New Instagram Feature Allows You Control Over Your Reels Algorithm

Instagram has quietly begun rolling out a new “Your Algorithm,” control panel for Reels that allows users to utilizes an AI based interface to control which topics and subjects show up most often in their reels — and lets you tweak them in real time.

When you’re watching Reels, look for the icon in the upper right corner (two lines with hearts). Tap it to open Your Algorithm. You can see what topics we think you’re interested in, tell us which topics you want to see more or less of, and your recommendations will adapt.

1. See your top interests: View a summary of the topics Instagram thinks you care about most, right at the top.
2. Tune your preferences: Type in the topics you want to see more or less of, and your Reels will reflect your choices.
3. Share your algorithm: If you’d like, you can share your interests to your Story, so friends and followers can see what you’re into.

After a few weeks of testing on our @TechSweepstakes page I'll say I haven't noticed much difference. However, our content consumption on that page is rather limited and  restricted to mostly tech related content anyways. Still the feature is nice to have as it learns I'm assuming it will become more intuitive and will allow me to restrict some content that I simply don't care to see!  

Robotics Trends To Watch In 2026

2025 has been a breakout year in robotics and we expect that growth to be even stronger in 2026! 

China leads a massive robotic surge with growth expected to reach new levels in 2026. More than 82% of the 300+ global robotics investment deals in the first half of 2025 occurred in China, with total financing topping at least 20B yuan (~$2.7 B). State-backed funds have earmarked some 70B yuan (about $9.7B) for humanoids and robot initiatives, while pushing robotics into public spaces. Companies like Unitree (eyeing a $7B IPO), Agibot, and EngineAI closed massive rounds, with Unitree slashing prices to $5,900 for its R1 humanoid. Even Elon Musk has warned that in humanoids “positions two through ten could all be Chinese companies.” China now produces 70–80% of global planetary roller screws — the critical actuator component that Tesla, Figure, and 1X all depend on.

Humanoid bots go mainstream - will you see one in your house in 2026?

• Big industrial customers began running serious pilots, testing humanoids on warehouse lines, with 1X’s Neo moving into homes (but with a major caveat).
• Tesla, Figure, Agility, Apptronik, and 1X shifted focus from viral clips to reliability, safety, and per-hour economics in real customer environments. Tesla is set to begin mass production of their Tesla Optimus by the end of next year
• Tooling, components, and software platforms around humanoids matured, from actuators and battery packs to “generalist” control and vision models.
• China turned humanoids into industrial policy, dangling pilots to push domestic players toward large-scale deployment by the end of the decade.
• Analysts are estimating the market will be worth more than $5 trillion by 2050

Robotaxis hit real streets with mixed results! 2026 we expect fewer Uber and Lyft drivers and more driverless cars.

• Waymo began weaving freeway driving into routes across Phoenix, San Francisco, and LA, stretching its service to San Jose with 24/7 airport pickup.
• Amazon’s robotaxi subsidiary Zoox launched its custom vehicles in Las Vegas — no steering wheel, no pedals, just two rows of seats for 4 passengers.
• Tesla just started testing empty robotaxis on Austin streets this past weekend, with no safety monitor in the passenger seat.
• China’s Baidu and Uber announced plans to deploy thousands of Apollo Go vehicles on Uber’s platform, while Pony AI rolled out 1K robotaxis in Shenzhen.
• Uber's CEO Dara Khosrowshahi said robotaxis are a "trillion-dollar-plus" industry and expects to see the company to have cars 10-plus markets by next year.

The rise of the warehouse bot saw Warehouse bots becoming the main characters of robotics in 2025. 

• Amazon blew past 1M deployed robots marking the shift from simple mobile robots to integrated AI-powered workcells.
• Autonomous mobile robots (AMRs) now account for 45% of warehouse deployments, with e-commerce driving half of new installations through 2030.
• Beijing went all in, openly targeting hundreds of thousands of deployed units by 2030 while running 1.8M industrial robots on factory floors.
• Agility’s Digit moved 100K totes at a GXO facility while humanoids from Apptronik and others tackled “last-meter” tasks that wheeled bots can't handle.

Industry Diversification: Robotics adoption is expanding beyond traditional automotive and electronics manufacturing into sectors facing labor shortages or high-risk conditions.

• Construction: Robots are increasingly used for surveying, inspection, demolition, and precise tasks like drilling and bricklaying, reducing human exposure to hazardous conditions.
• Healthcare and Pharma: Automation is used for logistics, dispensing medications, performing minimally invasive surgeries, and assisting with patient rehabilitation through soft exoskeletons.
• Retail and Hospitality: Robots are appearing as shelf-scanning inventory managers, automated baristas, and hotel assistants.

In 2026, the emphasis is going to be on human-robot collaboration and the integration of robots into daily life as intelligent partners rather than mere replacements. Growth and expansion of AI and the integration it is already making into everyday life will be key. So to will regulations and governmental guidelines and oversight. We've already seen some drawback on autonomous cars with state legislators weighing in on regulations for autonomous vehicles. We fully expect more regulations and safety nets related to bots taking over the workforce and/or entering our daily lives. 

U.S. DOE Expands Genesis Mission With New Partnerships

The U.S. Dept. of Energy just announced partnerships with 24 organizations to power the Trump administration’s Genesis Mission effort to accelerate scientific research with AI — including OpenAI, Google, Anthropic, and Nvidia. 

The details: 

The initiative unites 17 national labs with 40K researchers, targeting breakthroughs in nuclear energy, quantum computing, and manufacturing. Google DeepMind will grant lab scientists early access to tools, including its AI co-scientist agent, AlphaEvolve coding system, and AlphaGenome DNA model. AWS pledged up to $50B in government AI infrastructure, with OAI already deploying models on Los Alamos National Laboratory’s Venado supercomputer. Additional signatories include xAI, Microsoft, Palantir, AMD, Oracle, Cerebras, and CoreWeave.

“Today’s announcement of 24 new research partnerships is only the beginning, as we deliver on President Trump’s mandate to bring the entire scientific community, including companies, universities, non-profits, and Federal agencies, into the Genesis Mission,” said Assistant to the President and OSTP Director Michael Kratsios. “Harnessing cutting-edge AI for science will dramatically increase the productivity of American scientists and researchers. The Genesis Mission will help America’s scientists automate experiment design, accelerate simulations, and generate predictive models that will lead to breakthroughs in energy, manufacturing, drug discovery, and beyond.”

The full list of organizations include: Accenture AMD Anthropic Armada Amazon Web Services Cerebras CoreWeave Dell DrivenData Google Groq Hewlett Packard Enterprise IBM Intel Microsoft NVIDIA OpenAI Oracle Periodic Labs Palantir Project Prometheus Radical AI xAI XPRIZE

Zoom Introduces a New AI Companion Tool

Earlier this month Zoom introduced the Zoom AI Companion 3.0 which the company has promised will be an all in one sort of solution with a Custom AI Companion add-on that will empower users with easy creation and deployment of custom AI agents and tailored AI solutions. 

The goal is to offer lifelike AI avatars for meetings, live translations, the ability to generate clips from presentations, and proactive agentic AI that can help users free up their time, show up prepared, keep meetings on track, and create rich content based on meeting conversations and more.

“Around the world, millions of people are using Zoom to connect with their colleagues and customers, but they could be getting so much more out of those conversations with the help of AI,” said Smita Hashim, chief product officer at Zoom. “AI Companion 3.0 will provide deeper insights from their conversations to help them get more done at work and drive better business outcomes, regardless of whether they’re working in Zoom Workplace, in person, or across compatible apps and integrations.”

Included in the new companies will be features like photorealistic avatars in Zoom Meetings,  Real-time voice translation for Meetings that will allow participants to hear meeting speech in their preferred language, apps in Team Chat to help them more easily manage and discover Zoom Apps, and a personal favorite generative collaborative whiteboards.

Hyundai Plans Major US Based Robotics Investments

The Hyundai Motors groups isn't all about cars! The company has been a major tech investor and has recently made several big moves in the robotics field including their acquisition and partnership with Boston Dynamics. Earlier this year, Hyundai Motor Group announced it will invest $21 billion in the U.S., including a $6 billion investment to drive innovation and expand strategic partnerships with U.S. companies. As part of this new investment, the Group will purchase tens of thousands of Boston Dynamics robots 

Doubling down on that commitment Hyundai late last month announced they will expand that investment to $26 billion in the U.S. from 2025 to 2028. The additional $5 billion will be dedicated to advancing the Group’s strategic initiatives in automotive, steel, and more specially robotics. The major investment will allow the group to build a new state-of-the-art robotics facility with an annual capacity of 30,000 units, serving as a U.S. Robotics Innovation Hub for design, manufacturing, testing, and deployment. This initiative will position Hyundai Motor Group at the forefront of the global robotics ecosystem and a major leader in the US robotics market! 

Through these initiatives, Hyundai Motor Group expects to create around 25,000 new direct jobs in the United States over the next four years. The Group is also accelerating technology commercialization through its U.S.-based tech affiliate Motional for autonomous driving — while expanding collaboration with leading American companies in future technologies, including AI, robotics, autonomous driving.

Read more: 

• Hyundai x Boston Dynamics: Welcome to the future of mobility
• Boston Dynamics & Hyundai Motor Group Expand Collaboration to Drive Mobility Manufacturing & Innovation
• Uniting Humans and Robots - Hyundai Motor Group and Boston Dynamics’ Vision For the Future of Work and HR Evolution

New Smart Glasses May Help the Hard of Hearing

Smart glasses have been looking better and better these days with advances in technology and improvements with AI, Now a new tech company is launching a pair of “always-on” AI-powered smart glasses that listen to, record, and transcribe every conversation and then display relevant information to the wearer in real time. Halo, the startup that’s developing the technology says their "goal is to make glasses that make you super intelligent the moment you put them on.”

“The AI listens to every conversation you have and uses that knowledge to tell you what to say … kinda like IRL Cluely,” Ardayfio told TechCrunch during their interview.  “If somebody says a complex word or asks you a question, like, ‘What’s 37 to the third power?’ or something like that, then it’ll pop up on the glasses,” Ardayfio added. 

While the goal of Halo and the company's founders isn't specially to augment hearing for the hearing impaired it is easy to see how the new devices and their ability to hear what you [should] hear and automatically feed you insights on the display could be beneficial to deaf and hard of hearing users. Halo would give you the ability to not just instantly understand your conversations more clearly, it could also translate for you, have recall of previous conversations and/or help you accurately answer questions you may not have fully understood! 

For now, Halo X glasses only have a display and a microphone, but no camera, although the developers are exploring the possibility of adding it to a future models. Users will still need to have their smartphones handy  as the glasses are tethered to an accompanying appt. So you'll need your phone to help power the glasses and get “real time info prompts and answers to questions,” per Nguyen.  Under the hood, the smart glasses use Google’s Gemini and Perplexity as its chatbot engine, according to the two co-founders. Gemini is better for math and reasoning, whereas they use Perplexity to scrape the internet, they said. 

The Halo X is available for -pre-order for $249 now with no details on exact shipping dates.

Why Reddit is Blocking the Internet Archive for AI Scraping (and its $200M Plan)

Reddit is now restricting the Internet Archive (IA) from indexing its popular threads, a move prompted by Reddit's discovery that some AI companies were circumventing its scraping policies. Instead of scraping Reddit directly, these firms were allegedly pulling data from the IA's archived content. In response, Reddit is now limiting the Wayback Machine to only archive screenshots of its homepage. This means the archive will no longer be a comprehensive record of deleted posts, user activity, or various subreddit cultures. This restriction significantly reduces the IA's utility as a resource for documenting and preserving Reddit's vast content.

Reddit's spokesperson, Tim Rathschmidt, suggested that the Internet Archive could take steps to better protect against AI scraping. Rathschmidt also cited privacy concerns, stating that the Wayback Machine problematically archives content that users have deleted. He noted that until the IA can better "respect user privacy" and comply with Reddit's policies regarding deleted content, the restrictions would remain in place. Although some Redditors previously used the Wayback Machine to find deleted comments, many others have pointed out that several alternative tools exist for this purpose.

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It's probable that Reddit's decision is also financially motivated. The company has recently made lucrative licensing deals with AI companies like OpenAI and Google, with the Google deal reportedly worth $60 million over three years. Reddit expects to earn over $200 million from similar licensing agreements in the next three years. By limiting the Internet Archive's access, Reddit may be aiming to force AI firms to strike similar deals directly with them, rather than getting their data for free from the Wayback Machine.

Conclusion

This situation highlights a growing tension between content platforms, AI companies, and digital archivists. While Reddit claims its primary concern is user privacy and protecting against policy violations, the financial incentives from licensing deals with AI firms are a significant factor. For the Internet Archive, this presents a challenge to its mission of preserving the open web, as a major source of online discourse is now largely inaccessible for archiving. The ongoing discussions between Reddit and the Internet Archive will likely determine the future of how Reddit's content is preserved and accessed outside of its platform.

You can learn more about this topic by visiting these articles from The Verge and Ars Technica.

Note this content was summarized by Google Gemini 

Your Next Uber Might Be A Lucid Robotaxi

Uber is investing hundreds of millions of dollars in EV maker Lucid and autonomous driving startup Nuro in a massive deal that will see 20K robotaxis in the U.S. over the next six years starting with the first city in 2026.

The details:

• Piloting this ambitious plan is Lucid’s upcoming Gravity SUV, a luxury SUV starting at $79K, outfitted with Nuro’s Level 4 autonomy suite. 
• Nuro’s fleet of vehicles currently operates in California and Texas, with 1M autonomous miles traveled without any major safety incidents.
• The robotaxi experience will be exclusive to Uber’s app, leveraging its routing and delivery infrastructure, with the ride-hailing giant investing $300M in Lucid.
• Fleet ownership falls to Uber, and Las Vegas is ground zero for prototype testing, with the first public deployment city set to be revealed in 2026.

The fleet will be owned by Uber or a third-party fleet management partner and the first vehicles will launch in as-yet-to-be-determined US city in 2026.

“This is a very, very big deal,” Dave Ferguson, co-founder and president of Nuro, said in an interview. “In terms of the scale and the hard commitments and the meat behind it, it is by far the biggest partnership deal that Uber has announced or done.” Uber is investing $300 million in Lucid, a spokesperson for the automaker, Nick Twork, confirmed. The investment in Nuro will be “significantly more than that,” Ferguson said, though he declined to share an exact figure. As part of the deal, Uber will take a seat on Nuro’s board of directors.

“Autonomous vehicles have enormous potential to transform our cities for the better,” said Dara Khosrowshahi, CEO of Uber. “We’re thrilled to partner with Nuro and Lucid on this new robotaxi program, purpose-built just for the Uber platform, to safely bring the magic of autonomous driving to more people across the world.”

Google Begins Using AI to Scan Websites In Real-time For Scams

 Google is now utilizing a new version of the company's Gemini AI model to check websites in real-time for scams and potential hazards. The new on-device model, called Gemini Nano, runs directly from within Chrome on your desktop to protects users’ privacy and data by scanning web pages and on-site ads for 'scammy' language and code to warn users of potentially unsafe sites.

As with Chrome’s existing safe browsing mode, if a user attempts to access a potentially unsafe site, they’ll see a warning before being given the option to continue to the page. Dubbed Enhanced Protection mode,  Google says the new tool offers the highest level of protection, to keep users twice as safe from phishing and other scams versus their Standard Protection mode. The on-device approach provides instant insight on risky websites and allows Chrome to offer protection, even against scams that haven't been seen before. 

In their update Google states that Gemini Nano's LLM is perfect for this use because of its ability to distill the varied, complex nature of websites, helping then to adapt to new scam tactics more quickly. Although Google has long used machine learning to protect its services, newer AI advancements have led to improved language understanding and pattern recognition, enabling the tech to identify scams faster and more effectively.

Alongside the updates to the desktop version of Chrome is also launching new AI-powered warnings for Chrome on Android meant to help users in fighting scams, spam and unwanted notifications. When Chrome’s on-device machine learning model flags a notification, you’ll receive a warning with the option to either unsubscribe or view the content that was blocked. And if you decide the warning was shown incorrectly, you can choose to allow future notifications from that website.

For more details read Google's update here.

Will AI Be The Death of Tech Innovation?

As a Gen X'er I got to experience the heart of the tech evolution. One thing I was being one of the biggest drivers in innovation was the curiosity we collectively had to understand how things worked, how we could make them better, or how me could make them our own. We didn't settle for white box PCs, we didn't settle for the every day version of Windows or settle for mediocre Apps. Not matter what it was we were always tinkering with settings, making changes to styles, or ripping things apart and upgrading them. 

With today's modern user friendly, or dumbed down, technology that "just works" I often wonder how or where new innovation will come from. That curiosity and drive to explore or tweak things seems to have faded away. In cases like operating system such as Windows 11 and macOS (even iOS) the drive to make them as user friendly as possible also meant hiding or restricting easy access to many settings and tweaks most of us geeks loved to tinker with. That lack of control has seemingly meant many of the younger generation have given in to the dumbed down user experience and don't bother learning the things we took for granted.

AI Takes The User Out of The Experience

With AI infiltrating almost every aspect of our lives. It feels like we are taking the user out of the equation. We are taking the fundamentals of our tech experience for granted and unlearning many of the things we once had to do on our own. We are essentially trading ease of use over practical and applicable knowledge. So with that I now ask myself is are we killing off the curiosity and drive that once pushed newer generations to create truly innovative products? 

AI is on the cusp of taking over the day to day activities and instead of learning how it works, why or how it accomplishes the things it does, we have generations just willing to accept that it is "just working" or that it did what they wanted well enough that they don't need to learn how to get more out of! So again instead of the user interacting and building their own better experience or being curious to see if they can find a better way. We see them being complacent and settling for what they have. So what does that mean for the future of tech innovation if we are willing to simply settle? 

Tech Innovation Has Become Stagnant and Stale

If we look at a few markets collectively - TVs, Cell Phones, PCs - where we once made fairly big leaps we are now stagnant in any actual innovation. TVs have certainly gotten bigger and the quality of their image or resolution has grown. We've certainly seen a transformation in how we use our TVs, but is there really an innovation there? You are now basically using them as a replacement for a PC. Cell Phones again, we are almost 20yrs into the smartphone market and short of foldable displays (tech specs and those details aside) what real innovation have we seen? 

The iPhone or Samsung Galaxy phones today truthfully don't do much more than the original devices released all those years ago. They have of course increased in size and increased in capability, maybe added a few more sensors, but that is about it. PCs have shared a similar trajectory. We were supposed to see great innovation in lower heat/power consumption, better overall performance and at lower costs. We've of course seen some major leaps in raw power (with massive increases in power consumption) but when compared to the 20yrs before we haven't seen anything earth shattering.

The question begs to be asked. Where will tech head from here and who will be the driving force to move it forward? If users are becoming complacent and not demanding true innovation and just accepting the minor upgrades we see now. The what inceptives do tech companies like Apple, Google and Samsung have to push out their truly mind blowing tech?  

What Is Amazon's All New AI Powered Alexa+ and Who Can Use It?

You may have heard that Amazon just unveiled Alexa+. The company's much anticipated next-generation digital assistant completely rebuilt with generative AI technology. What does that mean you may ask, and what does it mean for current Amazon Alexa device owners? We'll try to break that down for you below!

The basic details:

• Alexa+ can connect and leverage multiple LLMs, including Amazon's Nova and Anthropic's Claude, choosing the best model for each task at hand.
• The revamped assistant can perform complex agentic tasks like booking reservations, ordering groceries, purchasing concert tickets, and more.
• Other features include document analysis, remembering user preferences, maintaining conversation context, and integration with hundreds of services.
• It will cost $19.99 monthly but comes free with Amazon Prime membership, with early access rolling out in the U.S. next month.

Amazon is rethinking the way Alexa works with what they are calling “experts”—groups of systems, capabilities, APIs, and instructions that accomplish specific types of tasks for customers along several different connected devices. For instance, Alexa+ expands on the way you can control your smart home with products from Philips Hue, Roborock, and more. Voice controls for things like smart lighting, thermostats and other devices are said to be more natural. So, if you’re speaking in half-formed thoughts, using colloquial expressions, or exploring complex ideas, Alexa+ will reportedly understand what you mean, and respond with a natural vibe and feeling sort of like you are interacting with a person rather than Alexa's computerized response system.

Amazon said Alexa+ is designed to take action and is able to orchestrate across tens of thousands of services and devices. You'll be able to use your favorite apps to do things more directly like make reservations or appointments with OpenTable and Vagaro; explore discographies and play music from providers including Amazon Music, Spotify, Apple Music, and iHeartRadio; order groceries from Amazon Fresh and Whole Foods Market, or delivery from Grubhub and Uber Eats. You'll even get reminders for things like tickets going on sale on Ticketmaster; or alerts from Ring and other security devices if someone is approaching your house.

The new Alexa+ is designed to be highly personalized and adaptable to your life. Alexa learns from your shopping, listening, and viewing habits, as well as your shipping and payment information. But Alexa's capabilities extend beyond this: you can enhance her usefulness by providing personal details. Teach her family recipes, important dates, facts, and dietary preferences, and she can apply that information to better assist you. Imagine planning a family meal; Alexa can remember that you love pizza, your daughter is vegetarian, and your partner requires gluten-free food, and use that knowledge to recommend appropriate recipes or dining options.

What devices can customers use Alexa+ on and when can we get it?

According to their release statement Amazon has said Alexa+ will start rolling out in the U.S. in the next few weeks during an early access period, and subsequently in waves over the coming months. Priority will be given to Echo Show 8, 10, 15, and 21 device owners in the early access period. Unfortunately for those of us with older generation Echo devices like Echo Dot 1st Gen, Echo 1st Gen, Echo Plus 1st Gen, Amazon Tap, Echo Show 1st Gen, Echo Show 2nd Gen, and Echo Spot 1st Gen, we won't be seeing the upgrade at this time and will be limited to the original Alexa. You'll also be able to try Alexa+ on your web browser, the Alexa app, compatible Fire TVs, and Fire tablets. You can check-out the new Alexa+ page for more details and to sign-up to be notified when Alexa+ is available for you.

CES 2025 Is Here With AI In Everything!

 CES 2025 has officially kicked off this week with all the biggest names in tech showcasing their newest tech offerings. As expected AI is at the forefront of just about every single major announcement. With NVIDIA, Intel, AMD and Qualcomm all showcasing the latest in AI centric chips. While others such as LG Google, Hisense and TCL show off some of the newest in AI powered TVs and home theater gizmos. Not to take a back seat major auto manufactures have showed in force this year with Toyota, Volvo, BMW and others highlighting new AI integration and manufacturing advancements.  

As many expected AI has found its way into almost every device from the outrageous new personal robots. To the most mundane of children's toys. Just about everywhere you look someone is introducing a new AI powered gadget or gizmo of some sort!

Among the major announcements made was NVIDIA's CES keynote highlighting their newest RTX 50 series flagship GPUs as well as a very interesting new addition dubbed Project Digits. NVIDIA Project DIGITS, a personal AI supercomputer that provides AI researchers, data scientists and students worldwide with access to the power of the NVIDIA Grace Blackwell platform. With Project DIGITS, users can develop and run inference on models using their own desktop system, then seamlessly deploy the models on accelerated cloud or data center infrastructure.

As previously mentioned TV and display manufactures are looking to put AI to use in more ways than one. Google has announced they adding a slew of Gemini features to Google TV. With Gemini Google promises your interaction with your Google TV powered devices will be more natural and intuitive.  Offering things like summarized results, better search, and more total control over your connected devices. Google plans to release these new Gemini capabilities for new and existing Google TV devices toward the end of 2025.

In the auto arena Toyota took the wraps of some very ambitious projects including a move into space travel, autonomous vehicles and a very intriguing idea dubbed Toyota Woven City. This new 'Smart City" project is promised to be a hub for innovation, blending autonomous vehicles, AI and robotics

The concept of Toyota’s radical Woven City – which the Japanese automaker describes as a “test course for mobility” – was initially revealed in 2020. Now, five years later, the company says the first phase of construction is complete and ready for launch later this year.

It wouldn't be CES of course without the addition of tons of other gadgets. And it looks like there are plenty of those to choose from. The folks at ZDNET found everything from smart rings, to door locks. And did we mention the robots? It seems as though there is a robot for just about everything these days!

Google's AI-powered Theft Detection For Android Phones Is Here

Back in May 2024, Google teased a new Theft Detection Lock tool for Android phones, that promised to keep your device and data safe in the event some swipes your phone and takes off with all your personal info in tow! Starting this month, these advanced theft protection features will be available to users around the world through Android 15 and a Google Play Services update available to Android 10+ devices

These new theft detection tools use the devices on board sensors coupled with powerful AI to proactively protect you and your phone at the moment of a theft attempt. By using your phone's gyroscope and accelerometer and on-device machine learning, Theft Detection Lock is able to analyze various device signals to detect potential theft attempts. If the algorithm detects a potential theft attempt on your unlocked device, it locks your screen to keep thieves out. 

The anti-theft detection tool is one of several security additions Google announced earlier this year to protect your data "before, during and after a theft," including: 

• Making it more difficult to factory reset a phone and set it up under a new account 
• Private spaces to hide sensitive apps 
• The ability to mark your phone as lost on Find My Device for easier tracking 
• Automatic lock for excessive failed authentication 
• The ability to lock your phone if it's offline 
• Remote lock, which lets you lock your phone's screen using just your number and a quick security challenge

One new featured added to Remote Lock many will find useful is the ability to quickly lock and secure your phone even if you can’t remember your Google account credentials in the moment of theft. Now you can use any device to visit Android.com/lock and lock your phone with just a verified phone number. Remote Lock then secures your device while you regain access through Android’s Find My Device – which lets you secure, locate or remotely wipe your device. As a security best practice, we always recommend backing up your device on a continuous basis, so remotely wiping your device is not an issue.

Turn on Theft Detection Lock right now

To enable theft protection features, you’ll have to perform the following steps: 

1. Set a password for your screen. It’s the only way to lock the phone if it gets stolen. 
2. Then Go to Settings 
3. Tap Google 
4. Tap All Services 
5.  Select Theft Protection 
6. Turn on Theft Detection Lock once it’s available on your device 

  ** Note on my Samsung phone it is under Security and Privacy > More Security Settings > Theft Protection

Hollywood Suddenly Embraces AI

In a complete 180-degree U-Turn from everything that Hollywood has said they oppose about AI and everything they spent years on strike fighting against, one studio (at least) is now fully embracing AI systems and programs.

Lionsgate, the studio behind blockbusters like "John Wick" and "The Hunger Games," is taking a giant leap into the world of AI-powered filmmaking. They've partnered with Runway, an AI research company, to develop a custom AI model trained on Lionsgate's massive library of films and TV shows.

What will this AI do, you may ask? Imagine a tool that can generate cinematic video, helping filmmakers visualize scenes and experiment with different creative options. This AI model will do just that, assisting with everything from pre-production (think storyboarding and concept art) to post-production (enhancing visual effects and more).

Why is this a big deal?

Aside from being a fundamental shift from everything Hollywood has said they were against, as well as being a fundamental shift in the creative process, the move will position Lionsgate at the front of a new era. Whether we like it or not, GenAI is going to be forced on us, and the creative process is going to be changed. This new partnership marks the first time a major Hollywood studio has teamed up with an AI company in this way. While it may be the first, I'm sure there will be plenty more, and I'm sure it signals a potential shift in how movies are made, with AI playing a larger role in the creative process.

Just a few short months ago Hollywood was trying to convince us that "Generative AI Won’t Be on the Big Screen Any Time Soon!" It looks like that has changed and changed rather abruptly! Music and movie studios have already shown they are willing to use a singer or actors voice and their likeness through overlays or 'de-aged' characters. With this move we may see a major shift!

What Comes Next For Studios and AI?

Lionsgate is distancing itself from using these new tools to fully re-create actors or generate new characters. The company has said it believes these tools will help filmmakers and other creatives “augment their work” to deliver “capital-efficient content creation opportunities.” AI, in other words, could help cobble together more movies and shows with lower investment costs for highly expense things like explosions or other background effects. This according to statements made by Lionsgate founder Vice Chairman Michael Burns during an interview with The Wall Street Journal,

So for now iIt looks like this particular model will steer clear of generating AI “clones” or replicas of actors. They want us to believe it will primarily be used as a tool to enhance and augment existing projects. I guess we'll have to wait and see how quickly that position changes!

Securing the AI Revolution: A Collaborative Effort

The rapid evolution of artificial intelligence (AI) presents exciting possibilities but also demands a strong focus on security. At Intel, the decided to take these challenges head on teaming with developers and adopters in safeguarding AI technology while navigating a complex landscape of guidelines and standards. Intel, along with other industry giants, believe in the power of collective action to address these challenges and ensure that security remains a top priority.

Intel Joins Forces with the Coalition for Secure AI (CoSAI)

Intel's CEO, Pat Gelsinger, recently unveiled a strategy for open and scalable AI systems at Intel Vision 2024. To further this vision, Intel joined the Coalition for Secure AI (CoSAI) as a founding member. CoSAI aims to equip practitioners and developers with the tools and guidance needed to build secure AI systems from the ground up.

This collaboration is a significant step for the industry, uniting leaders from diverse fields to develop and share comprehensive approaches, best practices, and methodologies for secure AI development and deployment. CoSAI's initial focus will be on software supply chain security, preparing defenders for evolving cybersecurity threats, and establishing AI security governance frameworks.

Prioritizing Security and User Protection in the AI Boom

The demand for AI is skyrocketing, and so are the security risks. As we have seen this week with the CrowdStrike outage cybersecurity is still evolving to keep up. It would seem with the widespread impact of thi outage that demand is far outpacing the current capabilities of some vendors and cybersecurity systems and experts. CoSAI  hopes that with a focus on protecting AI systems from attacks, ensuring their transparency, and building trust with users they will be able to prevent future situations like we have today. 

Unfortunately, we are already seeing hackers utilizing AI systems in taking advantage of the CrowdStrike outage chaos. They are setting up AI generated websites and portals, using realistic AI generated email for spear-phishing attacks and as CrowdStrike itself warned on their own blog post  hackers are even impersonating CrowdStrike employees in scam emails and phone calls, even selling bogus software purporting to fix the glitch.

As AI systems evolve and become even more prevalent, we are going to need groups like the CoSAI working with teams from Intel, NVIDIA, Microsoft, Google and others to do their due diligence! 

Are External AI Accelerators Coming Soon?

A couple years ago several companies introduced external GPUs. Portable boxes that held a top end GPU that could run the latest games on your small form factor PC or your otherwise under-equipped none gaming PC. They could be used on just about any PC to add in gaming or graphics  power without the need for a new build or major upgrade. With the need for today's computers to keep up with the draw of AI computing will we soon see add-on or scalable external AI Accelerator Box becoming the new thing?

The fundamentals of on-device AI computing are easy enough to understand. You put an NPU, AI ready GPU ect into a device and you are reasonably set. Most new laptops and desktops will come with these chip integrated. However, the need to add AI computing power to older machines, without a large scale upgrade, might be the next big draw. Much like add-on GPUs having a stand-alone AI Accelerator NPU might be a great solution.

Think of it this way, you own a PC or laptop that is a few years old and instead of buying something brand new you add on an external NPU or even GPU box the size of a standard portable hard drive. You instantly boost your computing power and/or graphics power. Now add to that you could potentially be running them in tandem and multiply your base computing power exponentially based on whatever configurations you have! You become your own distributed computing system running everything from one machine. You can then take those same devices and run the same level of computing from your laptop, work PC or possibly even your phone! 

Unlike a normal PC with an AI Accelerator Box you won't have to continuously upgrade. Rather you scale your computing power based on each new AI Box you add or swap out. Your base footprint would still be less than a single high end desktop, but with exponentially more compute power!

We do have a few solutions similar to what I'm suggesting today. ADLINK Tech has a portable NVIDIA RTX GPU and companies like Zotac still have their external GPUs. However, none of these offer the true scalability and raw AI processing power that I'm talking about. Eventually I believe well see some true standalone Intel or AMD based AI accelerator chips in external boxes setup for running as a daisy chained system.

What Are AI PCs? A Brief Explanation

Before I start with the explanation below I'd like to say that I believe that AI (artificial intelligence) as we are defining it today is not what most people envision as true 'artificial intelligence.' I look at it more as an augmented intelligence, one that uses your own interactions and those of users like you to generate best case answers, images, videos ect. We've been using the same software, same search algorithms, same voice commands, same pretty much everything for several years now. We never called it AI before because of the marketing strategy. Today we are just now seeing the marketing hype behind those same tools that have been learning our habits for years (I won't get started on the privacy issues here).

AI PCs - Intel's New Marketing Term

To put this simply the term AI PC is an Intel derived marketing term that requires specific Intel hardware and standards to apply. This doesn't mean that other PCs or devices can't run AI or that they aren't AI ready or AI chip equipped. So don't be confused here! 

Intel has stated that for a PC to receive the coveted "AI" label, it needs four things: a neural processing unit (NPU), a graphics processing unit (GPU), and the ability to handle Vector Neural Network Instructions (VNNI) and DP4a instructions (so that the GPU can handle video processing)  In other words what Intel is saying is that in order for them to call a new computer an AI PC it must be one with their latest CPU.

 

What is AI Ready and AI equipped

When it comes to slapping the AI ready label on things these are the few small things to know. AI apps and tools are currently used in two different ways. The difference between the two and how you are using them is really the difference in hardware requirements and what is needed. Basically any PC, smartphone, tablet or device can access and use cloud based AI.  On device generative tools require much better, more efficient hardware and that is were some of the confusion starts for most people.

One of the easiest ways to explain the hardware is to say the modern CPU as most people know it has become extremely outdated. New software changes take advantage of and use the GPU and a new NPU (secondary chip) to do the heavy work. These are both considered AI accelerators, deep learning processor, or neural processing units (NPUs). They have been specifically designed to accelerate artificial intelligence and machine learning applications and algorithms. (More on the differences here)

Tools like ChatGPT, Google image generator Gemini, or Microsoft CoPilot are all cloud based and do all their work in a cloud based system. This allows EVERY device to utilize AI because all the work is done by other, much more powerful systems, that then send the results to your PC or phone. This will soon change however as Intel has confirmed CoPilot and other applications will soon run locally on PCs and require better hardware to do so. 

PCs meeting those requirements are already shipping and other devices like the Apple iPhone, Google Pixel 8 and Samsung Galaxy phones are already using secondary more AI specific NPU chips for on-device AI.

In conclusion - don't be confused or fooled!
I'm writing this post I'm really hoping to take some confusion out of buying or upgrading your systems and hope that people aren't fooled into think they have to run out and search only for an AI PC to run their newly hyped apps. Yes newer hardware will eventually be required, and yes it only makes sense to adopt that hardware if you are already upgrading. No, that doesn't mean you will be left out if you don't!

Will AI Monetization Stifle Innovation?

Nearly a full month into 2024, and it's evident that this year is poised to be the "Year of AI," with virtually every aspect of our lives touched by AI in some form or another. However, as we witness the rapid development and subsequent market integration of AI, potential drawbacks are emerging. The two most significant hurdles seem to originate directly from tech giants.

AI Consolidation

Towards the end of 2023, major tech players such as Amazon, NVIDIA, Microsoft, and Google made significant moves to expand their AI portfolios, consolidating smaller companies under the umbrella of their massive enterprises. For instance, Amazon invested $4 billion in the startup Anthropic, while Google secured a $2 billion stake of its own. While these moves provide startups with the capital needed for growth, they often result in the acquiring companies exerting too much control over the projects, hindering their progress.

The desire to quickly monetize and grow a company, followed by potentially selling off the team's hard work, often leads to issues down the road. Companies like Amazon, Apple, and Google tend to absorb acquired ideas and software, which may either get shelved, completely reimagined, or fall by the wayside as companies explore other, potentially more cost-effective options.

While some acquisitions have led to great innovations, such as Apple incorporating features like Siri from the 30+ AI startups it acquired over the last decade, other instances, like Google shuttering numerous programs, showcase the potential pitfalls of consolidation.

AI as a Service and Pay-Walling

While consolidation poses challenges to development, the more significant concern lies in the tendency to place AI tools behind paywalls or offer them as subscription services. Companies naturally seek to monetize their AI tools swiftly and effectively. For instance, Microsoft already offers its AI tool Copilot as a subscription service, and Amazon reportedly plans to introduce a paid Alexa service, "Alexa Plus," featuring premium features.

Running these programs, developing infrastructure, and staying ahead in terms of development are costly endeavors for large companies. While pay-walling premium features is not a novel approach, consumers generally resist being forced to pay for tools they are already using. In the realm of new technology and the push for expanded integration and adoption, subscriptions may not be the most effective means to align consumers with corporate plans. If consumers push back against adoption, some otherwise promising companies might face setbacks.

Big Tech Control Playing Big Brother

One area I haven't really discussed is big tech and government level control. We are already seeing governments around the world  looking at regulations and attempts at controlling or slowing AI adoption. Historically speaking rapid progression of technology hasn't been the best thing. We've made some big mistakes over the years. Generally big tech has played big brother of sorts and held back quick rapid releases of new technology. Hint there are things they have now you still won't see for yrs because of costs Where this control and controlled slow releases may be warranted. The down side is if we attempt to slow adoption in one area we inevitably kill off competition and innovation in another!

If government regulation is overly strict it puts undue pressure on start-up companies and keeps them from the market. If they aren't strict enough then we see top tier companies effectively being the key-holders and keeping innovation out (or in). We end up putting in place too many barriers and true innovators suffer the consequences!

My Conclusion

From my background in the tech sector and the work I've done over the years I see the term AI as much more of a marketing term right now than anything else. People overlook that Siri, Alexa, Google Search ect are all essentially AI. For me personally I think the term as we currently use it Artificial Intelligence, really is a misnomer. I think Augmented Intelligence is far closer to what we currently have rather than the average person thinks of AI  (which is mostly a theatrical movie style computer driven intelligence).

I feel that if we see our current systems going to SaaS (subscriber or pay-to-use) we'll see consumer blow-back and companies will have to rethink their programs. I believe people are already starting to wake up to over utilization of the AI label and the market saturation of the term! My hope is companies keep an even keel on this and let the tech progress naturally. Hopefully smaller companies and individual developers are lost in the shuffle!

AI Regulations and Why Companies Welcome Them

As the adoption of AI, more directly generative AI, we see more companies calling on the government to step in and step up with regulations. For some this seems counterintuitive. Why would an AI company seek regulation in their own industry that would slow down adoption of their tools right? There are two schools of thought on this.

• Companies are truly concerned that their tools are being used for nefarious activities (scams, hacking cheating ect)
• Companies are concerned that the pace of the market means they will become irrelevant before they can make a market impact

As much as we'd like to think that tech companies are altruistic. Historically speaking, this hasn't been the case. So while some of their calls to action might be rooted in a desire to steer things down the 'right path' it is more likely that they are worried about their massive investment and potential returns.

The AI movement/generation is very quickly becoming what the DOT-COM era was. Startups are hitting amazing valuations and being gobbled up by the big boys in tech. Amazon recently spent 4b investing in AI Startup Anthropic. While Google, NVIDIA, Apple and others are not far behind. If AI continues to evolve at the pace it is now, many of those investment could be outdated and loose overall value well before they produce something that is marketable.

As a comparison Siri was first released in 2011, Alexa in 2014 and both are precursors to the large language models we see rapidly advancing today. It too more than a decade for their widespread adoption. Whereas ChatGPT broke into the market this past year and set off a firestorm and created a free for all in the market and development space. So while we are seeing companies actively petition for some government oversight, what we aren't seeing is those very same companies exhibiting a measure of self control!

 

Related Articles

https://epic.org/the-state-of-state-ai-laws-2023/

https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-023-02491-y

https://techcrunch.com/2023/09/11/the-ftc-is-setting-its-sights-on-generative-ai/