HackerNews Summary (2023-05-04 07AM)

Source: Google shared AI knowledge with the world — until ChatGPT caught up

Summary
Google’s head of artificial intelligence, Jeff Dean, told his team to avoid sharing their work with the external world. This decision was due to OpenAI’s announcement on ChatGPT3, which significantly advanced their AI technology. Google aims to protect its search business, stock price, and future that is dependent on AI. However, industry veterans and company alumnae have urged AI developers to take caution as the technology has been developing faster than anticipated.

Fact
💻 Google would limit sharing its AI discoveries to external parties after product implementation.
💻 Google merged Google Brain with DeepMind to accelerate AI progress.
💻 Google has restructured its AI operation to quickly launch products and lowered the bar for experimental AI tools to be tested internally.

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Source: Hue Light Hack

Summary
A Hue Color light bulb has been taken apart and its different components analyzed. The bulb contains a power board, LED PCB, and logic board which together control the various colors and operations of the bulb.

Fact

💡 The power board runs the mains voltage through a bridge rectifier and generates 5V and a high voltage (around 24V) for driving the LEDs.

💡 The LED PCB has eight pins labeled A to H that control the various LED colors, and the logic board has five P-Channel MOSFETs for bypassing each set of LEDs.

💡 The logic board also features an Atmel SAM R21 MCU and a PCB antenna with capacitors and inductors tuned to the right frequency for Zigbee communication.

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Source: California’s population declines, again, as state grapples with housing crisis

Summary
California’s population decreased for the third consecutive year, with 138,000 people leaving the state during 2022 alone. High housing costs are pushing Californians out, and experts attribute this trend to the pandemic and remote work options. However, California’s chief demographer predicts the population will resume growing slowly each year as birth rates increase and foreign migration returns.

Fact

🏠 Housing is a significant factor driving people out of California.

🚗 More people are getting driver’s licenses in the state as some companies demand their workers return to the office.

💼 During the pandemic, high-income workers with college degrees started leaving the state in larger numbers than lower-income residents.

👶 Birth rates are up, and foreign migration is returning, leading experts to believe the state’s population will continue to grow.

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Source: Europeans drain billions from banks, fed up with shrinking savings

Summary
European savers are pulling their money out of banks and opting for money market funds instead. While banks benefit from profitable loans under increased interest rates, they have chosen to withhold deposit rate increases, causing disgruntlement among savers. The Crane sterling-denominated Money Market Fund index reported a 7-day annualized yield of 4.12% compared to some bank interest rates still below 1%. Money market funds remain much smaller than checking accounts at banks, however, holding 1.4 trillion euros compared to the 9.45 trillion euros held in banks across the Eurozone.

Fact

💰 Savers are moving their money to money market funds for better returns and withdrawing deposits from European banks.

🏦 Most major banks have not boosted deposit rates paid to millions of customers despite profitable starts to the year.

💸 In the first quarter of this year, NatWest customers withdrew 11.1 billion pounds while HSBC saw customer withdrawals of $10 billion and Barclays and Lloyds recorded falls of 5 billion pounds and 2.2 billion pounds respectively.

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