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Business and Finance

YouTube's Ad Revenue Soars to $9.8 Billion, Dominating TV Viewing

YouTube's ad revenue increased by 13% year-over-year, reaching $9.8 billion in the second quarter, according to Alphabet's earnings report. This exceeded analyst expectations of around $9.6 billion.

YouTube has been aiming to capture more TV ad dollars, with a Nielsen report indicating it held the largest share of TV viewing for three consecutive months, representing 12.4% of total audience time.

Rival streaming services like HBO Max and Amazon Prime Video are increasing ad placements in response, while Netflix is emerging as a key competitor, aiming to double its advertising revenue within the year.

Alphabet reported total revenue of $96.4 billion in the second quarter, a 13% year-over-year increase.

Artificial Intelligence

K Prize: AI Coding Challenge Reveals the Reality of AI Software Engineering

The K Prize, an AI coding challenge, announced its first winner, Eduardo Rocha de Andrade, who achieved a score of 7.5% on the test. The challenge, created by Databricks and Perplexity co-founder Andy Konwinski, aims to provide a contamination-free alternative to benchmarks like SWE-Bench. Konwinski has pledged $1 million to the first open-source model that can score higher than 90% on the test.
The K Prize tests models against flagged issues from GitHub, similar to SWE-Bench, but uses a timed entry system to prevent benchmark-specific training. The low top score highlights the challenge of real-world programming problems for AI models.
Researchers see projects like the K Prize as crucial for addressing AI's growing evaluation problem. The results serve as a reality check, indicating that AI software engineers still have significant progress to make.

Artificial Intelligence

K Prize: AI Coding Challenge Reveals Reality Check for AI Software Engineering

The K Prize, an AI coding challenge, announced its first winner, Eduardo Rocha de Andrade, who achieved a score of 7.5% on the test. The challenge, designed by Databricks and Perplexity co-founder Andy Konwinski, aims to provide a contamination-free benchmark for evaluating AI models against real-world programming problems from GitHub.

Konwinski has pledged $1 million to the first open-source model that scores above 90% on the test. The K Prize contrasts with SWE-Bench, which has higher scores, raising questions about potential contamination or the difficulty of collecting new GitHub issues.

The K Prize is seen as a necessary step towards addressing AI's evaluation problem, with researchers like Sayash Kapoor advocating for new tests for existing benchmarks. Konwinski emphasizes the challenge as a reality check for the AI industry, highlighting the gap between current AI capabilities and the hype surrounding AI applications.

Artificial Intelligence

Trump's Executive Order Targets 'Woke AI,' Sparks Debate on Bias and Ideology

President Trump signed an executive order to ban "woke AI" in government contracts, prioritizing "ideological neutrality" and raising concerns about censorship and viewpoint discrimination. The order targets diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) initiatives, calling them "destructive." Experts warn this could pressure developers to align with White House rhetoric. The order aligns with Trump's "AI Action Plan," focusing on AI infrastructure and competition with China. Critics argue that objectivity in AI is impossible and that the order reflects the administration's ideology. Companies like xAI, with its chatbot Grok, may be favored due to its anti-woke stance. The order's definitions of "truth-seeking" and "ideological neutrality" are vague, potentially leading to biased AI development.

Business & Finance

YouTube's Ad Revenue Surges to $9.8 Billion, Dominating TV Viewing

YouTube's advertising revenue increased by 13% year-over-year, reaching $9.8 billion in the second quarter, according to Alphabet's earnings report. This exceeded analyst expectations of around $9.6 billion.

YouTube has been aiming to capture more TV ad dollars, with its TV viewership growing significantly. Nielsen reported that YouTube held the largest share of TV viewing for three consecutive months, accounting for 12.4% of total audience time.

In response to YouTube's success, streaming rivals like HBO Max and Amazon Prime Video have increased their advertising strategies. Netflix is also emerging as a key competitor, planning to double its advertising revenue within the year.

Alphabet reported total revenue of $96.4 billion in the second quarter, a 13% year-over-year increase.

Artificial Intelligence

Google's AI Initiatives Gain Traction: User Growth in Overviews, Gemini, and AI Mode

Sundar Pichai shared updates on Google's AI adoption, reporting significant user growth across several platforms:

  • AI Overviews: Reached 2 billion monthly users.
  • Gemini App: Expanded to 450 million monthly active users with a 50% increase in daily requests from Q1.
  • AI Mode: Gained over 100 million monthly active users in the U.S. and India, with upcoming upgrades.

Developer engagement is also strong, with over 9 million building with Gemini and nearly 1 million using Google Vids. Additionally, 50 million people used AI-powered meeting notes in Google Meet.

Google is processing 980 trillion monthly tokens across its platforms, showcasing significant AI product portfolio demand. However, increased capital expenditure plans for AI development led to a negative investor reaction.

Technology

Meta's Gesture-Controlled Wristband: A Non-Invasive Interface for Computer Interaction

Meta researchers are developing a wristband that enables users to control computers with hand gestures, utilizing surface electromyography (sEMG) to interpret muscle activity and intended actions.

The goal is to provide less invasive tools for people with motor disabilities, with collaborations with Carnegie Mellon to test the wristband on individuals with spinal cord injuries.

Unlike invasive projects like Neuralink, Meta's wristband offers a simpler, non-surgical alternative, operating at a higher frequency than EEG-based headsets.

Social Media

Mastodon Introduces In-App Donations to Bolster Open-Source Social Network

Mastodon, the open-source competitor to X (formerly Twitter) and Threads, is initiating a new fundraising strategy by introducing in-app donation banners within its Android and iOS applications. Initially, these banners will be displayed to users on the Mastodon.social and Mastodon.online servers, prompting them to make monetary contributions. The feature is designed to be non-intrusive, appearing only to users with accounts older than four weeks and avoiding constant prompting. Mastodon aims to expand this campaign to the web and potentially offer it to all Mastodon instances, enabling individual server admins to receive direct support from their users. This move comes as Mastodon seeks to diversify its funding sources beyond Patreon and open-source foundations, aiming to secure its future as an ethical and independent social network.

Artificial Intelligence & Policy

AI Acceleration: Trump's Strategy Prioritizes Growth and National Security Over Regulation

The Trump administration has released its AI Action Plan, signaling a shift from cautious regulation to aggressive development and deployment of AI technologies.

Key aspects include:

  • Deregulation: Reducing environmental and other regulations to accelerate the construction of data centers and AI infrastructure.
  • Focus on Open AI: Encouraging the development of open-source AI models aligned with American values.
  • National Security: Integrating AI into defense and intelligence, and countering foreign AI threats, particularly from China.
  • Free Speech: Aiming to ensure AI systems reflect truth and are free from ideological bias, while raising concerns about potential impacts on freedom of speech.

The plan aims to foster innovation, secure American leadership in AI, and protect against national security risks, but faces criticism for potentially compromising environmental safeguards and freedom of speech.

Technology Regulation

UK Regulator Proposes New Rules for Apple and Google's Mobile Platforms

The U.K.'s Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) has proposed designating Apple and Google's mobile platforms with "strategic market status."

This designation would allow the CMA to create rules impacting app store operations and mobile software.

The aim is to foster a more competitive app economy and enhance user choice.

Apple and Google have resisted the proposals, citing concerns over user security and privacy.

A final decision is expected in October after both companies present their arguments.

If approved, the CMA could address issues such as commission rates, app review processes, app rankings, developer access, and default settings.

Epic Games CEO Tim Sweeney voiced disappointment that the proposal doesn't allow for competing app stores.