Techmeme
February 8, 2022, 1:55 AM

Top News

New York Times:
Meta announces that Peter Thiel, one of Facebook's first institutional investors and longest-serving directors, will step down from Meta's board this year  —  The tech billionaire, who has been on the board of the company formerly known as Facebook since 2005, is backing numerous politicians in the midterm elections.
Alan Rappeport / New York Times:
The IRS says it will transition away from using facial recognition for identity verification, after a bipartisan backlash regarding its use of ID.me services  —  The tax collection agency will transition away from using a service from the authentication service ID.me amid bipartisan backlash.
Frederic Lardinois / TechCrunch:
Nvidia and SoftBank call off Nvidia's Arm acquisition; Arm CEO Simon Segars resigns and Arm's IP group president Rene Haas takes over; Arm is exploring an IPO  —  Nvidia's deal to acquire Arm is off, the two companies and Arm's owner SoftBank announced (PDF) tonight.
Mark Gurman / Bloomberg:
Source: Apple acquires London-based AI Music, which uses AI and royalty-free music to create dynamic soundtracks that change based on user interactions or moods  —  Apple Inc. acquired a startup called AI Music that uses artificial intelligence to generate tailor-made music …
Michiel Willems / City A.M.:
In its annual SEC report, Meta repeats its warning that it may be forced to shut down “significant” services in Europe if the EU adopts new data transfer rules  —  If Meta is not given the option to transfer, store and process data from its European users on US-based servers …
Todd Bishop / GeekWire:
Amazon raises its maximum base pay for corporate and tech employees from $160K to $350K, in line with other tech giants, citing a “competitive labor market”  —  Amazon will boost its maximum base pay to $350,000 for corporate and tech employees, from $160,000 previously …
Karl Freund / Forbes:
Intel announces efforts to accelerate RISC-V development and adoption, including licensing plans, chip manufacturing partners, and a $1B IFS Innovation Fund  —  This announcement will have a long-lasting impact on the entire semiconductor industry:  —  Intel must fabricate chips …
Jay Graber / Bluesky:
Bluesky, the decentralized social media initiative announced by Twitter in 2019, becomes a Public Benefit LLC with Jack Dorsey as one of the board members  —  In 2019, Twitter announced bluesky, a project it would fund to create an open and decentralized standard for social media.
Sam Reynolds / CoinDesk:
The Ethereum Name Service DAO, which manages .eth domains, votes to remove Brantly Millegan as a steward over a 2016 tweet; Millegan has refused to apologize  —  A Tweet from Nick Johnson, founder and lead developer of ENS, confirmed Millegan has been removed from both the DAO and as director of operations of True Names Ltd.

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More News

Catalin Cimpanu / The Record:

Earlier Picks

Gunjan Banerji / Wall Street Journal:
Manish Singh / TechCrunch:
Alex Konrad / Forbes: