Welcome to Lately, where every Friday, I bring you the biggest tech stories of the week. The Lately newsletter is still new, and I’d love to hear what you think of it – what you’re enjoying or what you’d like to see. Send me an email at sedwards@globeandmail.com. – Samantha Edwards
In this issue:
👀 The battle of the voice assistants continues
🔋 The energy-hogging new era of generative AI
🚕 The time the taxi drivers won
⭕ The Portal is another example of why we can’t have nice things
OpenAI unveils GPT-4o, while Google teases Project Astra
GPT-4o is giving Samantha in Her.Michael Dwyer/The Associated Press
It was a big week for AI assistants. On Monday, OpenAI shared a demo of its updated AI assistant GPT-4o, which is capable of realistic voice conversations. It can detect emotions and facial expressions, translate languages in real time, and change its tone depending on the request. Want it to tell you a bedtime story? GPT-4o will switch to a dulcet whisper. GPT-4o will be free for all ChatGPT users and will be available in the next few weeks. (OpenAI’s Ilya Sutskever – chief scientist and one of the board members behind CEO Sam Altman’s ousting last year – and senior researcher Jan Leike both left the company this week after the announcement. In a statement to the New York Times, Sutskever said he’s confident “OpenAI will build A.G.I. that is both safe and beneficial.”)
On Tuesday, Google showed an early version of its Project Astra, an AI assistant meets virtual chatbot. Using a phone’s camera, Project Astra was able to answer a variety of questions based on its surroundings, including identifying a London neighbourhood from its office window and locating missing glasses. Google said it’s testing different smart glass prototypes that could be compatible with Project Astra.
The environmental costs of power-hungry AI
Projected investments in AI have reached the absurd.Photo illustration by The Globe and Mail/iStockPhoto / Getty Images
It’s easy to feel like generative AI is a weightless technology, like some abstract omnipresence that can answer any pressing question, such as, “What can I make for dinner with these five ingredients?” But AI’s technology is actually tangible. A chatbot query is pinged to a data centre somewhere in the world that’s filled with supercomputers, which are fuelled by energy-hogging graphics processing units.
As generative AI becomes more ingrained in our everyday life, more data centres and super computers will be needed. (Microsoft and OpenAI are reportedly spending US$100-billion on a supercomputer.) As my colleague Joe Castaldo explains, these plans come at a cost: increasing energy needs, strain on power grids, and potentially more carbon emissions and water use. These costs prompt another question: Do we need generative AI for everything?
Ottawa taxi drivers win a rare case against Uber, kind of
The taxi drivers are asking for $215-million.Adrian Wyld/The Canadian Press
Let’s rewind to 2012, when Uber first launched in Canada, flouting municipal bylaws and angering local taxi drivers, who were required to comply with strict rules and pay hundreds of dollars in yearly licensing fees. It was the classic case of a flashy Silicon Valley disrupter moving into a market and blowing it up.
Uber’s arrival in Canadian cities launched a slew of lawsuits – against municipalities and the company – and most have been unsuccessful. But this week, taxi drivers got a rare win against the City of Ottawa. An Ontario Superior Court judge found that the city failed to stand up to the company as it operated illegally from 2014 to 2016. The plaintiffs, many of whom had multiple taxi plates whose value plummeted when Uber came, will need to return to court to establish the losses suffered. They’re seeking $215-million.
A video portal promised a cool art experiment. Then it got messy
An example of a wholesome Portal interaction.Seth Wenig/The Associated Press
The New York-Dublin Portal is an art installation with the lofty ambition of acting as a “bridge to a united planet,” with livestream videos between large cameras stationed in each city. But after being open for one week, the portals were temporarily shut down on Tuesday after visitors began showing explicit images and gestures, such as an OnlyFans creator flashing the portal and people in Dublin displaying images of 9/11. Officials are planning to reopen the portal, but they first need to come up with a technical solution.
What else we’re reading this week:
Ontario’s self-proclaimed ‘crypto king’ charged with fraud (The Globe and Mail)
What happens when a romance writer gets locked out of Google Docs? (Wired)
Austin was supposed to be America’s next big tech hub. Here’s how it went wrong (Sherwood)
Adult Money
Aeropress Go for Lately newsletterSupplied
EDITOR’S NOTE: This week’s Adult Money is decidedly low tech. We’ll return to our regular programming of high-tech stuff next week.
It’s the May long weekend, and for the brave among us unafraid of chilly nights and even colder lakes, it’s also the official start of camping season. Every year, I like to get a new camping gadget, like a fancy headlamp or some 3-in-1 cutlery set. This summer, I’ve planned to up my coffee game. I’m dreaming about the Aeropress Go, travel-sized brewer that comes with its own travel tumbler and uses a micro-filter to prevent grit in your cup. Some bonus content: A look at the camping sites beloved by Globe readers.
Culture Radar
Ted Lasso was one of the biggest hits of Apple TV+.APPLE TV+
Some actors could join the class of commission-based workers
AppleTV+ is reconsidering how it pays creative talent: If your show flops, goes overbudget or no one watches it, that could be reflected in your paycheque. The proposed performance-based compensation regime, according to an internal memo seen by Bloomberg, would see talent in series and movies produced in house receive bonuses based on a points system. They would take into account the number of people who signed up for AppleTV+ to watch, how many minutes they watched and the cost of the program relative to the size of its audience. The plan isn’t final, but some top producers and talent representatives say they’re skeptical and believe the proposed change is solely to save money.