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Quantum computing has been a research and academic pursuit for decades, but it has been picking up buzz over the last few years as both big tech companies and smaller startups get into the space. The Australian government recently announced a $1 billion investment into quantum startup PsiQuantum, which gives us an excuse to talk about it.

What is quantum computing? Is it actually useful? Can I buy one? All will be answered, and more. WARNING: The words 'qubit' and 'entanglement' will be used.
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Anyone who lives in Australia would be aware of Foxtel's new streaming box Hubbl, thanks to an absolutely overwhelming ad campaign pitching it. We talk about the Hubbl, and use it as an excuse to dive into streaming more generally, and what's been going on since the last time we talked about it.

Links


Foxtel faces its streaming apocalypse – AFR
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Well, it happened: the US passed legislation to force ByteDance to divest TikTok in the country. Now, the company technically has 12 months to make it happen. But is that the end of the story? In this episode, we discuss how we arrived at this point, what avenues TikTok has left, and who or what might acquire TikTok if it comes down to that.

Links


TikTok could soon be sold. Here's how much it's worth and who could buy it. – CBS
Byte-Dance was told to sell TikTok or face a ban. There are legal complications – NPR
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Everything is chatbots now. Every company must become a purveyor of bespoke chatbots.The latest cab off the rank is Meta, which just unveiled Llama 3, the latest version of its open source LLM. But this time they have integrated it deeply into Facebook, WhatsApp and Instagram, whacking a big nasty chatbox over the searchbar in all these apps.

In this episode, we talk about Meta's strategy in AI, and what Zuck might be cooking.

Links


The Dwarkesh pod with Zuckerberg
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As Downies will know well, one of the themes we're keeping an eye on is the number of products and product categories that are trying to replace the smartphone, which has been lagging in sales and hype of late. Two devices which pitched a bold new path forward are the Humane AI Pin and the Apple Vision Pro.

Based on reviews, neither of them are looking very good at all. We discuss.

Links


Humane AI Pin review: not even close – The Verge
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Over the past few weeks, there has been a surprising amount of movement in the AI music space. Suno and Udio are two lavishly funded AI music generation startups which just launched new models, which allow you to make songs in a wide range of genres from prompts. While not perfect, they both sound pretty good.

At the same time, Spotify is trialling AI-generated playlists, seemingly laying the groundwork for their own generative music. In this ep, we talk about the new models and what they might be used for.

Links


AI-Music Arms Race: Meet Udio, the Other ChatGPT for Music - Rolling Stone
Former Google DeepMind researchers launch AI-powered music creation app Udio
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