Meta experienced a massive outage late on Tuesday, affecting all of its platforms, namely Facebook, Instagram, and Messenger. Users worldwide who are attempting to access their accounts have been logged out of the service.

Downdetector Sees a Spike in Outage Reports Concerning Meta Platforms

Downdetector, a real-time outage monitoring service, has reported a surge in outage reports around 8:20 PM GMT+5. Currently, it shows over 200,000 reports. Users who are trying to log back in are coming across an “unexpected error occurred” message.

At the time of writing, Meta has not issued a public statement regarding the situation. However, given the rare nature of the outage, it’s understood that the team is likely working to fix the issue as soon as possible.

Users are also Reporting Issues with WhatsApp

Alongside Facebook, Instagram, and Messenger, some users have also noticed WhatsApp not working. However, the issue with WhatsApp is limited to specific regions only.

The last instance of such an outage was seen back in 2021 when Meta’s platforms were down for nearly seven hours. As of now, reports are coming in indicating that the situation is improving in some regions. Therefore, it is only a matter of time before the service is fully restored.”

Elon Musk Mocks Meta Outage on X

Facebook and Instagram’s rival platform, X apparently saw the opportunity and joked about the whole situation when CEO, Elon Musk tweeted “If you’re reading this post, it’s because our servers are working,” which the official X account retweeted captioning “we know why you’re all here rn.“

This is all we know for now, but rest assured that we will keep you updated as new information becomes available.

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Despite retaining the services of an attorney, Tropic Haze has come forward in favor of Nintendo saying, “Yuzu is primarily designed to circumvent and play Nintendo Switch games.” Additionally, the company also agrees that it will permanently part ways with Yuzu in terms of working, hosting, distributing code or features, promotion, or doing anything that violates Nintendo’s copyright protection.

If that wasn’t enough, the company will also give in the yuzu-emu.org domain name to Nintendo, delete all copies of Yuzu or circumvention tools used for developing it such as Hekate, TegraRcmGUI, Atmosphere, Lockpick_RCM, NDDumpTool, nxDumpFuse, and Tegra Explorer.

Apart from the digital tools, Nintendo has also asked to hand over physical circumvention devices and modified Nintendo hardware of any kind. There’s a lot more to it and if you want you can read the entire proposed final judgment and permanent injunction, but they are still waiting for approval from a judge.

We still don’t know whether Yuzu is actually circumventing Nintendo’s protections since it doesn’t contain Nintendo’s keys and is a “bring-your-own-BIOS” emulator. However, Nintendo and Tropic Haze are asking a federal judge to acknowledge that Yuzu’s functionality involves circumventing Nintendo’s copyright safeguards, regardless of whether the encryption keys are used with the software or not.

Developing or distributing software, including Yuzu, that in its ordinary course functions only when cryptographic keys are integrated without authorization, violates the Digital Millennium Copyright Act’s prohibition on trafficking in devices that circumvent effective technological measures, because the software is primarily designed for the purpose of circumventing technological measures.

As Yuzu is an open-source emulator, it’s not easy to put a nail in its coffin as copies of both the emulator and its source code are still out there. Some users have also mentioned backing up the code after hearing about the legal case two weeks ago.

That’s all we have for now, let us know your thoughts below about the future of Yuzu and whether this result could impact other emulators!

Yuzu is Shutting Down

Bunnei from the Yuzu team has now confirmed that both Nintendo Switch and Nintendo 3DS emulators will be shutting down; “Yuzu and Yuzu’s support of Citra are being discontinued, effective immediately.”

While Yuzu never intended to promote piracy in any way, their projects can circumvent Nintendo’s copyright protection measures and allow users to play games outside of authorized hardware, leading to extensive piracy. Yuzu has also said that they will be shutting down their code repositories and will be discontinuing their Patreon accounts, Discord servers, and website.

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Changing The AI Game With Claude 3

While Claude 3 has three different models, the star of the lineup Opus is more capable than any other AI system currently on the market. According to Anthropic cofounder and CEO Dario Amodei; “Opus is capable of the widest range of tasks and performs them exceptionally well.”

On top of that Amodei also explains how Opus outstrips top AI models like GPT-4, GPT-3.5, and Gemini Ultra on academic benchmarks like GSM-8k for basic mathematics, MMLU for undergraduate-level expert knowledge and GPQA for graduate-level expert reasoning. Amodei says “It seems to outperform everyone and get scores that we haven’t seen before on some tasks.”

Despite not fully disclosing how powerful their AI model Opus is, the reported benchmarks are a clear giveaway that Opus is head-to-head or even above major alternatives like GPT-4 and Gemini Ultra in complex tasks that require advanced reasoning. This establishes Opus at least on paper as a new high standard for commercially accessible conversational AI.

Rest of the Lineup

Apart from Opus, Claude 3’s Sonnet is the mid-range model that offers businesses a cost-effective option to perform routine tasks like data analysis, knowledge work, and more. Meanwhile, Haiku is designed to be fast and affordable, ideal for uses like customer chatbots where speed and cost matter most. Although Haiku is not publicly out yet, the startups expect it to launch “in a matter of weeks, not months.“

The Visual Improvements

The Claude 3 AI models are not only efficient in text-based queries but also showcase extraordinary computer vision capabilities on par with other models. This gives users the option to extract text from images, documents, charts, diagrams, and a lot more.

A lot of [customer] data is either highly unstructured or in some sort of visual format. Just the process of having to manually copy that information to even be able to have it interact with a generative AI tool is quite cumbersome.

Daniela Amodei

The Future of AI

Anthropic’s launch of the Claude 3 lineup is a testimonial to how companies are pushing boundaries to introduce models like Opus capable of outperforming big names like GPT-4 and Gemini Ultra. This is all we have for now, let us know your thoughts on Anthropic’s Claude 3 in the comments down below!

The post Antrhopic’s Claude 3 Outperforms GPT-4 and Gemini Ultra in Benchmark Tests appeared first on Appuals.

SF to Use NVIDIA’s Tech to Tone Down Defective Production Numbers

IFS aims to increase its production volumes and capture the second position in the foundry business. To counter this threat, Samsung is planning a rather unique solution to address its low-yield situation more cautiously. The company reportedly plans to implement NVIDIA’s “Digital Twin” technology in its factories starting next year.

NVIDIA’s Digital Twins (Based on Omniverse Replicator)

Digital Twin technology, like the name suggests creates a controlled and safe virtual space within which a virtual simulation of real-world situations and scenarios for a factory can be run.

A digital twin is a virtual representation — a true-to-reality simulation of physics and materials — of a real-world physical asset or system, which is continuously updated.

What is a Digital Twin — NVIDIA

The simulation uses AI and big data to analyze the production process, searching for trends and variations. This flexibility also allows engineers to experiment with different methods with minimal resource loss, leading to better optimization and efficiency within the whole process, potentially improving yields.

Samsung to Present its Plans for Digital Twin Semiconductor Factories at NVIDIA’s AI Conference this Year

The Digital Twin technology is built on NVIDIA’s Omniverse platform. Samsung will announce its plans for the first Digital Twin-based semiconductor factory at the upcoming NVIDIA GTC 2024 conference, held from March 18-21. Yun Seok-jin, Executive Vice President of Samsung Electronics DS Division Innovation Center, will present the company’s plans during the event.

This initiative is not new. In fact, Samsung established the Digital Twin Task Force in 2022 and subsequently appointed Lee Young-woong, a field expert, as the task force leader. If everything proceeds according to plan, Samsung could potentially begin pilot operations as early as this year, and develop the world’s first Digital Twin Level 5 factory within two years. For reference, this is the highest level among smart factories.

Digital Twin will surely allow for defective product prevention and product and production analysis via AI, but to still counteract the threat of IFS and TSMC stomping over its position in the market, it’ll still have to satisfy clients and solidify customer relationships.

This is all we know for now, but rest assured that we will keep you updated as new information becomes available.

The post Samsung Foundry Turns to NVIDIA’s “Digital Twin” Technology to Counter Yield Issues and Competition from TSMC and IFS appeared first on Appuals.

Musk, the Co-Founder of OpenAI wanted the Artificial Intelligence Firm to Keep a Non-Profit Status

For those who don’t know, Elon Musk was one of the co-founders of ChatGPT-maker, OpenAI back in 2015 when the company signed an agreement to create open-source artificial intelligence systems to benefit humanity as a whole. Three years later, Musk stepped down from the board in 2018 because he wanted to focus on other ventures.

However, Musk now claims that OpenAI’s recent partnerships, such as the one with Microsoft, have diverted the organization from its initial mission. According to the lawsuit, Musk alleges that Brockman and Altman convinced him to invest in the company under the pretense of eliminating the competitive threat posed by Google.

The ‘For-Profit’ Model Following ChatGPT’s Launch

Following the success of ChatGPT, Musk further alleges that OpenAI has embraced a for-profit model, prioritizing the commercialization of their research alongside Microsoft, a global technology giant, that has invested over $13 billion to date.

The lawsuit clearly highlights Musk’s dissatisfaction with OpenAI’s recent shift in priorities, which is particularly concerning given his significant financial contributions as the company’s largest investor from 2016 to 2020, exceeding $44 million. Not only that, but he also claims to have been offered a stake in the company which he ultimately declined due to ethical concerns.

This is all we know for now, but rest assured that we will keep you updated as new information becomes available.

The post OpenAI Co-founder, Elon Musk Sues Altman Over Contract Breach, Accuses the Firm of Going “For-Profit” appeared first on Appuals.

Samsung’s Cash Hoard Hints at an Imminent M&A

The financial preparations are primarily linked with a huge cash buildup in a relatively short period. Earlier this month, South Korean sources highlighted that in the fourth quarter of last year, Samsung divested all its remaining shares in the Dutch equipment manufacturing company ASML. This divestment included approximately 1.58 million shares, which amounts to a 0.4% stake.

Samsung pulled out a significant $4.5 billion profit from the sale, eight times its initial investment in 2012. Other than that, the company is also repatriating funds from its overseas subsidiaries. In fact, last year, Samsung headquarters cash assets saw a staggering 169% yearly rise, a move likely linked to the company’s ambitions to expand.

In the past few years, Samsung executives have hinted at a significant M&A, with Vice Chairman Han Jong-hee hoping to announce a plan this year. After all, Samsung’s last big acquisition was Harman, for $8 billion seven years ago, in 2017.

Samsung’s Leadership Turmoil Prevented the Company from Pursuing Any Major Acquisitions

For the past decade or so, Samsung has struggled to expand, primarily due to leadership instabilities. Jay Y. Lee, the heir to the Samsung empire and de facto leader, was at the center of a major corruption scandal that greatly impacted South Korea’s overall business landscape.

In 2017, Jay was found guilty of bribing former South Korean President Park Geun-hye and her close confidante. These bribes were aimed at gaining government support for a controversial merger between two Samsung affiliates in 2015. This merger was important for Jay to smoothly inherit control of Samsung from his father.

However, the scandal soon led to Jay’s arrest, and Samsung refrained from pursuing any major mergers or acquisitions to avoid attracting scrutiny. Now that Jay has been acquitted of the fraud charges, he could lead the company more actively.

This is all we know for now, but rest assured that we will keep you updated as new information becomes available.

via: Korea JoongAng Daily

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Apple Diversifies the OLED iPad Supply Chain with Two South Korean Competitors, Both to Manufacture Separate Models

The supply chain for OLED iPads has been entrusted to two South Korean display manufacturers, namely Samsung Display and LG. Samsung will be in charge of producing the displays for smaller 11-inch iPad Pros, while the larger 13-inch screens would be manufactured by LG Display.

The market forecast for the OLED iPad models is round about 8 million units for 2024, 4.5 million of which will be filled by LG and the remaining will be produced by Samsung. Last year however, it was predicted that these iPads would sell over 10 million units worldwide.

LG and Samsung, both for the production of 13 and 11-inch models will only supply the first initial batch of displays. This number will cover the units sold in all major markets around the globe right after the product is announced. After that, it is possible that LG could also bring in some orders for the smaller 11-inch models.

OLED Upgrade Doubles Display Cost, Starting at $1,500

Apple has been using OLED in the Apple Watch since 2015, which was supplied by LG and in the iPhones since 2017 where Samsung made the first displays for the iPhone X. However, an OLED display for a phone only costs about $50 – $60, but bigger screens, such as the one that’ll be used in the iPad, cost anywhere around $280 – $290 for the 11-inch model and $380 – $390 for the 13-inch models.

The spike in BOM (bill of materials) is also why the price of the OLED iPads may also jump up to $1,500 (11″), up from $800 and $1,800 (13″), up from $1,100. Further down the road, Apple is expected to release an 8.3″ iPad Mini OLED, 10.8″ iPad Air OLED and a 14.2″ & 16.2″ MacBook Pro in 2026.

This is all we know for now, but rest assured that we will keep you updated as new information becomes available.

via: Hanooki

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NVIDIA CEO Jensen Huang and Chip Architect Jim Keller Believe that Innovation in AI Solutions is the “Efficient” Way Forward

Raising trillions of dollars is no small deal, which is why this news is bound to raise many eyebrows. It’s a matter that was brought to NVIDIA’s CEO, Jensen Huang, for his thoughts. He seemed to believe that what should be done is the opposite of what Sam Altman is trying to achieve. Jensen believed that the focus should be on ‘improving‘ the GPU architecture, rather than attempting to build a new semiconductor supply chain.

You can’t assume just that you would just buy more computers, you also have to assume that the computers are going to become faster, and therefore, the total amount you need will not be as much.

Otherwise, the mathematics, if you just assume that computers never get any faster you might come to the conclusion we need 14 different planets and three different galaxies and four more suns to fuel all this. But obviously, computer architecture continues to advance.”

Jensen Huang on Sam Altman’s $7T AI supply chain proposal

Industry icon and chip designer Jim Keller seems to have the same vision as NVIDIA’s Huang, where he asserts that the way forward is mainly through architectural innovation and not focusing on quantity. Interestingly enough, in reply to Sam Altman’s tweet—”f* it why not 8,” commenting on raising the amount to $8T, Jim replied: “I can do it for less than $1 trillion,“

This statement in itself doesn’t refer to fulfilling the roadmap Altman has proposed but rather to fulfilling the vision that he believes is necessary for the next generation of AI applications. Tenstorrent, where Jim currently works, has a very sophisticated roadmap of its own, where they believe that fulfilling the industry’s demands is largely possible through improving the technology at hand.

While it is true that ChatGPT’s AI models require a lot of computer power than people may realise, the problem is that money doesn’t always guarantee what we want. For instance, China, despite pouring in almost $150B, in 2017 into achieving self-reliance till 2025, still heavily imports semiconductors. This shows that while funding is important, it only solves one part of the puzzle.

This is all we know for now, but rest assured that we will keep you updated as new information becomes available.

The post Industry Icon Jim Keller Proposes a $1 Trillion Alternative to Altman’s $7 Trillion AI Fab Network Plan appeared first on Appuals.

Sora Turns Text into Minute-Long Videos, But it’s Not Publicly Available Yet

We’ve seen AI video models in the past like Google Lumiere and Runway, but Sora appears to top them all. For one, it can emulate real-world scenarios with utmost precision, thanks to its deep understanding of real-world physics and existence. But what truly sets it apart is the duration of videos it can generate.

Most text-to-video models can only simulate videos of up to a few seconds, and even then, most models tend to produce grainy videos that can’t be deemed anything close to realistic. Although the technology has been improving steadily, it hasn’t quite reached its full potential yet.

In its introductory blog post, OpenAI showcased a number of video samples with complex scenarios, generated from text prompts, and the results look to be oddly close to reality. The videos are full of detail, and the model does a great job of understanding how complex elements exist in the real world. Sora appears to have proper knowledge of how things work in the actual world, and how things are actually fimed with understanding of cinematic techniques like camera angles and pacing.

According to the company, Sora is built upon information from the existing DALL-E 3 and GPT models. Unlike DALL-E, which primarily focuses on creative outputs, Sora is much more powerful and has real-world applications. The model in itself is a “data-driven physics engine“, which can not only create visuals but also simulate physical interactions and real-world scenarios.

Sora Can Literally ‘Interact’ with the Virtual Worlds

Sora doesn’t just generate individual images or videos, but can create and interact with entire virtual worlds, be they realistic or fantastical. Not only will this have applications in the scientific world, but the technology can also be used to help in game development as well as virtual reality—the timing of release may just be perfect.

However, OpenAI states that the model isn’t ready yet and may struggle with accurately simulating the physics of a complex scene and understanding specific instances of cause and effect. The video samples, too, appear to have been specifically and carefully selected to showcase the best of Sora and its capabilities.

OpenAI has said that Sora is not yet available to the public and is currently undergoing a series of safety tests. It is accessible only to a team of designated red testers who are actively searching for potential ways the service could be abused.

This is all we know for now, but rest assured that we will keep you updated as new information becomes available.

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Altman’s Plans May be Far too Ambitious, Even for the Tremendously Lucrative AI Industry

OpenAI needs to reduce its reliance on Microsoft for computing power. Because of this, it needs to explore other avenues to guarantee a sustainable plan. The demand for AI chips is skyrocketing, but there aren’t enough to meet the needs of companies like OpenAI. Altman has proposed investing $5 to $7 trillion to build a wafer foundry, which will help improve global chip-building capacity.

Sources say that Altman is in talks with the United Arab Emirates government and has negotiated with existing semiconductor companies like TSMC to operate the foundry.

The global chip market currently sits at $527 billion, with projections reaching $1 trillion within six years. In response to this growing demand, the US passed the CHIPS Act in 2022, allocating $52.7 billion to bolster domestic chip production.

The scale of this proposal and the implications of its potential returns raise many questions, mainly keeping Sam Altman’s history in the picture. In 2018, he invested in a company called “Rain Neuromorphics” that aimed to make chips capable of emulating the human mind. However, the US government deemed the chips a national risk soon after.

Altman also aimed to develop a company called “Tigris” that sat at the top of the semiconductor food chain, rivaling giants like NVIDIA, which just recently soared to a market cap of $1.8 trillion and is now the leading AI GPU supplier in the world.

While securing a quarter of the U.S.’ GDP might not seem promising, it certainly puts many things into perspective. For instance, if Altman succeeds, he could potentially buy out all the chipmakers and equipment manufacturers with trillions left over—that’s the kind of power $7 trillion holds.

This is all we know for now, but rest assured that we will keep you updated as new information becomes available.

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