President Joe Biden has signed a comprehensive executive order addressing the safety and governance of artificial intelligence in the United States. The order, running to nearly 20,000 words, signifies a significant shift towards enhanced AI governance, covering areas such as transparency, safety data sharing, federal standards, and tests, and ethical considerations across various sectors. It requires tech companies developing large AI models to share safety data with the U.S. government before releasing them to the public, addressing transparency concerns advocated by AI experts. This comes just before the US, China, European Union, and major tech companies and organizations attend an international summit on AI risks at Bletchley Park organized by the UK government.
0:51 – Qualcomm Introduces Snapdragon X Elite
Qualcomm is set to challenge Intel’s dominance in the Windows laptop market with its upcoming Snapdragon X Elite SoC. Featuring a custom-designed Arm CPU core called “Oryon” and 12 powerful CPU cores, this chip promises significant performance improvements. With ray tracing support, advanced AI processing, and other enhancements, it’s positioned for a mid-2024 launch to compete with Intel’s offerings. But Apple just introduced their M3 family as well, and this takes some of the wind out of Samsung’s sails.
Read More: Qualcomm Previews Snapdragon X Elite SoC: Oryon CPU Starts in Laptops
4:23 – Windows Insider MVP Program is Terminated
Microsoft is said to be discontinuing its Windows Insider MVP program, an initiative that rewarded Windows enthusiasts with access to the company’s engineering teams and various perks. This is part of Microsoft’s broader effort to streamline its MVP-style programs, which set the trend in the industry over the last 20 years for influencer marketing. The decision is thought to represent a product management shift inside the company rather than a de-emphasis on the MVP program, which will continue.
Read More: Microsoft calls time on Windows Insider MVP program
8:21 – Jabil Buys Pluggable Optical Module Business From Intel
Intel continues to divestment non-strategic assets. This time it is their silicon photonics-based optical module business, which was reportedly quite successful for its reliable and scalable pluggable modules. The business has been sold to Jabil, aligning with the shifting demands of the data center ecosystem, including hyperscale and AI cloud data centers. This divestment follows Intel’s recent exit from the network switch and server business, among others, and is part of Intel’s new strategy of focusing on its core processor and manufacturing business.
Read More: Jabil Buys the Intel Pluggable Silicon Photonics Business
12:29 – China Delays Broadcom-VMware Merger
The $69 billion acquisition of VMware by Broadcom has hit a delay as they await approval from Chinese regulators. The companies continue to express confidence that the deal will close before the November 26 deadline, but the delay could challenge that. It is believed to be linked to recent US restrictions on Chinese access to high-performance semiconductors.
Read More: Broadcom-VMware merger held up as China delays $69bn deal
15:29 – Western Digital’s Flash Business Splits Out
The Western Digital flash memory saga has reached a new phase, as the company announced that it will split its flash memory business from its hard-disk drive division. This follows the news last week that shareholder sk Hynix had halted a proposed merger of the business with Japan’s Kioxia. The pressure to make this move came from activist investor Elliott Management, who of course wants to unlock greater value for shareholders.
Read More: Western Digital to split flash memory unit, refinance debt
Read More: Western Digital spinning out Flash business
19:09 – Executive Order for Federal AI Standards Signed
President Joe Biden has signed a comprehensive executive order addressing the safety and governance of artificial intelligence in the United States. The order, running to nearly 20,000 words, signifies a significant shift towards enhanced AI governance, covering areas such as transparency, safety data sharing, federal standards, and tests, and ethical considerations across various sectors. It requires tech companies developing large AI models to share safety data with the U.S. government before releasing them to the public, addressing transparency concerns advocated by AI experts. This comes just before the US, China, European Union, and major tech companies and organizations attend an international summit on AI risks at Bletchley Park organized by the UK government.
Read More: Biden’s Executive Order on AI Is a Good Start, Experts Say, but Not Enough
31:38 – The Weeks Ahead
KubeCon – November 6-7, 2023
Security Field Day 10 – November 8, 2023
Mobility Field Day 10 – November 15-16, 2023
AWS re:invent – November 27-31, 2023
The Gestalt IT Rundown is a live weekly look at the IT news of the week. Be sure to subscribe to Gestalt IT on YouTube for even more weekly video content.
