Matisyahu's Blog

The saga regarding SSDs continues as one of the major instigators behind the hysteria admits that they didn’t update their SSD firmware and the firmware on their motherboard was at least 9 months out of date yet he insists on blaming Microsoft. I don’t know about you but if you want any sort of credibility then maybe updating your software and firmware, testing then reporting back what happens is going to lend you more credibility than whipping up hysteria then admitting that you couldn’t be bothered doing the absolute bare minimum. If you cannot keep your software and firmware up to date then maybe being a tech YouTuber isn’t the job for you. Here I am a month after the August release and still no problems with my SSD – life is good and computer is stable.

On a side note, this morning I checked for updates with a system update that was released a ‘System Hardware Update’ (it appears it is being rolled out gradually) – a firmware update that required a reboot with everything working as expected when it came back up online. Everything is going well although I admit that I mucked around on Monday and Tuesday regarding deciding whether to go all in with Microsoft 365. The big question is whether I have a consumer account as my main one and then have an Microsoft Exchange online account for my domain name or whether I have a Microsoft 365 Business account as my main account with the consumer account being what I use for Microsoft Phone Link. If I have Microsoft 365 Business do I go with Standard or Premium – what is the difference etc. big decisions.

What was rather unusual is the lack of a Chrome update being released today – normally every Tuesday there is an update for Chrome but that wasn’t the case this week. Samsung is apparently rolling out One UI 8 however it hasn’t appeared in New Zealand – part of me is excited about the update but on the other hand I’d sooner Samsung take their time to ensure that there aren’t any embarrassing bugs that pop up. It appears that the kernel version has remained the same at 6.6.77 based of the screenshots of people showing off the final release. Over the last couple of days there has been quit a few updates via the Galaxy Store which make me wonder whether they’re prepping for the release by making sure all the bundled applications area compatible for One UI 8.

What I find funny is the speculation regarding AI businesses that aren’t make money yet their share price are going through the roof with some claiming there is a bubble. What you’re seeing in the AI world is something that has always existed – these organisations aren’t designed to make money but instead they’re ‘pick me’ businesses where the shareholders hope that at some point an established player will buy them up for a premium because of FOMO (Fear Of Missing Out) in much the same way that Nokia came out better off when they sold off their handset division then used that to buy out the Siemens half of the telecommunications joint venture which then allowed them to buy out Alcatel-Lucent.

The problem with this ‘pick me’ strategy is this: Google is already got their own AI working, Microsoft is rumoured to be working on their own models to replace OpenAI, Apple and FaceBook have their own models so where does OpenAI fit into all this? they have no products of their own that can utilise their technology so any business using their technology will eventually replace it with an inhouse model, the amount they charge even at the top end of their subscription they’re still losing money on and if they increase their price at what point do businesses wake up from the AI hype to realise that maybe having a real person is cheaper and doesn’t carry risk.

So there is an agreement with Oracle – massive number of datacentres planned to be built but who is going is going to fund it not to mention paying the bills? is the long shot being that Oracle eventually buys out OpenAI then OpenAI cannot pay the bills then utilise (assuming it goes ahead) Tiktok to train future models the integrate OpenAI into Oracle’s own cloud services? For me I don’t see any of these AI companies surviving unless they can actually turn what they have into something useful beyond being a cute novelty. There is also the other problem – the huge amount of energy required and all the evidence I’ve seen from people who study AI for a living point to the fact that things aren’t getting more efficient but actually requiring even more energy. Just when you thought bitcoin couldn’t be a bigger waste of energy out trots the new cult of AI promising the earth and delivering very limited bang for the amount of bucks that are burnt with each question it is asked.