Category: Technology

NVIDIA’s GPUs powered the AI revolution. Its new Blackwell chips are up to 30 times faster

NVIDIA’s GPUs powered the AI revolution. Its new Blackwell chips are up to 30 times faster

In less than two years, NVIDIA’s H100 chips, which are used by nearly every AI company in the world to train large language models that power services like ChatGPT, made it one of the world’s most valuable companies. On Monday, NVIDIA announced a next-generation platform called Blackwell, whose chips are between seven and 30 times faster than the H100 and use 25 times less power.

“Blackwell GPUs are the engine to power this new Industrial Revolution,” said NVIDIA CEO Jensen Huang at the company’s annual GTC event in San Jose attended by thousands of developers, and which some compared to a Taylor Swift concert. “Generative AI is the defining technology of our time. Working with the most dynamic companies in the world, we will realize the promise of AI for every industry,” Huang added in a press release.

NVIDIA’s Blackwell chips are named in honor of David Harold Blackwell, a mathematician who specialized in game theory and statistics. NVIDIA claims that Blackwell is the world’s most powerful chip. It offers a significant performance upgrade to AI companies with speeds of 20 petaflops compared to just 4 petaflops that the H100 …read more

We’re one step closer to a global cybersecurity standard for smart home devices

The Verified Product Security Mark is a new labeling program from the CSA designed to help users easily identify what cybersecurity protections an IoT device has in place. | Image: CSA

As useful as connected devices like video doorbells and smart lights are, it’s wise to exercise caution when using connected tech in your home, especially after years of reading about security camera hacks, fridge botnet attacks, and smart stoves turning themselves on. But until now, there hasn’t been an easy way to assess a product’s security chops. A new program from the Connectivity Standards Alliance (CSA), the group behind the smart home standard Matter, wants to fix that.

Announced this week, the CSA’s IoT Device Security Specification is a baseline cybersecurity standard and certification program that aims to provide a single, globally recognized security certification for consumer IoT devices.

Device makers who adhere to the s…

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Steam streamlines its family sharing features

The Steam logo on a pink background, surrounded by Valve logos.
Image: The Verge

Today, Steam launched Steam Families, an overhaul of its family sharing system. The new system gets rid of limits on how many people can play games from one library, makes buying games for your kids easier, and adds new parental controls and sharing options.

Before, you needed to use two different systems — Family Sharing and Family View — if you wanted to share your library but limit which games your kids could play. Also under the old approach, only one person at a time could play a game from another’s library. Now — to use Steam’s example — if you’re playing your copy of Portal 2 and someone else wants to play Half-Life from your library, that’s fine. They’ll only be booted if you start up Portal 2 while they’re playing it from your…

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Nvidia reveals Blackwell B200 GPU, the ‘world’s most powerful chip’ for AI

The Blackwell B200 GPU. | Image: Nvidia

Nvidia’s must-have H100 AI chip made it a multitrillion-dollar company, one that may be worth more than Alphabet and Amazon, and competitors have been fighting to catch up. But perhaps Nvidia is about to extend its lead — with the new Blackwell B200 GPU and GB200 “superchip.”

Image: Nvidia
Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang holds up his new GPU on the left, next to an H100 on the right, from the GTC livestream.

Nvidia says the new B200 GPU offers up to 20 petaflops of FP4 horsepower from its 208 billion transistors. Also, it says, a GB200 that combines two of those GPUs with a single Grace CPU can offer 30 times the performance for LLM inference workloads while also potentially being substantially more efficient. It…

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Microsoft is planning some more pre-Build AI announcements

Microsoft is planning some more pre-Build AI announcements

It’s shaping up to be a busy spring for Microsoft, which has multiple events lined up over the next few months. Not only is there a work and Copilot-centric event this Thursday and almost certainly an Xbox showcase coming up in early June, but Build is on the horizon. The company’s major developer conference is set to run from May 21 until May 23. However, three days apparently isn’t long enough to cram in everything Microsoft wants to talk about.

The company sent Engadget an invite to a private event taking place on May 20, the day before Build starts. Details are scant, but Microsoft says CEO Satya Nadella will dig into its “AI vision across hardware and software.” There won’t be a livestream of the briefing, but reporters who attend in person will learn the news first and get hands-on demos.

Microsoft having an “AI vision” that spans across hardware and software lines up with recent reports that the company is gearing up to release its first “AI PCs.” This week’s event is expected to include at least the business and commercial-focused versions of the OLED Surface Pro 10 and Surface Laptop 6.

The …read more

Rivian owners can use Tesla Superchargers now, once they get their free adapter

Rivian owners can use Tesla Superchargers now, once they get their free adapter

Rivian owners can now use Tesla Supercharger stations to juice up their electric trucks and SUVs, after a software update issued during the weekend. The company first announced the integration last year, along with plans to include Tesla’s North American Charging Standard (NACS) ports in forthcoming vehicles. These ports won’t start showing up until 2025, so Rivian has also started a program to send Tesla-made NACS adapters to current customers.

The adapters will be free of charge, which calls to mind the move Ford made last month as it continues to transition to the NACS charging standard. Rivian will send out one free adapter per customer, based on the vehicle’s VIN number. The company hasn’t announced whether this is a limited time offering or how much additional adapters will cost. As a comparison, Ford will begin charging $230 for these adapters in July.

Rivian owners can select Tesla Superchargers as a charging option via the vehicle’s infotainment system or the manufacturer’s smartphone app. Everything is handled by Rivian, so there’s no need to download or use the Tesla app to pay for charging. Rivian’s chief software officer, Wassym Bensaid, told The Verge that this will give …read more

Hackers gave pro players cheats during EA’s North American Finals of Apex Legends

Hackers gave pro players cheats during EA’s North American Finals of Apex Legends

Respawn, the EA-owned studio behind Apex Legends has postponed the North American Finals tournament after hackers broke into matches and equipped players with cheats. The developer posted to X, formerly Twitter, that the delay has been caused due to the “competitive integrity of the series being compromised.” Footage of the hacks, available available on Twitch, gave players the ability to see their opponent’s location while notable player ImperialHal was handed an aimbot which artificially improves their aim while playing.

Cheating has been a continual issue for EA — and one that players claim the company is doing little to mitigate. Frustrated posts on EA’s general discussion page include statements like “If EA gonna ban all the cheaters it wouldn’t be enough players to play the game,” and “The real issue lies in the process of banning/suspending players.” Other grievances include a focus on profits over experience, such as …read more

The Morning After: The PS5 Pro may arrive this year

Yeah, it’s not just Nintendo prepping new console hardware for 2024. Insider Gaming reports details for the PS5 Pro come from documentation Sony recently sent to third-party developers.

Hold onto your skepticism. Based on the reports, the PS5 Pro will offer a more consistent frame rate (fps) at 4K and a performance mode for 8K resolution. It’s also expected to render games up to 45 percent quicker and have ray tracing capabilities two to three times faster than current PS5 consoles.

The report says Sony may target a holiday release for the PS5 Pro, to target those heightened sales. Can it make Baldur’s Gate 3 look pretty like it does on PC? Please?

— Mat Smith

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The FCC just quadrupled the minimum download speeds of ‘broadband’

ISPs must now offer 100 Mbps down and 20 Mbps up to slap the coveted label on their services.

At the end of last week, the FCC …read more

Sony is reportedly pausing PSVR2 production to clear excess inventory

The Sony PlayStation VR 2 headset and handheld controllers being worn by a model.
Sony’s PlayStation VR2. | Photo by Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge

After producing in excess of two million units of its latest virtual reality headset, Bloomberg is reporting that Sony is hitting pause on production to try and shift its unsold inventory. The PlayStation VR2 launched last February for $549 as an accessory for the PlayStation 5, but IDC data suggests that shipments have declined each quarter since.

Bloomberg suggests that the problem is a lack of content for the headset. The PSVR2 is compatible with a handful of AAA games including Horizon Call of the Mountain, Gran Turismo 7, and entries in the Resident Evil series, as well as a range of smaller titles. But, at $549, the headset costs more than the PS5 itself, so expectations are high. Bloomberg notes that Meta and Apple have faced…

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Apple’s AI ambitions could include Google or OpenAI

The iPhone 15 Pro (blue titanium) and 15 Pro Max (white titanium) standing next to one another.
Last year’s iPhone 15 Pro and Pro Max. | Photo by Vjeran Pavic / The Verge

Apple is reportedly in “active negotiations” with Google to bring its Gemini generative AI technology to the iPhone, Bloomberg reports, and has also considered using OpenAI’s ChatGPT.

CEO Tim Cook has already confirmed that Apple is spending “a tremendous amount of time and effort” on artificial intelligence features, and plans to release them to its customers “later this year.” Bloomberg’s report suggests that the AI features built into Apple’s products could eventually be powered by a mix of first- and third-party AI models. Apple’s models could power on-device generative AI with iOS 18, releasing later this year, while cloud-based AI features like text- and image-generation could come via partnerships with the likes of Google.

If a…

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