Tech Shifts: AI Restructures, Windows Bugs, and Amazon's New Devices

Amazon Unveils Color Kindle and Revamped Devices for Every Reader

Amazon has introduced an exciting new lineup of Kindle devices, including the first-ever color Kindle, the reimagined Kindle Scribe, and the fastest Kindle Paperwhite. The Kindle Colorsoft Signature Edition stands out with its vibrant, paper-like color display, delivering enhanced reading experiences with high contrast and fast performance. The Kindle Scribe offers a unique in-book writing experience and an AI-powered notebook feature for summarizing notes, while the new Kindle Paperwhite boasts 25% faster page turns and a larger display. For budget-conscious readers, the compact entry-level Kindle now comes in a fun "Matcha" color. Additionally, the Kindle Kids versions include new covers and a subscription to Amazon Kids+ to encourage reading among younger audiences.

• First Color Kindle: Kindle Colorsoft Signature Edition introduces rich, paper-like color without sacrificing performance or battery life.
• Kindle Scribe's New Features: Offers in-book writing, AI-powered notetaking, and refined display for a paper-like writing experience.
• Faster Paperwhite and Entry Kindle: The new Kindle Paperwhite has 25% faster page turns, while the entry-level Kindle is compact and affordable with a bright new design.

(Source: Amazon)

Windows 11’s Latest Update: Bugs You Need to Know Before Upgrading

Microsoft's 2024 update for Windows 11, version 24H2, is packed with enhancements like an improved Copilot AI and faster performance, but it's also riddled with bugs. Common issues include a malfunctioning System File Checker that falsely reports corrupted files, cache file deletion problems, and compatibility issues with the Easy Anti-Cheat gaming app, which can trigger the Blue Screen of Death. Other glitches include disappearing mouse pointers in Chromium browsers, internet connection disruptions, broken fingerprint sensors, and issues with clipboard history. These bugs make it advisable for users to delay updating until fixes are available.

• Major Bugs in System Tools: Bugs in System File Checker and cache file deletion hinder maintenance and free space reporting.
• Gaming and Connectivity Issues: Conflicts with Easy Anti-Cheat and internet connection bugs can affect gaming and online work.
• Multiple Interface Glitches: Broken mouse pointers, fingerprint sensor issues, and clipboard history bugs disrupt everyday tasks.

(Source: ZDNet)

Google Restructures AI Development: Gemini Team Merges with DeepMind

Google continues its AI consolidation efforts by moving the team behind its Gemini AI assistant to its DeepMind research division, aiming to accelerate AI development. CEO Sundar Pichai announced this reorganization, which also includes leadership changes, with Prabhakar Raghavan transitioning from leading Google’s search and ads to becoming the company's Chief Technologist. This consolidation comes as Google faces pressure to keep up with competitors like Microsoft and OpenAI in the AI space. Over the past year, Google has unified various AI teams under DeepMind to enhance its Gemini models and stay competitive in generative AI, while also managing antitrust challenges from U.S. regulators.

• AI Consolidation at Google: Google moves Gemini AI to DeepMind, streamlining AI development across its teams.
• Leadership Shift: Prabhakar Raghavan steps into a new role as Chief Technologist, while Nick Fox leads search and ads.
• Pressure from Competition and Regulators: Google faces stiff competition from Microsoft and AI startups, as well as mounting antitrust scrutiny.

(Source: Bloomberg)

Perplexity Launches Integrated Search for Web and Enterprise Files

Perplexity, a search and AI platform, has launched its new Internal Knowledge Search, enabling enterprises to search both internal files and the web in a single platform. This feature allows users to upload key documents, such as Excel sheets and PDFs, to enhance productivity and streamline research by combining internal data with web-based information. Perplexity also introduced Spaces, a collaborative tool for teams to share, organize, and control research data. While similar to other retrieval-augmented generation (RAG) systems, Perplexity's approach focuses on user-uploaded databases. Early users like Nvidia and Dell have already integrated these tools for various tasks, including due diligence and employee support.

• Integrated Search Platform: Perplexity allows enterprises to search both internal documents and web data on a single platform for improved efficiency.
• Team Collaboration with Spaces: Spaces enables teams to share research and customize AI assistant instructions for better control over data access.
• Third-Party Integration: Upcoming integrations with Crunchbase and FactSet will allow businesses to expand their knowledge base with proprietary data.

(Source: VentureBeat)

OpenAI to Remove Non-Profit Control, Sam Altman to Receive Equity

OpenAI, the organization behind ChatGPT, is planning a major restructuring by transforming its core business into a for-profit benefit corporation while removing control from its non-profit board. CEO Sam Altman will receive equity in the new for-profit entity, which could be valued at $150 billion. The move is designed to attract more investors by removing the cap on returns, while maintaining the non-profit's minority stake to oversee AI safety concerns. However, this shift raises questions about whether OpenAI can still prioritize its original mission of developing safe, beneficial AGI. The restructuring comes amid leadership changes, including the departure of CTO Mira Murati and President Greg Brockman taking a leave of absence.

• Restructuring for Profit: OpenAI will become a for-profit benefit corporation, allowing Sam Altman to hold equity and attracting more investors by removing profit caps.
• AI Governance Concerns: Shifting away from non-profit control has sparked concerns about maintaining focus on AI safety and responsible AGI development.
• Leadership Changes: The restructuring coincides with significant leadership shifts, including the exit of CTO Mira Murati and Greg Brockman's leave.

(Source: Reuters)

Author: Malik Datardina, CPA, CA, CISA. Malik works at Auvenir as a GRC Strategist who is working to transform the engagement experience for accounting firms and their clients. The opinions expressed here do not necessarily represent UWCISA, UW, Auvenir (or its affiliates), CPA Canada or anyone else. This post was written with the assistance of an AI language model. The model provided suggestions and completions to help me write, but the final content and opinions are my own

Hacking reading: Is there a better way?

Came across Google's latest use of machine-learning: making "e-comic books" more readable.

One of the challenges of reading such fine literature on a mobile device is the small print that is within the bubbles.

Google's solution? Bubble Zoom.

As per Ars Technica:

"Google is tackling this problem the way it seems to be tackling every problem lately: with machine learning. Google has taught its army of computers to detect the speech bubbles in comic books, allowing you to zoom in on them with just a tap. The bubbles lift off the page and get bigger without affecting the underlying image. This lets you see the entire page while still reading the text. Google calls the feature "Bubble Zoom.""

Here are a couple of screenshots that show how it works:

For those that want to try this out on their Android device, you can download some free preview titles on the Google Play store.

Of course the obvious point, as mentioned by Ars Technica above, is that machine learning is being by Google and others to solve such interesting problems. The entire DC and Marvel comic book library has the Bubble Zoom feature enabled, which shows the power of machine learning to essentially reconfigure a massive amount of content.

The other point worth noting is how this technology fundamentally alters the way we consume text.

We have different channels, video, podcasts, and audio-books and can access books digitally but plain old reading has not changed that much. Zoom Bubble attempts to do that by building interactivity into the traditionally static medium of comic books.

To be honest I was surprised when I polled my IT Audit and Innovation class in January 2016 to see really none of them had shifted to e-books. They still rather have the physical copy, highlight and take notes.

That being said, a lot of credit should be given to Amazon for trying to go a long way to make it comfortable to read and enable you to access the content from multiple devices.

I’ve been experimenting with e-reading the Kindle, Samsung Note 4, iPad and iPhone.

The reader of choice depends on how you absorb information. If you want to savor your book and slowly digest, then Kindle is the easiest on the eyes

However, for us reading-for-productivity, i.e. if you are the type of person that needs to highlight and then extract notes, for the purposes presenting, researching, or blogging, then I think the Note 4 or the iPad is best. 

With the Kindle ecosystem, when you highlight the text (regardless of the device) its captured and stored on the cloud and then you can always access your notes there. For example, I highlighted the text below on my mobile device and it appears in the cloud (i.e. by logging into https://kindle.amazon.com/your_highlights): 

“ although GitHub is currently optimized for developers, similar platforms will eventually emerge for lawyers, doctors, publicists and other professionals. The platform has already been extended into enterprise software development with a successful paid business model, and can or soon will be used by governments, non-profits and educational institutions. GitHub charges users a monthly subscription—ranging from $7 to $200—to store programming source code. Andreessen Horowitz, one of the world’s leading venture capital firms, recently invested $100 million in GitHub. It was the VC firm’s largest investment round ever.”

In terms of iPad/iPhone versus Note 4, the Note 4 you can use its stylus to highlight text but you have to take an extra step to select the colour you want (you have 3 colors to choose from). In contrast, with iPad/iPhone you can just pick the colour right from the menu that pop-ups when you select a piece of text. The iPad’s larger form factor is also good for scan-reading. Of course the advantage for me on the Note 4/iPhone is that it’s my mobile device so it eliminates the need to carry around extra device.

One way to improve the readability is to change the background colour to Sepia from white. I have found it to be easier on the eyes.

The ability to move through multiple devices shows the brilliance of Amazon harnessing the power of open, mobile, cloud and seamless connectivity across platforms.

They could have gone the closed approach, i.e. you have to read their e-books off of their device. But by being open it enables the consumer to consume content in a manner that works for us. Microsoft has gone down this road as well with Office. I originally thought this was a bad idea but later recanted.

On a more critical note, as I have blogged before Amazon offers to US customers ONLY the ability to sync their audiobooks (Audible is owned by Amazon)  to their kindle ebooks for certain titles. It would be nice if this feature was also available out of the US.

What I've found to be a productivity hack, is to listen to the audio book on my Audible app at 2-3X speeds while driving around. I've self-diagnosed myself as an audiolearner it does help to learn things and get a good grasp of the topic. Such an approach can also help get the overall context of the material being presented. The Audible app enables you to bookmark, so that is a good way to track what you have to read up later.

Then I go through the Kindle e-book and highlight the parts I want to extract off the cloud. You can do this on the commute in or just waiting in line. The trick here is not to re-read the book but just extract those pieces of texts you wanted to focus on while listening to the audiobook. Moving the bookmarks from the audiobook to the e-books acts like a secondary review ensuring you've extracted all the content that's relevant to your presentation, research, blog post, etc. Alternatively, moving from the audiobook to the e-book may be the way you actually digest the content if you are more of a visual/text oriented learner. I personally need to do this with numbers and dates.

Finally, if you want to move the highlighted text off the cloud, try this to move the content to Evernote.

Although I think there are better ways out there to hack reading, I think the Amazon ecosystem goes a long way to get us there. One day, I hope, they will bring Immersion Reading to the world :)