Newsletter Archives

• What do we know about DeepSeek?

  Posted on February 17, 2025 at 02:44 CST by Michael Covington • Comment in the Forums

  AI

  

  By Michael A. Covington

  On January 27, the Chinese AI company DeepSeek caused so much panic in American industry that NVIDIA stock dropped 17% in one day, and the whole Nasdaq had a 3.4% momentary dip.

  What scared everybody? The impressive performance of the DeepSeek large language model (LLM), which competes with ChatGPT, reportedly cost less than a tenth as much to create and costs less than a tenth as much to run.

  The bottom fell out of the market for powerful GPUs, at least temporarily, because they don’t seem to be needed in anywhere near the quantities expected.

  But what is this DeepSeek, and what do we make of it?

  Read the full story in our Plus Newsletter (22.07.0, 2025-02-17).

  AI AI, Artificial Intelligence, ChatGPT, Claude, DeepSeek, Llama, LLMs, Microsoft, Newsletters, OpenAI

• The best stories of 2024 — updated!

  Posted on December 30, 2024 at 02:45 CST by B. Livingston • Comment in the Forums

  

  ISSUE 21.53 • 2024-12-30

  Look for our BONUS issue on January 6, 2025!

  PUBLIC DEFENDER

  

  By Brian Livingston

  The year 2024 is now in the books. I’m pleased to report some positive moves this year that may make the tech industry’s products better for us all.

  I’ll give you some important updates today on (1) keeping artificial-intelligence services from creating malicious images, (2) minimizing social-media websites’ negative effects on users’ mental health, and (3) discovering how “answer engines” are improving on the tiresome linkfests of old-guard search giants.

  Read the full story in our Plus Newsletter (21.53.0, 2024-12-30).
  This story also appears in our public Newsletter.

  Public Defender AI, ChatGPT, DALL-E, Deepfakes, Generative AI, Google Gemini, Newsletters, OpenAI, Perplexity, Social Media

• MS-DEFCON 3: A slightly bumpy November

  Posted on November 28, 2023 at 02:45 CST by Susan Bradley • Comment in the Forums

  

  ISSUE 20.48.1 • 2023-11-28

  

  By Susan Bradley

  For most Windows 10 and 11 users, including me, there have been no side effects as a result of November’s updates.

  Nonetheless, there appear to be a few potholes in the road. That’s enough to make me cautious — I’m lowering the MS-DEFCON level to only 3.

  One thing I did notice was updates taking more time to complete than usual — not a good sign. At the very least, it’s a good reason to take a look at the update history in Settings.

  Anyone can read the full MS-DEFCON Alert (20.48.1, 2023-11-28).

  AskWoody Plus Alert, MS-DEFCON Alerts, Dev Drive, Dev Home App, InControl, KB5032189, KB5032190, MS-DEFCON, MS-DEFCON 3, OpenAI, Patch Lady Posts, speed test, Uninstall updates, Windows Copilot

• How to get the most out of Google Bard and Bing Chat

  Posted on April 3, 2023 at 02:43 CDT by B. Livingston • Comment in the Forums

  PUBLIC DEFENDER

  

  By Brian Livingston

  Whether you like it or not, generative artificial intelligence — gen AI — is making its way into Google’s search engine, Gmail, and Docs. Its Redmond competitor is building OpenAI’s GPT-4 into Microsoft 365, Outlook, Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and more.

  Other tech companies don’t want to go down the tubes like buggy whips, slide rules, and Silicon Valley Bank. So they’re all racing against the two software giants to bolt gen AI into their apps and gadgets. Who knows, you might get AI-driven responses from holographic humanoids in Facebook’s failed virtual metaverse.

  Read the full story in our Plus Newsletter (20.14.0, 2023-04-03).

  Public Defender Artificial Intelligence, Bing AI, ChatGPT, Generative AI, Google Bard, Microsoft 365, Newsletters, OpenAI

• How to jailbreak ChatGPT and Bing AI — to see their evil twins

  Posted on February 27, 2023 at 02:44 CST by B. Livingston • Comment in the Forums

  PUBLIC DEFENDER

  

  By Brian Livingston

  The world has gone gaga for chatbots: text-based artificial intelligence apps like Open AI’s ChatGPT — which Microsoft is using for its new, gabby Bing AI.

  The power of these bots, which converse in a frighteningly human-like way, may be the greatest technology breakthrough since Gutenberg invented movable type, eliminating the tedious hand-copying of manuscripts.

  However, that’s like saying the invention of the electric chair was a great advance for criminal justice over the older guillotine technology.

  Read the full story in our Plus Newsletter (20.09.0, 2023-02-27).

  Public Defender Artificial Intelligence, Bing AI, ChatGPT, Newsletters, OpenAI