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2023-08-10 00:19
Microsoft gets seat on OpenAI board with Sam Altman back as chief executive
Microsoft gets seat on OpenAI board with Sam Altman back as chief executive
Microsoft has been given a non-voting observer seat on OpenAI’s board, following the official return of Sam Altman as the ChatGPT company’s chief. OpenAI reached a deal to have Mr Altman back as the company’s chief executive, just days after it abruptly fired him. Mr Altman said he was looking forward to returning to OpenAI with the support of Microsoft chief Satya Nadella. “Sam Altman is back as CEO, Mira Murati as CTO and Greg Brockman as President. OpenAI has a new initial board,” OpenAI posted on Thursday on X. “I have never been more excited about the future. I am extremely grateful for everyone’s hard work in an unclear and unprecedented situation, and I believe our resilience and spirit set us apart in the industry,” Mr Altman said in a memo to employees. The addition of Microsoft, which has heavily invested in OpenAI, to its board as a non-voting observer means the software giant will get more access to view the company’s progress. It will, however, not have an official vote on its decisions. Mr Altman’s return also resolves some of the uncertainties around the non-profit company and its leadership. “The best interests of the company and the mission always come first. It is clear that there were real misunderstandings between me and members of the board,” the returning chief said in his memo. “For my part, it is incredibly important to learn from this experience and apply those learnings as we move forward as a company,” he said. “I welcome the board’s independent review of all recent events.” With three of the board members who ousted Mr Altman now gone, the company said its new board will consist of former Salesforce co-chief Bret Taylor, who will be OpenAI chairman, former treasury secretary Larry Summers and Quora boss Adam D’Angelo. OpenAI co-founder Ilya Sutskever, who voted to remove Mr Altman and later changed position to push for his return, will also exit the board, the company said. Greg Brockman, who quit the company amid the chaos last week, is returning to his previous role as the company’s president, OpenAI said. “Our research roadmap is clear; this was a wonderfully focusing time. I share the excitement you all feel; we will turn this crisis into an opportunity,” Mr Altman told employees. Read More Inside OpenAI’s bizarre boardroom battle with the man ‘who can see the future’ Microsoft stock just hit an all-time high amid OpenAI chaos Microsoft chief hints Sam Altman may return as OpenAI staff demand board resignation OpenAI staff ‘threaten to quit over ousting of Sam Altman’ Microsoft’s new AI tool cleans up messy backgrounds in video calls Nasa has received a signal from 10 million miles away
2023-11-30 14:47
Solar panel tech breakthrough generates electricity from rain
Solar panel tech breakthrough generates electricity from rain
Researchers have come up with a new way to generate electricity with solar panel technology by harvesting the energy produced by raindrops. The method, proposed by a team from Tsinghua University in China, involves a device called a triboelectric nanogenerator (TENG) that creates electrification from liquid-solid contact. These are typically used to harvest energy from waves, as droplet-based TENGs (D-TENGs) have previously faced technical limitations that prevented them from working at any significant scale. By using solar panel bridge arrays, the researchers discovered such barriers could be overcome “Referring to the design of solar panels in which multiple solar power generation units are connected in parallel to supply the load, we are proposing a simple and effective method for raindrop harvesting,” said Professor Zong Li, who led the research. “The peak power output of the bridge array generators is nearly five times higher than that of the conventional large-area raindrop energy harvesting. The results of this study will provide a feasible scheme for large-area raindrop energy harvesting.” A study detailing the breakthrough, titled ‘Rational TENG arrays as a panel for harvesting large-scale raindrop energy’, was published in the journal iEnergy. “As an important part of the natural energy and water cycle, rainfall contains abundant renewable energy,” the study notes. “However, this kind of renewable energy lacks effective utilisation today... Therefore, finding a reasonable topology to relieve the inherent constraints of D-TENGs is of great significance for realising the large-scale raindrop energy harvesting.” It is one of a number of promising advances with solar panel technology in recent months, with an Australian team of researchers developing self-healing cells capable of recovering 100 per cent of their original efficiency after suffering degradation from space radiation. Earlier this week, scientist’s at the US Department of Energy’s National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) unveiled a design for a double-sided solar panel capable of boosting efficiency rates by up to 20 per cent by harvesting reflected sunlight. Read More Scientists invent double-sided solar panel that generates vastly more electricity How tech could turn our homes into renewable energy power stations Scientists invent double-sided solar panel that generates vastly more electricity Scientists invent self-healing solar panels with ‘miracle material’ ‘Miracle material’ smashes solar panel efficiency threshold
2023-07-20 20:54
Netflix users can create their own ‘Joan is Awful’ poster, but there’s a catch
Netflix users can create their own ‘Joan is Awful’ poster, but there’s a catch
Black Mirror season six has become even more immersive with the opportunity to make your own ‘Joan is Awful’ inspired poster, but fans noticed another aspect of the website that’s even more like the hit episode. Black Mirror premiered its sixth season with five new episodes, the first titled ‘Joan is Awful’ starring Annie Murphy and Salma Hayek. The episode follows Joan (Murphy) who turns on her TV to find ‘Streamberry’ (a parody of Netflix) has made a show about her life called Joan is Awful with Salma Hayek portraying Joan and showing the events that happened in Joan’s life that day. After losing her fiancé and job, in an attempt to stop Streamberry from using her likeness and her life for a show, Joan tries to sue Streamberry. That is until her lawyer points out that she had technically consented for Streamberry to portray her likeness and her life in the terms and conditions she had agreed to when signing up for the platform. Joan discovers that the show is produced using CGI and that Salma Hayek simply signed off on having her likeness digitally reproduced by Streamberry. Yesterday, the official Black Mirror Twitter account, along with official Netflix accounts (who temporarily changed their name to ‘Steamberry’) posted a link to a website named “You Are Awful” with the caption: “Sign up for Streamberry today!” When clicking on the link it takes you to a page similar to that of Netflix asking you to upload a photo of yourself “to set up your sweet new Streamberry profile!” Sign up to our free Indy100 weekly newsletter It then asks you to enter your first name along with a photo of yourself. In order to continue the process, you must consent for Netflix to use the image in its marketing campaign as well as read and agree to the terms of service and privacy statement. Many shared on Twitter their recreation of the original ‘Joan is Awful’ poster, with their own names and faces, but some fans were more hesitant to check the terms of service after watching the episode. One fan decided to read the terms of service, learning from Joan’s mistake in the show, and saw that there was a clause titled “Name and Likeness” where users agreed to “grant the Netflix entity that provides you with this Experience, its affiliates and respective successors and assigns and anyone authorised by any of them (collectively, “Netflix”), the irrevocable, perpetual, worldwide, non-exclusive right to record, depict, and/or portray you.” It also states that users give Netflix the right to “record, depict, and/or prorate you and use, your actual or simulated likeness, name, photograph, voice, actions, etc.” So maybe don’t be surprised if you see your name and face on Netflix in the future. Have your say in our news democracy. Click the upvote icon at the top of the page to help raise this article through the indy100 rankings.
2023-06-22 00:22
China Warns Haikui Will Bring Heavy Downpours to Coastal Regions
China Warns Haikui Will Bring Heavy Downpours to Coastal Regions
China warned that Haikui will bring heavy rains to regions in its south and east as concern lingers
2023-09-05 10:58
Coinbase Shares Rise After Quarterly Revenue Tops Estimates
Coinbase Shares Rise After Quarterly Revenue Tops Estimates
Coinbase Global Inc. shares rose after the largest US cryptocurrency exchange’s second-quarter loss narrowed and revenue exceeded estimates.
2023-08-04 04:45
FTX customers are still grappling with crypto platform's collapse
FTX customers are still grappling with crypto platform's collapse
By Elizabeth Howcroft and Medha Singh LONDON For Lee Rees, 43, FTX was one of a handful of
2023-10-05 20:51
Looking for a side hustle? This company will pay you $100 an hour to watch TikTok for 10 hours. No cap
Looking for a side hustle? This company will pay you $100 an hour to watch TikTok for 10 hours. No cap
If you already spend hours scrolling through TikTok -- let's face it, who doesn't? -- then you might have just found your dream job.
2023-05-20 16:27
AI Seen Fueling Microsoft to $3 Trillion Value in Morgan Stanley Model
AI Seen Fueling Microsoft to $3 Trillion Value in Morgan Stanley Model
Artificial intelligence-driven gains can propel Microsoft Corp. to join Apple Inc. in the elite category of stocks with
2023-07-07 04:52
Twitch Update Will Let Streamers Ban People From Watching Their Streams
Twitch Update Will Let Streamers Ban People From Watching Their Streams
Have you ever faced harassment on Twitch? Well, thanks to a Twitch update scheduled for
2023-08-19 00:27
Meta's Twitter-like Threads app will not launch in Europe
Meta's Twitter-like Threads app will not launch in Europe
Facebook owner Meta's new Threads app, meant to rival Twitter, will not be available in the European Union when it launches Thursday because of regulatory concerns, a...
2023-07-06 02:54
Taiwan Chip Exports Plunge 21% as Device Makers Clear Inventory
Taiwan Chip Exports Plunge 21% as Device Makers Clear Inventory
Taiwan’s exports of integrated circuit chips dropped for a sixth consecutive month in June on slowing global demand.
2023-07-12 09:51