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- [00:00]
Brian McCullough
Foreign welcome to the tech meme right home for Tuesday, December 17, 2024. I'm Brian McCullough. Today, on the same day that ByteDance asked the U.S. supreme Court to intervene, the TikTok CEO meets with Donald Trump, DeepMind's big new competitor to Sora called VO2. The FTC comes down against so called junk fees and on their historic raise a deep dive look at Databricks, one of the biggest private startups left in the world. Here's what you missed today in the world of tech ByteDance has officially asked the Supreme Court of the United States to block the US law that could ban TikTok on January 19th. But perhaps more importantly than that, according to a source, TikTok CEO Xu Zi Chu met with President Elect Trump at Mar A Lago. This is the more relevant news because some of the thinking is if Trump doesn't want TikTok banned, he merely has to not enforce the law even if the Supreme Court intervenes or not. Quoting NBC News Trump expressed having a, quote, warm spot for TikTok at a news conference earlier in the day, saying, quote, we'll take a look at the app and a possible ban. At his news conference Monday, Trump did not mention the meeting with Chu, but said he thought his electoral victory was in part due to his use of TikTok. I won youth by 34 points and there are those that say that TikTok had something to do with that, he said. Trump lost voters ages 18 to 29, according to a national exit poll. Trump tried to ban TikTok in 2020 during his first term in the White House, but he was blocked by the courts. He changed his position this year, stunning some of his supporters but pleasing others, including Republican mega donor Jeff Yass, a major investor in TikTok. Supporters of the ban include both Democrats and Republicans in Congress, and they argue that because of TikTok's Chinese ownership, it poses a threat to user privacy and to the information environment through the possible manipulation of content end quot as for the Supreme Court implications, quoting the New York Times, saying that the law violates both its First Amendment rights and those of its 170 million American users. TikTok, which is controlled by a Chinese parent company, urged the justices to maintain the status quo while they decide whether to hear an appeal. Congress's unprecedented attempt to single out applicants and bar them from operating one of the most significant speech platforms in this nation presents grave constitutional problems that this court likely will not allow to stand, lawyers for TikTok wrote in their emergency application a three judge panel of the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit in early December rejected a challenge to the law brought by TikTok, its parent company ByteDance, and several American users, ruling that the measure was justified by national security concerns. The judges differed somewhat in their reasoning, but were united in accepting the government's arguments that the Chinese government could exploit the site to gain access to users data and to spread covert disinformation. The First Amendment exists to protect free speech in the United States, judge Douglas H. Ginsburg wrote for the majority, joined by Judge Naomi Rao here. The government acted solely to protect that freedom from a foreign adversary nation and to limit that adversary's ability to gather data on people in the United States. End quote In a concurring opinion, Chief Judge Sri Srinivasan acknowledged that under the law's ban, many Americans may lose access to an outlet for expression, a source of community, and even a means of income. Congress judged it necessary to assume that risk, he wrote, given the grave national security threats it perceived. End quote well, just like that, Sora has a competitor, as DeepMind has unveiled VO2, a next generation video generating AI model that can create clips more than two minutes long in resolutions up to 4K. It is behind a wait list as part of Video FX, but quoting TechCrunch Notably, that's four times the resolution and over six times the duration OpenAI's Sora can achieve. It's a theoretical advantage for now. Granted, in Google's experimental video creation tool Video FX, where VO2 is now exclusively available, videos are capped at 720p and 8 seconds in length. Sora can produce up to 1080p 20 second long clips. Video FX is behind a wait list, but Google says it's expanding the number of users who can access it this week. Like Veo, VO2 can generate videos given a text prompt, eg a car racing down a freeway or text and a reference image. So what's new in VO2? Well, DeepMind says the model, which can generate clips in a range of styles, has an improved understanding of physics and camera controls and produces clearer footage. By clearer, DeepMind means textures and images in clips are sharper, especially in scenes with a lot of movement. As for the improved camera controls, they enable VO2 to position the virtual camera in the videos it generates more precisely and to move that camera to capture objects and people from different angles. DeepMind also claims that VO2 can more realistically model motion, fluid dynamics like coffee being poured into a mug, and properties of light such as shadows and reflections that includes different lenses and cinematic effects, DeepMind says, as well as nuanced human expression. End quote and quoting from Engadget Google says the new model has a better understanding of real world physics and human movement. Correctly modeling humans in motion is something all generative models struggle to do. So the company's claim that VO2 is better when it comes to both of those trouble points is notable. Of course, the samples the company provided aren't enough to know for sure. The true test of VO2's capabilities will come when someone prompts it to generate a video of a gymnast's routine. And speaking of things video models struggle with, Google says Veo will produce artifacts like extra fingers less frequently. Separately, Google is rolling out improvements to Imagen 3 of its text to Image model. The company says the latest version generates brighter and better composed images. Additionally, it can render more diverse art styles with greater accuracy. At the same time, it also is better at following prompts more faithfully. Prompt adherence was an issue I highlighted when the company made Imagen 3 available to Google Cloud customers earlier this month. So if nothing else, Google is aware of the areas where its AI models need work. VO2 will gradually roll out to Google Labs users in the U.S. for now, Google will limit testers to generating up to 8 seconds of footage at 720p, though doing so requires a $200 per month ChatGPT Pro subscription. As for the latest enhancements to Imagine 3, those are available to Google Labs users in more than 100 countries through Image FX. End quote. The US Federal Trade Commission has issued long awaited rules requiring companies to display the full price of hotels, concert tickets and more up front rather than hiding them as so called junk fees. Quoting the Wal Washington Post, the new regulations seek to crack down on bait and switch pricing practices, according to FTC chair Lina Khan, who said the agency has received a groundswell of complaints about service charges, amenity fees and a raft of other potentially obscure last minute additions to consumers bills. The FTC's rules still allow companies to impose fees so long as they are clearly displayed. The agency focused its prohibition on just the lodging and live event industries, not the fuller array of firms from airlines to Internet giants that have similarly stoked public anger over fees. While the FTC initially proposed broader regulations, Khan appeared to narrow the agency's scope in a bid to secure bipartisan support among her five member commission, which approved the proposal on a four to one vote. The lone opponent was Andrew Ferguson, a Republican whom President Elect Donald Trump intends to nominate to lead the FTC next year, end quote. People deserve to know up front what they're being asked to pay without worrying that they'll later be saddled with mysterious fees that they haven't budget suited for and can't avoid, khan said in a statement. The FTC's rule will put an end to junk fees around live event tickets, hotels and vacation rentals, saving Americans billions of dollars and millions of hours of wasted time, end quote. Government regulators have been pushing for greater financial transparency, with the Transportation Department working to shed light on airline and baggage fee structures. Meanwhile, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau has set its sights on reducing financial penalties that impact everyday Americans, particularly focusing on overdraft charges and cred card late fees. These initiatives have faced significant pushback from powerful industry players, with trade groups representing major airlines and banking institutions launching legal challenges against the proposed regulations. Their aggressive lobbying efforts have created roadblocks, potentially delaying or even threatening the financial benefits intended for consumers. The regulatory landscape could face additional turbulence as Republican lawmakers prepare to take control of both the House and Senate in January, with early signals suggesting they may work to dismantle some of these consumer protection measures. More fuel to my recent assertions, if you will. Waymo has announced plans to test its robotaxis in Tokyo in early 2025, its first international expansion yet partnering with taxi operator Nihon Kotsu and taxi hailing app Go, quoting CNBC to start Nihon Katsu, drivers will manually operate the Waymo vehicles to map key areas of the Japanese capital. Data from the man test drives will help train the company's AI systems. Waymo will also test its robotaxis on a closed course in the US Built to mimic driving conditions in Japan. This is the first phase of the partnerships, which will last several quarters, waymo told cnbc, adding that it expects to remain in Japan for an extended period. Our upcoming road trip to Tokyo gives us the chance to work alongside local partners, government officials and community groups to understand the new landscape, waymo said in a statement. We'll learn how Waymo can serve Tokyo's residents and become a beneficial part of the city's transportation ecosystem. Nihon Katsu will oversee the management and servicing of Waymo's vehicles in Japan, the company said. Both the Japanese national government and Tokyo Metropolitan government see driverless technology as a potential boon to the country's aging population. According to research by the World Economic Forum, Tokyo has designated certain areas as test zones for self driving cars, hoping to hasten the arrival of safe driverless transportation systems there. Interestingly, the move into Japan marks the company's first into a left hand traffic market. Innovation is so important for the future of every business, but the problem is once teams move from discovery and ideation to product development, outdated process management tools, context switching, team alignment and constant updates massively slow the process down. Take a big step to solving these problems with the Innovation Workspace from Miro. You'll recall that Miro was the tool that I used to do a quick and dirty creation of an AI resume building tool with a remote team overseas. Miro's Innovation Workspace will help your teams accelerate through the full innovation development cycle, helping them to be faster, more productive and ultimately more effective. Designed to complement existing apps for agile practices and use cases such as customer journey mapping, road mapping, diagramming, design prototyping, sprint planning, retrospectives and more, everything operates smoothly and easily on Miro's infinite canvas. Create an intuitive, intelligent innovation workspace that gets everyone on the same page to rapidly innovate, iterate, develop and ship. Whether you work in innovation, product design, engineering, ux, agile or it, bring your teams to Miro's revolutionary Innovation Workspace and be faster. From idea to outcome, go to miro.com that's miro.com to find out how again mirro.com, miro.legal.com.
- [12:06]
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- [13:21]
Brian McCullough
Databricks has raised $10 billion from A16Z, Thrive and others at a $62 billion valuation, making this among the largest VC raises in history. Documents show Databricks has $2.6 billion in revenue. Quoting the Journal Data Scientists at some of America's largest companies use databricks software to analyze the large volumes of information they collect, a tool that's become even more valuable with the rise of artificial intelligence. Walgreens, for example, uses databricks to help forecast inventory for filling prescriptions, while Rivian uses it to improve the battery life of its electric trucks. End quote. Now, since we've not spoken much about databricks before, though clearly there are one of the biggest private companies in the world at this point, I thought I'd give you a quick biographic sketch. Born in Tehran on the cusp of the Iranian revolution, Databricks founder Ali Goetzi and his family emigrated to Stockholm, Sweden, when he was 5. His parents, both doctors targeted for their political views, found refuge in student dormitories, setting the stage for Ali's fascination with technology and entrepreneurship. By fourth grade, he was already coding and running a small business, fixing his classmates computers, an early sign of his entrepreneurial spirit. During his college years at Mid Sweden University, a chance encounter with his business student roommate sparked a pivotal decision. The roommate's playful jab about becoming Goetze's future boss inspired him to pursue a dual major in computer science and business. This blend of technical expertise and business acumen would later prove instrumental in transforming databricks from an academic project into a tech powerhouse. The genesis of DataBricks emerged from Goetze's work at UC Berkeley's AMPLAB, where he and six fellow researchers developed Spark, a groundbreaking piece of code that revolutionized data analytics. Their creation shattered records, processing 100 terabytes of data in just 23 minutes. This technical achievement caught the eye of venture capitalist Ben Horowitz of A16Z. The founders asked for a modest $200,000 to start the business, and instead Horowitz cut them a check for 11 million, setting the stage for something much bigger. Obviously initially hesitant to abandon academia, Godse worked part time at Databricks while Ion stochia served as CEO. The turning point came in late 2015, when Horowitz personally called Godsti to take the helm. His leadership transformation of databricks revealed a surgical precision and decision making inspired by watching his parents perform medical procedures during his childhood. Under Godsey's leadership, databricks faced a crucial challenge converting free users into paying customers A telling moment came when a potential client asked for a selfie but balked at paying $10,000 for the software. Godse's response was strategic, adding premium features exclusively for paying customers and building a robust sales team targeting industry giants like Capital One and J.P. morgan. His management style included sharing board presentations with all 250 employees, a practice inspired by a business case study showing improved factory worker performance when aligned with management goals. A pivotal partnership with Microsoft materialized after Gutsy personally flew to Redmond to address concerns about their software quality, resulting in a $100 million sales commitment by 2022. Databricks needed another strategic intervention, though. At a Las Vegas company off site in early 2023, Gotze unveiled his vision for profitability, introducing the now famous Conte Curve. Tracking their progress, he implemented efficiency measures without resorting to layoffs, instead focusing on strategic hiring and developing AI powered automation tools like the R2D2 bot. The results were remarkable. Revenue more than doubled to $2.6 billion while significantly improving operating margins. Gotzi's deal making prowess showed in the strategic acquisitions of mosaic ML for $1.3 billion and tabular for approximately $2 billion, outmaneuvering competitors like Snowflake. Rather than pursuing an immediate IPO, they seem to be opting for another private funding round, partly to support employee stock buyouts and associated taxes, though an IPO is still expected in the next year or two finally today I know I know another AI model, but this one is slightly different, so before it falls through the cracks amidst the release of VO2 yesterday, Google also debuted Whisk, an image generator that takes other images as prompts to suggest the subject, scene and style, and uses the new latest Imagen 3 version of their image generating model. Quoting the Verge With Whisk, you can offer images to suggest what you'd like as the subject, the scene, and the style of your AI generated image, and you can prompt whisk with multiple images for each of those three things. If you want, you can fill in text prompts too. If you don't have images on hand, you can click a dice icon to have Google fill in some images for the prompts, though those images also appear to be AI generated. You can also enter some text into a text box at the end of the process if you want to add extra detail about the image you're looking for, but it is not required. Wisk will then generate images and a text prompt for each image. You can favorite or download the image if you're happy with the results, or you can refine an image by entering more text into the text box or clicking the image and editing the text prompt. In a blog post, Google stresses that Wisk is designed to be for rapid visual exploration, not pixel perfect edits. The company also says that Wisk may miss the mark, which is why it lets you edit the underlying prompts. In the few minutes I've used the tool while writing the story, it's been entertaining to tinker with with images take a few seconds to generate, which is annoying. And while the images have been a little strange, everything I've generated has been fun to iterate on. End quote. Nothing more for you today. Talk to you tomorrow.