In this podcast, they discuss the practice of 'coffee badging' among hybrid workers, recent controversies involving AI in game development and marketing, the benefits of using Tail Scale VPN, and the potential use cases of AI in narrow industries. They also explore a fast and accurate search engine, share their coffee preferences and brewing methods, and discuss various coffee makers.
Hybrid workers are adopting the practice of 'coffee badging' to spend minimal time in the office, causing financial loss for companies and raising concerns about power imbalances in the workplace.
The challenging economics of providing AI services are highlighted by Microsoft reportedly losing $20 per user per month for Co-pilot, emphasizing the costly and unsustainable nature of AI technology.
Deep dives
Hybrid workers are "coffee badging" to avoid returning to the office mandates
Hybrid workers are adopting a practice called "coffee badging" to spend less time in the office and dodge return to office mandates. This involves showing up at the office in the morning, having coffee with colleagues, attending a meeting, and then heading back home, essentially just putting in a few hours at the office for the sake of appearance. According to a survey, 58% of hybrid employees have joined this trend, causing financial loss for companies and raising concerns about power imbalances in the workplace.
Microsoft's AI-powered tool Co-pilot loses money for the company
Despite charging $10 a month for Co-pilot, Microsoft is reportedly losing $20 per user per month, highlighting the challenging economics of providing AI services. Critics argue that using AI to summarize an email is an unnecessary and costly use of the technology. This situation underscores the financial burdens companies face when offering AI services and raises questions about the sustainability of such models.
Allegations of abuse against Sam Altman, co-founder of OpenAI
Samantha Altman, sister of Sam Altman, has made allegations on Twitter of sexual, physical, emotional, verbal, financial, and technological abuse against her brother and some other family members. These allegations have been public since last year, but there has been little coverage of the issue, raising concerns about the application of public opinion and media attention when prominent individuals are involved. However, it is important to note that these are allegations and it is up to legal authorities to investigate and determine the truth.
Mike checks in from the grind and shares some challenges in recent cross-platform testing; then, we get into the avalanche of negative AI press coverage this week and the one massive story they're not touching.
Report Claims LOTR: Gollum Publisher Used AI To Write Apology — An investigation by German outlet Game Two into what went wrong during the development of Lord of the Rings: Gollum has made claims that the publisher’s apology for the terrible state of the released game was written by AI ChatGPT.
AI doesn’t sound particularly profitable. — Despite charging $10 a month for GitHub Copilot, The Wall Street Journal reports that Microsoft is losing an average of over $20 per user, per month.
Émile P. Torres, PhD on X — This is Sam Altman's sister. Her tweets about sexual, physical, emotional, etc. abuse are incredibly hard to read. Seems that no one in the media is that interested in covering this story because they're afraid of losing access to OpenAI if they write something critical of Sam.
Pledditor on X — Sam Altman's sister is making some eyepopping allegations against him 👀