YouTube is making a move to help out smaller creators. Apparently when a YouTube creator hits 500,000 subscribers, it is a real tipping point as far as growth and revenue. Theverge.com reports that the new feature is called Hype, and it is aimed at smaller creators and helping people discover and share new creators. Hype is an entirely new promotional system inside of YouTube: there’s a new button for hyping a video, and the most-hyped videos will appear on a platform-wide leaderboard. It’s a bit like Trending, but it’s focused specifically on smaller channels and on what people specifically choose to recommend rather than just what they watch.

Discord, a platform widely used by gamers, which is one of the largest group chat apps in the world, has announced that audio and video calls will all be end-to-end encrypted. According to techcrunch.com, even Discord won’t know what users talk about in the conversations. Many other popular chat apps like iMessage, WhatsApp, Signal, and Facebook Messenger already have end-to-end encryption. Discord has 200 million monthly users. 

California Governor Newsom has signed a couple of AI bills that had the strong backing of the SAG-AFTRA entertainment union. Variety says that the bills build on the protections the union got following signing of deals after the 4 month actors strike against major studios last year. The studios’ Motion Picture Association had initially opposed the bills, but dropped its opposition after changes that were put in that protect standard post-production techniques and free speech rights. SAG-AFTRA is not trying to prevent producers from using AI to replicate performances. But it does want to ensure that actors and other performers don’t see their likenesses used without their consent and reasonable payment for their use. One bill basically applies to living actors and their likeness and voices, while the other puts protections in place for dead performers…granting their rights to their estate, so the heirs can give or withhold consent…and get paid. James Earl Jones, who just recently passed, had signed an agreement allowing AI to imitate his Darth Vader voice, which should provide a nice little income stream for his heirs. 

The Biden Administration has awarded Intel another $3 billion under the CHIPS and Science Act for the ‘Secure Enclave’ program. CNBC reports that Intel is building foundry plants in 4 states to ramp up domestic semiconductor manufacturing. They had already received $8.5 billion under the CHIPS act. The Secure Enclave program is the latest development in the relationship between Intel and the Department of Defense, which includes projects to build Rapid Assured Microelectronics Prototypes, or RAMPs, and State-of-the-Art Heterogeneous Integration Prototypes, or SHIPs.

I’m Clark Reid and you’re ‘Technified’ for now.