The author has a background in computer science and a passion for new technology. When the degree was earned, the web was not too popular yet. That opened an opportunity to follow the entire process with huge fascination, and the journey didn’t end yet. Most of the development happens in Python and Django these days, but all other facets are interesting, too.
Dass die Zeit der unendlichen Resourcen vorbei ist, scheint sich auch langsam in der Softwarebranche herumzusprechen. IEEE Spectrum schreibt in einem Artikel der aktuellen Ausgabe von einem “Green Software Movement”, das es sich zur Aufgabe gemacht hat, bestehende Code-Bases hinsichtlich Carbon-Footprint zu optimieren. Und tatsächlich gibt es auch drüben in LinkedIn und Crunchbase schon vereinzelt Startups, die mit grünem Code werben.
Das Versprechen ist am Ende weniger altruistisch, als es auf den ersten Blick scheint, in dem Spiel findet sich auch viel Greenwashing statt. Schließlich ist es nicht so selten, dass die Rechnung eines Hyperscalers für einen Kunden entgleist. Dort ist selbstverständlich anzusetzen, zunächst natürlich für den Verbraucher, aber letztendlich auch für den Planeten.
Christo Buschek und Jer Thorp haben sich für ein Knowing Machines Project einmal die Funktionsweise von “Large Language Models” (LLM) zu Beschreiben vorgenommen. Man scrollt durch die Website und kann sich Schritt für Schritt anschauen, was warum passiert. Welche Daten für das Training von solchen LLMs verwendet werden, aus welchen Quellen die Inhalte stammen und wie die sich zusammensetzen. Und welche Einflüsse die Zusammensetzung bestimmen.
Und vor allem beschreibt die Seite auch auch, was nicht automatisiert ist und wie das alles potentiell problematisch ist. Selber bin ich noch nicht ganz durch, aber die Woche hat die Mitte ja noch nicht ganz erreicht.
OpenAI gibt sich Selbstbewusst. Wenn das so stimmt, ist Sam Altman, CEO von #OpenAI, in Gesprächen über eine neue Investitionsrunde. Während #AI natürlich immer noch das dominierende Thema und eine zentrale Hoffnung für die globale Wirtschaft ist: holy shit.
$5-7 Trillion entsprechen deshalb einem Investment von wiederum einem Viertel der jährlichen Wirtschaftsleitung. Mit der Kasse hätte OpenAI mehr in der Tasche als Japan in einem Jahr umsetzt.
Damit wäre OpenAI uneinholbar Marktführer in dem Segment, das gerade in Europa durch den AI Act reguliert wird. Und mit seinem Potential auch nicht in die Hand einzelner Unternehmen gehört.
The cloud gaming service was only launched 3 years ago, with many ambitions. Google started it’s efforts with an own game studio. However, the entire service fell back behind the attached expectations and was never considered successful. The game studio already shut down last year, making this move no surprising consequence.
What is remarkable is the almost prophetic accuracy of http://stadiacountdown.com, a single purpose website built and launched by Jason Scott.
To celebrate the official launce of Google Stadia (@GoogleStadia) tomorrow, I have created a single-purpose website: https://t.co/PrsCMfkQIB. It is a countdown timer set for the average lifespan of any Google service/product, which is 4 years. pic.twitter.com/uR2ujUWeQc
The tweet dates back to November 2019, the day before Stadia actually launched, predicting a lifespan of 4 years for Stadia. As of today, the counter has 412 more days for Stadia to go. Google will kill the product earlier than that.
One thing noteworthy here is that Google products are already notorious for being very mortal. The above is based on Google Cemetery calculates average days for the life expectancy of any life and future product and came up with the ~4 years for the Stadia countdown. While this is kind of normal and necessary in the B2C market, the reputation the company builds is dangerous for its enterprise ambition.
Jay Leno visited SpaceX to interview Elon Musk. The quick trailer on Jay Lenos Twitter channel shows them debating Raptor Engines, used in SpaceX’s rockets. In the converation, Elon Musk takes a hot take on patents. He claims the company ain’t using the mechanism, that won’t help progressing anywhere. His take is patents are meant to keep others from progressing along. My bubble will appreciate.
Nachdem in Twitter und allen anderen Medien alle durchdrehen zu scheinen, scheint die kurze Durchsage der Denkfabrik Ember Climate bei tagesschau.de hier nicht unwichtig:
Mitten in der Gaskrise ist in der EU in diesem Sommer so viel Solarstrom produziert worden wie nie zuvor. Allein in Deutschland kam nach einer Studie knapp ein Fünftel des erzeugten Stroms von der Sonne.
Of course, the predictions include the metaverse. You’ll be surprised by this particular prediction, number 5 in the article. However, I wouldn’t be surprised if it was true. Chances are vague, though.
Die Automobilbranche schaut ja schon länger auf die Erfolgsstories der Softwareindustrie. Mieten statt kaufen, monatliche Einnahmen statt einmaliger Kosten. Für die Standheizung nur im Winter bezahlen zu müssen scheint dem ein- oder anderen Kunden ja auch noch nachvollziehbar zu sein. Wie der Benutzer @_uni_corn_ auf Twitter berichtet, kann es allerdings sein, dass Skoda den Ansatz überzieht.
Ich finde Skoda übertreibt das mit den kostenpflichtigen Zusatzfeatures etwas…
“AI will never be ethical,” the AI said during the debate. “It is a tool, and like any tool, it is used for good and bad. There is no such thing as a good AI, only good and bad humans.”
Werner Vogels, AWS CTO’s Tech Predictions for 2022
It’s this time of the year that brings us all predictions for the next year. Over on another channel I had some already, but let me collect more here.
Predictions for 2022
First here is an article from Werner Vogels, CTO of Amazon Web Services (AWS):
From the article
2022 will be an exciting year for technology, with it pushing all of us, and our planet, forward in the process
Werner Vogels on allthingsconnected.com
To summarize @werner‘s predictions briefly, here are the 5 ideas for next year and beyond:
Prediction One: AI-supported software development takes hold
Github probably made the most noise when it introduced CoPilot, however, the market has been open before that. Products like Amazon DevOps Guru or CodeGuru and GPT-3 apparently supports this approach, too. While research criticizes the high error rate of the approach, the technology will improve. After all, it will accelerate development.
Prediction two: The everywhere cloud has an edge
Not only AWS has an offering to execute code on the distributed edge of the cloud in for of in form of Lambda@Edge. Also traditional edge players turn towards cloud capabilities. Akamai announced Edge Workers earlier this year. CloudFlare has Workers sind 2017. While the concept has been around and technically viable for much longer, all this increased activity indicate a commercial viability. That will attract more vendors.
Prediction three: The rise of smart spaces, especially in senior care
When the Internet of Things became popular in the middle of the ten years, Product Managers have been looking at this space already. The reason is simple: emotion is driving a huge willingness to buy. However, in most countries, this is a highly regulated market. Companies will push for their share, but the entry is difficult.
Prediction four: Sustainability gets its own architecture
Which is way overtime. Most will say the architecture is simple, less of the same. However, computing and storage used to be a scarce and expensive resource. Those in the age to remember a C64, an Amiga or even early PCs can relate. Software architecture had to cater for those limitations. Only with the advent of the cloud resources became virtually endless and affordable. Architecture out of a sudden didn’t have to consider technical limitations, which shows in modern stacks. In the future, architecture will follow sustainability constraints.
Prediction five: A new wave of connectivity will bring about a new class of applications
That’s a bold one. After Web 1.0, Web 2.0 and what many call Web 3.0, this is difficult. Low Earth orbit (LEO) satellites sure are a thing and there is no reason starlink wouldn’t be successful. Their approach is set to bring affordable broadband to every corner of the planet. Only: which problem – in scope of this prediction – does this solve? The world has places and societies that do need internet connectivity. Those areas are not a typical home for any of these projects that would require connectivity. And still then, that’d be known applications in remote areas.
