Techmeme
March 16, 2023, 3:05 PM

Top News

Bloomberg:
Microsoft plans to bring OpenAI's GPT-4 to Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook, Word, and its other apps in the coming months, calling the feature Microsoft 365 Copilot  —  Microsoft Corp.'s effort to overhaul its entire lineup with OpenAI technology has spread to one of the company's oldest and best-known products: its Office apps.
The Verge:
Microsoft details Business Chat, part of 365 Copilot, which can summarize meetings, recent customer contacts, calendar entries, and more, similar to Bing's AI  —  One of the new Copilot AI features coming to Microsoft 365 apps and services is dubbed Business Chat.
Dan Sabbagh / The Guardian:
In a U-turn, the UK bans TikTok from ministers' and civil servants' work phones after a National Cyber Security Centre review, following the EU and the US  —  Move brings Britain in line with US and Europe and reflects worsening relations with China  —  Britain is to ban the Chinese owned …
John D. McKinnon / Wall Street Journal:
TikTok says the Biden administration and CFIUS are demanding that its Chinese owners sell their stakes in the company or the app could face a possible US ban  —  TikTok says forced sale won't resolve national security issues; its CEO set to appear before Congress next week
Stu Woo / Wall Street Journal:
TikTok CEO Shou Zi Chew says divesting from ByteDance won't fix US concerns, rules out an IPO, and claims the app is unprofitable due to data security spending  —  Shou Zi Chew goes to Capitol Hill next week, as Biden administration demands a divestiture from app's Chinese owner
James Vincent / The Verge:
Experts criticize OpenAI for not disclosing GPT-4's training data or methods used; OpenAI co-founder says its past approach to openly sharing research was wrong  —  The system's capabilities are still being assessed, but as researchers and experts pore over its accompanying materials …
Ryan Broderick / Garbage Day:
OpenAI's GPT-4 is an outrageous, if imperfect, step forward, offering a glimpse of a future internet where generative AI creates one big personalized web portal  —  Read to the end for a good Twitter reply  —  Building A Portal To Everything  —  Very often I will come up with a big existential question …
Benj Edwards / Ars Technica:
New York Times:
Sources: five days after seizing SVB, the FDIC conducted a stop-and-start auction process, with March 17 as the latest deadline to find a buyer for SVB's assets  —  Big rivals are thus far shying away from scooping up the bank's assets.  —  Five days after seizing control of Silicon Valley Bank …
Taylor Hatmaker / TechCrunch:
Twitch CEO Emmett Shear plans to step down after 16 years at the company, replaced by president Dan Clancy; Shear is one of the original founders of Justin.tv  —  After serving as its chief executive for more than a decade, Twitch CEO Emmett Shear will take a step back at the company.
Aisha Malik / TechCrunch:
YouTube raises YouTube TV's price by $8 to $72.99/month, citing a rise in “content costs”, effective for new users on March 16 and existing users on April 18  —  YouTube has announced that it's raising the price of its YouTube TV subscription to $72.99 per month.
FTX:
An FTX bankruptcy filing describes $3.2B+ in payments and loans to founders and executives, chiefly from Alameda Research, including ~$2.2B to Sam Bankman-Fried  —  Identify Over $3.2 Billion in Transfers to Founders and Key Employees  —  Forensic Work Continues on Intercompany and Other Transactions
Sam Kessler / CoinDesk:
The Arbitrum Foundation, which develops the Ethereum Layer 2 network Arbitrum, plans to airdrop its long-awaited ARB token on March 23 and transition to a DAO  —  The long-awaited ARB token will grant holders the ability to vote on changes to the leading Ethereum layer 2 network.
Yimou Lee / Reuters:
Sources: Foxconn plans to make AirPods for the first time and invest $200M+ to build a plant in Telangana, India; a source says Apple wanted production in India  —  Taiwanese contract manufacturer Foxconn (2317.TW) has won an order to make AirPods for Apple Inc (AAPL.O) …
Mia Sato / The Verge:
TikTok adds a Refresh button to For You, resetting the recommendation algorithm to show videos like for a new user, after testing the feature in February 2023  —  TikTok is adding a way for users to “refresh” For You page content when they want to switch up their feed.
Bloomberg:
Baidu announces its Ernie Bot via a pre-recorded video, with founder Robin Li talking over a scripted video of interactions with the AI, and opens registrations  —  Baidu Inc. debuted China's answer to ChatGPT via a recorded video, disappointing investors hoping for a real-time demo …
TechCrunch:
NYC-based Via plans to acquire London-based Citymapper, which has ~50M users globally and raised $59.5M; sources: investors mostly won't make their money back  —  Last month, when transportation startup Via raised $110 million at a $3.5 billion valuation, CEO Daniel Ramot said it planned …
Jen Wieczner / New York Magazine:
Q&A with Signature Bank board member Barney Frank on the bank's collapse, “anti-crypto” regulators, weakening Dodd-Frank in 2018, tougher regulation, and more  —  The sudden string of bank failures over the past week conjured traumatic flashbacks of the 2008 financial crisis for many a banker.
Wall Street Journal:
Sources: Tiger Global marked down its investments in private companies by ~33% across VC funds in 2022, erasing $23B in value from its portfolio of startups  —  The markdowns erased $23 billion in value from Tiger's portfolio of startups  —  Tiger Global marked down the value of its investments …

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