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Richard Lawler

Richard Lawler

Senior News Editor

Senior News Editor

    More From Richard Lawler

    Richard Lawler
    Richard Lawler
    Apple’s ‘Project ACDC’ is creating AI chips for data centers.

    Apple — like Google, Meta, Microsoft, OpenAI and everyone else this side of Nvidia — is reportedly working on custom server hardware to power AI models as it prepares to introduce a slew of new features.

    Over the past decade, Apple has emerged as a leading player designing chips for iPhones, iPads, Apple Watch and Mac computers. The server project, which is internally code-named Project ACDC—for Apple Chips in Data Center—will bring this talent to bear for the company’s servers, according to people familiar with the matter.

    Apple watcher Mark Gurman followed up saying a similar-sounding project was canceled and it doesn’t make sense anyway: it would be too expensive, lack differentiation, and Apple prefers on-device AI.

    Update: Added Gurman’s rebuttal.

    Richard Lawler
    Richard Lawler
    Sony backtracks, now says it won’t make Helldivers 2 players on Steam link a PSN account.

    Sony’s plan to force PlayStation Network accounts on PC players of crossplatform hit Helldivers 2 went over terribly. On Steam, it received 84,000 negative reviews in one day.

    But now Sony says the update that would’ve implemented the requirement on May 6th is not going forward and “we’ll keep you updated on future plans.”

    Richard Lawler
    Richard Lawler
    An OpenAI outage briefly broke push-to-talk requests on all Rabbit R1 devices.

    As pointed out on Threads by @zebulon.vance, it looks like the problem was an OpenAI outage Thursday evening that was addressed about 45 minutes later.

    The only remaining issue is that even after paying $200, your ability to even try to get responses from your Rabbit R1 AI hardware depends on other AI companies keeping things running 24/7.

    Discord message: “hi @everyone - we are seeing an incident since roughly 3pm PT with push-to-talk queries not working across all r1 devices. this is a high priority investigation and we’ll post a further update when it is resolved.”
    Screenshot: Discord (rabbit)
    Richard Lawler
    Richard Lawler
    The AI in your search bar is not a search engine.

    NYT tech writer Brian Chen reports Meta’s AI assistant (which is now available in Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp, and Messenger) excels at editing text, but like other chatbots, confidently makes up answers to basic questions:

    When I asked it for suggestions for a romantic weekend in Oakland, its list included a fictional business. And when I asked it to tell me about myself — Brian Chen the journalist — it said I worked at The New York Times but incorrectly mentioned a tech blog I’ve never written for, The Verge.

    Richard Lawler
    Richard Lawler
    More Google layoffs.

    As previously reported in Alex Heath’s Command Line newsletter, layoffs at the $2 trillion company have cut “at least 200 employees” in the Core engineering group, according to CNBC.

    That division handles “building the technical foundation behind Google’s flagship products, protecting our users’ online safety, and maintaining our global IT infrastructure.” Some roles moved to India or Mexico, and includes at least 50 in Google’s Sunnyvale offices.

    Richard Lawler
    Richard Lawler
    Dave & Busters might allow betting, but I can’t figure out why anyone would do it.

    CNBC reports a tie-in with Lucra Sports will eventually enable customers to bet against each other on games like Skee-Ball.

    But even if you’re a degenerate with money on the line trying to convince a kid to Jontay Porter their next game, why use some app instead of cash? Also, in some places, D&B already has real gambling.

    Richard Lawler
    Richard Lawler
    So what’s next for Tesla’s Superchargers?

    In the wake of more “absolutely hard core” layoffs at Tesla that were especially hard on the charging division, Elon Musk is saying the company still plans to grow its Supercharger network “at a slower pace.”

    Compare that to the message he sent internally, as reported by The Information: “We will continue to build out some new Supercharger locations, where critical, and finish those currently under construction.”

    Elon Musk tweet reading “Tesla still plans to grow the Supercharger network, just at a slower pace for new locations and more focus on 100% uptime and expansion of existing locations”
    Screenshot: Elon Musk (X)
    Richard Lawler
    Richard Lawler
    Feds arrest “Bitcoin Jesus” Roger Ver and accuse him of evading nearly $50 million in taxes.

    You can read the details of Ver’s alleged misconduct here, but, with this news arriving as Binance founder Changpeng Zhao was sentenced for failing to establish adequate anti-money laundering protections, I’m reminded of this line from Ver, quoted in 2014:

    “Money laundering is not a crime,” Ver says. “It’s just because certain men with guns don’t like what other people are doing with their own money, so they decide it’s okay to lock those people in a cage.