Weekly Link Roundup #70
Issue 70! Putting the "semi" back in "semi-weekly" :-)
Leena AI announces voice-enabled AI ‘colleagues’ who can work alongside you: “Already 35 % of all interactions with Leena are on voice… and the average time of session is seven and a half minutes,” said Jain.” > > Look, I’m all onboard with our new AI overlords but so help me, if I have to sit in the middle of an open office floor plan with 60 other folks using VOICE to do their work, I will man the barricades myself!
Samsung backs a video AI startup that can analyze thousands of hours of footage: “Memories.ai wants to tackle that problem with its AI platform that can process up to 10 million hours of video. For companies with a lot of video to analyze, the startup wants to provide a contextual layer, complete with searchable indexing, tagging, segments, and aggregation.” > > I saw this kind of thing being done 15 years ago with a live stream from a conference keynote. Everything old is new again.
Meta Unveils Wristband for Controlling Computers With Hand Gestures: “With a gentle turn of the wrist, you can push a cursor across your laptop screen. If you tap your thumb against your forefinger, you can open an app on your desktop computer. And when you write your name in the air, as if you were holding a pencil, the letters will appear on your smartphone.” > > Now I mind this a lot less than the voice but I have this image of all these hands waving around the office and on the business class of airplanes.
Older adults now make up a third of U.S. gamers: “If you thought gaming was a young person’s activity, think again. Older adults now make up nearly one-third of all U.S. gamers, with 57 million Americans who are 50 or older playing regularly. Half of those in their sixties and seventies play some form of PC, mobile, or console video game every week. Even people in their eighties—36%!—are gaming, according to recent data from the Entertainment Software Association (ESA).” > > I think the exclamation point is little much. Reminds me, I need to play some bloonsTD6 on the bus home and then level up my Destiny 2 character later. But seriously, think about what this means in terms of how people are experiencing this. Anyone forcing them to do this? No! Then why - ask why people are playing - don’t just look on in amazement - understand the Balinese Cockfight. IFYKYK
Too many open browser tabs? This is still my favorite solution - and has been for years: You had me at too many tabs.
SF-Based Internet Archive Is Now a Federal Depository Library. What Does That Mean?: Not the final step but a good one > > “The San Francisco-based Internet Archive now has federal depository status, joining a network of over 1,100 libraries that archive government documents and make them accessible to the public — even as ongoing legal challenges pose an existential threat to the organization.”
Microsoft’s controversial Recall feature is now blocked by Brave and AdGuard: Still don’t know how this feature made it out. Who thought insta-screenshotting everything on your computer was a good thing?
Why Walmart Is Overhauling Its Approach to AI Agents: This is the right play -invent and simplify - all in all - will probably have to be done multiple times in orgs - and that’s a good thing (and yes, I like an em dash) > > “Now the retail giant is taking a step back and consolidating all those agents into four discrete interfaces it calls “super agents.” One is for customers, one is for employees, one is for engineers, and one is for sellers and suppliers, the company said. The super agent for each group will tap the capabilities of a number of behind-the-scenes agents, all in a single unified experience.”
Figma’s AI app building tool is now available for everyone: “Figma Make, the prompt-to-app coding tool that Figma introduced earlier this year, is now available for all users. Similar to AI coding tools like Google’s Gemini Code Assist and Microsoft’s GitHub Copilot, Figma Make allows users to build working prototypes and apps using natural language descriptions, instead of needing to have innate coding skills.” > > I remember the lamentations around PowerPoint and how tough it was that a tool could create bad presentations so quickly (to be fair, it was never PPT’s fault), this could be that but on AI-steroids. To be clear, there are great advantages to these tools but if we do the same thing we did with PPT (deploy the tool without training people on its use or creating any guardrails), we’re looking tech debt…at scale.
OpenAI’s New ChatGPT Agent Tries to Do It All: It’s a desert topping! No, it’s a floor wax! It’s both. (IFYKYK). Interesting on two fronts - I wonder what agents, able to work on a user’s behalf, on the screen, will do to usage-based pricing or charges and I can’t wait to see the first agent that will take compliance training and click the next button. > > “OpenAI has launched a new agent for ChatGPT that uses a virtual browser to complete tasks and can generate downloadable files, specifically PowerPoint presentations and Excel spreadsheets. While not a full replacement for the Microsoft suite of workplace tools, the features included in this agent from OpenAI could obviate some users’ reliance on Microsoft’s enterprise software. The two companies are longtime partners and currently in contract negotiations over ongoing access to OpenAI’s models.” See also: Perplexity’s CEO on why the browser is AI’s killer app. See also: Microsoft begins testing sharing your desktop with Copilot on Windows 11 — allows AI to view and chat about what's on your screen. See also: As the browser wars heat up, here are the hottest alternatives to Chrome and Safari in 2025.
Japanese researchers achieve 1,020,000,000 Mbps internet speeds over a 1,123 mile line, 3.5 million times faster than the average US connection and a hell of a lot quicker than mine: No it’s not commercially available yet - duh - but you can bet your YoY earnings report that it will be sooner rather than later. There also moments when something like the potential speed of an internet connection is such a stunning jump that it goes past doing what we can do now but faster and gets into a world where new things become probable and not just possible. This could be one of those jumps.
Through comics, 'Essex County' creator shows us the struggles, triumphs of his career: What would the graphic novel of your career look like? I bet Julian Stodd could create an amazing one.
NotebookLM adds featured notebooks from The Economist, The Atlantic, and others: Read this and tell me why we’re not making NotebookLMs for each new hire. Forget digital twins, this is simple. Start today. Or are we afraid that we’re training our replacements?
Conservation tech without Indigenous knowledge and local context has limits (commentary): Can’t amen this loudly enough > > “Technology can be a powerful ally in conservation, but it’s not a silver bullet. Too often, tools like drones, GPS apps or satellite imagery are introduced as standalone solutions, disconnected from those who have stewarded these ecosystems for generations. What’s missing isn’t innovation. It’s inclusion. Local and Indigenous communities bring centuries of knowledge, experience and care to the lands they protect. Even the most sophisticated technology can fall short when this wisdom is overlooked.”
Early insight into social network structure predicts climbing the social ladder: Super interesting - you can only affect something if its visible. > > “These findings reveal that those who climb the social ladder first detect their emerging network’s general structure and then fine-tune their knowledge about individual relationships between their peers as network dynamics settle.”
Universities are rethinking computer science curriculum in response to AI tools: This is spot on. I wonder if I’m just not seeing this same shift in how instructional designers are being taught or if that’s just not happening? > > “The rapid rise of generative artificial intelligence is prompting a fundamental rethinking of computer science education in the US. As AI-powered tools become increasingly proficient at writing code and answering complex questions with human-like fluency, educators and students alike are grappling with which skills will matter most in the years ahead.” See also: Coding is dead: UW computer science program rethinks curriculum for the AI era.