Here’s the full text of Jensen Huang’s memo to Nvidia
On Sunday, Nvidia announced it was launching an investigation into CEO Jensen Huang's relationship with Alice Huang, an AI executive and agent of the Chinese government. In addition to the Board of Directors announcing the investigation, Huang sent a memo to Nvidia employees acknowledging the affair. You can read the full text below.
To my colleagues at NVIDIA,
I owe my family and all of you an apology.
I was unfaithful to my wife. My actions hurt her and our children. There is no excuse for what I did. I am deeply sorry.
Throughout my life, my family has given me love and support. They deserve my honesty and loyalty. Instead, I …
Soul Glo’s Diaspora Problems is a hardcore record like no other
Soul Glo has a new record called NA I'M GON GRAB ALLAT coming out in January, and I, for one, can not wait. While two singles have dropped, it's not enough to truly tide me over, so I've been revisiting Songs to Yeet at the Sun and my favorite album of 2022 - Diaspora Problems.
"Gold Chain Punk (whogonbeatmyass?)" is an opening salvo for the ages. Bong rip, into a catchy-as-hell hardcore riff, with frontman Pierce Jordan ranting. Then comes the half-time stomp as Jordan gets fully unhinged, screaming "Who gon beat my ass? Who the fuck gon beat my ass?" From here on out, as the music shifts through a few different sections, the energy never …
Epic Games Launcher is coming to SteamOS
In October, Epic Games said that it was "investigating" making Fortnite compatible with Valve's Linux-based SteamOS. At the time, Epic Games Launcher was in preview, but SteamOS was not specifically listed as a supported distro. Now, Communications Director Jake Jones has confirmed SteamOS compatibility, along with a handful of other distros, to GamingOnLinux. In response to a question about the AppImage being replaced with Debian / Ubuntu .deb downloads, Jones said:
"The new Epic Games Launcher is still in Preview and we plan to support as many Linux distributions as possible, including Fedora, SteamOS, Cachy, Omarchy, and more. We're tes …
Nvidia is investigating Jensen Huang’s relationship with a Chinese spy
Nvidia has announced that it is opening an investigation into CEO Jensen Huang and his relationship with Megaspeed executive Alice Huang, who was reportedly recruited by China's Ministry of State Security to spy on the company. A statement posted by the board of directors reads:
The NVIDIA Board is initiating an independent investigation in light of recent reporting that founder and CEO Jensen Huang has been the target of a foreign intelligence effort. A committee of independent directors, assisted by outside independent counsel, will oversee the investigation.
The Board prioritizes U.S. national and economic security, which is paramou …
Apple is racing to make Siri more agentic
Bloomberg's Mark Gurman says CEO John Ternus is pressuring AI czar Craig Federighi to accelerate the Siri roadmap and deliver a powerful AI agent that can compete with OpenAI's Dots or Meta's Muse. While Federighi has delivered a functional version of Siri AI on an incredibly short timeline, the company has no illusions that it's keeping pace with its rivals.
Two significant improvements are expected to be made to Siri in the coming months. One will give the assistant fine-grained control over Apple's first-party apps, allowing it to do things like rotate and crop images in Photos and organize Safari tabs. Those capabilities are expected to …
Elvis and Eminem rights holders are suing Suno
Suno is facing yet another pair of lawsuits. A group of rights holders of Elvis Presley's music and the publisher of some of Eminem's biggest records are suing the AI music company, claiming it illegally generates music and lyrics that mimic those artists. The lawyers in the Presley suit claim that Suno has violated Tennessee's Ensuring Likeness Voice and Image Security (ELVIS) Act, which makes it illegal for an AI company to clone a singer's voice.
In the suit, lawyers representing Presley's rights holders argue that "Suno has mechanically encoded itself with artists' identities, hard-work, creativity, and time, and harnessed them all for …
Apple’s M5 MacBook Air is down to its lowest price since July
The latest 13-inch MacBook Air is currently available for $1,099.99, marking the second time we’ve seen this $200 discount following the company’s hefty price increases over the summer. Although the base model — which features Apple’s M5 processor, 16GB of RAM, and 512GB of storage — often sold for around $950 to $1,000 shortly after it launched in May, savings have been rare since July, making the current deal worth flagging. Amazon, Best Buy, and B&H Photo are all honoring the price across all color options.
If you’d prefer something with a larger screen, a six-speaker array instead of four, and slightly more power (with two additional GPU cores in the M5), Apple’s 15-inch MacBook Air is also on sale for $200 off. Amazon, Best Buy, and B&H Photo are each selling the 16GB RAM / 512GB SSD configuration in most colors for $1,299.99.
Apple 13-inch MacBook Air (M5)
Where to Buy:
Although it’s pricier than the newer MacBook Neo, the Air offers better value in numerous ways. It’s an ideal choice if you want faster performance, as it offers double the RAM and a speedier CPU with more cores. You also get twice as much storage, better speakers, a backlit keyboard, and a larger, higher-resolution screen. Given said differences, it’s easy to see how the Air’s improvements might make it worth the extra cost for some people.
If you’re still on the fence, though, I’d recommend reading my colleague Antonio G. Di Benedetto’s reviews, both of which were published before the summer price increases.
Read our full MacBook Neo and M5 MacBook Air reviews.
Chatbots might be coming to Apple’s HomeView
Code in the iOS 27.3 beta suggests that Apple could add support for chatbots to its smart home hub. There's a flag listed for a "Conversational Apps" category. While there are no details about what apps would fall under that heading, it seems reasonable that AI chatbots like ChatGPT and Claude could be added to HomeView. According to pdfu on X, that new beta also adds support for bidirectional audio routing and session management, but says it's "still not fully wired up."
Apple has also added anti-spoofing protection that will require a user to authenticate themselves with an iPhone after three failed attempts. It will also have a lockout s …
There’s no slowing down media’s pivot-to-video 2.0
This is The Stepback, a weekly newsletter breaking down one essential story from the tech world. For more on the pressures of creating content for the internet, follow Mia Sato. The Stepback arrives in our subscribers' inboxes on Sunday at 8AM ET. Opt in for The Stepback here.
How it started
Almost exactly a decade ago, the media industry was in the middle of a video revolution - or so it thought. In the mid-2010s, publications poured money into burgeoning social media video efforts, chasing the promise of reaching larger audiences and opening new lines of revenue. Print publications and digital news outlets alike hired teams, pumped out c …
The UV-tracking Gem made me rethink how sunlight affects my health, not just my appearance
With temperatures rising to the 90s in Los Angeles, avoiding the heat wasn't exactly an option while I was at a relative's outdoor party in August. So I sat beneath a patio umbrella with a powerful fan nearby, figuring I was protected from the sun and heat. Half an hour later, I felt exhausted, dizzy, nauseous, and generally unwell, symptoms consistent with heat exhaustion.
Around the same time, I received a notification from an app used by the $249 ($149 at the time of publication) UV-tracking necklace I'd been wearing, called Gem, from a company called The90. It warned that my UV exposure had climbed considerably. It turns out UV radiatio …