Techmeme
February 11, 2019, 11:10 AM

Top News

David Pierce / Wall Street Journal:
Hands-on with AR navigation on Google Maps that the company is testing with Local Guides, a group of power users helping Google improve its Maps experience  —  The coming Google Maps augmented-reality navigation feature will look through your phone's camera to figure out where you are and show you where you are going.
Will Knight / MIT Technology Review:
Trump to sign American AI Initiative executive order that will prioritize federal funding for AI, create resources for AI researchers, establish standards, more  —  Artificial intelligence may have been invented in the United States, but other nations, including China, Canada, and France …
Charlie Osborne / ZDNet:
US Army starts deploying FLIR's Black Hornet nano-drones that measure 6.6" across, weigh less than 33 grams, and provide HD photos and live video for soldiers  —  Black Hornets are nano-drones able to perform reconnaissance during combat operations.  —  The US Army aims to give almost …
Kate Losse / New Republic:
While tech companies' mission statements claim their work has a higher purpose, CEOs also keep them vague so employees can't use them to make concrete demands  —  Tech workers are using company mission statements to hold their CEOs accountable.  —  Companies in Silicon Valley are wonderfully fond …
Times of India:
Indian parliamentary panel summons Twitter CEO to appear before it on February 25 to discuss data privacy and misuse of social media ahead of national elections  —  HIGHLIGHTS  — The committee meeting was scheduled for February 7 but was later postponed to February 11 to allow the Twitter CEO …
More: Reuters
Reuters:
Autonomous vehicle startup Nuro says it has raised $940M from SoftBank's Vision Fund, valuing the company at $2.7B  —  (Reuters) - Autonomous technology startup Nuro said on Monday it raised $940 million from SoftBank Group Corp, which valued the Silicon Valley-based company at $2.7 billion.
Mark Suster / Both Sides of the Table:
VCs raised $55B in 2018, similar to what was raised in 1999, but most of the increased funding went into growth rounds, which are effectively private IPOs  —  I've heard a lot of people question whether there is too much money in venture capital chasing too few great deals.
Dean Takahashi / VentureBeat:
Q&A with Zynga's CEO on the once-beleaguered game company's turnaround, as key acquisitions and the shift to mobile overcome declining Facebook and web games  —  Zynga went public in 2011 and it grew quickly on the strength of social games like FarmVille.  But it hit the skids in 2013, and it began going downhill.

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