1X Technologies and OpenAI just released a preview of the “Neo beta,” a scarily realistic humanoid robot. It moves like a human, and its advanced vision system lets it interact with the environment in real time. In this video, it picks up a backpack, places its hand around a woman’s waist and waves at the camera.
The morning habits of CEOs (including me!)
I ran across this story (paywall link) about the morning routines of tech billionaire CEOs. It was interesting but not that thorough, so I did additional research. Here’s what I found, and even though I’m far from a billionaire, I’ll share my morning recipe for success, too.
Jeff Bezos (Amazon): Likes to “putter” in the morning, reading newspapers and having coffee with his wife-to-be — no phones allowed! Then, breakfast with his kids. Jeff likes “breakfast octopus.” Oh, and he says his brain is most alert at 10 a.m., so that’s when holds his most important meetings of the day.
Sam Altman (OpenAI): He likes a big shot of espresso as soon as he gets up, followed by a fast for about 15 hours — no breakfast. While catching up on emails, he uses a full-spectrum LED light for 15 minutes to make him more alert. Altman doesn’t hold meetings in the mornings, preferring afternoons. I saw one of his two $27 million McLaren F1s parked outside the Rosewood Hotel in Montecito. It must’ve been an exception, as he was having Sunday brunch.
Evan Spiegel (Snapchat): He wakes up at 5 a.m. for “Evan time,” which includes alone time, checking emails and enjoying a shot of double espresso. This is followed by 45 minutes at the gym or Kriya meditation. He also reads the Wall Street Journal and Financial Times. His wife says he likes morning exfoliating masks, too. Relatable.
Mark Zuckerberg (Meta): Zuck begins his day around 8 a.m. by checking Facebook, Messenger and WhatsApp on his phone, a habit he acknowledges isn’t ideal. He’s giving up running for practicing jiu-jitsu and mixed martial arts. He likes to wear similar outfits daily so he can focus his mental energy on more significant decisions.
Bob Iger (Disney): He wakes up at 4:15 a.m. and immediately works out alone on a Versaclimber in a dark room with a TV on mute. He doesn’t like distractions and doesn’t even check his phone until his workout is done. He gets to work at 6:30 a.m. and is usually the first person in the office, turning on lights and making coffee.
Tim Cook (Apple): Tim wakes up between 3:45 and 5:00 a.m. and reads about 700 emails from customers and employees for an hour. Then, he heads to the gym for an hour. Morning workouts are pretty common for CEOs; it sure helps me focus.
Peter Warwick (Scholastic): He wakes up between 5:30 and 6:00 a.m. and reads the news (the New York Times, Wall Street Journal and Financial Times). Then, he takes a long walk with his wife, followed by a walk to work, picking up an avocado toast and skinny latte on the way. Yes, every day.
Kim Komando (WestStar Multimedia Entertainment): I’m up by 6 a.m. I say my prayers, check my emails and get in some steps. No coffee for me — I drink my concoction of passion fruit with green tea, iced. After, I mix egg whites, a little milk, tomatoes and super spinach in a bread pan, top it with low-fat feta cheese, and bake it for 25 minutes at 375 degrees. It cooks while I’m getting dressed. Then, I’m out the door with lunch in hand, heading to the studios.
Is there a perfect routine?
Well, we know CEOs love coffee, emails and working out. Are those the secrets to success? Probably not, but there’s definitely a theme. It’s all about being intentional and setting the tone for success.
Anyways, I’ve gotta jet. My daily morning poolside masseuse is waiting. 😏
QR codes used in warfare
You won’t believe how powerful scanning one of these malicious QR codes is. Plus, the app that turned into a marketing nightmare, three must-have downloads and OpenAI’s duet shows just how far language models are coming.
He who must not be named: Random names like “Brian Hood” and “Jonathan Turley” make ChatGPT glitch out. Try it: You’ll get a message saying, “I’m unable to produce a response.” OpenAI isn’t saying anything, but the names are connected to defamation lawsuits.
122 days
To build the Colossus data center in Memphis. That’s fast! It’s the powerhouse behind Elon Musk’s startup xAI, packed with 100,000 Nvidia GPUs for processing. Musk plans to launch his own AI app next month to compete with OpenAI, Google and Meta.
The race to conquer death: Billionaires are pouring cash into life-extending pills. Take Sam Altman: He invested $180 million into a startup working on “cellular reprogramming” to extend human life by 10 years. The Methuselah Foundation is trying to grow new organs, blood vessels and even bones.
Another “godfather”: There seems to be at least a dozen people claiming to be the “godfather” of AI. The newest says OpenAI’s latest o1 model can scheme and deceive us. Yoshua Bengio is calling for better testing and regulatory oversight before things spiral out of control. Researchers have already found o1 is better at lying than previous models. OpenAI’s response? It’s safe. Uh-huh.
💀 Google Search is dead: OpenAI added a search function to ChatGPT for up-to-the-minute news, weather, sports scores — you name it — without ads or scrolling. It’s live now for ChatGPT Plus and Team subscribers; free access will come within the next few months. I predicted Google’s demise two years ago, and people laughed at me.
You know AI is self-aware when it thinks its bot is too big: OpenAI plans to roll out its next big AI model, Orion, by December of this year. It’s 100 times more powerful than GPT-4 and could bring us closer to AGI — you know, where AI can perform any intellectual task a human can. Yikes.
🎸 Go ahead and jump: The late Eddie Van Halen’s brother wants AI to help finish the band’s unreleased music. He says there’s a vault of incomplete tracks, many of which are just missing vocals or final touches. He’s already reached out to OpenAI to analyze Eddie’s playing style and generate new guitar solos in his brother’s signature sound.
👁️ Eye see the point: A new device from OpenAI’s CEO, Sam Altman, called the Orb will scan people’s eyes to provide biometric identification, helping to fight the growing deepfakes (paywall link). The goal: To have an Orb in every home to scan our eyes for verification when banking online and other similar transactions. Interestingly, Altman’s AI is pushing the very tech used in developing deepfakes …
🚨 Watch out for election hallucinations: Cybercriminals are using ChatGPT to influence the upcoming U.S. elections, whipping up fake articles and misleading comments. OpenAI says, “Whoa, whoa, whoa, none of it has gone viral or built a real audience.” Yeah, right. Facebook is practically drowning in AI-generated clickbait crap.
Attn., writers and coders: OpenAI just launched Canvas, a new tool that lets you highlight specific text or code and make direct edits instead of starting from scratch each time. It’s available for ChatGPT Plus and Teams users. Try it out under the Model dropdown menu. Spoiler: I didn’t see much difference between it and GPT-4o.
$157 billion valuation
For ChatGPT maker OpenAI. They just raised $6.6 billion in funding. Some of the biggest investors include Thrive Capital, Microsoft, Nvidia and SoftBank. This surprised me: OpenAI expects to lose $5 billion in 2024. They have a heck of a lot of Nvidia GPUs to buy to power their models.
💸 The next big thing? Former Apple designer Jony Ive and OpenAI’s Sam Altman are working on an AI-powered device. Details are scarce (of course!), but they say it’ll handle advanced tasks like booking travel and identifying plants from photos, with more power than the average smartphone and fewer disruptions than a standard phone.
Is ChatGPT about to outsmart humans?
Sam Altman, CEO of OpenAI, claims ChatGPT will soon surpass human intelligence. Here’s the scoop.
💰 $2,000 a month for ChatGPT-5: That’s the rumored cost for the next iteration of OpenAI’s chatbot. A Samsung exec leaked it (accidentally?) at a conference. The real question: What could possibly be worth a 100 times price increase? It’d better wash the floors, cook and be able to do all my work for that much money.
Stop blabbin’: Dropbox’s AI may share your files with OpenAI and other third parties. Don’t remember signing up for that? Me, neither. To turn it off, log in to Dropbox, hit your Account icon, go to Settings, find the Third-Party AI tab and toggle the switch to Off.
Hackers are selling old routers to spies
They’re using these routers for denial-of-service (DoS) attacks and spamming inboxes. Meanwhile, a man’s been cyberstalked by a former roommate — nightmare stuff. Plus, Microsoft got hacked, and OpenAI is launching a search engine.
🤖 Beware the good idea fairy: The U.S. government will now get access to OpenAI and Anthropic AI models before they’re accessible to the public. The U.S. Artificial Intelligence Safety Institute (wow, sounds fancy) will assess AI’s capabilities and risks. The goal? To keep AI in check and establish safety standards the world can follow (paywall link). There are so many problems with this, I don’t know where to start.