Techmeme
June 26, 2023, 2:25 PM

Top News

Will Knight / Wired:
DeepMind co-founder and CEO Demis Hassabis shares details on Gemini, a ChatGPT rival DeepMind is making that blends strengths of LLMs with AlphaGo-type systems  —  Demis Hassabis says the company is working on a system called Gemini that will tap techniques that helped AlphaGo defeat a Go champion in 2016.
Jay Peters / The Verge:
Meta announces Quest+, a VR subscription service that gives Quest 2, Quest 3, and Quest Pro users access to two games every month for $7.99/month or $59.99/year  —  Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg just announced Quest Plus, the company's new “virtual reality subscription” that gives users access to “the best titles on the platform,” he said.
Brian Fung / CNN:
A breakdown of how much each US state will get in the $42.5B broadband infrastructure plan; Texas leads with $3.3B+, followed by California with $1.8B+  —  The Biden administration on Monday outlined how states across the country will be receiving billions of dollars in federal funding …
Wall Street Journal:
Databricks agrees to acquire generative AI startup MosaicML in a ~$1.3B deal closing in Q2; MosaicML launched in 2021, raised $64M, and has 62 employees  —  The deal aims at connecting businesses' data with services to help them build their own, cheaper language models, Databricks CEO says
The Verge:
A survey of 2,000+ US adults finds 57% know of ChatGPT, 46% for Bing Chat, 45% for My AI, and 38% for Bard; only ~33% have used the tools, with Gen Z dominating  —  We polled 2,000 people about how they're using AI, what they want it to do, and what scares them about it the most.
Financial Times:
A profile of South Korean engineer Choi Jin-seok, who set out to become a star in China's chip industry after his career stalled and now faces IP theft charges  —  In 2006, a Korean engineer called Choi Jin-seok achieved a feat that earned him the nickname “master of semiconductor yield”.
Yuval Mann / Ynetnews:
An interview with early Waze investors Yahal Zilka and Ehud Levy on why they invested, the impact of Google's acquisition on Israel's tech industry, and more  —  The disregard for map companies, the dilemma between BlackBerry and iPhone, the indifference on the part of Tim Cook …
Allison Johnson / The Verge:
Google Pixel Fold review: nice landscape mode for videos and usable outer display, but it's heavy, may not be durable, has limited multitasking, and is pricey  —  If you buy something from a Verge link, Vox Media may earn a commission.  See our ethics statement.  —  The Google Pixel Fold is a lot of phone.
Hope King / Axios:
Amazon plans to build a local delivery network in 23 states by recruiting thousands of small US businesses, from bodegas to florists, to deliver its packages  —  Amazon plans to tap thousands of U.S. small businesses, from bodegas to florists, to deliver its packages by the end of the year, Axios is first to report.

Sponsor Posts

Command Line:
Copilot to autopilot: Why no single safeguard is enough  —  Microsoft designed a layered model that lets an AI agent resolve network incidents on its own within defined boundaries.
Will Reed:
The best sales leaders aren't job hunting.  Here's how to reach them without months of cold outreach.  —  Our team came from Box, Square, and Brex, so we already know the GTM leaders worth meeting.
Zoho:
Diwali 2026: Your festive planning checklist with Zoho Notebook  —  The Diwali countdown is on!  From lighting up every corner of the house to going a little overboard with the festive shopping …
IDrive:
Protecting your Cloud Applications Data  —  Backing up Office 365, Google Workspace, Dropbox & Salesforce data is critical to preventing data loss or corruption, complying with laws and avoiding critical downtime in case of a disaster.

Featured Podcasts

The Upstarts Podcast:
The Parking Startup That Swallowed A 100-Year-Old Giant | Metropolis CEO Alex Israel
Veteran tech reporter Alex Konrad sits down with breakout entrepreneurs taking on the status quo to shake up their fields in AI, design, nuclear energy, space, and more.
Subscribe to The Upstarts Podcast.
Great Chat:
AI's Spooky Season
A podcast mostly about tech. Brought to you weekly by Angela Du, Sally Shin, Mac Bohannon, Helen Min, and Ashley Mayer.
Subscribe to Great Chat.
Sources:
Sundar Pichai on Gemini 4 and the AI compute crunch
Candid conversations with the leaders shaping what's next in AI and the broader tech industry. Hosted by Alex Heath, who has covered Silicon Valley for more than a decade.
Subscribe to Sources.
Machine Gods:
Bots Behaving Badly + Is AI Regulation On The Right Track + Kevin's Sloppelganger
The official podcast of the singularity, from Casey Newton and Kevin Roose. Twice-weekly news, analysis, and interviews with the people who are building the future.
Subscribe to Machine Gods.
Channels with Peter Kafka:
Netflix in Turmoil + Derek Thompson on AI & The Antisocial Century
Media and tech aren't just intersecting - they're fully intertwined. To understand how those worlds work, Peter Kafka talks to industry leaders, upstarts and observers.
Subscribe to Channels with Peter Kafka.
Big Technology Podcast:
Google CEO Sundar Pichai: AI's Infinite Possibilities, Compute Scarcity Dilemmas, Future AI Products
The Big Technology Podcast takes you behind the scenes in the tech world featuring interviews with plugged-in insiders and outside agitators.
Subscribe to Big Technology Podcast.
 

About This Page

This is a Techmeme archive page. It shows how the site appeared at 2:25 PM ET, June 26, 2023.

The most current version of the site as always is available at our home page. To view an earlier snapshot click here and then modify the date indicated.

More News

Ingrid Lunden / TechCrunch:

Earlier Picks

Phoebe Liu / Forbes:
Nina Jankowicz / The Atlantic:
New York Times: