Good Morning! Elon Musk is back in the AI chatbot game with Grok, while Google has abandoned its controversial Web Environment Integrity API proposal. Also in tech news, the landmark copyright case between Intel and NEC over microcode has implications for the semiconductor industry.

— Forrest Knight & Meghanadh Vasireddy

Elon Musk Unveils Grok: A Chatbot with a Twist

Elon Musk has introduced Grok, a new AI chatbot with a "rebellious streak." Developed by Musk's AI company, xAI, Grok is inspired by The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy and is designed to answer questions with a “dash of wit”.

Grok is currently in its early beta stage, having undergone just two months of training. Despite its nascent stage, Grok has shown promising results, surpassing GPT-3.5, the model used in the freely available version of ChatGPT, on some benchmarks such as solving middle-school maths problems. However, it still lags behind the most powerful ChatGPT model, GPT-4.

The chatbot is designed to tackle "spicy questions" that other models tend to avoid, adding a unique flavor to its responses. It also has real-time access to user posts on X, the platform owned by Musk, which allows it to provide up-to-date information.

Grok will be available to premium subscribers on the X platform after testing. The subscription fee for X Premium users is $16 a month. However, there is no public timeline for when Grok will be out of beta.

The introduction of Grok comes at a time when AI chatbots are becoming more sophisticated and the potential risks of AI are being widely discussed. Musk himself has called for regulation of AI, warning that it could pose a serious threat to civilization if not developed and deployed responsibly.

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Google Abandons Controversial Web Environment Integrity API

Google has officially abandoned its controversial Web Environment Integrity API proposal, a move that has been welcomed by many in the tech community.

The Web Environment Integrity API was designed to allow websites to verify the authenticity of users and their devices or browsers. Google's intention was to enhance user trust in online environments and combat issues such as social media manipulation, phishing campaigns, non-human traffic in advertising, and account takeover attempts.

However, the proposal was met with significant backlash from the public and competitors alike, with concerns raised about the potential implications of introducing DRM-like features to the open web. Critics argued that the API could potentially infringe on user privacy by requiring access to far-reaching data from the user.

In response to the feedback, Google announced that the Web Environment Integrity proposal is no longer under consideration by the Chrome team. Instead, Google has shifted its focus to a more narrowly scoped solution: the Android WebView Media Integrity API.

This new API targets WebViews embedded in apps on Android devices with Google Mobile Services (GMS). The Media Integrity API provides embedded media providers with a tailored integrity response and ensures their streams operate in a secure and trusted environment. Notably, the API does not share any user or device identifiers to prioritize user privacy.

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Intel vs NEC: The Microcode Showdown

In the world of semiconductors, a four-year-long copyright lawsuit between Intel and NEC over the V20's microcode has been making waves. This case, featuring two industry giants and a novel chip design, has far-reaching implications for the sector.

The NEC V20, a microprocessor designed and produced by NEC, was both pin and object code compatible with the Intel 8088, with an instruction set architecture similar to that of the Intel 80188. The V20's die comprised 63,000 transistors, more than double the 29,000 of the Intel 8088 CPU. This chip was designed for a clock duty cycle of 50%, compared to the 33% duty cycle used by the 8088. These internal differences meant that the V20 could typically complete more instructions in a given time than the Intel 8088, running at the same frequency.

However, the crux of the lawsuit lay in the microcode. NEC started work on a new set of 8086/88 compatible CPUs after licensing the 8086/88 microcode from Intel. These CPUs would use NEC’s own microcode, which differed significantly from Intel’s, due to the very different microarchitecture of the new designs.

Intel alleged that NEC infringed its copyright in the code that makes up the microcode of the 8086 and 8088 chips when designing the NEC V30 and V20. NEC countered, arguing that their microcode was not copied from, or substantially similar to, the 8086/88 code.

The court found that NEC’s microcode did not infringe Intel’s copyrights, despite some striking similarities. The court attributed these similarities to the functional constraints of the hardware, the architecture, and the need for 8086/88 compatibility.

The V20, with over 75% of the microcode rewritten, translated into a more efficient microprocessor, having as much as a 30% increase in speed. The CPU instructions executed faster on the V20 than on the 8088, and memory access was also faster.

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Secret EU law threatens Internet security

The European Union's new electronic identification regulation, eIDAS, is under fire for potentially threatening internet security. The regulation, designed to unify standards for secure online transactions across EU countries, is now being criticized for mandating that browsers accept EU member state-issued Certificate Authorities (CAs) and not remove them even if they are unsafe.

The eIDAS regulation, which began to take effect in 2016, aims to facilitate the smooth flow of commerce in the EU through transparency, security, technical neutrality, cooperation, and interoperability. However, new legislative articles envision that all web browsers distributed in Europe will be required to trust the certificate authorities and cryptographic keys selected by EU governments.

These changes could potentially expand the capability of EU governments to surveil their citizens by ensuring cryptographic keys under government control can be used to intercept encrypted web traffic across the EU. This has raised privacy concerns for EU citizens and has been criticized by over 400 cybersecurity experts and researchers worldwide who have signed an open letter calling on the EU to abandon these plans and safeguard the web.

The EU's move to mandate trust in certain CAs is seen as breaking the entire trust model of the internet. By definition, trust cannot be mandated. If it's mandated, it isn't trust, it's something else. The EU is urged to urgently reconsider this text and make clear that Article 45 will not interfere with trust decisions around the cryptographic keys and certificates used to secure web traffic.

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Youtube Spotlight

Dev Startup Day 6 - Meeting with Supabase

In this video, Forrest meets with Alaister from Supabase to discuss the issues he has been facing and ensure he is on the right track. They address topics such as database schema, access policies, and username implementation. The meeting helps clarify the issues and provides guidance for the project.

More Notes

Kotlin Multiplatform is now stable

• JetBrains has released the stable version of Kotlin Multiplatform, a technology for sharing code among iOS, Android, desktop, web, and other platforms. Kotlin Multiplatform allows developers to create applications for various platforms and efficiently reuse code across them while retaining the benefits of native programming.

ChatGPT subscribers may get a 'GPT builder' option soon

• A significant ChatGPT update has leaked, showing a custom chatbot creator with many features. The 'GPT builder' option will allow subscribers to create their own chatbots using the GPT technology. The update is still in development and has not been officially announced by OpenAI.

Arch: Remove Itanium (lA-64) architecture

• The Itanium (lA-64) architecture will be removed from the Arch Linux distribution. The decision was made due to the lack of support and usage of the architecture. Arch Linux is a popular Linux distribution known for its simplicity and flexibility.

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