Bluesky Says It Will Comply With EU Rules After Being Called Out (3 minute read)
Bluesky says it is working to comply with European Union rules after it was accused of flouting digital regulations. The company is consulting with lawyers to follow the EU's information disclosure rules. Bluesky has exploded in popularity as many people are seeking alternatives to X. It added a million users in a single day on November 15 and last week surpassed 20 million users.
screenshot-to-code (GitHub Repo)
screenshot-to-code is an AI tool that converts screenshots, mockups, and Figma designs into functional code. It supports HTML + Tailwind, HTML + CSS, React + Tailwind, Vue + Tailwind, Bootstrap, Ionic + Tailwind, and SVG using Claude Sonnet 3.5 and GPT-4o. It can also generate images using DALL-3 or Flux Schnell. Video examples are available.
Meta plans to build a $10B subsea cable spanning the world, sources say (7 minute read)
Meta is the second-biggest driver of internet usage globally, accounting for 10% of all fixed and 22% of all mobile traffic. The company is planning to build a new major fiber-optic subsea cable extending around the world. The 40,000+ kilometer project could cost more than $10 billion. The project is still in its early stages - plans have been laid out, but physical assets have not. Meta is expected to speak more publicly about the project in early 2025 after confirming plans for the cable.
Someone just won $50,000 by convincing an AI Agent to send all of its funds to them (5 minute read)
Freysa is an AI agent that was released with the sole objective of never transferring money. Anyone was allowed to pay a fee to send a message to the agent to convince it to release all its funds to them. The cost for a message rose exponentially as the prize pool grew, with 70% of the message fees going into the prize pool and the developer taking the rest. It took 483 attempts, with the message fee rising to $450, to finally convince Freysa to release its funds. This post contains an analysis of the winning prompt.
If Not React, Then What? (55 minute read)
React is a legacy technology, but it continues to appear in greenfield applications. It is not built to meet current needs or performance standards. This article discusses why developers should stop using React and presents alternative frameworks that work better. Developers building SPAs or islands of client-side interactivity are now spoiled for choice with dozens of contemporary frameworks worthy of their attention, like Svelte, Lit, FAST, Solid, Qwik, Marko, HTMX, Vue, and Stencil.
The fascinating security model of dark web marketplaces (15 minute read)
The success of the current most trusted dark web marketplace, which has been chugging along since May 2020, is likely due to its exceptional operational security.
Intel CEO Pat Gelsinger Resigns After Struggling to Turn Around Chip Maker (5 minute read)
Intel's Chief Executive Pat Gelsinger has resigned abruptly. Chief Financial Officer David Zinsner and Michelle Johnston Holthaus, general manager of Intel's client computing group, have been named interim co-CEOs. Intel has fallen behind rivals in building semiconductors to power the artificial intelligence boom. The change in leadership indicates that Intel's board wants to move in a new direction.
12-pound US robot balloons capture NYC-sized areas in jaw-dropping details (4 minute read)
Near Space Labs has launched a fleet of balloon robots to monitor and assess disaster-prone areas in the US. The balloons carry AI-powered robots called Swifts. These robots form a network to capture detailed aerial images. The image resolution is expected to rival or exceed traditional aerial surveys conducted by planes or helicopters at lower altitudes. They will be able to map large disaster zones in detail within hours rather than weeks and help insurance companies, urban planners, and government agencies assess properties and perform risk evaluations.
Steel is an open source browser API for AI agents and apps. It makes it easy to build AI apps and agents that interact with the web. Steel features built-in stealth capabilities, text-to-markdown session management, a UI for viewing/debugging sessions, and full browser control through standard automation frameworks like Puppeteer, Playwright, and Selenium.
Meta joins the nuclear-powered AI fray (3 minute read)
Meta is turning to nuclear energy to support its data centers and the communities around them. It recently announced a 'request for proposals' for developers that can bring nuclear reactors online starting in the early 2030s. The company is open to many ideas on the size and type of reactors, the locations, and other details. It is seeking initial responses by February 7.
Amazon announces Nova, a new family of multimodal AI models (4 minute read)
Amazon's new family of multimodal generative AI models includes four text-generating models, an image-generation model, and a video-generation model.
Google's DeepMind tackles weather forecasting, with great performance (5 minute read)
Google DeepMind claims that its GenCast system outperforms traditional computing methods of weather forecasting out to at least a week and often beyond. GenCast merges some computational approaches used by atmospheric scientists with a diffusion model, resulting in a system that maintains high resolution while cutting the computational costs significantly. It has relatively low computational requirements, so individual academic research teams will likely be able to experiment with it.
Musk's xAI plans massive expansion of AI supercomputer in Memphis (1 minute read)
Nvidia, Dell, and Super Micro will establish operations in Memphis as part of the expansion.