Last update: Monday 7/15/24
A. TL;DR summary of Top 3 stories ...
1. Galaxy | 2. OpenAI Board | 3. WhistleBlowers
1) Samsung Galaxy Unpacked 2024
Ever since Microsoft/OpenAI released ChatGPT on GPT-4 in March 2023, Google has been playing an awkward game of GenAI catch-up. More specifically, whenever Microsoft/OpenAI announced a new feature, Google said "me too" a few months later with its own version of that feature, often with embarrassing flaws. Now comes Samsung's Android phones and devices playing catch-up to Apple's iPhones and devices.
At its Unpacked 2024 event last week, Samsung announced numerous AI enhancements to its product lines. From the perspective of this blog, the most important were an array of new Google Gemini-based features for Samsung's Android phones plus Apple me-too devices, i.e., redesigned airbuds with stems (like Apple's), new smart watches (like Apple's), and smart rings. In the opinion of the editor of this blog, none of its upgrades were impressive enough to cause substantial numbers of iPhone users to switch to Samsung's Androids. For details, readers are referred to the product reviews cited in the next section by The Verge and video, Engadget, Wired, TechCrunch
But Samsung's smart ring is not a me-too. Indeed, Samsung is the first Big Tech company to offer AI rings. Its smart rings allow users to unobtrusively monitor their health indicators around the clock, e.g., sleep, blood pressure, skin temperature, heart rate. The rings can run 7 days on a single charge and cost $399.
Unfortunately, previous experience with new AI devices has taught the editor of this blog to disregard positive preliminary assessments by pundits who have used the new products for less than a couple of weeks. For example, early positive reviews of Humane's AI Pin and Rabbit's r1 were followed by negative assessments that ranged from dismissive put-downs to brutal demolitions. So let's wait and see what our tech pundits really think about Samsung's new rings a few weeks from now.
2) Microsoft and Apple ditch OpenAI board seats
The EU, the Department of Justice, the Securities and Exchange Commission, and Federal Trade Commission are all taking hard looks at Big Tech's actions that might have anti-competitive consequences. Sooooooooo ... out of an abundance of caution, Apple and Microsoft have decided not to occupy seats on OpenAI's board of directors.
3) OpenAI whistleblowers call for SEC probe into NDAs
In early June, ten whistleblowers at OpenAI issued an open letter that warned the public about OpenAI's "Culture of Risk and Retaliation". Last week OpenAI whistleblowers raised the stakes by asking the SEC to probe the nondisclosure agreements (NDAs) that prevented OpenAI's employees from speaking out about the risks posed by OpenAI's development generative AI.
B. Top 3 stories in past week ...
- OpEds+Misc
"Samsung Galaxy Unpacked: everything announced at the July 2024 event", Wes Davis, The Verge and video, 7/10/24 ***
-- This story also covered by Engadget, Wired, TechCrunch - OpenAI
"Microsoft and Apple ditch OpenAI board seats amid regulatory scrutiny", Tom Warren, The Verge, 7/10/24 ***
-- This story also covered by Bloomberg, Financial Times, Wall Street Journal, NY Times - OpenAI
"OpenAI whistleblowers call for SEC probe into NDAs that kept employees from speaking out on safety risks", Cheyenne Macdonald, Engadget, 7/13/24 ***
-- This story also covered by Washington Post, Reuters, Tech Crunch,
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