Iterate Weekly - Issue 177
This week we're talking about Gemini Live, CEOs working from home, Google ditches plastic on Pixel packaging, Tesla pays people to be robots, and Kevin Rose joins Substack!
Welcome to issue 177 of Iterate Weekly.
Hope you’re all doing well. This is just a friendly reminder that you can always reply directly to these messages or leave a comment on the Substack post. Feedback is highly encouraged and I’m happy to answer any and all questions that come up.
Thank you as always for reading!
Early impressions of Gemini Live
When Google announced it’s new round of products on August 13th, AI was predictably at the center of everything.
While they did introduce several new devices, they all sorta seemed like different packaging for their AI products. If you want missed the live keynote, Gemini Live was perhaps the standout of the AI performance.
Gemini live is basically the talking interface of the Gemini AI platform. While you’ve been able to ask simple questions and receive text replies from Gemini for a while, now you’ll be able to have full-blown conversations with your new AI friend.
The early impressions on the service are a mixed bag. Personally, I haven’t had a chance to dig in just yet but I plan to use it extensively once my Pixel 9 Pro arrives in a few weeks. The different voices that they demonstrated during the keynote were impressive in terms of quality and diversity. They sounded pretty, but who knows if they’ll be telling you useful information or not.
This product is obviously aimed to compete with OpenAI’s ChatGPT conversation feature. And let’s be real, all of these services are basically trying to replicate the report that Joaquin Phoenix and Scarlett Johansson had in the movie “Her”.
We’ll see how many people actually use this feature when the new devices start to arrive on doorsteps. Google was smart enough to include a free year of their Gemini Pro service for those of us who pre-ordered Pixel 9 Pros. But how many of those people will continue to pay for the service for $20 per month after that?
Google has a year to make us all actually want/need to use Gemini Live.
🎓 Education/Productivity/Work
CEOs working from home just as much as their employees
Maybe lost in the sea of workplace changes stemming from the pandemic is the fact that CEOs like working from home too.
Yeah, it’s hard to believe right? We don’t picture CEOs as lazy bums on couches with laptops. No, they can’t have personal lives or families right? They need to be at the office before everyone and must burn that midnight oil long after everyone else has resumed their civilian lives.
I kid. But the story here is really about CEOs keeping remote work privileges while enforcing the lower ranks to report to an office. That disconnect is where the problem lies. No, not every CEO role is the same. Some CEOs thrive on in-person energy or prefer face time with a variety of colleagues. But there are plenty of other bosses who get more done in isolation or just feel like rising to the top ranks of a company should come with the perk of flexibility.
I’d certainly agree.
♻️ Health/Environment/EVs
Google ditches plastic for this year’s Pixel packaging
You can probably tell that I still have Pixel fever after the MadebyGoogle event this year. As I eagerly await my new Pixel 9 Pro and Pixel Watch 3, I’ve been digging the consistent stream of Google-related content this month.
One example is this story of how Google has managed to ship this new line of devices without any plastic.
I know, I know, it’s just marketing. They’re just trying to “greenwash” the process of selling people devices that they likely don’t need. And whether these packages are made of plastic, paper, or algae, they still need to shipped all around the world burning tons of fossil fuels.
But all those things aside! I love hearing from packaging designers at Google. I vote for some of these folks to get stage time at the next event rather than just hearing from the engineers and product folks. It really seems like they put more thought into the packaging this year than in previous years. You can finally just toss the whole box into the recycling bin without needing to worry about those plastic films, clips, or inserts. Only paper is being used here.
And aside from the green angle, I actually think these packages look nicer with the textured brown paper vibe. Much better than the all white slippery boxes of the past. Is it just me or do these boxes also look much easier to open? That’s a total win as well.
Nice work Google!
🛍 Grab Bag
Tesla is paying people to wear robot suits
I used to work in one of those giant converted old warehouse spaces that housed tons of different companies doing weird things. There was one suite that did motion capture for video games and we’d often see folks roaming the halls in all the gear, usually covered with ping pong ball sensors.
Anyway, motion capture suits have gotten a little more svelte these days but they still require humans to wear them and wander around. And if you’re looking for a new gig, Tesla is paying people to gather some motion capture data for their Optimus humanoid robots. Here is exactly how Tesla’s career page describes it:
…pays up to $48 per hour and requires walking for over seven hours a day while carrying up to 30 pounds and wearing a VR headset for “extended periods of time.”
Hmm, sounds like pretty tough work, but someone has to do it right? Tesla is hoping that enough human data mimicking the movements of their robot will make it appear more human. Apparently they’ve already hired over 50 employees to don these suits. If nothing else, it’s an amazing thing to put on your resume…
💬 Quote of the Week
"Nobody ever drowned in his own sweat."
-Ann Landers
🖥️Content Review
The Kevin Rose Newsletter on Substack
I’ve been following Kevin Rose for a long time. I remember watching him on TechTV as a teenager. Then I worked at one of the companies he co-founded, Revision3. Over the years I’ve been a big fan of his various podcasts and newsletters.
So I was excited to see that he recently brought his work over to Substack and is building a nice little community around emerging tech, finance, and longevity research.
If you enjoy my writing, I think there is a very high chance that you’ll love what Kevin is working on these days. Go check it out and subscribe.
Thanks for reading, I’ll see you next week!
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