct the audio waveform, the acoustic tokens are fed into the SoundStream decoder.

For MusicLM, the multi-stage autoregressive modeling of AudioLM serves as the generative component. However, MusicLM extends this capability by incorporating text conditioning. In the provided image, the audio file undergoes processing through three components: SoundStream, w2v-BERT, and MuLan. SoundStream and w2v-BERT, as discussed earlier, process and tokenize the input audio signal. On the other hand, MuLan represents a joint embedding model for music and text. It consists of two separate embedding towers, each dedicated to a specific modality, namely text and audio.

In the overall process, the audio is fed into all three components, while the text description specifically goes to MuLan. To ensure consistent representation, the MuLan embeddings are quantized, resulting in a unified format using discrete tokens for both the conditioning signal (text description) and the audio input.

The output generated by MuLan is then directed to the semantic modeling stage, where the model learns the relationship between the audio tokens and the semantic tokens. The subsequent steps follow a similar workflow as in AudioLM. To gain a clearer understanding of this process, please refer to the provided image.

Advantages of MusicLM

MusicLM, being developed on the foundation of AudioLM and MuLan, offers three distinct advantages. Firstly, it possesses the capability to generate music based on text descriptions, allowing users to specify their desired musical composition in written form. Secondly, it can utilize input melodies to expand its functionality. For example, by providing a humming melody and instructing MusicLM to convert it into a guitar riff, it can successfully accomplish the task. Lastly, MusicLM excels at generating extended sequences of various musical instruments, enabling it to produce lengthy and intricate musical compositions across a wide range of instruments.

The training data used to train MusicLM consists of approximately 5.5k pairs of music and corresponding text. This dataset encompasses an extensive collection of over 200,000 hours of music, accompanied by detailed and descriptive text provided by human experts. Google has made this dataset available on Kaggle under the name "MusicCaps," and it can be accessed using this link.

Can I try it now?

Google has currently indicated that they do not have intentions to distribute the models associated with MusicLM. This decision may stem from the requirement for further development and refinement before the models can be made publicly available. However, in the white paper published by Google, numerous examples are provided to showcase the capabilities of MusicLM in generating music based on text descriptions. These examples serve to demonstrate the potential of the model and its ability to create music compositions guided by textual prompts.

Prompt examples

• Evocative descriptions: For instance, "An exhilarating soundtrack for an action-packed video game. It features a fast tempo, energetic beats, and an infectious electric guitar melody. The music is characterized by repetitive patterns that are both memorable and punctuated with unexpected elements like crashing cymbals and dynamic drum rolls."
• Extended duration: This remarkable functionality allows MusicLM to generate continuous, high-quality audio that spans 5 minutes. Users can provide text prompts such as "Sad post-rock" or "Funny hip-hop" to guide the generation of music, resulting in a cohesive and immersive musical experience.
• Narrative mode: This notable feature of MusicLM enables users to instruct the model to create a musical sequence by providing a series of text prompts that form a cohesive story. For example, "Begin with a soothing meditation (0:00-0:15), gradually transition to an uplifting wake-up theme (0:15-0:30), shift to an energetic running rhythm (0:30-0:45), and culminate in a motivational and powerful section (0:45-0:60)."
• Melody and text conditioning: Users can leverage this feature to generate music that aligns with a provided melody, whether it's a hum or a whistle, while still adhering to the desired text prompt. Essentially, it allows for the conversion of an existing audio sequence into the desired audio representation.
• Location-based themes: MusicLM can generate music based on descriptions of specific places or environments. For example, "Capture the serene and sun-soaked ambiance of a peaceful day by the beach" can serve as a text prompt to generate music that encapsulates the mood and atmosphere of such a setting.

How to use Google MusicLM?

Even though it is not available for everyone, Google Help Me Write is one of the newest features that artificial intelligence developments have brought to daylight. With recent innovations like ChatGPT or other famous AI tools, work and daily lives have become easier. If you want to know how to use Google Help Me Write, keep reading because you will benefit from it a lot if you write many formal texts for work!

How to use Google Help Me Write

First things first, it is not available for everyone. You need to be one of the selected Google Labs beta testers. Some countries are not involved in the beta testing process, which means that even if you get selected, you may not be able to try the feature because of geographical restrictions.

If it is available for you, you will see the feature as soon as you open a new Google Document. For detailed information, please check out the steps below to use Google Help Me Write:

Docs

Google Docs is one of the most used Google apps that helps people write documents and share them with others. If you want to use Google Help Me Write on Docs, follow the steps:

1. Go to Docs.
2. Sign in with your Google account.
3. Click "Help Me Write" at the bottom of the page.
4. Describe what you want to write and enter the prompt.
5. If you are not satisfied with it, click "Recreate" or make manual edits.
6. Hit Insert once you are satisfied with the result.

Gmail

Another use area that you can benefit from the feature is Gmail. It will generate professional emails to help you communicate better in your work life especially. Here are the steps:

1. Open Gmail.
2. Click "Compose" to write an email.
3. Start composing an email.
4. You will see the "Help Me Write" feature at the bottom of the screen.
5. Click on the button, and it will generate a text for you.

What is Google Help Me Write?

Google Help Me Write is one of the newest features that was announced at the I/O 2023 event alongside Google Bard. It is an AI solution that helps you write better texts, whether they are regular paragraphs or notes that you take on Docs or formal work emails on Gmail.

Is it available for everyone?

Unfortunately, Google Help Me Write is not available for everyone. You can only use the feature if you are a part of the Labs beta program. As mentioned, there is a chance that you won't be able to be a beta tester because not every country is on the list. Google has left some countries out of the testing process, and even if you get the message that you have been selected to be a part of the Labs beta, you still may not be able to join.

How to use "Google Help Me Write": Explained

Meta’s next round of layoffs will start next week

Since it appears to be on the short side, the developer hasn't really explained all that much about it. Noting that "Last Christmas is a short and not so sweet point and click adventure game. Join Frankie up in the mountains at the family cabin and help him to prepare the perfect Christmas for his girlfriend Betty, but watch out, things aren't always as they seem..." and even the trailer is just…bizarre:

The game has 4 different endings, some dark humour and 24 achievements to hunt down. With a few point and click modern touches like double click to exit scenes and a hotspot finder.

You can find Last Christmas on Steam.

The next game in the series is First Christmas, which also plans to have a Linux version and it launches later this year.

Source

A day ago, we got to know through leaks about the specifications and the prices for the Nvidia GeForce RTX 4060 and 4060 Ti graphics card series. Looks like those leaks are almost spot on.

Now, Nvidia has officially announced the cards in the RTX 4060 series, which Nvidia claims is made for the 1080p gamers. Let us take a look at them.

RTX 4060 Ti Specs

The Nvidia GeForce RTX 4060 Ti 16GB is the first graphics card which is going to launch in this series.

Both the RTX 4060 Ti 8GB and 16GB versions are going to come with 4352 CUDA Cores. They will run at a base clock of 2.31 GHz and will boost up-to 2.54 GHz.

They will come with 8GB / 16GB GDDR6 VRAM having a 128-bit memory bus. The RTX 4060 Ti will have a bandwidth of 288 GB/s. However, Nvidia claims that as the L2 cache has been increased from 4MB to 32MB, the effective bandwidth is 554 GB/s.

They have a TGP of 160W (8GB) / 165W (16GB) and will consume just 7W at idle.

Nvidia claims that the shaders in the RTX 4060 Ti will perform at 22 TFLOPs, compared to 16 TFLOPs in RTX 3060 Ti and 7 TFLOPs in RTX 2060 Super.

In terms of performance, Nvidia claims that RTX 4060 Ti is just 15% faster than 3060 Ti without DLSS 3 frame generation. However, with DLSS 3 frame generation, that number increases to 70%.

The RTX 4060 Ti 8GB will cost $399 and will release on 24th May. Expect the reviews to be out on 23rd May.

The RTX 4060 Ti 16GB will cost $499 and will release in July along with the RTX 4060.

Nvidia claims there’s no difference in the performance between 8GB and 16GB Ti models. Except in some games, where higher VRAM allows one to play at higher settings.

Tom’s Hardware reports that a lot of card makers have announced their version of the RTX 4060 Ti 16GB graphics cards by now.

RTX 4060 Specs

Nvidia GeForce RTX 4060 (non-Ti) will release along with RTX 4060 Ti 16GB version.

The official specifications for the RTX 4060 seem to be matching exactly with the leaked specs rumored in mid-February.

The RTX 4060 will come with 3072 CUDA cores. It will run at a base clock of 1.83 GHz and will boost up-to 2.46 GHz.

It will come with 8GB of VRAM with a 128-bit memory bus. The RTX 4060 will have a memory bandwidth of 272 GB/s. However, Nvidia claims that, just like RTX 4060 Ti, due to larger 24MB L2 cache, the effective bandwidth is higher at 453 GB/s.

It has a TGP of 115W and uses 7W at idle. Interestingly, Nvidia recommends a 550W PSU for all the graphics cards in the RTX 4060 series.

In terms of raw numbers, RTX 4060’s shaders will perform at 15 TFLOPs, compared to 13 TFLOPs of RTX 3060 and 7 TFLOPs of RTX 2060.

In terms of performance, Nvidia claims that RTX 4060 is just 20% faster than 3060 without DLSS 3 frame generation. However, with DLSS 3 frame generation, that number increases to 70%.

The RTX 4060 will have a MSRP of $299 and will release in July.

Overall Specs

The overall specs for the RTX 4060 series, compared to the RTX 3060 series, is shown in the charts below.

As one can look above. Almost all the specs in the RTX 4060 series are a downgrade when compared to the RTX 3060 series. The only exception is the newer cards are clocked higher and have a larger L2 cache to compensate for lesser powerful specs.

Nvidia Counters VRAM Debate

Nvidia has come a under a lot of criticism these days for being ungenerous when it comes to providing enough VRAM in their graphics cards. Games these days are using a huge amount of VRAM, so much so that 8GB of VRAM is not enough for 1080p. Something which Nvidia is marking these xx60 cards for.

So to counter that, Nvidia has published a blog suggesting that graphics cards won’t require that much VRAM with larger L2 cache that RTX 40 provides.

Nvidia says that with larger L2 cache, the cache hits are higher, hence the game is not required to use VRAM that much. Additionally, it claims that larger L2 cache size means that bigger bus width isn’t required, as larger cache reduces the bus usage by almost half.

Nvidia further says that larger VRAM requires more VRAM chips, which can increase the cost of the cards.

Then, Nvidia uses the RAM argument for the VRAM. It says just because a game uses all the VRAM doesn’t mean it needs that. It also goes onto to blame various On Screen Display (OSD) software, which it claims can give wrong information.

Additionally, it showcases tools for developers which they can use to prevent excessive VRAM usage.

Conclusion

The specs for the RTX 4060 and RTX 4060 Ti are disappointing. But they aren’t surprising.

We personally think that while what Nvidia is saying about VRAM is true. This is more like a PR job to hide the fact that Nvidia is skimping out on larger VRAM to keep their profits higher.

While it’s true that Nvidia does invest a lot in optimizations of it’s graphics cards, no argument is enough for providing just 8GB VRAM in this era. Not to forget, VRAM chips are just not that expensive as Nvidia is trying to portray.

In-fact, as this tweet by Buildzoid1 explains, it would cost Nvidia only $32 more to make a 16GB card. But that’s not for bulk orders. When bulk orders for VRAM chips are considered, then making a 16GB graphics card is extremely cheap. So Nvidia’s argument on the cost doesn’t stand either.

If that is not enough, this tweet by Hardware Unboxed says that Nvidia has confirmed that extra cache cannot do compensate if the VRAM is used up. Means extra cache is an enhancement for the graphics card, not a replacement for larger VRAM.

In all. This series of RTX 40 graphics cards are a disappointing. However, before deciding anything, like we always say, wait for the reviews. The reviews for the RTX 4060 Ti are expected to be out in a few days by 23rd May. Only then will we come to know how good this graphics card actually is.

Nvidia Announces RTX 4060 & 4060 Ti, Specs Confirmed

Starting later this year, if a Google Account has not been used or signed into for at least 2 years, we may delete the account and its contents – including content within Google Workspace (Gmail, Docs, Drive, Meet, Calendar), YouTube and Google Photos.

Well, that mention of deleting Google accounts that have YouTube videos caused many people to sound alarms online. There were concerns that people who have uploaded popular YouTube videos that have since passed away might have them deleted.

Since then, Google has quietly amended that blog post. It eliminates "YouTube" from the above paragraph and then adds the following sentence:

Additionally, we do not have plans to delete accounts with YouTube videos at this time.

So if you haven't checked into your Google account in a while, and you have uploaded some YouTube videos via that account, you should be safe.

As previously mentioned, Google is making this move to delete unused or inactive accounts for security purposes. There are concerns that older and unused accounts could have passwords that have since been compromised and that those older accounts might not have extra measures to protect them like two-factor authentication.

The company plans to start deleting Google accounts in December 2023 and will begin with accounts that were established but never actually used. If you have such an account, Google says it will send you "multiple notifications over the months leading up to deletion". Those notices will be sent to both the account email and to its recovery email address.

In order to keep an account active in Google's eyes, all you have to do is sign into it and use it for simple activities like reading or sending emails, using it with Google Search, or ironically watching a YouTube video.

Google now says it will not delete unused accounts that have YouTube videos

 

A recent move by Google to populate the Internet with eight new top-level domains is prompting concerns that two of the additions could be a boon to online scammers who trick people into clicking on malicious links.

 

Frequently abbreviated as TLD, a top-level domain is the rightmost segment of a domain name. In the early days of the Internet, they helped classify the purpose, geographic region, or operator of a given domain. The .com TLD, for instance, corresponded to sites run by commercial entities, .org was used for nonprofit organizations, .net for Internet or network entities, .edu for schools and universities, and so on. There are also country codes, such as .uk for the United Kingdom, .ng for Nigeria, and .fj for Fiji. One of the earliest Internet communities, The WELL, was reachable at www.well.sf.ca.us.

 

Since then, the organizations governing Internet domains have rolled out thousands of new TLDs. Two weeks ago, Google added eight new TLDs to the Internet, bringing the total number of TLDs to 1,480, according to the Internet Assigned Numbers Authority, the governing body that oversees the DNS Root, IP addressing, and other Internet protocol resources.

 

Two of Google’s new TLDs—.zip and .mov—have sparked scorn in some security circles. While Google marketers say the aim is to designate “tying things together or moving really fast” and “moving pictures and whatever moves you,” respectively, these suffixes are already widely used to designate something altogether different. Specifically, .zip is an extension used in archive files that use a compression format known as zip. The format .mov, meanwhile, appears at the end of video files, usually when they were created in Apple’s QuickTime format.

 

Many security practitioners are warning that these two TLDs will cause confusion when they’re displayed in emails, on social media, and elsewhere. The reason is that many sites and software automatically convert strings like "arstechnica.com" or "mastodon.social" into a URL that, when clicked, leads a user to the corresponding domain. The worry is that emails and social media posts that refer to a file such as setup.zip or vacation.mov will automatically turn them into clickable links—and that scammers will seize on the ambiguity.

 

“Threat actors can easily register domain names that are likely to be used by other people to casually refer to file names,” Randy Pargman, director of threat detection at security firm Proofpoint, wrote in an email. “They can then use those conversations that the threat actor didn’t even have to initiate (or participate in) to lure people into clicking and downloading malicious content.”

Undoing years of anti-phishing and anti-deception awareness

A scammer with control of the domain photos.zip, for instance, could exploit the decades-long habit of people archiving a set of images inside a zip file and then sharing them in an email or on social media. Rather than rendering photos.zip as plaintext, which would have happened before Google’s move, many sites and apps are now converting them to a clickable domain. A user who thinks they are accessing a photo archive from someone they know could instead be taken to a website created by scammers.

 

Scammers “could easily set it up to deliver a zip file download whenever anyone visits the page and include any content they wish in the zip file, such as malware," said Pargman.

 

Several newly created sites demonstrate what this sleight of hand might look like. Among them are setup.zip and steaminstaller.zip, which use domain names that commonly refer to naming conventions for installer files. Especially poignant is clientdocs.zip, a site that automatically downloads a bash script that reads:

#! /bin/bash
echo IAMHAVINGFUNONLINEIAMHAVINGFUNONLINEIAMHAVINGFUNONLINEIAMHAVINGFUNONLINEIAMHAVINGFUNONLINEIAMHAVINGFUNONLINE

It’s not hard to envision threat actors using this technique in ways that aren’t nearly as comical.

 

“The advantage for the threat actor is that they didn’t even have to send the messages to entice potential victims to click on the link—they just had to register the domain, set up the website to serve malicious content, and passively wait for people to accidentally create links to their content,” Pargman wrote. “The links seem much more trustworthy because they come in the context of messages or posts from a trusted sender.”

Google pushes .zip and .mov domains onto the Internet, and the Internet pushes back

Microsoft spokesman, Frank Shaw, told NYT that Microsoft doesn’t pay Twitter for its data. He said the company will review the letter from Twitter and respond accordingly. Perhaps reassuringly, Shaw said that Microsoft looks forward to continuing its long-term partnership with Twitter.

In a recent interview with CNBC, Elon Musk, the owner of Twitter, said that the platform was like a plane that was on fire about to crash, financially speaking. In an effort to stop losing money hand-over-fist, Musk quickly fired about half of the employees at the company. He now admits it was very hasty but that decision had to be taken quickly. He said the company could probably do with getting some of those people back if they’re not too annoyed, he said.

With the big splash ChatGPT and other generative AI services have made, platforms like Twitter and Reddit have said they want compensation for their data being used to train the bots. Musk has said that Microsoft essentially runs OpenAI now, or at least has significant power over the company. OpenAI’s ChatGPT powers Microsoft’s Bing Chat. Given Microsoft's involvement and the huge amount of money it has, this could explain why Musk is going after Microsoft for payment for the training data.

The letter doesn’t say if Twitter will take legal action or how much financial compensation it has demanded but says that Microsoft uses Twitter data in several of its products including Xbox, Bing, advertising, and cloud computing. It wants Microsoft to submit a report by next month about how much Twitter data it uses and which governments have gained access to the data. It also told Microsoft to abide by the Twitter developer agreement in its handling of the data.

Source: The New York Times

Twitter has sent a letter to Microsoft claiming it used data without paying for it