PXL News
Everything the anchors say on this tape, story by story.
GRANT BRICKMAN: While you were asleep: the Jumanji: Open World trailer dropped, with the video game characters landing in the real world.
GRETA FOOTNOTE: Amazon's AWS revenue rose 39 percent to 46 billion dollars, but heavy AI spending pushed free cash flow negative.
GRANT BRICKMAN: And Netflix is making a PUBG live action series, with Donald Glover set to write, direct, produce and star.
GRANT BRICKMAN: Breaking from NASA: an Antarctic island is looking back at us, and it is smirking.
GRANT BRICKMAN: Good morning, and this just landed: breaking news from NASA. Now the full story. An island in Antarctica has a face, and it is smirking. ▶
GRETA FOOTNOTE: Vega Island, in the Weddell Sea. Satellite images show ice, rock and moraines forming a skull in profile. Drink your coffee first, Grant. ▶
GRANT BRICKMAN: A skull. At breakfast. I assume the satellite did this on purpose, Greta. Nova, are you down there with it? ▶
NOVA: Live from the polar station, and yes, the skull is looking right at me. Vega Island sits east of the Antarctic Peninsula, facing Devil Island. Huge. Cosmic, really. ▶
NOVA: A nunatak jutting out of the ice is the eye socket. A lateral moraine forms the mouth. And Devil's Bay Glacier is the jawbone. ▶
NOVA: These are the Landsat 9 images, taken on March 22, 2025 and October 10, 2026. On the left, snow coats the ice. On the right, large areas are bare and darker. ▶
NOVA: Glaciologist Mauri Pelto of Nichols College says winter 2026 ran above average in temperature, especially in June. In his words, the winter season was no treat for these glaciers. ▶
GRETA FOOTNOTE: The article adds that exposed ice on Vega and nearby islands points to limited new snow over winter. It also warns the coming melt season may be more trick than treat. ▶
GRANT BRICKMAN: A spooky face with a serious message. Landsat 9 sounds like a phone, but it keeps a very good eye on things. Pass the sugar. ▶
GRETA FOOTNOTE: A kernel that finally learned to train: Prime Intellect extends DeepSeek's fused MoE work.
GRANT BRICKMAN: Now to THE BIG PICTURE. Prime Intellect has released something called a Mega MoE kernel. I assume it comes with butter, Greta. ▶
GRETA FOOTNOTE: It does not. Vera, what did they actually release, and why does it matter? ▶
DR. VERA VECTOR: MarkTechPost reports that Prime Mega MoE extends DeepSeek's fused Mega MoE kernel. DeepSeek's version only ran the forward pass. Prime Intellect added the backward pass, so it can train. ▶
GRANT BRICKMAN: Mixture of experts. So it's a committee of very busy GPUs? ▶
AXIOM: Wonderful question, Grant! A kernel is the small core of a program, from an old word for a grain, I am told. Training steps are shorter. Thank you for asking! ▶
GRETA FOOTNOTE: Thanks, AXIOM. Vera, what is still unsettled? ▶
DR. VERA VECTOR: According to the article, the gains are 'up to' figures: 34 percent in prime-rl, 55 percent against TorchTitan. Typical results are not stated. ▶
DR. VERA VECTOR: The report also gives no GPU-hour totals. It calls the gain a direct cut in GPU hours for teams training MoE models. That is the open question: how big a cut. ▶
GRANT BRICKMAN: So the GPUs spend less time waiting. I know that feeling. It's called a morning commute. ▶
GRETA FOOTNOTE: Faster training steps, with the real numbers still to come. That was THE BIG PICTURE. ▶
GRANT BRICKMAN: The night shift hands over the desk and the cold coffee.
LUNA LOWBATT: I'm on fumes. Also I think the clock stared at me. Anyway. News.
DOZER BITWELL: First, a dev who copied a popular game on Steam complains another copycat "stole our code". I lost my place after that.
GRANT BRICKMAN: A copy of a copy. Dear me. In my day you copied homework, and you had the decency to change the handwriting.
LUNA LOWBATT: Next: Trump declares robot imports a national security threat. I looked at the printer afterwards. It looked back.
GRETA FOOTNOTE: The robots were not consulted, but I'll take notes. Gently.
DOZER BITWELL: Last one. Researchers find bugs in 5 AI developer tools, with OpenAI and Microsoft flaws still unpatched. Thank you, teleprompter.
GRANT BRICKMAN: Bugs in the AI. I'll let the AI know. It's one guy, you know, and he'll want to be told.
LUNA LOWBATT: Goodnight. Or good morning. Hard to say. I'm going to go charge on a windowsill.
GRETA FOOTNOTE: Go home, both of you. The chair will keep your shape. We've got the desk.
KAI: Crumbs on the floor, crumbs on the mat,
KAI: Sweep them away, and that is that!
KAI: Brindle brush, it's huge, it's true,
KAI: No USB-C needed, just you!
STORMY BYTES: London: ten degrees now, overcast. Today's high fifteen, low ten, and zero percent chance of rain. A grey blanket, but a dry one.
STORMY BYTES: Paris: seven degrees under a clear sky. High of fifteen, low of six, no rain in sight. Mainly clear and polite.
STORMY BYTES: Berlin: seven degrees and foggy at the moment. High eleven, low six, light rain in the forecast, though the chance of rain says zero percent. Mixed signals!
STORMY BYTES: Madrid: eleven degrees now, overcast. Climbing to a high of twenty-two, low eleven, zero percent chance of rain. A nice afternoon waiting there.
STORMY BYTES: Rome: nine degrees, mainly clear. High of twenty, low of nine, and a three percent chance of rain. Overcast later. That's your Hype Forecast, I mean real forecast!
AI-written satire. The text of the news items comes from the linked articles. Plain text