Look at these numbers!

December 13, 2024

Look at these numbers! General Motors is calling it quits on its Cruise robo-taxi project. All told, they invested $10 billion in self-driving tech, including $3.48 billion in 2023. Btw, GM was recently fined $500,000 for lying to feds about a crash that happened last year … one of the many reasons I still won’t ride in a robo-taxi.

Tags: autonomous vehicles, Cruise, General Motors, numbers, robo-taxis, self-driving cars, tech

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Bank fraud is rising – How to protect yourself

The scams don’t stop — and here’s another one you need to know about. Your phone rings. It’s a rep from your bank, and they’re warning your account has been compromised. You’re smart, so you immediately suspect it’s a scam.

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Can it do CAPTCHAs?

Google’s shiny new AI assistant takes over your Chrome browser to do stuff like book flights, fill out forms and do your shopping. Sounds a little scary knowing how much Gemini has screwed up, but it’ll be handy if it works. It can’t fill out credit card or billing info, fyi. Watch it in action here.

#BigChange for Instagram: As of today, you can no longer follow a hashtag (e.g., #healthycooking). Instagram pulled the plug, saying its hashtags are a mess of spam, bots and irrelevant posts. Try the “Explore” tab instead.

$4.25 billion

Estimated worth of meth seized by the Indian Coast Guard. The 13,227-pound stash was found on a “fishing” boat traveling from Myanmar equipped with one of SpaceX’s Starlink systems for navigation. Police are demanding to know who bought it.

Will we need teachers in the future?

Across 266 school districts, K-12 students are testing a new AI tutor. Khan Academy’s Khanmigo runs on OpenAI’s tech. helps answer students’ questions, flags other AI-generated answers and creates lesson plans for teachers in seconds. FYI, “Conmigo,” means “with me” in Spanish.

1 billion hours

Of YouTube watched every single day. That beats out all other streaming services. It’s the only streaming platform to top 10% of the viewing market share in 2024. In second place? Netflix, with 7.7%.

10 followed by 24 zeros

That’s 10 septillion. Today’s best supercomputer would take that many years to compute what Google’s new Willow quantum chip can finish in just five minutes. That’s over seven times the age of the universe. Speaking of which, this breakthrough could prove we live in a multiverse. I bet you’re still reading this newsletter in every reality.

$60,000 reward

For helping to catch the UnitedHealthcare CEO’s killer. A tip from a McDonald’s employee ultimately led to 26-year-old Luigi Mangione’s arrest. If he’s convicted of Brian Thompson’s murder, the Secretary of State decides if the tip is worth a payout. I’d say from what I’ve read, the answer’s a big yes.

7 days

To regain access to your Gmail account after it’s been hacked. Google says you have a week to enter the phone number connected to the account or it may be gone forever. Now, make sure your recovery number is set up correctly.

15 minutes

To create diamonds. Real diamonds form 100 miles below the earth’s surface at 2,000 degrees Fahrenheit. A team in South Korea used a special gallium-silicon mixture to create a diamond foundation in 15 minutes at room temp. No pressure — the whole thing was done in 2.5 hours.