Techmeme
July 11, 2023, 1:55 PM

Top News

Jordan Novet / CNBC:
A US court denies the FTC's bid for a preliminary injunction to stop Microsoft's Activision deal, saying the FTC's theories of harm were unlikely to succeed  —  - A federal judge in San Francisco ruled in favor of Microsoft and Activision Blizzard, which have been trying to complete their $68.7 billion deal by July 18.
Tom Warren / The Verge:
Microsoft and the UK CMA agree to a “stay of the litigation” to negotiate restructuring the Activision deal, after a US court rejected the FTC's arguments  —  Microsoft and the UK's Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) have both agreed to pause their legal battle …
Mark Hachman / PCWorld:
Intel confirms plans to halt investment in its Next Unit of Compute (NUC) line of products, primarily known for small form factor PCs  —  Intel's belt-tightening continues as it hands off small-form-factor PC development to Lian Li, Cooler Master, and others.
Susan Rinkunas / Jezebel:
A Nebraska woman pleads guilty to giving an abortion pill to her teen daughter after Meta complied with a warrant for messages between mother and daughter  —  Jessica Burgess faced eight years in prison for helping her then 17-year-old get abortion pills.  A plea deal brought it down to two.
Rachel Metz / Bloomberg:
Anthropic releases AI chatbot Claude 2, available in the US and the UK via claude.ai and an API for businesses; Anthropic raised $1B+, including $450M in May  —  Anthropic, an artificial intelligence startup positioning itself as the builder of a safer kind of chatbot, has released a new version of its AI bot, named Claude.
Michael Shirer / IDC:
Global PC shipments declined 13.4% YoY to 61.6M in Q2 2023, the sixth consecutive quarter of decline; only Apple had positive growth, up 10.3% YoY to 5.3M units  —  Global PC shipments declined 13.4% year over year during the second quarter of 2023 (2Q23), according to preliminary results …
Reuters:
WeChat says Apple has opened a store on the platform, letting users buy iPhones, iPads, and Macs; Apple already operates a store on Alibaba's Tmall  —  Tencent's (0700.HK) WeChat said on Tuesday that iPhone maker Apple (AAPL.O) had opened a store on its social media platform …
Kyle Barr / Gizmodo:
Nothing plans to launch the Phone (2) for $599+ in the US, Europe, and the UK on July 17; the device's rear “glyph” lights have been segmented into zones  —  The new device is an upgrade from the Phone (1)—a better processor, improved camera, and even more signature LED glyphs—with a $599 price tag.
Nick Clegg / Financial Times:
To mitigate AI risks, companies should be transparent about their systems, collaborate with the industry, stress test, and share details about their progress  —  The case for transparency is growing as the best way to combat fears on the developing technology  —  The writer is president of global affairs at Meta
More: fast.aiMastodon: @1br0wn@eupolicy.socialTwitter: @jimpethokoukis, @nxthompson, and @nickclegg
Rohan Goswami / CNBC:
Phil Salvador / Video Game History Foundation:
Study: about 13% of video games released in the US before 2010 and less than 3% of titles released before 1985 are still in print in 2023  —  Today, the Video Game History Foundation and the Software Preservation Network published a major new study which shows that 87 percent of classic games released …
Julia Love / Bloomberg:
Llion Jones, who co-authored the pioneering “Attention Is All You Need” paper on LLMs at Google, plans to depart Google Japan later in July to launch a startup  —  An artificial intelligence researcher who co-authored one of Google's most influential papers in the field is leaving the company to launch a startup.
More: PYMNTS.comThanks:@byjulialove
Emma Roth / The Verge:
Mark Lucovsky, the former head of OS on Google's AR team, leaves, saying leadership changes and “unstable commitment and vision” weighed heavily on his decision  —  Mark Lucovsky, the former head of operating systems on Google's augmented reality team, has left the company.
Javier Espinoza / Financial Times:
Katharine Gemmell / Bloomberg:
London prosecutors accuse two UK teenagers of being key members of Lapsus$, which hacked BT's EE network in 2021 and Nvidia, Rockstar, Uber, and Revolut in 2022  —  Two UK teenagers were accused of being key members of the notorious hacking group Lapsus$, with prosecutors alleging that the pair …
More: Reuters
Qianer Liu / Financial Times:
Sources: China plans to force companies to obtain a license before releasing generative AI models, tightening draft rules from April 2023 to control content  —  Moves towards licensing system reflects Beijing's struggle to encourage technology while censoring information
Insider:
A look at “lazy management”, an alternative explanation to the claim that some tech employees drag down companies by raking in big paychecks and working little  —  Inside the perverse system of ‘lazy management’ that's wrecking the tech industry … When Graham was hired by Amazon, it sounded like his dream job.
LinkedIn: Alistair BarrBluesky: @ellenb.bsky.socialMastodon: @mookie@trouble.social and @carnage4life@mas.toTwitter: @alistairmbarr

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Earlier Picks

Lorenzo Franceschi-Bicchierai / TechCrunch:
Duncan Riley / SiliconANGLE:
Alex Konrad / Forbes:
Nicole Carpenter / Polygon:
Martin Pengelly / The Guardian: