Code in Samsung Internet Browser version 22.0.0.54 has several references to ChatGPT, as spotted by Android Authority.
Android Authority speculates that the integration as is would only be used to generate page summaries. Samsung is reportedly open to replacing Google as its default search engine, possibly due to Microsoft’s quick AI moves, so the idea of the company exploring its options isn’t far-fetched.
Wiby, a search engine that only indexes the most basic of webpages, gives you something Google is almost completely unwilling to these days: websites made by regular people.
Wiby’s “surprise me” page redirects you to a random web 1.0-style site (via Hacker News). So far, among others, I’ve encountered a site devoted to retro tech, a shareware capture the flag game, and Sixties City, which proudly proclaims it’s a British website.
Nobody wants AI companies to scrape their data. Not artists, not writers, not social media companies, not news outlets. There are many ways parts of the internet are pushing back against AI data scraping, says The New York Times:
Their protests have taken different forms. Writers and artists are locking their files to protect their work or are boycotting certain websites that publish A.I.-generated content, while companies like Reddit want to charge for access to their data. At least 10 lawsuits have been filed this year against A.I. companies, accusing them of training their systems on artists’ creative work without consent.
That’s to say nothing of the numerous strikes going on in Hollywood over, in large part, the growing use of AI in entertainment.
[The New York Times]
As The Fediverse Report writes, it’s intended for government organizations, and one of its first users is State Secretary for Kingdom Relations and Digitalisation Alexandra van Huffelen. A loose automated translation of the announcement reads:
Today we are launching our government server on Mastodon.
In the letter I sent to the House on ‘Digital Community Goods’ on 22 June, I indicated that I support two value-driven alternatives to social media.
One of these alternatives is a ‘private’ Mastodon server used by government organisations.
With this, we are taking another step in our Value-driven Digitization Work Agenda.
The Netherlands is following Germany, which created a government instance last year.
You won’t have to do any back-and-forth planning once this update to Google Workspace rolls out.
To use it, you’ll click the new calendar button in the message toolbar to propose time blocks via a window on the right. Then, the recipient can choose the one that works best.
Convenient! Availability starts today for some, with a wider rollout beginning July 31st.
Perhaps reacting to Threads’ 100 million user milestone, Elon Musk tweeted today that “cumulative user-seconds per day of phone screentime... may hit an all-time record this week.” He noted that stat, “as reported by iOS & Android, is hardest to game.”
Anyway, here’s a probably-unrelated video.
That’s not something I thought I’d be typing today, but what else is new? Anas Haqqani, a Taliban leader, tweeted his support of Twitter, saying other competitors can’t replace it (via Vice Motherboard).
He lauds its “freedom of speech,” calling Meta “intolerant.”
Vice quotes Aram Shabanian, an OSINT manager for nonpartisan think tank New Lines Institute, who is surprised the Taliban endorses Twitter:
“Zuckerberg is clearly the Mullah Omar of this situation,” Shabanian said, referring to the founder of the Taliban and previous ruler of Afghanistan. “You may not like him, but at least you know what you’re getting...”
“Unlike going with Musk, who represents a lawless, profit-driven society. Musk is all balls, no shaft, as the ancient Armenian proverb goes.”
Microsoft Dev Box, which was offered as a developer-only preview in August last year, gives developers cloud-based workstations for building and testing software projects using development tools that already run on Windows.
Microsoft said at Build in May that it would launch the Dev Box workstations in July.
[Azure Blog]
The two posted on Threads today, with Zuckerberg posting that the march to 100 million users of the new Twitter clone over the last five days has been mostly organic.
Mosseri, who heads up Instagram, said in a post he can’t wrap his mind around the platform’s early success. Mosseri has previously said that ads are an eventual “champagne problem.” One wonders if the company might not be ready to pop the cork sooner than expected.
Windows Central shows you how to get the Threads app installed using Windows Subsystem for Android, a feature that allows you to install and use Android apps on your Windows 11 machine.
Threads, sort of a spin-off of Instagram that wants to be the new Twitter, reached 95 million users overnight after less than a week, wildly outpacing other, similar clones.
Following word that the good version of TweetDeck is back, an update from Harpy developer Roberto Doering said they were able to get the app functioning again by switching user profiles to use the old v1 API, but they don’t expect to begin maintaining the app again:
Please note that this doesn’t mean that harpy will be maintained again, seeing as Twitter will most likely shut down access to their legacy api (again) soon and third party apps are still against their TOS.
