Techmeme
August 2, 2023, 1:45 PM

Top News

Ivan Mehta / TechCrunch:
Abner Li / 9to5Google:
Reed Albergotti / Semafor:
Sources: US DOJ officials are considering fraud charges against Binance, but worry that an indictment could cause a run on Binance like the one that befell FTX  —  U.S. Department of Justice officials are considering fraud charges against crypto exchange Binance, but are concerned about the cost …
Wall Street Journal:
Internal Binance data and current and former employees say Chinese users traded ~$90B in crypto assets on the exchange in May 2023, despite China's crypto ban  —  Retaining its Chinese footprint will be crucial for Binance as it faces a global regulatory crackdown
Matt Day / Bloomberg:
Amazon plans to roll out the biggest overhaul to its grocery business since buying Whole Foods in the coming weeks, including one cart for supermarket offerings  —  It's revamping stores, unifying online shopping carts and offering fresh-food delivery to customers who aren't Prime subscribers.
Rest of World:
Interviews with people at Worldcoin booths in Nairobi, Bengaluru, and Hong Kong find many scanned their eyes to receive the sign-up bonuses, an “easy $50”  —  In Nairobi, Bengaluru, and Hong Kong, our reporters found lots of people were eager to take the deal.
Tom Warren / The Verge:
Microsoft now lets Xbox owners stream gameplay from the console to Discord users, rolling out to all Xbox users in the coming months  —  Microsoft is improving its Xbox and Discord integration with a new streaming gameplay feature.  Xbox owners will soon be able to stream their gameplay …
Bloomberg:
Sources: SoftBank's Arm is targeting an IPO at a valuation of between $60B and $70B as soon as September 2023, a sign of bullish interest in AI chips  —  - Chip design firm may raise as much as $10 billion in debut  — Nvidia, Intel are in discussions to be anchor investors
Jen Christensen / CNN:
An early-stage study of 80,000 women in Sweden who underwent a mammogram in 2021 and 2022 finds AI-supported screening increased breast cancer detection by 20%  —  Artificial intelligence found more breast cancers than doctors with years of training and experience and cut doctors' mammogram …
Bloomberg:
China releases draft rules to limit smartphone use by minors, including two hour limits for those age 16 to 18, although enforcement remains unclear  —  - Aims to prevent kids from spending too much time on phones  — Beijing has pursued campaigns to alleviate burden on minors
Emilia David / The Verge:
Meta releases AudioCraft, a new open-source AI model that lets users create music and sounds via prompts, consisting of MusicGen, AudioGen, and EnCodec models  —  It consists of three AI models, all tackling different areas of sound generation.  MusicGen takes text inputs to generate music.
Ingrid Lunden / TechCrunch:
Hopin, the struggling virtual events startup valued at nearly $7.7B in June 2021, sells its Events and Session units to RingCentral for an undisclosed sum  —  Hopin, the virtual events startup that saw its star (and valuation) rise quickly during the Covid-19 pandemic, is most definitely coming down to earth.
Charlie Fink / Forbes:
Inworld, which uses AI to help developers create game characters, raised $30M led by Lightspeed at a $500M+ valuation, following a $50M Series A in August 2022  —  Inworld, which makes AI-driven non-player characters (NPCs) for games and other applications has raised approximately $30 in new funding from Lightspeed Venture Partners.
Reuters:
Senegal blocks TikTok amid protests over arrest of its opposition leader, after restricting access to internet services on July 31  —  Senegalese authorities on Wednesday blocked access to social media app TikTok, widening a clampdown on dissent days after they dissolved the country's main opposition party …
Aidan Ryan / The Information:
Sources: Changpeng Zhao tried to liquidate Binance.US earlier this year, before pivoting to attempting to sell the company, holding talks with Gemini and others  —  Binance founder and CEO Changpeng Zhao attempted to shut down the crypto exchange's U.S. offshoot earlier this year …

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More News

Alex Pasternack / Fast Company:
More: PlatformerTwitter: @pasternack, @pasternack, @dburghart, @max_uf, and @fastcompanyForums: Slashdot
Helene Braun / CoinDesk:
Chethan Rao / Android Police:
Clive Cookson / Financial Times:

Earlier Picks

Steven Church / Bloomberg:
Reuters:
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Chavi Mehta / Reuters:
Sarah Perez / TechCrunch: