Daily Tech News 22 May 2024

• Microsoft wants to make Windows an AI operating system. (Tech Crunch)
  
  The problem with Windows 10 was that it worked. When you have a product that works - and never wears out - all you have to bring in money is new users.
  
  So what you have to do is create a new version with new features that people are willing to pay for.
  
  Which Microsoft has singularly failed to do.
  
  
  
• Meanwhile Google is putting ads in AI search results. (The Verge)
  
  AI search results are a complete waste of time, so of course they are putting ads in them.

• The only Copilot+ AI feature that matters is a huge privacy risk. (Tom's Hardware)
  
  Yes.
  
  
  
• The new Qualcomm laptops otherwise look pretty good. (Tom's Hardware)
  
  Aside from that, Mrs. Lincoln...
  
  
  
• I want flexible queries, not RAG. (Win Vector)
  
  RAG is the latest AI term; it stands for "retrieval augmented generation". What this means is that AI search delivers garbage, and everyone knows it, so the solution is to replace the search results from the AI with the original search results, which raises the question of why we are using AI in the first place.
  
  In this case, the author was looking for a recipe for a Sicilian dish of rice and eggs that his mother grew up with. ChatGPT helpfully provided a recipe from Naples, which is notably not in Sicily.
  
  After a great deal of searching, his wife found a book called Bruculinu, America, a sort of memoir in recipes.
  
  This had two recipes that looked likely.
  
  They made the first one, and his mother confirmed that it was what she remembered.
  
  The utility of AI in all this? Zero.
  
  
  
• IGN has acquired a number of gaming news sites, including Eurogamer, Rock Paper Shotgun, and VG247. (The Verge)
  
  Rock Paper Shotgun used to be the best games news site, period.
  
  Then they got woke and it all turned to shit.
  
  
  
• AMD has announced the low-end Epyc 4004 server CPU range. (AnandTech)
  
  These are Ryzen 7000 CPUs. They are literally Ryzen 7000 CPUs.
  
  That's not a bad thing. Ryzen 7000 CPUs are great. It's just what they are.
  
  
  

posted by Pixy Misa at 04:17 AM

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