• Can Elon Musk save TikTok?  (The Verge)  (archive site)
  
  There is no reason to think that Elon Musk has the slightest inclination to buy TikTok, or that TikTok has any inclination to sell, or that China or the United States would allow this.
  
  
  
• The Ars Technica commentariat is having a complete meltdown at the mere idea that it might be possible.  (Ars Technica)
  
  It's kind of sad at this point.
  
  
  
• People are moving to Chinese spyware app RedNote ahead of the shutdown of Chinese spyware app TikTok.  (USA Today)
  
  RedNote is primarily in Mandarin, which none of them can read.  And it's available in China, unlike TikTok, so it's censored very aggressively.  Alphabet soup content gets you banned instantly.
  
  Also, the law that is set to ban TikTok applies equally to RedNote.

• Have fun with your AI-generated bugs.  (Bugsink)
  
  The bugs are generated automatically but it's up to you to fix them.  Good luck.
  
  
  
• Can AI models show us how people learn?  No.  (Quanta)

  It's not just a matter of quibbling about definitions. If language models really are learning language

  They're not.
  
  
  
• Microsoft has hiked Office prices by 45% in the Asia-Pacific region.  (The Register)
  
  Including Australia.  Thanks a bunch, Microsoft.
  
  
  
• OpenAI sometimes thinks in Chinese, and no-one knows why.  (Tech Crunch)
  
  Really?

  "[Labs like] OpenAI and Anthropic utilize [third-party] data labeling services for PhD-level reasoning data for science, math, and coding," Xiao wrote in a post on X. "[F]or expert labor availability and cost reasons, many of these data providers are based in China."

  Sounds like someone knows why.
  
  
  

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