Amazon is working on a new paid subscription plan for its Alexa voice assistant (www.businessinsider.com)
Amazon is revamping its Alexa voice assistant as it prepares to launch a new paid subscription plan this year, according to internal documents and people familiar with the matter. But the change is causing internal conflict and may lead to further delay.
You're Not Imagining It: Google Search Results Are Getting Worse, Study Finds (gizmodo.com)
For the past few years, a growing number of users, analysts, and experts raised alarms about a truth that feels obvious to a lot of people who surf around in web browsers: the quality of Google results is in serious decline. Google disagrees.
[History] 1 February 1988: "Perl, a 'replacement' for awk and sed, Part01/10" (usenet.trashworldnews.com)
Google confirms it just laid off around a thousand employees (www.theverge.com)
But there may be more, and it’s possible that Google is attempting to spread out the bad news instead of having it hit all at once.
Court documents underscore Meta's 'historical reluctance' to protect children on Instagram (apnews.com)
New Mexico’s Attorney General Raúl Torrez sued Facebook and Instagram owner Meta in December, saying the company failed to protect young users from exposure to child sexual abuse material and allowed adults to solicit explicit imagery from them....
OpenAI opens the door for military uses but maintains AI weapons ban (arstechnica.com)
Their Songs Were Stolen by Phantom Artists. They Couldn’t Get Them Back. (www.nytimes.com)
Non-paywall: archive.is/mWKBz
Sixteen Stories for Flickr Commons' Sixteenth Birthday (www.flickr.org)
The Worst Devices of CES 2024! By iFixIt (piped.video)
Piped link: piped.video/watch?v=NXhmnQzZ7n8...
Faircamp setup help
Hi! I’m trying to set up faircamp which is like a bandcamp alternative. If I’m understanding correctly it’s a self-hosted static site. I’m new to all this. I’m on a mac, so I’ve installed Brew and then installed Faircamp using Terminal. It’s currently pointing to “Audio Music Apps” folder which is full of audio...
OpenAI CEO Altman: future AI depends on energy breakthrough (www.reuters.com)
Speaking at a Bloomberg event on the sidelines of the World Economic Forum’s annual meeting in Davos, Altman said the silver lining is that more climate-friendly sources of energy, particularly nuclear fusion or cheaper solar power and storage, are the way forward for AI....
YouTube’s ad blocker problems are just an AdBlock Plus bug (arstechnica.com)
That would explain why I didn’t have any problems with Youtube and uBlock Origin.
Where have all the websites gone? (www.fromjason.xyz)
GTA 5 Michael actor Ned Luke slams AI chatbot that uses his voice without permission (www.techspot.com)
iPhone sideloading seems a certainty for European users - here's the latest development (bgr.com)
‘The tide has turned’: why parents are suing US social media firms after their children’s death (www.theguardian.com)
While social media firms have long faced scrutiny from Congress and civil rights organizations over their impact on young users, the new wave of lawsuits underscores how parents are increasingly leading the charge, said Jim Steyer, an attorney and founder of Common Sense media, a non-profit that advocates for children’s online...