TC Sottek

In an age where we all need to touch grass more than ever, I am deeply saddened to hear that author Annie Dillard has died. Pilgrim at Tinker Creek is one of the most stunningly beautiful books I’ve ever read — I always keep a few copies on hand to gift to strangers because it’s so meaningful. If you need a break from the relentless tech news cycle, please gift yourself this amazing work and revel alongside the author at the majesty, terror, and redemption provided by our natural world.

Haters said it was too woke and would go broke, but Christopher Nolan’s Odyssey crossed the billion-dollar mark and hasn’t looked back. Nonetheless, competitors — including Elon Musk — threatened counterprogramming built with AI. Well, the time has come for one of these projects, which is a 150-minute AI-generated film hosted by Fountain 0, available as of today. If you don’t want to pony up for admission, we’ll let you know our thoughts on the film soon.

Apparently that’s what Flock cameras are silently telling themselves about every two minutes. 404 Media and Wired collaborated on reporting about hackers who broke inside the surveillance cameras and picked through their custom Android apps, data collection habits, and machine vision methods. Flock doesn’t seem happy, and the hackers are trying to “keep a low profile.”

Nvidia’s CEO has been taking calls from the president recently, including two days ago when he put Trump on speakerphone on a conference stage. Now CNBC reports Huang is expected to attend Trump’s state dinner next week with Chinese President Xi Jinping. Someone may be getting pretty nervous about AI and data center regulation!

AI commentary is frothy this week! Obama chimed in with a series of posts on X saying he’s neither an AI “accelerationist” nor a “doomer.” In a familiar tone from the former president, he cautioned that choices we make about technology “should not be made just by the companies involved, but by all of us.”

I was dismayed to discover only 9% of US adults answered all eight questions correctly in the Pew Research Center’s basic quiz on the First Amendment. How well can you do? Hint: it’s a leash on government restriction of speech. With that, I’m sure you’ll score better than Brendan Carr.

Apple cleaned up on stage at last night’s Emmy Awards with big wins for Pluribus and Widow’s Bay. But new CEO John Ternus might have been even more excited about getting to show off the iPhone Duo.

Trump may have lost the aggression of David Sacks as AI czar, but he’s now picking up the baton. In another all-timer posted to Truth Social, Trump says the only guardrails AI needs can be provided by his “high IQ.” This comes right on the heels of AI leaders, including Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei, who Trump maligns in his post, stating they want to slow down AI development for safety reasons.

It’s reportedly with the permission of the human announcers John Buccigross and Darren Pang who do in-game voiceovers. As a long-time player of the series I’m very curious what you think about this. For me, it seems like one of the best possible use cases for AI generation, considering it’s annoying to hear the exact same commentary over and over, and because there’s no possible way humans could record VO for every possible scenario.

On the 25th anniversary of 9/11, the former president, who became a painter in his retirement, just shared a self-portrait from his most fateful day. (He also has a new collection of paintings related to 9/11.) The original image depicts Bush receiving news of the attack from his chief of staff, as the president was reading a book to Florida schoolchildren. The “whisper” image has become a potent meme over the years.