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May 1, 2025 8 mins

 

In this episode of Hashtag Trending, host Jim Love covers major tech news stories including Elon Musk's social media platform, X, experiencing an 11 million user decline in Europe due to content moderation concerns, NVIDIA CEO Jensen Huang's remarks on China's competitive AI capabilities despite US sanctions, and Microsoft's CEO stating that AI now generates 20-30% of the company's code. Additionally, Perplexity AI's new browser aims to track user activity for personalized ads, raising privacy concerns. Tune in for insights into these crucial tech developments.

00:00 Introduction and Headlines
00:33 Elon Musk's X Faces Decline in EU Users
02:50 China's AI Capabilities Amid US Sanctions
05:02 AI's Growing Role in Software Development
06:36 Perplexity AI's New Browser and Privacy Concerns
08:06 Conclusion and Contact Information

Mark as Played
Transcript

Episode Transcript

Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:02):
Elon Musk's X loses 11 million EU users.
Amid content moderationconcerns NVIDIA's.
CEO says, China's AI capabilities are notbehind those of the US despite sanctions.
Microsoft's CEO says, the companyis generating up to 30% of its
code with AI and Perplexity.

(00:22):
new browser will track useractivity for hyper-personalized ads.
Welcome to hashtag Trending.
I'm your host, Jim Love.
Let's get into it.
Elon Musk's Social Media PlatformX. Formerly Twitter has experienced
a significant decline in Europeanuser base losing approximately 11
million users since August, 2024.

(00:45):
According to recent reports, thisdownturn coincides with increased
scrutiny from European regulators over theplatform's, content moderation policies.
Data submitted under theEU's Digital Services Act.
DSA indicates that X's European user basehas decreased by 10.5%, dropping from

(01:06):
about 105 million to 94 million users.
Countries such as France,Poland, Germany, and Spain have
seen the most notable declines.
The European Commission has initiatedinvestigations into X compliance with the
DSA focusing on the platform's handlingof illegal content and disinformation.

(01:27):
These regulatory actions reflect.
These regulatory actions reflect broaderconcerns about X's content moderation
practices under Musk's leadership.
In response to these developments, severalEuropean institutions have ceased their
activities on X. The European MedicinesAgency, for instance, has announced

(01:48):
its departure from the platform, citingconcerns over content moderation.
Similarly, Germany's Foreign andDefense Ministries have moved their
communications to alternate platforms.
But X's problems extend beyond Europeaccording to a Financial Times analysis.
X's daily active users in the UShave decreased by approximately

(02:09):
20% over the past 16 months.
In the UK the drop is even more pronouncedwith a decline of about one third in
daily active users during the same period.
While X did experience a temporarysurge in traffic and a return of
some advertisers following DonaldTrump's election in November,

(02:29):
2024, this uptick was short-lived.
Analysts projected theplatform will continue to lose
users throughout the year.
These trends suggest that thechallenges X faces are not confined
to the EU, but are part of a broaderpattern of declining user engagement
across multiple key markets.

(02:50):
China is not falling behindin artificial intelligence.
According to NVIDIA's, CEO JensenHuang speaking at the World
Artificial Intelligence Conferencein Shanghai On Tuesday, Huangg says.
Huang says that Chinese researchers andcompanies continue to make strong progress
despite export restrictions from the us.

(03:10):
China is not behind.
Huang said.
He said.
Further that restrictions on salesto China may have the opposite effect
and make them more competitive.
There are strong rumors that Huawei isdeveloping its own AI chip Huang noted.
Huawei is one of the most formidabletechnology companies in the world.
Nvidia has been barred by the USgovernment from selling its most

(03:33):
advanced chips to China, includingthe H 100 and the newer H 200
graphics processing units or GPUs,due to concerns they could be used in
military or surveillance applications.
In response, NVIDIA developed lesspowerful alternatives like the
H 20, but even these have facedshipment delays and uncertain demand.

(03:55):
Still.
Huang argued that software, notjust hardware drives AI success.
Accelerated computingand AI is not a chip.
It's a software stack.
He said it's an ecosystemthat comes together.
You can't magic one of these things.
You have to engineer it over time.
China has announced its ambition tobecome a world leader in AI by 2030.

(04:18):
Despite sanctions, it remains amajor player in areas such as large
language models, facial recognition,and AI driven manufacturing.
Huang's remarks have added weight.
To growing concerns in the West,that export controls may slow,
but not stop China's AI growth.
His comments also serve as a reminderthat AI competitiveness hinges

(04:41):
not just on hardware access, buton talent, data, and integration.
Enterprises with interest inglobal AI markets should keep an
eye on China's evolving ecosystem.
And for western policy makers, theremarks may spark renewed debate
about how best to manage competitionand collaboration in AI innovation.

(05:02):
Microsoft CEO, Sachin Nadela revealed thatartificial intelligence is responsible
for generating 20 to 30% of thecompany's code, highlighting the growing
role of AI in software development.
Speaking at META'S inaugural LAMA ConAI developer event, Nadella stated,
I'd say maybe 20 to 30% of the codethat is inside our repos today.

(05:25):
And some of our projects areprobably all written by software
referring to AI generated code.
The integration of AI into codingprocesses is not unique to Microsoft,
Google, CEO Sundar Pichai recentlymentioned that over 30% of new
code at Google is AI generated anincrease from about 25% in October.

(05:45):
Meta's, CEO Mark Zuckerberg alsodiscussed the potential for AI to
handle a significant portion ofcode development in the near future.
We've been discussing for sometime whether AI is capable of
performing code development.
It would appear that the first waveshows an increasing reliance on AI for
code generation and signifies a shiftin the software development landscape.

(06:09):
And despite the amount of code beinggenerated today, there are legitimate
concerns about the quality and securityof that code, but it appears that for
better or worse, having up to almost onethird of code generated by the largest
tech titans is a significant milestone.
It certainly raises questions about howthe future of development will unfold

(06:30):
and how quickly additional milestonesin code generation will be reached.
And finally, perplexity AI plansto launch a new browser comet in
May, 2025, designed to monitorusers' online activities to deliver
highly personalized advertisements.
CEO.
Aravind Srinivas announced theinitiative emphasizing the company's

(06:53):
strategy to collect comprehensiveuser data beyond its current app.
The forthcoming Comet browser aims togather extensive data on users' browsing
habits, including purchases, travelplans, and time spent on various websites.
Srinivas stated, we want to get data evenoutside the app to better understand you.

(07:13):
Highlighting the goal of enhancing adrelevance through deeper user insights.
Srinivas believes that users will acceptthis level of tracking if it results
in more pertinent advertisements.
He mentioned the potential for aDiscover feed within the browser
to showcase these tailored ads.
The approach mirrors strategies employedby major tech companies like Google

(07:34):
and Meta, which have faced scrutiny.
Over user data collection practices,
but this raises concerns aboutuser privacy and data security,
especially in regions with stringentdata protection regulations.
As perplexity seeks to expand itsmarket presence, the company's
data collection methods may attractregulatory attention as well as having a

(07:55):
potential negative impact on user trust.
Those of us who are perplexity fans canonly hope there will be a paid alternative
that doesn't collect user data.
And that's our show for today.
Always happy to get to know youbetter, but that we won't track you.
You can just reach us ateditorial@technewsday.ca or on LinkedIn

(08:17):
or if you're watching this on YouTube,just leave a comment under the video.
And if you wanna support the workwe're doing, please think about going
to buy me a coffee.com/tech podcast.
That's buy me a coffee.com/tech podcast.
And uh, well buy us a coffee.
I'm your host, Jim Love.

(08:38):
Have a thrilling Thursday.
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