It’s easy as a journalist to become jaded about the tech industry. We usually focus on its many troubles: rampant misinformation and racism on social media, artificial intelligence run amok, and Big Tech allegedly using its market dominance to abuse users and customers.
And those are just a few of the problems.
But there are also many bright spots, which is what I want to focus on today. You see, I could use a pick-me-up going into the weekend.
Oddly, I was reminded of the bright spots recently when I used a smartphone app to scan paper documents and turn them into digital PDFs in order to accomplish some bureaucratic task. Every time I use the app, I’m intrigued. Admittedly, it’s far from cutting-edge technology. Maybe I’m fascinated by the app because it’s so useful—I don’t have a printer or scanner at home to do the job—and it saves me time and money, without much technical fuss required on my end.
Yesterday, I felt amazement again when I saw a video from Google DeepMind showing an AI-powered robot playing table tennis against a human. The robot may not be ready to win an Olympic gold medal, but it could keep a credible rally—despite all the randomness involved in the game—and win 13 of 29 matches.
Table tennis isn’t the end game for the technology, of course. A robot that is nimble enough and can quickly think on its feet could eventually be useful in manufacturing, for example.
Tech is, of course, also saving lives in hospitals—more with every innovation—and saving doctors time so they can focus more on patients instead of paperwork. And it’s helping fight fires plaguing the West Coast every summer.
I’m writing this while occasionally toggling to the latest tech news headlines this morning. It’s not pretty out there: More than 4,000 layoffs are expected at Cisco, Intel is delaying one of its biggest events because of its broader business troubles, and critics are accusing Apple of defying European regulators.
Clearly, the tech industry—i.e. tech executives—must do better. But, being that jaded journalist, I’m not holding my breath.
So sometimes we all need a reminder that tech, despite it all, can still amaze and do good. I know I do.
Verne Kopytoff
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NEWSWORTHY
Musk limits EU Grok training. To comply with the demands of European privacy regulators, Elon Musk’s xAI will for now avoid training its models on the data of European X users that it collected before those users had an opportunity to opt out. TechCrunch reports that the Irish privacy watchdog, which has jurisdiction over X, had sought a court injunction against the training.
More X news. <Deep breath> Business Insider reports that the World Federation of Advertisers has suspended its Global Alliance for Responsible Media nonprofit following X’s antitrust lawsuit, which claimed that GARM’s members illegally colluded in an ad boycott of the platform. In the U.K., the government has reportedly responded to Musk’s spreading of fake news and attacks on Prime Minister Keir Starmer by suspending its own advertising on X. In Venezuela, the Maduro regime has blocked X for 10 days for allegedly inciting hate and civil war (the regime is widely believed to have stolen the election that took place a couple of weeks ago, and social media has been used to organize protests—President Nicolas Maduro has also urged Venezuelans to ditch WhatsApp.) And in the U.S., some Democrats reportedly believe X is censoring pro-Harris accounts by labeling them as spam.
Mini-er Mac mini. This year, Apple will release a much smaller version of its Mac mini, based on the company's M4 chipset, which will also make its way into new iMacs and MacBook Pros, according to Bloomberg reports. The new Mac mini will reportedly be roughly the size of the Apple TV box, and cheaper for Apple to make than the versions that are already on sale.
SIGNIFICANT FIGURES
$12.7 billion
—The amount FTX has to pay its customers in relief for misappropriating their funds, under a court order announced yesterday by the U.S.'s Commodity Futures Trading Commission. Led by the now-jailed Sam Bankman-Fried, FTX collapsed in 2022, and this order implements a subsequent settlement between the bankrupt crypto exchange and the CFTC.
IN CASE YOU MISSED IT
Apple changes up App Store rules in Europe once again as EU threat of non-compliance grows, by AFP
Amazon axes a major fee for sellers ahead of the crucial holiday shopping rush, by Jason Del Rey
Crowdstrike caused a global computer meltdown — people at the Black Hat cybersecurity conference can’t get enough of its swag, by Sharon Goldman
Elon Musk got duped by misinformation on his own platform, retweeting then deleting a fake headline about the British PM, by Seamus Webster
SpaceX may have to rescue stranded NASA astronauts after Boeing blunder, by Bloomberg
The beloved Ford Capri is back—or is it? Why every new electric car is an SUV, and why it shouldn’t be, by James Morris
BEFORE YOU GO
RIP Sandy Robertson. Sanford Robertson, one of the financiers who pioneered throwing money at the tech industry, has passed away at the age of 93. Dell, eBay, AOL, and Pixar are all companies that enjoyed the support of his firm, Robertson Stephens. As the Financial Times notes, Robertson was also somewhat responsible for the creation of VC legend Kleiner Perkins, as it was he who introduced Tom Perkins and Eugene Kleiner in Palo Alto, more than half a century ago.
