| Happy New Year! There are at least six reasons to be optimistic about 2024. But first... Three things you need to know today: • Electric car makers in China are heading to Hong Kong.
• Here are the best video games of the past year.
• Nvidia's customers in China are getting a less-capable version of its graphics chip to meet US export requirements. We're starting another year with a look ahead to the technology we can't wait to get our hands on. Eavesdropping ads: People have been telling me for years that their phones are listening to their conversations and sending them ads based on what they say. I've dutifully told them there's no evidence this is a thing, which often turns into a long argument. So I appreciated 404 Media's scoop that Cox Media Group tells clients it actually can tap into the microphones of mobile devices to target ads. This sounds like the worst idea ever. But I'm at least looking forward to helping confirm my friends' worst fears rather than trying to dissuade them. —Joshua Brustein Smarter voice assistants: Since ChatGPT drastically raised expectations for AI, Alexa and Siri seem dumb by comparison. Which is too bad considering I spent the last decade filling my home with hardware based on voice assistants that can't reliably do much more than play music and set kitchen timers. But after Amazon recently showed off an upgrade for Echo devices that will give them ChatGPT-like capabilities and Bloomberg reporting indicating Apple is developing generative AI, I can't wait to start talking to both again in the coming year. —Austin Carr AI gadgets: I'm looking forward to AI that actually does something to get me and other electronics obsessives feeling like we need a new gadget. Right now, if I'm writing code, it's going to be helpful. It might one day make me safer in a car, and it's good at creating composite images and text summaries. The PC industry is already telling me I need an "AI PC," and I've seen demos. It's mostly just marketing. I'll need to see a lot more before the credit card comes out. —Ian King A better web browser: It's embarrassing to admit, but I spend most of my life on the internet and most of that time in a web browser. Chrome and Safari are fine, but they haven't adapted to the way people browse the web today. Since 2022 I've been using a startup alternative called Arc. It takes some getting used to at first, but it rethinks things in some smart and creative ways. The version for Mac is excellent, the one for iPhone less so. The developer has promised to release a better mobile app and a version for Windows this year. —Mark Milian A new Nintendo console: Nintendo Co. is expected to release a new video game console to succeed the Switch late in the year. While no official word from Nintendo yet, retailers, software makers and suppliers are all gearing up for it. The format will probably be similar to the current Switch, meaning it can be played at home and on the go, but with more power and better graphics. It'll be hard to top the Switch's success, but I'm looking forward to getting my hands on one. —Takashi Mochizuki Good deepfake detectors: Deepfake technology got very sophisticated in 2023. Being able to say with total confidence that an image or audio clip is real — all the more important during a conflict or ahead of an election — has become incredibly challenging. The few deepfake detection tools available today aren't totally accurate. They sometimes even suggest a real image is fake. That's not to say AI-generated images don't have a place. We just need to know what they are. —Margi Murphy Apple opening iMessage: Apple has promised to support a messaging standard called RCS, or Rich Communications Services, on iPhones in 2024. Sound wonky? For Android users, it means texting videos and sending texts to groups of iPhone users will finally work seamlessly. Apple believes the rich features of iMessage are a unique selling point for the iPhone and is likely only doing this grudgingly to accommodate new EU rules mandating interoperability. Still, it's a long overdue step toward returning texting to the universal standard it once was. —Brad Stone More Bonk: The dumbest app on the app store is also the best: Bonk, which lets you do literally nothing except send the word "bonk" to your friends, often dozens of times in rapid-fire succession. The app is picking up the glorious mantle of Yo, which got famous for letting people send friends the word "yo." But where Yo tried to add other functionality, Bonk has taken the wise path of adding zero useful new features. It's the perfect social media app because it promotes connection above all else. In 2024 I'm cutting back on LinkedIn and going all in on Bonk. —Anne VanderMey Nvidia and Advanced Micro Devices, fueled by demand for processors to power artificial intelligence tools, led chipmaker stocks to their best year since 2009. The crypto industry suffered a reputational blow when its leading proponent, Sam Bankman-Fried, was convicted in November of seven counts of fraud and conspiracy in connection with the collapse of his FTX exchange. Later that month, Binance Holdings Ltd. Chief Executive Officer Changpeng Zhao pleaded guilty to criminal charges. OpenAI's lead in generative artificial intelligence was threatened by a host of emerging rivals. Google changed its Map tool to block company access to users' individual location histories after Bloomberg revealed that law enforcement agencies were obtaining warrants requesting data on everyone who was in the vicinity of a crime. Elon Musk made 2023 all about himself. Listen to the end-of-year episode of the Elon, Inc. podcast. | 
No comments:
Post a Comment