Bytes & Backpacks #100 🍾

100 issues published and soon to be 4 years of spending all day every second weekend writing Bytes & Backpacks. What was the beginning? The desire to leave social media, but also the fear of losing touch with my "network".In these hectic times, I appreciate every time I read the Bytes & Backpacks and every e-mail you send me makes me very happy.OpenAI has had the largest investment round in its history - not just its own, it is the largest investment round ever. It raised an additional $6.5 billion, bringing the firm's value to $157 billion. The nonprofit has become a for-profit, spending $300 million a month. Is this a bubble or truly the next industrial revolution? Sam thinks the second one, of course, and he certainly won't be alone. At the same time, OpenAI has introduced a new model that can think much better about the problem. He's just not going to start spouting off the answer right now, but he's going to try to think about everything first (just like a human).What we know for sure is that AI eats a lot of energy. Tech companies are starting to have big problems with their carbon neutrality promises (both Google and Microsoft are pushing back their promises by many years). Big language models just eat energy. Microsoft is even going to buy its own (!) nuclear power plant on the infamous Three Miles Island (yes, the one after the accident) and rebuild it. It just seems now that anyone who doesn't have their own AI won't exist whatsoever. And anyone who wants to have their own AI needs lots of electricity to do it. I mean, a lot of it. We build the technology, provide the power, and then just hand over the reins - because AI is better at most activities than the current corporate bosses. Because some people think humanity has reached its intellectual and physical peak and we're just about to fall into the depths. So we're not starting off on a very positive note this time, are we?Don't despair, there's new research that has found that life after death probably does exist. In fact, some cells can "detach" from a dead body and live on as a kind of "biobot". We spend our whole lives swearing at different kinds of bots, and eventually, we become them.Now something practical. Do you have security cameras in your home? Screw security, security cameras are currently ghost hunting!Or this: Do you still put your clothes on the chairs, too? And does it keep falling off the chair and ending up on the floor? I have a solution for you!Let's have a little laugh about what is going on the animal kingdom. A selection of the best wildlife photos, the most interesting bird photos and the funniest animal pictures. Enjoy.Another app that will (never) change your life (like, ever) is Birthday Weather. Yes, you type in when and where you were born and it tells you what the weather was like. Probably the most useless link in this issue of the newsletter.Or have NASA put your name together from satellite images. As you can see, even NASA is bored...Do you have a problem with longitudinal parking? Before your car can do it on its own, watch this video, there's no better way to explain it.Do you dream of getting an older boat someday? And you are afraid of it? See what it's like to buy an older boat and live in it - in the Arctic Circle. Then buying an older sailboat moored in Croatia will seem like trivial.Tired of big hotel resorts? Try eight of the world's most interesting tiny hotels or a list of great abandoned buildings.Not adventurous enough? Then get inspired by what it's like to head out into the Canadian wilderness without food and try to simply survive.What am I reading: Disrupted: My Misadventure in the Start-Up BubbleWhat am I watching: Tulsa KingAn interesting app: MiddayThanks for scrolling down and hope you look forward to more next time. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit newsfromthewoods.substack.com