🔍 Amazon Probes Perplexity, Apple's Battery Fix, Robotics Boom

Good morning. It’s Friday, June 28. Today we are covering:

• Amazon Is Investigating Perplexity Over Claims of Scraping Abuse

• Apple Explores Novel Method for Making iPhone Batteries More Replaceable 

• Robotics investments are gaining speed after post-pandemic slowdown 

• The Best Dictation Software

•  Futureverse teams up with Animoca Brands on metaverse/blockchain tech 

Let’s dive in

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Amazon Is Investigating Perplexity Over Claims of Scraping Abuse 

By Dhruv Mehrotra via WIRED 

• Amazon's cloud division has launched an investigation into Perplexity AI for allegedly scraping websites that have explicitly forbidden it, violating Amazon Web Services (AWS) rules.

• Perplexity AI has been accused of scraping and plagiarizing content from various news websites, including those of Condé Nast, The Guardian, Forbes, and The New York Times, using an AWS-hosted virtual machine.

• Perplexity's CEO, Aravind Srinivas, denied any wrongdoing, stating that the scraping was done by a third-party company and emphasizing that PerplexityBot generally respects robots.txt files, except in specific user-initiated cases.

𝕏: Amazon’s cloud division has launched an investigation into Perplexity AI, to determine whether the AI search startup is violating AWS rules by scraping websites that tried to prevent it from doing so - Lauren Goode (@LaurenGoode)

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Apple Explores Novel Method for Making iPhone Batteries More Replaceable 

By Qianer Liu via The Information 

• Apple is exploring new technology to make iPhone batteries more replaceable in response to regulatory pressure from Europe.

• The European Union law requires phone makers to ensure smartphone batteries can be easily replaced by consumers with accessible tools by 2025.

• Despite some steps toward easier repairs, self-repair of iPhone batteries remains challenging for consumers, prompting Apple's latest efforts.

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Robotics investments are gaining speed after post-pandemic slowdown 

By Brian Heater via TechCrunch

• Robotics investments are rebounding in 2024, with $4.2 billion invested in the first half of the year, signaling a recovery from the post-pandemic slowdown.

• The humanoids category is driving much of this growth, highlighted by Figure's $675 million Series B and 1X's $100 million raise, supported by OpenAI.

• Medical robots and automation in warehouses and factories are also seeing significant investments, fueled by labor replacement needs and continued AI excitement. 

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The Best Dictation Software

By Kaitlyn Wells via The New York Times

• Apple Voice Control is the best dictation tool for Apple devices, offering ease of use, frequent accurate transcriptions, and robust command features for hands-free navigation.

• Nuance Dragon Professional v16 is the top choice for Windows PCs, known for its high accuracy, quick transcription, and useful training module, despite its $700 price tag.

• Speech-recognition bias remains a challenge, with dictation tools performing inconsistently across diverse accents, dialects, and speech impediments, highlighting the need for more inclusive technology.

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Futureverse teams up with Animoca Brands on metaverse/blockchain tech

By Dean Takahashi via VentureBeat  

• Futureverse and Animoca Brands have entered a strategic partnership to advance blockchain-based metaverse technologies, leveraging open standards and extensive ecosystems.

• The partnership aims to enhance the Futureverse Platform and its generative AI technology, including The Root Network and a suite of AI-driven tools for digital collectibles and experiences.

• As part of the collaboration, Futureverse and Animoca Brands will undertake a $5 million equity swap to deepen strategic ties and accelerate the growth of their respective Web3 investments and token ecosystems.

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Trending in AI

• Zuckerberg disses closed-source AI competitors as trying to ‘create God’

• The AI we could have had

• OpenAI Wants AI to Help Humans Train AI 

• EU Competition Commissioner says Apple’s decision to pull AI from EU shows anticompetitive behavior

• ChatGPT is hallucinating fake links to its news partners’ biggest investigations

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Take care and see you on Monday!

— Jose Montes de Oca

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