Gm. Stephen here. It’s Google-releases-a-bunch-of-dope-stuff day. Let’s get after it.

POLLS

Got an important one for you all today:

🏠 TECH

Google I/O SZN

It’s that time of the year again. Google’s annual I/O developer conference is today, and, as per usual, they plan to announce a wide range of new products.

Let’s break down the big hitters.

The Pixel Fold

After over a year of rumors, it’s finally official: the Pixel Fold is coming. The fold is Google’s first foldable phone, which means it can effortlessly morph from a 5.8-inch phone into a 7.6-inch tablet. It sounds cool, and it looks even cooler.

The initial price point is $1,700, a bit cheaper than Samsung’s latest foldable, the Z Fold 4, currently priced at $1,799.

The Pixel Tablet

In addition to the Pixel Fold, Google also plans to announce a Pixel Tablet. And, thanks to some leaks from a Japanese Redditor, we know its specs.

The tablet will use a Tensor G2 chip, pack 8GB of RAM, have a 10.95-inch 16:10 QHD+ display LCD panel, and be initially priced around $500-$600.

PaLM 2 and Bard

It’s 2023, so, of course, Google is releasing AI products.

The most important of these is PaLM 2, its most recent and advanced LLM. In addition to including more than 100 languages, PaLM 2 is also able to code, do math, and creatively write.

Google also plans to announce improvements to its Bard chatbot, beefing it up with a multi-modal version called “Multi-Bard”, enabling Bard to access a larger data set and solve complex math and coding programs.

The Big Picture: Google has taken some hits this year, especially on the AI front. I/O conference is a step toward getting their swag back, and hopefully fixing its AI products from hallucinating so often.

🏠 SCIENCE

The First Fetal Brain Surgery

A baby girl in Boston made history recently. And she wasn’t even born yet.

You see, this little girl developed Vein of Galen Malformation in the womb. This dangerous brain condition occurs when veins in the brain malfunction and steal blood from arteries it has no business stealing blood from. If left untreated, it results in brain damage, heart problems, and, in the worst cases, death.

Unfortunately, this is not something doctors could treat fetuses with before.

Until now.

In a medical first, surgeons were able to use ultrasound imaging to feed a needle through the mother’s stomach, the uterus wall, and the fetus’s skull. From there, the team guided a catheter into the needle to deliver a series of tiny platinum coils into the afflicted area. These coils then expanded, blocking the point where the artery joined the vein.

Two hours later, the fetus’s blood flow was back at healthy levels. A couple of days later, the girl was born healthy. And 7 weeks later, she continues to thrive.

Why should I care? Any medical advancement that helps save lives is something worth celebrating, and, if you ever have a baby with this disease, you’ll be awfully happy that these doctors had this breakthrough.

🏃‍♀️ QUICKIES

What else is going on?

• The Mars Rover has discovered faint signs of water on Mars.

• GitHub’s code search is now generally available.

• Monkey brains are now being synced with computers. Has Planet Of The Apes taught us nothing?

• China is pulling ahead of the US on AI regulation.

Stat: $540 Million: The amount that OpenAI lost on ChatGPT in 2022. Turns out that building the future is expensive.

Rabbit hole: Liz Holmes Wants You To Forget About Elizabeth (NYT)

😂 WACKY AI IMAGE WEDNESDAY

Steve Jobs selling a whole new kind of Apple

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