Author: Brett Venter

Earlier this week, a collection of former Google Deepmind workers and former and current OpenAI staff released an open letter calling for whistleblower protection for those who want to warn about the “serious risks posed by these technologies”. According to those involved, these run up to “the loss of control of autonomous AI systems potentially resulting in human extinction”. The open letter doesn’t offer up specific concerns but it does list a series of commitments the signatories would like AI companies to adopt. Everything mentioned revolves around protecting the livelihood of those who might express concerns about the development and…

The Humane AI Pin, if you were paying attention in the last few weeks, went from one of the “best inventions of 2023” (really, Time? Really?) to an absolute dumpster fire of a product. Turns out, that last bit should be taken literally. Folks who bought the Pin despite Marques Brownlee’s warnings have been receiving emails from Humane warning them to cease using the device’s charger immediately. Why? Well, there’s a significant risk that it’ll catch fire and burn down your home. Oh, the Humane-ity Okay, so that last bit is just extrapolation on our part but the company claims…

“Babe? Why aren’t you logged into your metaverse avatar? Your boss is going to be so mad at you for missing the meeting.” If Mark Zuckerberg gets his way (he probably won’t), this bit of significant other encouragement might become reality (it won’t) in the new future. We’ll supposedly get a glimpse of that future at Meta Connect 2024, which is set for 25 and 26 September this year. Meta Connect 2024’s announcement came via Twitter X.com, which is a strange place for a company that owns Facebook, Instagram, and Threads to do it. But what do we know about…

PC Gaming company Zotac has made its Zone handheld gaming PC official at Computex 2024. That’s not surprising, since the company said it would during a teaser last week. What is surprising is that it’s not a rebadged competitor unit, at least as far as initial impressions go. The Zone has yet to debut on the company’s official website but it’s definitely coming. Computex attendees have seen and played with the thing, but have no idea when it’ll turn up at retail. There’s talk of a September launch at a R15,000 price point ($800), which is about in keeping with…

What is your tablet actually for? That’s the question you’ll have to ask before purchasing something like TCL’s Tab 10L Gen 2 (we’re just going to call it the Tab 10L from now). It’s also the question you should ask before buying any budget tablet. Yes, it’s a portable little computer with a fair-sized screen but it does less than your average smartphone or laptop computer. A tablet, to be competitive with either device it closely resembles, has to be substantially more expensive than this budget slate. At around R2,900, you’ll never edit videos on the Tab 10L. You can,…

It’s not often that South Africa gets a new smartphone brand launching and it’s less often that one of the first offerings will make every competitor nervous. That’s what you can expect from the budget-focused Nothing Phone 2a, which drops shortly in South Africa starting at R8,700. Stuff didn’t have the more affordable version — our review model will set buyers back R10,000 at retail — but it’s still inexpensive enough to make even the most refined Chinese brand nervous. A Korean brand too, perhaps. Nothing is a British company, legally, but it was launched by one of the (Chinese)…

Is Sightful’s Spacetop G1 laptop the future of portable computing? The minds behind the company, whose founders were involved with the Magic Leap, certainly want you to think so. But the new computer, which has yet to launch but can be reserved right now, may have some proving to do. That’s because the G1 dispenses with the notebook’s screen entirely, having in its place a set of augmented reality glasses. It’s certainly a bold move. Apple has launched its Vision Pro at a relatively massive price and Google’s last attempt, Project Iris, has imploded but maybe a fairly unknown outfit…

Minecraft has been around for fifteen years. That might be why Mojang and Microsoft are making a big deal about the educational survival game* right now. The newest bit of news about the title? That would be its very own animated Netflix series. No, not that one. Another one. Not content with having the best-selling game of all time (a claim which may have some creative counting but seems to hold up), it’s time for an all-new Netflix series that seems more focused on the Mojang version of the game rather than the TellTale Games rendition of it. Arts and…

Acer plans on bringing loads of tech to Taipei-based Computex next week but, like Zotac, the company has unveiled some of its presentation early. The SpatialLabs camera is a product we didn’t see coming from Acer. It’s not that the brand doesn’t do cameras — it’s got some particularly nice conferencing models — it’s more that we didn’t expect… well, this. The camera’s full title is the Acer SpatialLabs Eyes and its purpose is to film 3D video. Whether you want to use this video to create something or have the most extravagant Zoom meeting ever, that’s up to you.…

Sotheby’s doesn’t only sell mostly worthless digital links to overrated artwork. No, the auction specialists also sell dinosaurs. The newest dino on the block is ‘Apex’, an almost complete Stegosaurus fossil that has the distinction of being the largest fossil of its type ever discovered. The Stegosaurus hasn’t been sitting idle, either. It was unearthed in Colorado on a dig in 2022 and 2023. At 3.3 metres high and about six metres long, it’s larger than ‘Sophie’, the specimen housed at the British Museum. But since it’s privately owned, spending time at auction is a completely normal thing for it…