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Meta is working with US government to use Llama AI

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Meta is working with US government to use Llama AI

Meta is “working with the public sector to adopt Llama across the US government,” according to CEO Mark Zuckerberg.

The comment, made during his opening remarks for Meta’s Q3 earnings call on Wednesday, raises a lot of important questions: Exactly which parts of the government will use Meta’s AI models? What will the AI be used for? Will there be any kind of military-specific applications of Llama? Is Meta getting paid for any of this?

When I asked Meta to elaborate, spokesperson Faith Eischen told me via email that “we’ve partnered with the US State Department to see how Llama could help address different challenges — from expanding access to safe water and reliable electricity, to helping support small businesses.” She also said the company has “been in touch with the Department of Education to learn how Llama could help make the financial aid process more user friendly for students and are in discussions with others about how Llama could be utilized to benefit the government.”

She added that there was “no payment involved” in these partnerships.

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There’s also the cozying up to the government that Meta’s AI rivals are doing. OpenAI and Anthropic recently said they would share their models with the US AI Safety Institute ahead of time for safety screening. Google’s on-and–off-again relationship as an AI vendor for the Pentagon is well documented. In a recent blog post, OpenAI said its models were being used by DARPA⁠, the U.S. Agency for International Development⁠, and the Los Alamos National Laboratory.

While we wait to learn about Meta’s AI work with the government, Zuckerberg teased a bit more about the next Llama model on the Q3 earnings call. He said version four is training on “a cluster bigger than I’ve seen reported for anything else others are doing” and that he expects “new modalities,” “stronger reasoning,” and “much faster” performance when it debuts next year.

He acknowledged that Meta plans to continue spending more on AI in 2025, which is “maybe not want investors want to hear in the near term.” But he sees the upside as being worth it.

“I’m pretty amped about all the work we’re doing right now,” he said. “This may be the most dynamic moment I’ve seen in our industry, and I’m focused on making sure that we build some awesome things and make the most of the opportunities ahead.”

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As a business, Meta is still continuing to grow. The company reported revenue of $40.5 billion for Q3, a 19-percent increase from a year ago, and $17.3 billion in profit. And it claims that 3.29 billion people use at least one of its apps each day, an increase of 5 percent from a year ago.

Update, October 30th: Added more details from Meta spokesperson.

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VCs on how to raise in 2025 if you’ve taken a flat, down, or extension round

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October 31, 2024

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VCs on how to raise in 2025 if you’ve taken a flat, down, or extension round

Old ideas like you need $100 million worth of trailing revenue to go public, and $1 million worth of annual recurring revenue to raise a Series A are so old that they are practically perched atop Abe Lincoln’s head.In today’s market, what a startup needs to raise depends on its sector, founder profile, and, yes, momentum. So what do you need to raise that Series A?Find out from Footwork Co-Founder & General Partner Nikhil Basu Trivedi, Construct Capital Co-Founder & General Partner Dayna Grayson, and Bessemer Venture Partners Partner Elliott Robinson in this session from Disrupt 2024

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Google’s AI-powered weather app is rolling out to older Pixels

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October 31, 2024

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Google’s AI-powered weather app is rolling out to older Pixels

Google’s Pixel 9 launched with a cool new standalone weather app that can summarize outdoor conditions using AI. As reported by 9to5Google, the company is rolling it out to older Pixels running Android 15 with all the latest updates installed, including one of ours here at The Verge.

The standalone Google Weather app will pull saved locations from the built-in weather service already present on Pixels to let you track weather in multiple locations, arrange weather data blocks, track weather on a map, and get a summary so you don’t need to figure out if an umbrella is needed for the day.

Some Google Weather features are reminiscent of the discontinued Dark Sky app.
Image: Google

As of writing, the app currently has a 2.3-star rating, with a few listed complaints like one noting you can’t check the weather in random cities without adding it to your saved locations list first. Google Weather is a welcome new option for those who haven’t found a favorite weather app since Dark Sky was acquired and shut down by Apple in 2020.

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Chinese EV maker BYD’s quarterly sales overtook Tesla’s for the first time

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October 31, 2024

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Chinese EV maker BYD's quarterly sales overtook Tesla's for the first time


New cars, among them new China-built electric vehicles of the company BYD, are seen parked in the port of Zeebrugge, Belgium, October 24, 2024.

Yves Herman | Reuters

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Chinese electric vehicle maker BYD reported third-quarter revenue that topped that of behemoth rival Tesla for the first time.

On Wednesday, BYD reported revenue for the three months ended Sept. 30 of 201.12 billion yuan ($28.24 billion), up 24% from a year ago. That exceeded Tesla’s revenue of $25.18 billion reported for the same period.

It’s a first for the Beijing-based EV giant as its solid performance came despite the EV downtrend in mainland China. The company sold a record number of passenger vehicles in August.

At least half of BYD’s sales are hybrid vehicles, whereas Tesla’s vehicles are battery only.

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But in terms of net profit, Tesla still took the lead.

The American carmaker saw net profit of $2.18 billion from July to September, up 16.2% from a year ago. Its Chinese counterpart, BYD, saw an increase in profit of 11.5% in the same period to 11.6 billion yuan.

Likewise, Tesla remains on top in year-to-date sales, slightly edging out BYD’s roughly $70.53 billion total revenue at $71.98 billion.

BYD is one of the most prominent EV makers in China, the world’s largest automotive market where it must contend with both domestic and global rivals for dominance.

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On BYD’s home turf, Elon Musk’s Tesla is one of its toughest competitors. The Model Y remained the best-selling battery-powered electric car in China in September, according to Chinese automotive website Autohome. BYD’s Seagull trailed closely behind in second place.

The competition will likely only get more cut-throat as European Union tariffs came into effect this week, despite China’s disapproval.

On Wednesday, the EU announced it would implement tariff increases on Chinese EVs, taking duties to as high as 45.3%.

The extra tariffs range from 7.8% for Tesla to 35.3% for SAIC Motors, which will stack on top of a 10% standard import duty on all electric vehicles.

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Trump's proposed tariffs is a gift to China: Analyst

While tariffs imposed on BYD and Tesla were reduced from an earlier proposal, both automakers have taken steps to ramp up production in Europe which would help them work around the duties.

Reuters reported earlier this month that Tesla got the green light to double the capacity of its Berlin plant.

And BYD announced last year it would set up shop in Hungary. In July, the Chinese automaker said it would invest $1 billion into a plant in Turkey, which has a customs union with the EU.

— CNBC’s Evelyn Cheng contributed to this report.



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Quordle today – hints and answers for Thursday, October 31 (game #1011)

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47 mins ago

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October 31, 2024

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Quordle on a smartphone held in a hand

Quordle was one of the original Wordle alternatives and is still going strong now more than 1,000 games later. It offers a genuine challenge, though, so read on if you need some Quordle hints today – or scroll down further for the answers.

Enjoy playing word games? You can also check out my Wordle today, NYT Connections today and NYT Strands today pages for hints and answers for those puzzles.

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Ancient Mayan city discovered via page 16 of Google search results

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October 31, 2024

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Ancient Mayan city discovered via page 16 of Google search results

Proceeding to even the second page of Google search results is rare enough, but going all the way to page 16 and then selecting an entry that leads to the discovery of a huge Mayan city that was lost for centuries under a jungle canopy … well, that’s really something.

“I was on something like page 16 of Google search and found a laser survey done by a Mexican organization for environmental monitoring,” Luke Auld-Thomas, a PhD student at Tulane University in Louisiana, said in comments reported by the BBC.

The survey had been carried out using Lidar, a remote sensing technology that uses laser pulses to measure distances and create precise, 3D maps of surfaces. In this case, it was deployed from a an airplane to map objects on the ground.

Auld-Thomas decided to process the data using a system used by archaeologists, and to his great astonishment he discovered remnants of a large ancient city that may have been populated by up to 50,000 people around 800 AD.

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After handing his findings to archaeologists, a further investigation uncovered pyramids, sports fields, causeways connecting districts, and amphitheaters, the BBC reported.

The city, which has now been named Valeriana after a nearby lagoon, is in the southeastern state of Campeche, some 600 miles (around 965 kilometers) east of Mexico City.

Analysis of the aerial imagery revealed that Valeriana covers an area of about 6.4 square miles (16.6 square kilometers) and features two major centers, with densely packed housing and causeways linking them together. Nearly 6,800 buildings have been counted in all. Two plazas with temple pyramids for worshipping are also part of the ancient city’s landscape. The imagery even reveals a court where the city’s residents would have played ball games.

It’s not clear why the city failed to survive, though it’s suggested that drought conditions brought on by climate change may have forced the inhabitants to move on to more fertile areas.

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As the BBC’s report points out, Lidar technology has utterly transformed how archaeologists survey locations covered in vegetation, with earlier surveys done on foot and taking considerably longer to complete.

These are certainly exciting times for archeologists, though Auld-Thomas commented that “one of the downsides of discovering lots of new Maya cities in the era of Lidar is that there are more of them than we can ever hope to study.”

Though in this case, Google search — and Auld-Thomas’s decision to go beyond page one of the results — also played a major role in the discovery of Valeriana.


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Google Wallet to be available for kids by 2025 with ‘Family Link’

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October 31, 2024

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Google Wallet to be available for kids by 2025 with ‘Family Link’

Google Wallet for kids will be available by 2025. The upcoming version of the app will support tap-to-pay on kids’ phones, but parents will have full control via “Family Link”.

Google Wallet will work for kids by 2025

Google Wallet is one of the most convenient on-device payment platforms. It not only supports monetary transactions but also stores credit cards, IDs, passes, tickets, and a lot more.

Google has reportedly confirmed that Google Wallet for kids will be ready by 2025. Kids will be able to download and use the virtual wallet on their Android phones.

Google Wallet for kids will allow tap-to-pay transactions in stores. Children or teens won’t have access to any credit or debit cards saved in the Google Wallet ecosystem.

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Google has confirmed that Google Wallet for kids will need a device PIN, password, fingerprint, or facial recognition. The app will ask for these user authentication techniques to set up and authenticate NFC payments.

How will kids use the Wallet app?

Google is limiting Google Wallet for kids. Moreover, parents or guardians will have full control over the app via the “Family Link” platform.

Parents will have to approve every credit or debit card added to their kids’ phones. Any existing payment card can be added to a kid’s Wallet. Using their Family Link app, parents can view recent transaction history. Guardians can remotely remove a card, as well as block passes.

Speaking of non-banking cards, Google Wallet for kids will also support gift cards and event tickets. However, the app won’t support IDs and health cards at the time of its launch.

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Google Wallet for kids largely relies on the backend infrastructure Google developed for the Fitbit Ace LTE devices, mentioned the search giants. “Following the positive response of tap-to-pay on Fitbit Ace LTE devices, we’re expanding tap-to-pay for kids to Google Wallet. The new experience is built with safety in mind, and will allow parents to supervise their kids’ usage – including approving new cards, easily removing cards, and viewing transaction history.”

Google has further assured that this “new experience is built with safety in mind.” The company indicated that Google Wallet users in the US and several other regions will have access to the new version of the app starting next year.

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