It’s another Thursday, and I’m back baby, with another weekly installment of theSync. This will probably be the last week these posts originate here. Next week, head on over to thesyncweekly.com for each week’s tech news and analysis.
I’m on with Mark Starling, John, and the First News 570 crew. This week’s hot and fresh tech news: US accuses Google of driving out ad rivals, Amazon launches prescription drug service, and Marines soldier detecting AI. 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.
MARINES EVADED MILITARY ROBOT USING THE OLD CARDBOARD BOX TRICK
While the rest of the world is losing their mind about ChatGPT, heralding the end of school essays by an unimaginative AI. US Marines are spending their time tricking AIs using ideas from Looney Tunes. The Marines were helping the US Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency train an AI robot in detecting soldiers. The soldiers were to help DARPA train the bot for 7 days, but after the sixth they got fed up and adopted unorthodox evasion techniques. The Marines would win if they were able to get to the robot undetected. One Marine stripped a fir tree of its limps and crept up to the robot pretending to be a tree. Another, somersaulted from 300 meters away thwarting the bot. Two others hid in cardboard boxes and crept up to the robot touching it and winning. It just goes to show that machines still aren’t better at recognizing things any silly human would recognize.
DOJ ACCUSES El Goog OF AD ABUSE
Yesterday, the US Department of Justice accused Google of unfairly dominating the online ad market. DOJ and 8 states joined in filing a 150-page complaint against Google citing the company unfairly controls the technology all major news publishers use for hosting ads, controls the leading tool used by buyers to purchase ads, and controls the largest ad exchange used for matching publishers with advertisers. DOJ and the states claim this system forces website creators to earn less while forcing advertisers to pay more. Google says DOJ is trying to pick winners and losers instead of letting market dynamics take effect. We’ll see what happens.
AMAZON LAUNCHES CHEAP PRESCRIPTION SERVICE
Amazon Prime customers have the opportunity to pay a $5 monthly subscription to receive prescription medications in the mail. Amazon RxPass provides generic medications prescribed for treating 80 common health conditions. You can now receive your blood pressure, anxiety, and hair loss meds in the box with the smile on it. The $5 fee includes shipping charges. Prescriptions will be filled by Amazon Pharmacy. An online pharmacy Amazon started in 2020. Customers enrolled in Medicare and Medicaid aren’t eligible for RxPass but can fill their prescriptions using other government insurance plans.
This is the last week I’ll be posting the top tech stories of the week here. We’re restarting theSync brand and will be sharing the top tech stories of the week at it’s new home at thesyncweekly.com. Based upon the popularity of The Cloud, we’ll also resurrect theSync’s weekly podcast sharing weekly tech tips in a minute and insights and analysis on the technology industrial complex. We’re excited to build up this platform for you and sharing some new voices on technology and trends with you.
Thanks for reading and listening!
Have a great weekend!
