Siri for iOS 18 to gain massive AI upgrade via Apple's Ajax LLM (7 minute read)
Safari, Spotlight Search, and Siri will gain significant AI-related enhancements with the release of iOS 18. One of the key features in the works for Safari is text summarization. Siri will also receive a similar update, allowing it to generate responses to relay the content of messages in a simplified way. Apple's AI model will generate basic responses entirely on-device. More advanced replies or text summaries will need server-side processing.
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Read the wild email Tesla is sending to suppliers amid Supercharger chaos (8 minute read)
Tesla sent out an email to suppliers showing how chaotic the decision-making leading up to the company firing its entire Supercharging team was. The email shows there was a lack of structure and consideration in the decision to fire the team. It mentions that suppliers are expected to be paid, suggesting that Tesla is behind on its payment obligations. The email asks suppliers to continue construction on active projects but to hold on breaking ground or doing pre-construction site walks. A copy of the email is available in the article.
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Science & Futuristic Technology
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The teens making friends with AI chatbots (12 minute read)
Many young users have discovered AI companions. While chatbots have been described as helpful, entertaining, and supportive, some users describe feeling addicted to them. This is raising questions about how AI is impacting young people and their social development and what would happen if society becomes more emotionally reliant on bots.
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World's 1st 'tooth regrowth medicine' to be tested in Japan from Sept. 2024 (2 minute read)
Trials of the world's first tooth regrowth medicine are set to commence in September at Kyoto University Hospital. The researchers behind the medicine hope to start selling it in 2030. There have been no major side effects confirmed in animal studies to date. The medicine deactivates a protein called USAG-1, which inhibits the growth of teeth. The medicine is currently targeted at patients congenitally lacking a full set of teeth.
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Programming, Design & Data Science
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Figma's journey to TypeScript (20 minute read)
This article discusses how the team at Figma automatically migrated Skew, a custom programming language, to TypeScript without disrupting a single day of development. Figma created Skew to squeeze additional performance out of its playback engine. Using Skew made it difficult to onramp new hires. Skew couldn't easily integrate with the rest of Figma's code base and it was missing a developer ecosystem outside of Figma. Using TypeScript enabled streamlined integration, modern JavaScript features, and seamless onboarding.
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How I got promoted as a staff software engineer (6 minute read)
This article discusses how a senior frontend engineer and team lead decided to take on more responsibilities at their existing company and worked to get promoted as a staff software engineer. Before asking for more responsibilities, they demonstrated to their CTO that they were excelling at their current role. They then asked for more responsibility and then doubled down on their efforts and shipped more things. The engineer was eventually able to demonstrate undeniably that they were capable of working at a higher level than their current role and pushed for a promotion, which was granted.
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AI engineers report burnout and rushed rollouts as 'rat race' to stay competitive hits tech industry (15 minute read)
Accelerated timelines, competition, and a lack of concern from superiors about real-world effects are themes common across a broad spectrum of the biggest effect companies. Engineers are increasingly saying that a large part of their jobs is focused on satisfying investors and not falling behind in the competition rather than solving actual problems for users. Some have been switched over to AI teams to help support fast-paced rollouts without adequate training, even if they are new to the technology. The immense pressure, long hours, and constantly changing mandates are causing burnout.
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The business of wallets (33 minute read)
This article discusses digital wallets - electronic systems that hold money. It covers the regulations surrounding them, their history, different types of wallet products, and more. The article details the various revenue streams that wallets use to make wallet providers money.
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