Tesla Cybertruck sales are =
disastrous (3 minute read)
Cybertruck sales are stalling a year in=
to production. While Tesla claimed to have over 1 million reservations for =
the vehicle, it had lowered its reservation deposit to just $100 and the pr=
oduction version of the truck was more expensive and had less range than wh=
at Tesla originally announced. The company delivered around 40,000 Cybertru=
cks before opening orders beyond the reservation program. It's estimated th=
at Tesla delivered between 9,000 and 12,000 Cybertrucks in Q4.
|
Sam Altman on ChatGPT's Fir=
st Two Years, Elon Musk, and AI Under Trump (39 minute read)
OpenAI launched ChatGPT on November 30,=
2022. Within two months, its site was being visited by more than 100 milli=
on visitors. The startup hasn't been the same since. This article contains =
an interview with OpenAI's CEO Sam Altman. Altman explains his infamous fou=
r-day firing, how he runs OpenAI, his plans for the Trump-Musk presidency, =
and his relentless pursuit of artificial general intelligence.
|
|
Science & Futuristic Technology
|
This Year, RISC-V Laptops R=
eally Arrive (4 minute read)
Framework plans to release a laptop tha=
t can support a RISC-V mainboard in 2025. RISC-V is an open-source instruct=
ion set architecture (a set of valid instructions programs can execute on a=
processor) that provides a viable alternative to x86 and Arm. It is open s=
ource, making it easy to customize hardware. While current RISC-V chips per=
form well behind x86 and Arm-powered alternatives, performance will be much=
better in the coming year.
|
SpaceX announces slate of u=
pgrades for its next Starship launch (3 minute read)
SpaceX has made special improvements fo=
r its seventh Starship test flight, which may be on January 10. The test wi=
ll attempt Starship's first payload deployment test, multiple reentry exper=
iments geared towards ship catch and reuse, and the launch and return of th=
e Super Heavy booster. The booster will splashdown in the Gulf of Mexico if=
the catching systems aren't healthy during the launch. The booster will sl=
ow down from supersonic speeds upon return, which will result in sonic boom=
s around the catch area.
|
|
Programming, Design & Data Science
|
Can LLMs write better code =
if you keep asking them to =E2=80=9Cwrite better code=E2=80=9D? (22 minute =
read)
There was a trend a while ago where peo=
ple kept asking AI image generators to make something 'more X', which inter=
estingly resulted in the images eventually becoming something cosmic. This =
article looks at whether this concept could apply to large language model-g=
enerated code - whether asking an LLM to 'make code better' can result in i=
mprovements. It appears that asking an LLM to 'write code better' results i=
n better code compared to direct prompting (at least with Claude 3.5 Sonnet=
). LLMs can produce interesting ideas and tool suggestions even if the outp=
ut can't be used as is.
|
Project Quarantine (10 minu=
te read)
Malware on PyPI is a persistent problem=
.. PyPI recently added the ability to quarantine projects. Administrators ar=
e able to mark projects as potentially harmful, which prevents it from bein=
g easily installed by users. This post discusses how the feature was implem=
ented and upcoming improvements.
|
|
Exploring a stablecoin bank=
(8 minute read)
A stablecoin network could drop payment=
fees to essentially zero. Merchants attempting to avoid credit card proces=
sing fees is not a new concept, but the problem is in getting customers to =
switch their payment methods. It is possible to shift customer behavior und=
er the right conditions. The potential market for cheaper, faster, and more=
efficient payment methods is clearly strong - this article discusses how a=
brand-new stablecoin bank could be used to align incentives to get everyon=
e on board.
|
Inside the wild fall and la=
st-minute revival of Bench, the VC-backed accounting startup that imploded =
over the holidays (8 minute read)
Bench, an accounting and tax startup ba=
sed in Canada, suddenly shut down on December 27 after 13 years of operatio=
n. The company's hundreds of staff were laid off immediately without any se=
verance or notice. Some of its staff claim that the company's struggles wer=
e due to a push to embrace AI and other automation tools in recent years. O=
verreliance on automation tools, sometimes at the expense of human workers,=
caused delays, which made some customers leave. Bench was saved by an unli=
kely acquistion by Employer.com, who extended a large number of job offers =
to former Bench staff.
|
|
Reflections (10 minute read=
)
Thoughts from Sam Altman about how Open=
AI's journey has gone so far and some of the things he's learned along the =
way.
|
|
|
Love TLDR? Tell your friends and get rewards!
|
|
Share your referral link below with friends to get free TLDR swag!
|
|
|
|
|
Track your referrals here.
|
|
Want to advertise in TLDR? =F0=9F=93=B0
If your company is interested in reaching an audience of tech executives, d=
ecision-makers and engineers, you may want to advertise with us.
Want to work at TLDR? =F0=9F=92=BC
Apply here or send a friend's resume to jobs@tldr.tech and get $1k if we hire them!
If you have any comments or feedback, just respond to this email!
Thanks for reading,
Dan Ni & Stephen Flanders
|
|
|
|
![3D"Tana"=](3D"https://images.tldr.tech/tana.png")