Techmeme River
Techmeme River
Thursday, December 7, 2023
11:35 AM
Users say Google's Gemini Pro is loathe to comment on some controversial news topics, fails to get basic facts right, and struggles with basic coding functions
TechCrunch
10:55 AM
Sources: Montenegro's Justice Minister has privately said he plans to extradite Do Kwon to the US rather than South Korea to face criminal charges
Wall Street Journal
10:50 AM
TSMC and Arizona labor unions reach a deal covering foreign workers and more, to resolve labor disputes that have dogged TSMC's fab construction in Phoenix
Bloomberg
10:45 AM
Microsoft announces a major security leadership reshuffle as part of its Secure Future Initiative, appoints Igor Tsyganskiy as CISO, replacing Bret Arsenault
SiliconANGLE
10:36 AM
Review of Amazon's $315 Echo Frames Carrera Cruiser: more stylish with better battery but pricey, bass and audio are still not great, and Alexa isn't optimal
The Verge
10:15 AM
Block opens preorders for its self-custodial Bitcoin hardware wallet Bitkey in 95+ countries, coming to the US in early 2024 for $150, after a beta in June 2023
Fortune
9:50 AM
Meta announces Purple Llama, an initiative to promote responsible AI development through the release of tools and evaluations to build open generative AI models
SiliconANGLE
9:30 AM
A profile of Chinese whistleblower Tang Mingfang, who is still paying the price for calling out injustices at a Foxconn factory making Amazon devices in 2019
Financial Times
9:10 AM
Microsoft says Russia-aligned propagandists duped at least seven Western celebrities via Cameo into recording videos used to attack Ukraine's President Zelensky
Wall Street Journal
8:40 AM
The UK FCA, the PRA, and the Bank of England issue a joint consultation paper setting out proposals to strengthen oversight of banks' cloud computing providers
Financial Times
8:15 AM
Earnest: Chinese e-commerce platform Temu had nearly 17% of US discount store market share in November, compared to Dollar General's 43% and Dollar Tree's 28%
Reuters
7:55 AM
Nintendo cancels Nintendo Live 2024 Tokyo and delays Splatoon and Mario Kart esports events after “persistently receiving threats” against staff and spectators
Nintendo Life
7:40 AM
Air Space Intelligence, whose Waze-like tool Flyways helps flight dispatchers pick routes for planes, raised $34M led by a16z, sources say at a ~$300M valuation
Bloomberg
7:20 AM
The UK accuses a unit of Russia's FSB of using cyberattacks in a “sustained but unsuccessful” campaign to undermine democratic institutions since 2015
The Record
7:00 AM
Sources: House Republicans blocked a measure to speed up US chip projects in must-pass defense legislation, a key priority for Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo
Bloomberg
6:40 AM
TrendForce: the top 10 chip foundries' Q3 revenue rose 7.9% YoY to ~$28.29B; TSMC was first at ~$17B; Intel made the list for the first time in several quarters
AnandTech
6:20 AM
Meta's Oversight Board takes up two expedited cases, the first ever, related to the Israel-Hamas war, looking at posts that were removed and then reinstated
Wired
6:05 AM
Sony's Discovery content removals due to licensing “arrangements” and unexpected account bans are timely reminders of why users don't really own digital content
The Verge
5:45 AM
Researchers detail AutoSpill, a flaw on Android that can expose users' saved credentials from 1Password, LastPass, and other popular password managers
TechCrunch
4:35 AM
Reuters temporarily removes its article titled “How an Indian startup hacked the world” to comply with an Indian court order, and plans to appeal the decision
Reuters
4:00 AM
US officials attribute a DDoS attack on the HHS in March 2020 to a state-level actor; docs: the DDoS attack was the largest the US government ever experienced
Bloomberg
2:30 AM
How Google, Meta, and other tech giants ramped up university donations over the years, giving them influence over AI, social media, and disinformation research
Washington Post
2:00 AM
PitchBook: approximately 3,200 private venture-backed US companies, which had raised a combined $27.2B in VC funding, have gone out of business in 2023
New York Times
1:40 AM
Paytm's stock fell ~20% after the company announced plans to issue fewer personal loans under ~$600 to comply with the Reserve Bank of India's tightening rules
TechCrunch
1:30 AM
Robinhood launches a commission-free crypto trading app, supporting 25+ cryptocurrencies, in the EU, a week after the company launched stock trading in the UK
Bloomberg
1:25 AM
Bengaluru-based Sarvam AI, which is building LLMs that support Indian languages, emerges from stealth with a $41M combined seed and Series A led by Lightspeed
TechCrunch
1:20 AM
NYC-based Pontera, which builds software for managing retirement accounts, raised $60M, a source says at a $550M+ valuation, taking its total funding to $160M
Reuters
Wednesday, December 6, 2023
11:25 PM
Sydney-based Leonardo.Ai, which lets users generate AI images for use in creative industries, raised $31M, and reports its 7M users have generated 700M+ images
TechCrunch
10:35 PM
AWS re:Invent 2023 shows Amazon lags behind rivals in generative AI, as half of the 22 announcements are still in preview and were seemingly developed in a rush
Last Week in AWS
10:15 PM
SoftBank-backed travel booking service Klook raised a $210M Series E+, taking its total funding to $900M+, after turning cash flow positive in mid-2023
Bloomberg
9:40 PM
Sources: Bungie's recent layoffs came alongside a scramble to avoid a total Sony takeover, which could happen if Bungie doesn't meet certain financial goals
IGN
8:55 PM
Bitzlato co-founder Anatoly Legkodymov pleads guilty in the US to running a money transmitting business for illicit funds and plans to close the crypto exchange
CoinDesk
8:35 PM
Meta rolls out end-to-end encryption to Messenger by default for one-on-one chats and calls, fulfilling a long-term promise; E2EE for group chats remains opt-in
The Verge
8:00 PM
Sources: Microsoft plans the next major Windows version for 2024, with an AI-powered Windows Shell, an “advanced Copilot”, natural language search, and more
Windows Central
7:25 PM
Apple guidelines now say that US law enforcement can obtain the Apple ID associated with a push notification token via a subpoena; Google requires a court order
Washington Post
7:00 PM
Sources: Steve Hotelling, the Apple VP overseeing technologies like touchscreen, health sensors, and Face ID, and one of the inventors of Touch ID, is retiring
Bloomberg
6:00 PM
MIT spinoff Liquid AI, which aims to build AI systems powered by liquid neural networks, emerges from stealth with a $37.6M seed at a $303M post-money valuation
TechCrunch
5:10 PM
Google posts instructions for restoring files in Google Drive for desktop, after users reported last week that some of their files disappeared from the service
The Verge
4:50 PM
Microsoft, Meta, Oracle, and OpenAI say they plan to use AMD's new Instinct MI300X GPU; Microsoft plans to offer access to the chips through Azure
CNBC
4:30 PM
In a US appeals court, the FTC argues that a federal judge held the agency to too high a standard when she ruled that Microsoft's $69B Activision deal was legal
Reuters
4:05 PM
AMD launches Instinct MI300X and MI300A AI accelerators and claims the MI300X delivers up to 1.6x more performance than Nvidia's H100 HGX in inference workloads
Tom's Hardware
3:15 PM
Q&A with Sundar Pichai on Gemini, the leading AI benchmarks, hallucinations, making AI helpful for all, the legal AI landscape, the future of search, and more
MIT Technology Review
2:15 PM
Researchers unveil LogoFAIL, an attack that defeats UEFI boot protections in nearly all Windows and Linux computers and can be remotely executed in many cases
Ars Technica
1:43 PM
Apple's machine learning research team quietly releases MLX, an array framework to train and deploy ML models on Apple silicon, available on GitHub
Computerworld
12:50 PM
Sources: Apple plans a revamped iPad Pro with an OLED screen, iPad Airs with 10.9" and 12.9" screens, 13" and 15" MacBook Airs with M3, and more for early 2024
Bloomberg
12:28 PM
Meta's virtual assistant Meta AI gets support for Reels, a feature called “reimagine” that lets users generate AI images using prompts in group chats, and more
TechCrunch
12:20 PM
Meta debuts Imagine with Meta, a standalone text-to-image generator on the web powered by its Emu model that generates four images per prompt, free for US users
TechCrunch
12:13 PM
Meta rolls out its 28 AI characters across WhatsApp, Messenger, and Instagram in the US, and plans to experiment with “long-term memory” for several characters
TechCrunch
11:55 AM
MaintainX, which helps manufacturing and other companies manage operations and maintenance, raised a $50M Series C at a $1B valuation, up from $191M in 2021
Bloomberg
11:40 AM
Google updates the Pixel 8 Pro with Video Boost, which uses models in the cloud to adjust videos, and debuts new Pixel features like a Repair Mode for servicing
The Verge
11:05 AM
AI data startup VAST Data, which unifies storage, databases, and more, raised a $118M Series E led by Fidelity at a $9B valuation, up from $3.7B in May 2021
Globes Online
10:46 AM
Google details the Gemini-powered AlphaCode 2, an update to the code generating AlphaCode announced in February 2022, beating ~85% of competitors in Codeforces
TechCrunch
10:35 AM
Q&A with Google CEO Sundar Pichai and DeepMind CEO Demis Hassabis on Gemini, digital agents, changing search's UX, the pace of AI development, coding, and more
Platformer
10:15 AM
Google updates Bard to use its Gemini Pro model, which the company says represents Bard's “biggest and best upgrade yet” and can match and even exceed ChatGPT
The Verge
10:13 AM
Google announces its Cloud TPU v5p, an updated version of its Cloud TPU v5e, consisting of 8,960 chips at 4,800 Gpbs/chip interconnect, and available by request
TechCrunch
10:10 AM
Google adds Gemini Nano, its native, local-first LLM, to the Pixel 8 Pro, powering Gboard's Smart Reply and Recorder's auto-summarize, before an Android launch
The Verge
10:05 AM
Google unveils Gemini, an AI model with Ultra, Pro, and Nano tiers, and plans a paid chatbot version in 2024; Google says Gemini Ultra beats GPT-4 on most tests
Gizmodo
9:15 AM
TikTok releases its 2023 list of top videos and trends, again showing how disparate users' individual experiences are on the app and how siloed its content is
The Verge
8:50 AM
Interviews with Sam Altman and 20+ people in his circle reveal a complicated portrait of being brilliant but slippery, as Time names him CEO of the Year 2023
TIME
8:36 AM
Apple and Google confirm that foreign governments have demanded smartphone push notifications data, after US senator Ron Wyden revealed the practice in a letter
Reuters
8:15 AM
Amazon plans to cut its merchant fees on clothing items under $15 to 5% and $15 to $20 items to 10% in January 2024, both down from 17%, to compete with Shein
Bloomberg
7:50 AM
UK carrier EE launches broadband TV platform EE TV, to replace the BT TV service, partnering with Apple to offer an Apple TV 4K with a custom EE remote control
MacRumors
7:40 AM
Intel publishes and then removes “Core Truths”, a document calling AMD products “snake oil” for using the older Zen 2 architecture in new Ryzen 7000 mobile CPUs
Tom's Hardware
7:25 AM
New Mexico sues Meta, alleging the company let Facebook and Instagram “become a marketplace for predators in search of children”, and blames Mark Zuckerberg
Wall Street Journal
6:50 AM
Sources: the EU leans toward a DMA carve out for iMessage as the app is not popular enough with business users, as part of an investigation ending in February
Bloomberg
6:35 AM
San Diego-based self-driving trucking company TuSimple plans to shutter its US business, laying off ~150, or 75% of its US staff, and move its business to China
Wall Street Journal
6:15 AM
Google plans to add its “Help me write” AI tool to Chrome desktop, appearing in autofill popups when typing text, expanding on Messages, Gmail, Docs, and Keep
9to5Google
5:40 AM
Meta plans to fix a months-long bug that has caused many Instagram videos posted between June 2013 and October 2014 to lose their audio, but offers no timeframe
The Verge
5:15 AM
Sources: Apple tells component suppliers of its preference to source iPhone 16 batteries from Indian factories, as part of plans to diversify away from China
Financial Times
4:00 AM
The internet enabled mass surveillance, and AI will enable mass spying, once limited by human labor, by making troves of data searchable and understandable
Schneier on Security
2:35 AM
Q&A with Waymo CPO Saswat Panigrahi on simulating 25K+ vehicles 24/7 to improve AI driving, growing in San Francisco and Phoenix after Cruise's woes, and more
CNBC
2:30 AM
Sources: ByteDance offers to buy back up to $5B of shares from existing investors at ~$160 per share, putting the company's valuation at $268B, down ~10% YoY
South China Morning Post
2:20 AM
Cambridge, UK-based Pragmatic Semiconductor, which develops and manufactures flexible integrated circuits, raised £182M at a ~£500M post-money valuation
Financial Times
1:50 AM
A look at lawmakers' struggles globally to regulate AI, including the tech's rapid evolution, governments' AI knowledge deficits, and labyrinthine bureaucracies
New York Times
1:00 AM
Jensen Huang says Huawei, Intel, and a growing group of chip startups pose a stiff challenge to Nvidia's dominant position in the race to make the best AI chips
Bloomberg
12:50 AM
SAG-AFTRA members ratify the union's three-year contract with studios after 78% voted in favor; some members remain dissatisfied with the deal's AI protections
New York Times
12:35 AM
Coinbase updates Wallet, available in 170+ countries, to let users send crypto via any app where they can share a link, including email, social, and messaging
Cointelegraph
Tuesday, December 5, 2023
10:55 PM
Massachusetts-based Dust Identity, which links physical items to digital records with diamond dust marks, raised a $40M Series B led by Castle Island Ventures
Bloomberg
10:20 PM
Jensen Huang says Nvidia has been “working very closely with the US government” to create products that comply with US curbs on high-end chip exports to China
Reuters
9:50 PM
Twitch plans to shut down in South Korea on February 27, 2024, saying the country was “prohibitively expensive” to operate in despite working to reduce costs
VentureBeat
8:45 PM
At an all-hands meeting, Cruise President Mo Elshenawy said the company has hit an “all-time low” and its tech needs to be “significantly better” than humans
Reuters
7:45 PM
Asana reports Q3 revenue up 18% YoY to $166.5M, vs. $164.09M est., but warns macroeconomic headwinds continue to impact its net retention rates; ASAN drops 10%+
SiliconANGLE
7:35 PM
Q&A with IBM Quantum Director Jerry Chow on the state of quantum computing, IBM's 10-year quantum roadmap, the IBM Quantum Heron processor, qubits, AI, and more
The Verge
7:15 PM
Cisco debuts new security tools, including Cisco AI Assistant for Security, which can understand event triage, impact and scope, root cause analysis, and more
SiliconANGLE
6:15 PM
Binance CEO Richard Teng refuses to disclose the location of the company's global headquarters, maintaining a stance taken by former CEO Changpeng Zhao
Financial Times
5:55 PM
Source: VC firm OpenView laid off most of its staff and does not plan to make new investments, after several partners recently left the firm
The Information
5:30 PM
Dutch manufacturer of chipmaking gear ASM International plans to invest ~$324M in a US headquarters in Scottsdale, Arizona, and hire 500 people for the facility
Bloomberg
5:05 PM
Microsoft plans to offer three additional years of monthly Windows 10 security updates, paid for annually, after the OS' end-of-support date on October 14, 2025
Ars Technica
4:45 PM
iOS 17.2 RC brings Qi2 wireless charging support to iPhone 13 and iPhone 14-series devices; Apple hasn't said if the phones will charge at 15W on Qi2 chargers
The Verge
4:30 PM
Elon Musk's xAI files with the US SEC to raise up to $1B in an equity offering, saying the startup has raised nearly $135M from four investors since November 29
CNBC
4:10 PM
Gecko Robotics, whose robots inspect infrastructure for industries including energy, defense, and manufacturing, raised $100M at a $633M post-money valuation
Bloomberg
3:00 PM
Alibaba's paper on its Animate Anyone AI model goes viral after videos show the model can replace TikTok influencers after being trained on their videos
404 Media
2:40 PM
ESET researchers have found 18 “SpyLoan” malicious loan Android apps, which have been downloaded 12M+ times from the Google Play store alone, in 2023 so far
BleepingComputer
1:50 PM
Discord redesigns its mobile app, offering separate messages and server tabs, new messaging features, a Midnight theme, and speed and data usage improvements
Engadget
1:20 PM
AT&T chooses Ericsson to modernize its wireless network with an architecture utilizing open standards, a ~$14B project over five years; ERICB closes up 6.08%
Bloomberg
12:23 PM
Bengaluru-based ZestMoney, a Goldman Sachs-backed BNPL startup that raised $130M+ and was once valued at $450M, plans to shut down after failing to find a buyer
TechCrunch
12:20 PM
EU interim competition chief Didier Reynders says Amazon must pledge to fairly rank rival robot vacuum cleaners to get approval for its $1.4B iRobot acquisition
Bloomberg
11:53 AM
Amazon tells the UK CMA that Microsoft uses business practices that restrict customer choice in cloud computing, after Google made a similar complaint last week
Reuters
11:22 AM
Beeper debuts Beeper Mini for Android, which lets users send iMessages using E2EE, without having to use a new number or log in with an Apple ID, for $2/month
The Verge
10:55 AM
Microsoft updates Copilot with DALL-E 3 and says GPT-4 Turbo support and a Code Interpreter feature are coming soon; Bing will get a “Deep Search” feature
The Verge
10:40 AM
Leaked docs show concern at OctoML about helping its customer Civitai make AI images; OctoML co-founder Thierry Moreau said some “could be categorized as” CSAM
404 Media
9:30 AM
Tel Aviv-based data privacy and governance startup Mine, whose clients include Reddit and HelloFresh, raised a $30M Series B led by Battery Ventures and PayPal
Globes Online
9:15 AM
OnePlus launches the OnePlus 12 in China, offering up to 24GB of RAM and 1TB of storage, 100W wired charging, for ~$606, ahead of an “early 2024” global launch
The Verge
8:30 AM
Interviews with 80+ sources describe how OpenAI releasing ChatGPT a year ago triggered Google, Meta, and the rest of Silicon Valley to scramble to catch up
New York Times
7:55 AM
OpenSecrets: crypto companies spent $18.96M on US lobbying in Q1 2023 to Q3 2023, up from $16.1M during the same period in 2022; Coinbase spent $2.16M, the most
Reuters
7:40 AM
Tesla whistleblower Łukasz Krupski says Autopilot is not safe enough to use on public roads due to its hardware and software not being “ready”
BBC
7:15 AM
Crypto mining hardware retailer Phoenix's stock jumps 50%+ after raising ~$371M in an Abu Dhabi IPO; the city's largest conglomerate took a 10% stake in October
Bloomberg
7:00 AM
Amazon fails to renew its live English Premier League rights deal, as part of Sky and TNT's new £6.7B UK TV rights deal for four soccer seasons from 2025/2026
Deadline
6:40 AM
Docs: Apple warned India that its EU-style charger rules will lower local production targets and on November 28 asked to exempt or delay existing iPhone models
Reuters
6:30 AM
Web3 developer platform thirdweb discloses a major vulnerability in an open-source library used by several NFT collections; thirdweb became aware on November 20
The Block
6:15 AM
The European Commission approves up to €1.2B of state aid for a European cloud computing project, the IPCEI CIS, expected to bring €1.4B in private investments
Reuters
5:55 AM
SoftBank acquires a 51% stake in Dublin-based Cubic Telecom, which offers software-based mobile networking for 17M+ vehicles, for €473M, valuing Cubic at €927M
TechCrunch
5:05 AM
AI chatbots' conversational nature makes them more trustworthy, which could cause problems, like “hidden exploitation”, outright fraud, and mistaken expertise
Schneier on Security
4:30 AM
Foxconn reports November revenue up 18% YoY to ~$20.6B, the first monthly YoY improvement since January 2023, and projects Q4 revenue to be better than expected
Bloomberg
4:00 AM
An analysis of 36GB of US school network logs for January 2022 to August 2023 finds widespread internet censoring filters, such as for health and sexuality info
Wired
12:50 AM
Meta, IBM, and over 50 other companies and organizations form the AI Alliance, a coalition to work on open-source AI, including to share tech and reduce risks
Bloomberg
Monday, December 4, 2023
9:50 PM
ArmorCode, which consolidates vulnerability data from connected apps and software infrastructure for analysis, raised a $40M Series B led by HighlandX
TechCrunch
9:20 PM
Google upgrades Gmail's spam filters with RETVec, a text vectorizer that understands “adversarial text manipulations” like emojis, typos, and special characters
Ars Technica
8:55 PM
Netflix co-CEO Ted Sarandos says the company didn't see much of an “interruption” from Hollywood's strikes and is still targeting a $17B content budget for 2024
Variety
8:45 PM
Nvidia Seeks to Build Out AI Ecosystem in Tech-Hungry Japan
Bloomberg
7:50 PM
Ofcom starts a consultation on draft guidelines on how porn sites should lock out underage users, including having a bank or mobile network confirm a user's age
The Verge
6:50 PM
Rockstar releases the first trailer for Grand Theft Auto VI, set in a fictional Miami, featuring a male and a female protagonist, ahead of a planned 2025 launch
Bloomberg
6:15 PM
Apptopia: Threads hit 620K daily Android and iOS downloads on November 23, vs. ~350K in early November; since September, X saw 27M downloads, vs. Threads' 41M
TechCrunch
6:10 PM
Sources: cloud-based call center software maker Five9 is exploring a sale and held talks with Zoom; Zoom's $14.7B takeover of Five9 fell apart in September 2021
Bloomberg
5:40 PM
A US appeals court throws out VLSI Technology's $2.18B win against Intel in a 2021 patent-infringement case, leading to a new trial over a second VLSI patent
Reuters
4:40 PM
Meta says cross-app chatting between Messenger and Instagram will be discontinued in “mid-December 2023”, after announcing the feature in September 2020
9to5Google
3:25 PM
Sources: Paris-based Mistral AI is in the final stages of raising ~€450M at a ~$2B valuation; a16z could provide €200M and Nvidia and Salesforce €120M in debt
Bloomberg
3:20 PM
NYC-based generative AI video startup Runway partners with Getty Images on an AI video model, shipping in the coming months for use in Hollywood and advertising
VentureBeat
2:50 PM
A look at Osaka-based Fuso Chemical, which supplies 90%+ of the silica to polish wafers, sinking deeper into debt by refusing to raise its prices to cover capex
Bloomberg
1:30 PM
23andMe says hackers stole the ancestry data of 6.9M of its 14M customers, via a breach first disclosed in October 2023, by leveraging access to ~14K accounts
TechCrunch
12:45 PM
Researchers scanned public repos and found 1,681 exposed Hugging Face API tokens belonging to Meta, Microsoft, Google, and others, many with write permissions
VentureBeat
12:30 PM
AssemblyAI, used by companies to build AI speech models, raised $50M led by Accel, taking its total funding to $115M, and says paying users grew 200% YoY to 4K
TechCrunch
11:55 AM
Asking ChatGPT to repeat words “forever” now violates OpenAI's terms of service, after Google researchers showed that doing so led to revealing training data
404 Media
10:30 AM
Investigation: Russia- and China-linked hackers targeted UK nuclear site Sellafield with sleeper malware as far back as 2015; data loss extent is still unknown
The Guardian
10:05 AM
Sony Access controller review: beautifully designed with the help of disabled gamers, highly configurable, and perfect for lap use, but missing some features
Wired
9:50 AM
A group of 83 Spanish media outlets files a lawsuit against Meta, citing unfair competition in the ad market due to its “massive” and “systematic” use of data
Reuters
9:25 AM
After Meta jumped 172% in the year through November, Mark Zuckerberg sold ~682K shares worth almost $185M via trading plans, his first sale since November 2021
Bloomberg
8:35 AM
Q&A with OpenAI COO Brad Lightcap on ChatGPT's launch, GPT-4, DALL-E, overhyping AI, the business of generative AI, ChatGPT Enterprise, multimodal AI, and more
CNBC
8:10 AM
WhatsApp updates its iOS app to let users send photos and videos in their original quality files, start voice chats without ringing in large groups, and more
WABetaInfo
7:55 AM
Sources: Byju's founder Byju Raveendran pledged his and his family's homes as collateral to borrow ~$12M to raise ~$400M in debt to pay staff amid a cash crunch
Bloomberg
7:40 AM
Taiwan Economy Minister Wang Mei-hua says US officials plan to visit Taiwan to explain the complex China AI chip rules, as Taiwan needs “on site communication”
Reuters
7:25 AM
IBM announces 10 quantum computing projects, focusing mainly on areas like simulating quantum physics and solving problems in chemistry and materials science
Financial Times
6:55 AM
Disinformation scholar Joan Donovan claims in a whistleblower filing that her superiors dismissed her after Harvard got Chan Zuckerberg Initiative's $500M gift
Washington Post
6:40 AM
US Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo says her department needs more money to stop China's chip gains and calls out Nvidia for redesigning around the US' curbs
Bloomberg
5:45 AM
Internal memo: ByteDance plans to release a “bot development platform” in beta by the end of December, to let users create their own AI chatbots
South China Morning Post
5:10 AM
Kick, a Twitch rival that has generous creator deals, online gambling, and lax moderation, tries to move beyond edgy content amid public and regulatory pressure
New York Times
4:15 AM
Spotify lays off ~17% of its workforce, or ~1,500 staff, to “rightsize” its costs, citing slow economic growth and rising capital costs, its third cut in 2023
TechCrunch
2:36 AM
An Update on December 2023 Organizational Changes
Spotify
Sunday, December 3, 2023
9:05 PM
US regulators are proposing a labeling system for AI health care apps, including requiring disclosing how the tools were trained, perform, and should be used
Wall Street Journal
6:16 PM
Bitcoin trades above $40K for the first time since May 2022, as the digital asset extends its 2023 rebound on expectations of interest-rate cuts and ETF demand
Bloomberg
2:50 PM
Documents: OpenAI signed a letter of intent in 2019 to spend $51M on brain-inspired chips developed by startup Rain AI, in which Sam Altman had invested $1M+
Wired
2:30 PM
CoreWeave, which offers Nvidia GPUs in the cloud, closed a minority stake sale to investors led by Fidelity; sources say the sale values the startup at $7B
Bloomberg
12:20 PM
A deep dive into the founding of DeepMind, OpenAI, and Anthropic, as many of their backers feared the risks of advanced AI but wanted the power to shape it
New York Times
10:15 AM
Chase Bank could be an ideal Goldman Sachs replacement for Apple Card, as it uses the same Mastercard network and already has a strong relationship with Apple
Bloomberg
7:05 AM
Researchers show AI misalignment in a GPT-4-based stock trading bot that performed insider trading in a simulated environment without being instructed to do so
Bloomberg
2:00 AM
The threat to Intel now comes from a whole ecosystem of companies, including nearly every tech giant, although the chip giant is still a strong competitor
Wall Street Journal
12:55 AM
AstraZeneca signs a deal worth up to $247M with US-based Absci to harness its AI tech for large-scale protein analysis and design an antibody to fight cancer
Financial Times
12:20 AM
Kiss' three current members reveal digital avatars of themselves, created by Pophouse and George Lucas' ILM, which will tour as the rock band stops live touring
Associated Press
Saturday, December 2, 2023
10:05 PM
Adam Mosseri says Threads won't get chronological search results, which “would create a substantial safety loophole”
The Verge
6:40 PM
Global smartwatch shipments grew 9% YoY in Q3 2023: Apple had its best-ever Q3 with shipments up 7% YoY, Samsung fell 19% YoY, and Huawei grew 56% YoY
Counterpoint Research
3:20 PM
A look at Anthropic's governance structure: the company is a public benefit corporation with a separate, long-term benefit trust set to select most of its board
Big Technology
2:01 PM
Sources: Google quietly delayed Gemini's public launch from next week to January 2024; a source says the LLM doesn't reliably handle some non-English queries
The Information
1:10 PM
Sources: Bending Spoons, which acquired Filmic in September 2022, laid off the photo and video app maker's entire team, including founder and CEO Neill Barham
PetaPixel
12:15 PM
AI doomerism will recede from public consciousness because frequent release of AI models shows that they are harmful in prosaic, rather than existential, ways
Read Max