Lifeboat Foundation

Apple today shared an update on its subscription businesses and global App Store, noting that the tech company has now paid out a record $320 billion to app developers since 2008 — a number that reflects the revenue apps have generated, minus Apple’s commission. In addition, the tech giant said it now has more than 900 million paid subscriptions across Apple services, with subscriptions on the App Store driving a “significant” part of that figure.

The company’s App Store in 2022 faced one of its tougher years since its founding, with lawsuits and antitrust actions aimed at limiting its market power.

Google has warned that growth in the use of Android in India may stall due to an antitrust order issued by the Indian antitrust watchdog last year over the U.S. company’s domination in the country.

The order, which was issued by the Competition Commission of India (CCI) in September, found that Google had abused its dominant position in the market for mobile operating systems by imposing restrictive contracts on mobile manufacturers.

The CCI ordered Google to change its contracts with manufacturers, allowing them more freedom to install rival apps and services on Android devices. According to a Reuters report, Google filed a challenge with India’s Supreme Court and said that the order would require some modifications of its existing contracts and new license agreements. It would alter the company’s existing arrangements with over 1,100 device manufacturers and thousands of app developers.

Apple will apparently start with a chip that replaces the Wi-Fi and Bluetooth chip it already uses from Broadcom, but down the line, it might make a chip that includes cellular functionality, too.

Apple is working on a new in-house chip that would power cellular, Wi-Fi, and Bluetooth functionality on its devices, according to a report from Bloomberg.

Bloomberg also shared some new information about Apple’s efforts to develop its own cellular modems to replace Qualcomm’s.

Continue reading “Apple is reportedly making an all-in-one cellular, Wi-Fi, and Bluetooth chip” »

Anthropic, the startup co-founded by ex-OpenAI employees that’s raised over $700 million in funding to date, has developed an AI system similar to OpenAI’s ChatGPT that appears to improve upon the original in key ways.

Called Claude, Anthropic’s system is accessible through a Slack integration as part of a closed beta. TechCrunch wasn’t able to gain access — we’ve reached out to Anthropic — but those in the beta have been detailing their interactions with Claude on Twitter over the past weekend, after an embargo on media coverage lifted.

Claude was created using a technique Anthropic developed called “constitutional AI.” As the company explains in a recent Twitter thread, “constitutional AI” aims to provide a “principle-based” approach to aligning AI systems with human intentions, letting AI similar to ChatGPT respond to questions using a simple set of principles as a guide.

COVID-19 is defined as a respiratory infection, but the effects of the novel coronavirus are certainly not confined to any one organ.

Dozens of recent autopsies show persistent evidence of SARS-CoV-2 throughout the body, including in the lungs, the heart, the spleen, the kidneys, the liver, the colon, the thorax, muscles, nerves, the reproductive tract, the eye, and the brain.

In one particular autopsy, remnants of the novel coronavirus were found in the brain of a deceased patient 230 days after they first started showing symptoms.

If all the hype around ChatGPT, Dall-E, Tesla’s Fully Self Driving mode and *ahem* Q.ai, has shown us anything, it’s that artificial intelligence is here to stay. The knee jerk reaction from many old fashioned meat machines, sorry, humans, is a concern around what this means for their income.

For years now, we’ve been told how AI is going to take our jobs, and it’s true that in many industries, machines, robots and other technology have cut workforce numbers dramatically.

With that said, many of the jobs being taken by AI so far are often considered dangerous, repetitive and boring. There aren’t too many people out there who are going to get great job satisfaction from turning the same 5 screws on a production line for 40 hours a week.

New study demonstrates the potential for machine learning to accelerate the development of innovative drug delivery technologies.

Scientists at the University of Toronto have successfully tested the use of machine learning models to guide the design of long-acting injectable drug formulations. The potential for machine learning algorithms to accelerate drug formulation could reduce the time and cost associated with drug development, making promising new medicines available faster.

The study will be published today (January 10, 2023) in the journal Nature Communications.

— If human-level AGI is created in the next 10 yrs, whaddaya guess will be the underlying tech? — Deep NNs? Hybrid neural/symbolic/evolutionary cognitive arch. e.g. OpenCog Hyperon? Comp. Neuroscience? Something wild and utterly new?

The science of dinosaur resurrection: using AI to bring prehistoric creatures back to life.