Securing Bytes, Safeguarding Users

The US House of Representatives is poised to vote on a bill that requires TikTok’s Chinese parent company, ByteDance, to sell the app within approximately six months. If ByteDance fails to comply, TikTok could face a nationwide ban. The bill’s primary objectives are to address national security worries and safeguard user data

All this and more in today’s newsletter

News Bytes

• US House of Representatives is set to vote on a bill that would give TikTok’s Chinese owner, ByteDance, approximately six months to divest the popular short-video app used by about 170 million Americans or face a ban. The bill aims to address national security concerns and protect user data.

• Cognition, a newly formed AI startup backed by Peter Thiel’s Founders Fund and tech industry leaders, has unveiled an autonomous AI software engineer named Devin. Unlike existing coding assistants, Devin stands out by handling entire development projects from start to finish. It can write code, fix bugs, and execute tasks end-to-end. Users interact with Devin through natural language prompts, and it operates within a sandboxed compute environment.

• Perplexity CEO Aravind Srinivas explains that chatbots are now being used similarly to traditional search engines. To cater to users’ needs, especially when it comes to restaurant recommendations, Perplexity seamlessly incorporates Yelp’s maps, reviews, and other relevant details into its responses.

• A recent report, commissioned by the US State Department, presents a dire outlook on the grave national security threats arising from the rapid advancement of artificial intelligence. The report emphasizes that the federal government must act swiftly to prevent a potential catastrophe.

• A design VP at Microsoft, collaborated with his 13-year-old son, to create a children’s book titled “Max & The Purple Anxiety Monster.” The book revolves around coping with anxious feelings and was inspired by experience of moving from Seattle to Chicago. Using OpenAI’s DALL-E, an AI program that generates images from text prompts.

Life Assistance - Productivity Tools

• Tattoos.ai : Create the perfect tattoo design with your personal tattoo artist

• Snapdress : Upload a photo and quickly change your outfit. Get new ideas and trend suggestions

• RoamAround : An AI-assisted travel itinerary creator. Simple and easy to use website

• AI HairStyles : Try out new hairstyles from one of your selfies with an AI that knows trends and fashion

• Recipes By AI : Not sure what to cook tonight? Enter a list of ingredients, with or without quantities, and your personal AI chef will come up with a tailor-made recipe

Social Media Bytes

Cognition brings the Devin - The software engineer assistant

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