Paul Stenhouse: WhatsApp transcribes voice notes and Bitcoin approaches $100,000

WhatsApp's transcribing your (annoying) voice notes 

Got a friend who loves a voice note but you don't want to listen to their ramblings? WhatsApp's new AI feature will transcribe the note for you to read. Hurray! 

The feature is rolling out globally to Android and iOS users “in the coming weeks”, according to the company. 

This is a fun addition because it's faster to talk, but it's quicker to read. Now you get the best of both worlds. 

 

Bitcoin is approaching $100,000 

Donald Trump's presidential win and his love for crypto has buoyed the digital currency to reach record highs. It broke $98,000 for the first time on Thursday. 

Bitcoin has gained more than 130% so far this year, and 40% just since the presidential election. 

A fun aside: in 2010, a programmer named Laszlo Hanyecz made history by purchasing two pizzas for 10,000 bitcoins - a world first real Bitcoin transaction. They were worth just fractions of a cent each. Today those 10,000 bitcoins would be valued at over $980 million. 

 

Amazon is investing $4 billion in ChatGPT's rival 

If it feels like deja vu, it's because it is. This is the second $4 billion investment Amazon has made just this year. A condition of the deal is that Anthropic must use AWS for their primary cloud provider and will use Amazon’s AI chips to develop its most advanced models. 

 

Rumours the ChatGPT Web Browser is coming 

Reports in The Information suggest you could ditch Google's Chrome browser and use a ChatGPT browser instead to browse and search the web. It could also include partnerships and integrations with a variety of eCommerce websites and apps – I assume these would be almost like super premium sponsored results? OpenAI isn't commenting. 

 

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:07):
You're listening to the Saturday Morning with Jack Team podcast
from News Talk SEDB.

Speaker 2 (00:12):
Twenty one to eleven non news talks. HEB. There's this
thing with modern communication that really irritates me. It's when
people send me voice memos. It's just so annoying. You
can do it via text these days, or we can
do it on WhatsApp, so instead of typing out a message,
you just hold the microphone and then end up talking
inevitably for about three minutes longer than you absolutely needed
to to send a message to someone. For whatever reason.
It really really grinds my gears. And of course I've

(00:35):
made the mistake of telling my friends this, and so
they send me nothing but voice memos. Anyway, WhatsApp is
coming out with a new service whereby it'll transcribe those
incredibly annoying voice notes and our textbitt. Paul Steinehouse is
here with all the details. Oh my goodness, Paul, I'm
so excited. Aren't they just the worst?

Speaker 3 (00:53):
I read your message. I don't want to hear your podcast,
you just want to read it. Yeah, but this is great.
This is kind of like one of these good things
about AI. Right, So it's coming to Android. It's coming
to iOS in the coming weeks. According to WhatsApp. I
like it because it is actually faster to talk, but it's.

Speaker 2 (01:12):
Quicky to read. Yes, oh ah, it seems so obvious
and I've never thought about that.

Speaker 3 (01:17):
Yeah, but that's why people like it, right, That's why
people send them because it's great for them pain in
that if you want to be the recipient. So this
is actually the best of both worlds. Now, it's not
going to be done by the cloud though, which is
probably a good thing for those privacy conscious folks. It's
going to be done on the device, so WhatsApp doesn't
actually know the contents of what that person is saying.

(01:39):
But yeah, coming in the next couple of weeks. Keep
an eye out, very good.

Speaker 2 (01:42):
Hey, bitcoin is just going to the moon at the moment,
as they say, or go to the moon to the stars. Yeah,
one hundred grand so one bit coin's very quickly approaching
one hundred thousand years dollars.

Speaker 3 (01:53):
Yeah, wild, I just took a look today. It's fallen
back a little bit, but it did get shy of
about one hundred and fifty dollars of hitting the one
hundred thousand dollars mark. This time. In twenty twenty two,
bitcoin was fifteen thousand dollars, so huge rise. We've seen
again one hundred and thirty percent so far this year,
just forty percent, not just forty percent, forty percent just

(02:14):
since the presidential election, which is crazy. And that's why
they think that it will continue to go because Donald
Trump is considered to be crypto friendly, you see, and
so the bulls have got their money on this going
sky high.

Speaker 2 (02:30):
So keeping an eye, okay, and Amazon is investing four
billion dollars in chat GPT's rival.

Speaker 3 (02:36):
Why yeah, I have a feeling you might be thinking,
haven't we already talked about this at some point this year?
Because year we have. This is the second, yes, their
second four billion dollar investment that Amazon's made in Anthropic,
So they've just thrown a casual eight billion dollars at
the company this year. Insane interesting though, Jack. They have

(02:56):
made it a condition of the deal their Anthropic must
use AWS, their cloud computing service, as their primary cloud provider, right,
and they've also said that they will use Amazon's AI
chips to develop some of their most advanced models. So
it's a little bit of a we're going to give
you cash which it sounds like they need, but there

(03:17):
are some conditions attached, which I guess it's smart.

Speaker 2 (03:20):
Yeah, and speaking of chat GPT, GPT is rumored to
have a web browser in the works.

Speaker 3 (03:26):
Yeah. This is some reporting coming from a website called
The Information, and I find it fascinating because when we
think of Google, we think of search and we also
think of Chrome, and the two are so synonymous that
the doj over here wants to potentially get the courts
to break up Google and force it to sell its
Chrome web browser. So it's really fascinating that chat GPT

(03:50):
is now trying to position itself not just as the
new search engine by talking to AI, but now wanting
to actually think of themselves as a web browser as well.
So they are coming hot on the heels of Google's
massive monopoly they have over on the market. But it's
interesting here that they say that it may also include

(04:11):
some partnerships and integrations with e commerce websites and apps,
which I found interesting because obviously they haven't found a
great way to monetize chet GPT yet. Maybe these will
be sort of like super premium sponsored results. So you
jump on there and you're like trying to search, he
chet gpt what's the best vacuum cleaner? And maybe it'll

(04:31):
pop off to Walmart or Amazon or the Spy or
whoever it is, and maybe there's some sort of tie
in there. It only had a small mention of it,
but I'm kind of fascinated to see how that plays
out too.

Speaker 2 (04:41):
Yeah, and it feels like this is the kind of
technology that could potentially disrupt some of those long term
big digital players, right, So for something for a company
like Google, which you know is still an absolute giant
in the digital space, this is the sort of tech
that could all of a sudden change the game very quickly.

Speaker 3 (05:00):
Yeah, and look, this CEO knows that too. He's even
made some comments about the fact that these startups are
going to eat their lunch. You know. Google is kind
of like, notoriously the Fun Office, Right, you go, you
play the ping pong, you do some work, you have lunch.
And he's kind of saying that that's actually, now, what
was a pro of Google has almost become a con
because he's like, the startups are hungry. Yeah, they don't stop,

(05:21):
they don't play ping pong. She said, Yeah, he's actually
said that that's a concern for their company, like back
to the office people.

Speaker 2 (05:29):
Yeah, thanks change. Hey, thanks Paul, appreciate it. That's our textbot,
Paul Steinhouse. Thanks for your feedback as well. Jack. Just
so you know, Lego are about to release the Endurance
as in the ship. It looks absolutely fantastic, says Shane.
Didn't know that. I didn't know that, Shane. Oh, so,
like presumably it's the Endurance before the Endurance went down.
But yeah, there's a Lego for everything these days, isn't there.

(05:52):
But that does sound like a bit of meat.

Speaker 1 (05:54):
For more from Saturday Morning with Jack Tame, listen live
to news talks that'd be from nine am Saturday, or
follow the podcast on iHeartRadio.