Daily Tech News 5 May 2026

• Can investors trust AI sales figures. (WSJ) (archive site)
  
  Good question.
  
  No.
  
  
  
• OpenAI has added pet companions to its Codex programming assistant. (Mashable)
  
  It's not a bubble.

• The "audio industry" is grappling with the rise of podslop. (Bloomberg) (archive site)
  
  Where by audio industry they mean, basically, Spotify.
  
  The problem is a company called Inception Point, that is spewing out 3000 podcasts a week using AI-generated voices.
  
  Does anyone listen to them?
  
  Well, the number is probably not zero. I listened to an AI-generated science fiction story that was tolerable if not particularly original. But when I was automatically forwarded to the next story on the channel it was exactly the same with a few names and details changed.
  
  Slop is right.
  
  
  
• You could turn your classic 1966 Mustang into a Tesla. (Electrek)
  
  Or, alternately, you could not do that.
  
  
  
• Ask.com, which was in the natural language search query business before it was cool - or indeed, worked - has closed its doors. (The Register)
  
  The site racked up 245 million visits over 25 years... Which is not remotely enough for a business to survive on. Which makes me wonder a little how they did.
  
  
  
• Intel's TPU bet hinges on increasing yield from 90% to 98%. (WCCFTech)
  
  Counterpoint: No it fucking doesn't. Are you stupid or what?

  The analyst adds that not only is jumping from a 90% yield to a 98% yield significantly more difficult than achieving 90% from 0%, but also that the 90% yield is a validation figure instead of a production figure. As a result, he believes cautious optimism is the better approach when following the packaging technology.

  Getting from 0% to 90% yield is taking a process that simply doesn't work and making it into a reliable production line. Getting it to 98% is nice, but irrelevant on the broader scale.

posted by Pixy Misa at 05:20 AM

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