China’s Intel/AMD ban, EU DMA investigations, Sora in Hollywood + more! - TechLinked March 25, 2024

RILEYISMYNAME · March 26

NEWS SOURCES:

CHINA DISCOVERS AMERICA’S GAME IS TWO-PLAYER

China bans Intel, AMD CPUs from government computers

https://www.ft.com/content/7bf0f79b-dea7-49fa-8253-f678d5acd64a

Confirmed in doc dated Dec 26, 2023
https://www.techradar.com/pro/chinese-government-blocks-use-of-intel-amd-chips-in-hardware

18 approved CPUs, only 1 with x86 architecture https://lmg.gg/NSGxF (TechRadar)

The rest are Arm or RISC-V https://lmg.gg/fP5uk (TechRadar)

Also “sidelining” Windows, foreign-made database software

https://www.cnbc.com/2024/03/25/chinas-new-guidelines-will-block-intel-and-amd-chips-in-government-computers-ft.html

remember ChinaOS? (it’s not called ChinaOS) https://www.theregister.com/2023/07/07/openkylin_is_ubuntu/

China wants America out… and can you blame them when America feels the same? https://qz.com/china-wants-microsoft-and-intel-off-its-computers-1851361793

MICROSOFT AVOIDS DETENTION

EU opens 5 non-compliance investigations into Apple, Meta, and Google

https://www.theverge.com/2024/3/25/24111232/european-commission-digital-markets-act-investigation

EU announcement https://ec.europa.eu/commission/presscorner/detail/en/IP_24_1689

The Verge writer Tom Warren points out Microsoft is not being investigated https://twitter.com/tomwarren/status/1772218990628085865

Official DMA text (EDITOR: please scroll to the the start of the actual document, where it says “REGULATION (EU)” in big text) https://eur-lex.europa.eu/eli/reg/2022/1925/oj

DMA came into effect in May 2023 https://lmg.gg/nGybo

In that time, Microsoft has

tried to guilt users into not leaving Edge for Chrome https://www.tomshardware.com/news/edge-poll-downloading-chrome
tried to guilt users into not leaving Edge for Chrome https://www.neowin.net/news/microsoft-now-wants-you-to-take-a-poll-before-installing-google-chrome/
pestered Edge users to switch to Bing https://www.xda-developers.com/microsoft-edge-popups-switch-bing/
and pestered CHROME users on Windows to try Bing search with unblockable pop-ups https://www.engadget.com/microsoft-is-once-again-asking-chrome-users-to-try-bing-through-unblockable-pop-ups-184348202.html
and pestered CHROME users on Windows to try Bing search with unblockable pop-ups https://www.windowslatest.com/2024/03/15/microsoft-confirms-bing-pop-up-ads-in-chrome-on-windows-11-windows-10/

MR. ALTMAN GOES TO HOLLYWOOD

OpenAI tries to get Hollywood into Sora

https://www.bnnbloomberg.ca/openai-courts-hollywood-in-meetings-with-film-studios-directors-1.2050543

Sora isn’t available to public, but they granting access to “big-name actors and directors” https://lmg.gg/yM5Tw (BNN Bloomberg)

COO Brad Lightcap and colleagues doing the work https://lmg.gg/MCeSj (BNN Bloomberg)

While Sam Altman attended Oscar parties https://lmg.gg/5o270 (BNN Bloomberg)

Sora isn’t available to public, but they granting access to “big-name actors and directors” https://lmg.gg/yM5Tw (BNN Bloomberg)

Heading down to pitch Sora https://deadline.com/2024/03/openai-heading-hollywood-pitch-revolutionary-sora-1235866748/

Tyler Perry put an $800 million dollar expansion of his studio on hold because of Sora’s demo last month https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/business/business-news/tyler-perry-ai-alarm-1235833276/

Worried about its effect on the industry because of its impact on sets and on-location shooting: “If I wanted to have two people in the living room in the mountains, I don’t have to build a set in the mountains, I don’t have to put a set on my lot. I can sit in an office and do this with a computer, which is shocking to me.” https://lmg.gg/ydrYl

Using AI on two films kept him out of makeup “for hours” https://lmg.gg/K2t73

Tokyo Sora video https://twitter.com/OpenAI/status/1758192965703647443

QUICK BITS

AI TU, BRUTE?

Plot to take down Nvidia’s AI dominance

https://www.reuters.com/technology/behind-plot-break-nvidias-grip-ai-by-targeting-software-2024-03-25/

UXL Technologies is the challenger https://www.theverge.com/2024/3/25/24111435/nvidia-ai-market-google-intel-arm-uxl-foundation-cuda

Formed by Arm, Google Cloud, Intel, others last year https://www.silverliningsinfo.com/api/arm-google-cloud-intel-form-uxl-foundation-tackle-processor-complexity

Developing suite of software to challenge Nvidia’a CUDA https://www.investing.com/news/stock-market-news/tech-giants-unite-to-challenge-nvidias-ai-dominance-with-new-software-initiative-3352037

"open-source software suite that prevents AI developers from being locked into Nvidia’s proprietary tech, allowing their code to run on any machine and with any chip.” https://lmg.gg/Q2v6Z

GOOGLE DOES THING, IT BACKFIRES

Google to give AI powered search results to users who didn’t opt-in, results promote malware sites

https://www.pcmag.com/news/ai-is-coming-to-your-google-search-results

https://searchengineland.com/google-sge-a-top-threat-to-brand-and-product-terms-study-finds-438705

https://www.bleepingcomputer.com/news/google/googles-new-ai-search-results-promotes-sites-pushing-malware-scams/

“FBI OPEN UP” BECOMES REAL

Feds ordered Google to give data for certain YouTube users

https://www.forbes.com/sites/thomasbrewster/2024/03/22/feds-ordered-google-to-unmask-certain-youtube-users-critics-say-its-terrifying/?sh=2741086b1ca7

https://mashable.com/article/google-ordered-to-hand-over-viewer-data-privacy-concerns

https://www.engadget.com/authorities-reportedly-ordered-google-to-reveal-the-identities-of-some-youtube-videos-viewers-140018019.html

EVERYBODY LOVES TRACING RAYMOND

Microsoft’s new upscaler tech, new ray-tracing patent to cut VRAM requirements