Vadim Brenner

Interesting AI demo: Meta's 'Seamless Translation' https://aidemos.meta.com/ You can hear your own voice speaking another language. Here's what to expect: a. 10-second clips only. b. Requires a short voice sample (note: consent needed for voice data use) c. Outputs two versions: a basic translation and one that attempts to preserve your vocal style. It's part of Meta's speech model family released last November. If you're curious about AI language technology, and haven't tried it yet, it's worth checking.

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This week I rode in a Waymo for the first time and it immediately made me think of the parallels between autonomous vehicles and smart home technology. Both are about taking complex and inefficient systems, removing friction, and creating a seamless experience for the user. With Waymo there’s no driver to guide the car yet everything feels intuitive and effortless. In smart home tech it’s the same goal: to give people solutions that simplify their lives—whether it’s automating temperature control, streamlining access, energy efficiency or customization. What excites me most is how these technologies are evolving to not just meet expectations but exceed them. The common thread is efficiency and time—freeing people to focus on the things that matter most. It’s amazing to see how these innovations are redefining industries and how much potential there is ahead. Smart tech isn’t just about convenience—it’s about creating a better way to live.

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General Motors is shutting down Cruise. The path forward is tele-operations like we are launching at Upshift. Join the waitlist here: https://lnkd.in/gemiY4Sh Way cheaper, easier to regulate, can scale everywhere today. Article on the wind down of Cruise: https://lnkd.in/gVAAF-sM

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When you waste $9 billion of investor’s money, the best explanation is to promise a rosy future. Really?! That is just what happened: “WBD CEO David Zaslav is promising Wall Street that everything is going to be fine, and that his digital future looks great.” Imagine if your spousegambles away half of your house value? Would you accept the rosy future promise? I call this an irresponsible management and CEO socialism. What about asking the CEO to return all bonuses and equity grants! You may get back a billion. https://lnkd.in/eZxA9HD2

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I commend AppLovin for the stance they are taking regarding refusing to let developers use the AppLovin SDK for monetization if they have any child directed audience or a mixed audience that contains children. This is how the industry should have behaved and practiced since COPPA was put in to law and especially in the last 16 years since companies like Kidoz have existed. I have spoken to many developers who have said "We don't have a kids audience." Upon deeper questioning, "We don't have a kids audience" really means that only "5%-25% of our audience is kids." In other words, they're collecting only a 'little bit' of kids data in order to be extremely profitable as a whole and fixing it is not the highest priority (until they get sued by the federal government). I hope others networks will follow suit. This is 100% why we built our technology in 2008. By Parents For Parents Peace of Mind! Kudos to you AppLovin #coppa #sdk #applovin #kidoz #monetization #mobilegaming #developers

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By the currently proposed FCC definition, ALL PRERECORDED AUDIO could be considered an "AI generated call", and thus by the NPRM, subject to potential disclosure. If the FCC really wants to focus on synthetic voice, the definition could be changed to "...generate synthetic voice" or otherwise define the term "generate" to mean "produce something in a non-organic manner" or perhaps replace the word "generate" with "replicate". Audio encoding technologies "generate" digital files from analog (actual human) voice for efficient transport over VoIP whereas AI is used to "replicate" sounds in digital file formats, which when decoded for audio play-back, may sound indistinguishable (to the human ear) from the genuine source, such as a person's native voice.

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Can Elon Musk pull a rabbit out of a hat for Tesla Q1s tomorrow? Given Tesla's, err, unique approach to communicating, the analyst call represents a rare opportunity where the company must proffer answers to the questions on everyone's mind. And there feels like a lot more riding on this one, even than usual. "There could be darker days ahead if Musk does not handle the call like an adult in the room and give some sort of vision and navigation," says Daniel Ives of Wedbush Securities. While there is obviously a lot of noise — demand, price cuts, layoffs, senior management departures — the $400/share biggie is what is happening with 'Model 2' and robotaxis. Investors love the prospect of the recurring revenues and Big Tech margins that autonomous driving software promises. But Emmanuel Rosner of Deutsche Bank stresses that they love it on top, not instead, of a new model that is going to provide volume growth. Otherwise, it's too far away, too risky and there are no catalysts in-between https://lnkd.in/gYc3y4QH. But what if robotaxis and Musk's other vision — privately-owned autonomous cars you can rent out when you're not using them — are actually nowhere in the short-to-medium term of AD? What if AVs are going to go big into mass transit and industrial sites, leaving self-driving cars on public roads in the West as distant a prospect as they've ever been? That's what Sheelpa Patel of Oxa reckons. And while there might be a little bit of 'she would say that, wouldn't she?' about that view, given Oxa's chosen AD specialisms, in EV inFocus' view she's got a very valid point. So all eyes on Musk to see if he can put these fears to bed, close the book on the turbulence of the last few weeks, and lay out a compelling story as to where Tesla goes from here... https://lnkd.in/gyECtxBq #tesla #ev #autonomousdriving

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”Remember years and years ago when the web came out, and they put all those text boxes on the screen, we were told not to trust user inputs. And now the internet is a big giant text box and we are supposed to trust all those things.” https://lnkd.in/dK7GdbwM Mark Russinovich & Scott Hanselman explore the landscape of generative AI security and today's risks in LLM (Large Language Models), such as hallucination, indirect prompt injection, jailbreaks etc, and how we can mitigate these risks using the #Responsible #AI principles and Content Safety Filters in Azure AI at Microsoft #Ignite.

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When we first started Antenna, a lot of industry friends predicted "It will be Netflix and maybe two others." That is not the best scenario for a market data company. But we believed otherwise. An early conversation with Jack Wakshlag helped me realize that the old cable model was maybe the wrong metaphor for thinking about the future of TV. Maybe it would be more like print. In print's heyday, a majority of household's subscribed to Time and Life. But a whole second and third tier of specialty publications also thrived, across dozens of categories in sports, hobbies and other special interests. That's not to mention that most household's also subscribed to their local city or regional daily, and probably to a neighborhood paper as well. Antenna sees a similar dynamic emerging in video streaming as well. The biggest players will build big, important, scaled (and often global) businesses. But we will also see an thriving ecosystem of these amazing specialty services like Britbox, Hallmark+, Shudder, and Crunchyroll establishing great, profitable businesses as well. Wow oh wow does John Koblin do a fantastic job articulating this emerging reality in his piece in The New York Times.

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Digital Nomads. So many of us have become wanderers moving from sub to sub based on that hot show and Ian's post unpacks this clearly. I feel that this is a streamer self-inflicted issue. Cost of subs goes up, nomad behavior goes up, cost of content supply goes up, possibly time to examine the fulcrum of diminishing returns and make different decisions/models of subscription? I continue to believe that under these worsening returns, aggregators and new models for additional windows will be what thrives.

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