This week, Google held their annual I/O developer conference, Twitter has a new CEO, and Anthropic talks their approach to AI development. Also, the interesting things of the week and more in the other news section.
Google I/O
On Wednesday, Google held their annual I/O developer conference. A few of the major announcements they made include AI Search, the Pixel Tablet and the Pixel Fold. You can read my full article on the event here.
Twitter News
New CEO
On Thursday, Elon Musk revealed his selection for a key position, stating that the person would assume the role in approximately six weeks. The following day, after her resignation from NBCUniversal, Elon Musk announced that Linda Yaccarino would be appointed as the CEO of X/Twitter. However, an official timeline for the transition has not been disclosed. Elon Musk himself will transition into the role of executive chair and CTO.
Other Twitter News
On Tuesday, during an account cleanup initiative, Twitter removed dormant accounts in an effort to enhance platform integrity. This action generated mixed reactions, as some users expressed concerns about the potential loss of historical content and accounts belonging to deceased individuals. Then, on Friday, Twitter introduced Encrypted Direct Messages (DMs) as a new feature. However, this implementation faced criticism due to security drawbacks, including the absence of image encryption and a backdoor that enables Twitter to access users’ DMs.
Anthropic
Anthropic, a startup, unveiled its training method for AI systems called “constitutional AI” on Wednesday. By incorporating principles from sources like the UN Declaration of Human Rights and platform guidelines, the company aims to tackle biases and flaws in AI models. The objective is to enhance the comprehensibility and adaptability of AI systems. Anthropic asserts that constitutional AI offers greater transparency and scalability than traditional reliance on human feedback. The company plans to develop customizable constitutions for different applications and foster public discourse on AI training approaches.
Interesting Things of the Week
- The open-source AI boom – MIT Tech Review
- The Boring Future of Generative AI – Wired
Other News
In other news, Disney is going to start offering some Hulu subscribers some of its programming in the Disney+ app, Amazon introduced Amazon Anywhere which allows devs to sell merch on Amazon in their games, and Apple announced that they are finally bringing their pro app suite to iPad. Also, UK users can now book flights in the Uber app, and Roku is teaming up with Wyze to offer home monitoring.