Happy Thursday! Last Friday, as me and my friends were basking in the glow of Blerdcon, someone looking down at their phone blurted out, “yo! Elon Musk is backing out of the Twitter deal. Like everyone didn’t see that coming.” It’s true. Either way, it’s Thursday and I’m on with Mark Starling, John, and the First News 570 crew. This week’s top tech stories: Elon, Elon, Elon, the head of Tesla’s AI is out, and the James Webb Space Telescope delivers its first pictures. You can listen to me and Mark Starling point and laugh at all things tech every Thursday at 643 am ET live on the radio or the iHeartRadio app.
MUSK BACKS OUT OF TWITTER DEAL, SURPRISES NO ONE
We’ve covered Elon Musk’s shenanigans a lot on First News 570 and this week’s top tech news is par for the course. Last Friday, Elon Musk announced he’s backing out of his alleged purchase of Twitter. The $44 billion deal collapsed with Musk saying he wasn’t satisfied with Twitter’s method for reporting bots and him complaining management hasn’t kept running the company at an optimum level. Twitter shares closed at $36 per share yesterday, down from the $54 per share take over price. Elon Musk was teasing the idea of him backing out of the Twitter deal shortly after announcing his takeover plans. He took the same product he was going to purchase and complained about how crappy management was, their lack of feature innovation, and proving how many bots operate the platform. My friends in the room all agreed it was simply a, “d*ck move by Elon, to show how big his b*lls are.” And here we are.
One of the key developers of Tesla’s Autopilot feature is leaving the company. Andrej Karpathy has decided to leave the company after taking a sabbatical this Spring. He was set to come back to Tesla this month, and is instead heading out. This news happens just after Tesla laid off 200 employees working on the Autopilot project. He wants to move on to new horizons combining AI and education.
JWST DELIVERS STUNNING PICTURES OF THE COSMOS
After 10 years of development and delays, the James Webb Space Telescope delivered its first set of images this past Monday. The JWST is the world’s largest orbiting observatory and sports a light focusing mirror that’s 3 times the size of the Hubble Space Telescope. The first image from the JWST featured an updated image of the same cluster of galaxy first shot by the Hubble Space Telescope. The image blows your mind away, and makes you question, “what is all of this for?” The marquee shot features an innumerable count of galaxies in the distance. The JWST uses upgraded infrared sensors that allows the telescope to see further in the past than ever before. Amazing.
Hi guys! It’s another unofficial start of the weekend and I want to thank you for being a part of this journey. I’ve been Mark Starling’s Thursday technology analyst since 2015 and it’s been fun. Since then, First News 570 listeners and others have been steady readers of this Thursday post, and have warmly consumed the other content. I’m grateful for your readership and listenership. I’m looking forward to continuing this ride as long as you have me.
Take care of yourself, and watch your health. Live your life now, and be around those people who are important to you and who find you important.
Have a great weekend.