And these are just some of the problems.

But there are also many bright spots, and that’s what I want to focus on today. I could use some cheering up to start the weekend.

Oddly enough, I was recently reminded of the bright spots when I used a smartphone app to scan paper documents and convert them into digital PDFs to complete a bureaucratic task. Every time I use the app, I am intrigued. Admittedly, it is far from cutting-edge technology. Perhaps I am intrigued by the app because it is so useful – I don’t have a printer or scanner at home to complete this task – and it saves me time and money without requiring much technical effort on my part.

Yesterday I was amazed again when I saw a video from Google DeepMind showing an AI-controlled robot playing table tennis against a human. The robot may not be ready to win an Olympic gold medal yet, but it could pull off a convincing rally and win 13 out of 29 games despite all the randomness that the game entails.

Table tennis is of course not the end goal of this technology. A robot that is nimble enough and can react quickly could one day be useful in manufacturing, for example.

Of course, technology is also saving lives in hospitals—more with each innovation—and saving doctors time so they can focus more on their patients than on paperwork. And it’s helping fight the wildfires that ravage the West Coast every summer.

As I write this, I occasionally flip through the latest tech headlines from this morning. Things aren’t looking pretty: Cisco is expecting over 4,000 layoffs, Intel is postponing one of its biggest events due to general business difficulties, and critics are accusing Apple of defying European regulators.

It’s clear that the technology industry – and by extension, technology managers – need to do more. But as a jaded journalist, I’m not exactly optimistic.

Sometimes we all need a reminder that, despite everything, technology can still surprise and do good. That’s the case for me.

Verne Kopytoff

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WORTH WORRYING

Musk restricts EU Grook training. To comply with demands from European data protection authorities, Elon Musk’s xAI will not train its models on European X users’ data that it collected before those users had the opportunity to opt out. TechCrunch reports that the Irish data protection authority, which oversees X, had sought an injunction against the training.

More X news. According to Business Insider, the World Federation of Advertisers suspended its nonprofit Global Alliance for Responsible Media after X filed an antitrust lawsuit. The lawsuit alleged that GARM’s members illegally engaged in an advertising boycott of the platform. In the UK, the government reportedly responded to Musk’s spread of fake news and attacks on Prime Minister Keir Starmer by suspending its own advertising on X. In Venezuela, the Maduro regime has banned X for ten days for allegedly inciting hatred and civil war (the regime is said to have rigged the election a few weeks ago, and social media has been used to organize protests—President Nicolas Maduro has also urged Venezuelans to abandon WhatsApp). And in the US, some Democrats reportedly believe that X is censoring pro-Harris accounts by labeling them as spam.

Mini Mac mini. This year, Apple will launch a much smaller version of its Mac mini, based on the company’s M4 chipset, which will also be found in new iMacs and MacBook Pros, according to Bloomberg reports. The new Mac mini is expected to be about the same size as the Apple TV box and will be cheaper for Apple to produce than the versions already available.

IMPORTANT PERSONALITIES

12.7 billion US dollars

—The sum FTX has to pay its customers as compensation for the misappropriation of their funds according to a court order announced yesterday by the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission. Led by the now-incarcerated Sam Bankman-Fried, FTX collapsed in 2022, and this order implements a subsequent settlement between the bankrupt crypto exchange and the CFTC.

IF YOU MISSED IT

Apple changes App Store rules in Europe again as threat of EU non-compliance grows (by AFP)

Amazon eliminates hefty fee for sellers ahead of crucial Christmas shopping rush, by Jason Del Rey

Crowdstrike caused a global computer crash – folks at the Black Hat cybersecurity conference can’t get enough of the loot, by Sharon Goldman

Elon Musk fell for misinformation on his own platform when he retweeted and then deleted a false headline about the British Prime Minister (by Seamus Webster)

SpaceX may have to rescue stranded NASA astronauts after Boeing glitch, by Bloomberg

The popular Ford Capri is back – or is it? Why every new electric car is an SUV and why it shouldn’t be, by James Morris

BEFORE DEPARTURE

Rest in peace, Sandy Robertson. Sanford Robertson, one of the financiers who showered the tech industry with money, has died at the age of 93. Dell, eBay, AOL and Pixar are all companies that enjoyed the support of his firm Robertson Stephens. As the Financial Times As Robertson notes, he was also in some ways responsible for the creation of VC legend Kleiner Perkins, as it was he who introduced Tom Perkins and Eugene Kleiner to each other in Palo Alto over half a century ago.

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