Techmeme
December 6, 2023, 12:05 PM

Top News

Thomas Germain / Gizmodo:
Google unveils Gemini, an AI model with Ultra, Pro, and Nano tiers, and plans a paid chatbot version in 2024; Google says Gemini Ultra beats GPT-4 on most tests  —  NASA Discovers Root Cause of Parachute Glitch in Asteroid Sample Landing  —  Magnesium Supplements Could Protect Your Liver From Acetaminophen
David Pierce / The Verge:
Google updates Bard to use its Gemini Pro model, which the company says represents Bard's “biggest and best upgrade yet” and can match and even exceed ChatGPT  —  While OpenAI's ChatGPT has become a worldwide phenomenon and one of the fastest-growing consumer products ever …
David Pierce / The Verge:
Google adds Gemini Nano, its native, local-first LLM, to the Pixel 8 Pro, powering Gboard's Smart Reply and Recorder's auto-summarize, before an Android launch  —  Gemini may be the biggest, most powerful large language model, or LLM, Google has ever developed, but it's better suited to running in data centers than on your phone.
Frederic Lardinois / TechCrunch:
Google announces its Cloud TPU v5p, an updated version of its Cloud TPU v5e, consisting of 8,960 chips at 4,800 Gpbs/chip interconnect, and available by request  —  Google today announced the launch of its new Gemini large language model (LLM) and with that, the company also launched its new Cloud TPU v5p …
Kyle Wiggers / TechCrunch:
Raphael Satter / Reuters:
Apple was prevented by the “federal government” from sharing details on governments' push notifications spying, and will now share info after Ron Wyden's letter  —  Unidentified governments are surveilling smartphone users via their apps' push notifications, a U.S. senator warned on Wednesday.
Samuel Stolton / Bloomberg:
Sources: the EU leans toward excluding iMessage from DMA rules due to not being popular enough among business users, part of an investigation ending in February  —  - EU tentatively finds it doesn't warrant being covered by DMA  — New antitrust law imposes raft of Big Tech dos and don'ts
Jordan Fragen / VentureBeat:
Twitch plans to shut down in South Korea on February 27, 2024, saying the country was “prohibitively expensive” to operate in despite working to reduce costs  —  Games livestreaming platform Twitch is shutting down its business operations in South Korea February 27, 2024.
Wall Street Journal:
New Mexico sues Meta, alleging the company let Facebook and Instagram “become a marketplace for predators in search of children”, and blames Mark Zuckerberg  —  State investigators' test accounts with AI-generated photos were deluged with sexual propositions and adult sex content …
Andrew Cunningham / Ars Technica:
Microsoft plans to offer three additional years of monthly Windows 10 security updates, paid for annually, after the OS' end-of-support date on October 14, 2025  —  Windows 10 gets a version of the program that extended updates for Windows 7.  —  Windows 10's end-of-support date is October 14, 2025.
Bruce Schneier / Schneier on Security:
The internet enabled mass surveillance, and AI will enable mass spying, once limited by human labor, by making troves of data searchable and understandable  —  Spying and surveillance are different but related things.  If I hired a private detective to spy on you, that detective could hide …
Brayden Lindrea / Cointelegraph:
Coinbase updates Wallet, available in 170+ countries, to let users send crypto via any app where they can share a link, including email, social, and messaging  —  Recipients need to download a Coinbase Wallet to receive the funds, but the crypto exchange says they've simplified the process for less tech-savvy users.
Aaron Klotz / Tom's Hardware:
Intel publishes and then removes “Core Truths”, a document calling AMD products “snake oil” for using the older Zen 2 architecture in new Ryzen 7000 mobile CPUs  —  Look in the mirror Intel  —  Intel recently published a new playbook titled “Core Truths” …
TIME:
Interviews with Sam Altman and 20+ people in his circle reveal a complicated portrait of being brilliant but slippery, as Time names him CEO of the Year 2023  —  It was a strange Thanksgiving for Sam Altman.  Normally, the CEO of OpenAI flies home to St. Louis to visit family.
Spencer Soper / Bloomberg:
Amazon plans to cut its merchant fees on clothing items under $15 to 5% and $15 to $20 items to 10% in January 2024, both down from 17%, to compete with Shein  —  Amazon.com Inc. is sharply cutting fees for merchants selling clothing priced below $20, a sign it's hunkering down for a price war with Chinese fast-fashion upstart Shein.
Brooks Barnes / New York Times:
SAG-AFTRA members ratify the union's three-year contract with studios after 78% voted in favor; some members remain dissatisfied with the deal's AI protections  —  The SAG-AFTRA vote formally ends six months of labor strife, though some members were not happy about the contract's artificial intelligence protections.
Tim Hardwick / MacRumors:
UK carrier EE launches broadband TV platform EE TV, to replace the BT TV service, partnering with Apple to offer an Apple TV 4K with a custom EE remote control  —  EE TV, a new broadband TV platform from EE, today launched as a BT TV replacement service in the UK, offering subscribers …

Sponsor Posts

ElevenLabs:
ElevenAgents by ElevenLabs  —  You know us for voice.  Now meet ElevenAgents — featuring Expressive Mode, our most human-sounding AI voice technology in 70+ languages with ultra-low latency.  Hear it for yourself.
Niantic Spatial:
World models need real-world data  —  Scaniverse is the gateway to spatial services — self-serve and built for AI and robotics.  Large-area 3D reconstruction from 360° cameras and precise localization, anywhere machines operate.
Zoho:
Introducing the sandbox environment: Safely test and optimize e-signature workflows  —  Changes are an inevitable part of any workflow.  The average agreement workflow involves recipients across organizations …
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

Big Technology Podcast:
Anthropic's Mythos Dilemma, Violence Against AI, Tokenmaxxing at Meta
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.
Hard Fork:
Anthropic's Cybersecurity Shock Wave + Ronan Farrow and Andrew Marantz on Their Sam Altman Investigation + One Good Thing
The future is already here. Each week, journalists Kevin Roose and Casey Newton explore and make sense of the latest in the rapidly changing world of tech.
Subscribe to Hard Fork.
The Upstarts Podcast:
Decagon's Jesse Zhang: Closing Customer Service Doom Loops With AI Concierges
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.
Access:
OpenClaw for normies is here
A show about the tech industry's inside conversation, hosted by tech reporter Alex Heath and founder whisperer Ellis Hamburger.
Subscribe to Access.
The Nick, Dick and Paul Show:
When AI Kills
Nick Bilton, Dick Costolo, and Paul Kedrosky pull back the curtain on AI, startups, and the future rushing toward us, all with healthy dose of irreverence.
Subscribe to The Nick, Dick and Paul Show.
Tools and Weapons with Brad Smith:
Ryan Roslansky: Turning AI Anxiety into Skills for the Future of Work
Microsoft Vice Chair and President Brad Smith speaks with leaders in government, business, and culture to explore the most critical challenges at the intersection of technology and society.
Subscribe to Tools and Weapons with Brad Smith.
 

About This Page

This is a Techmeme archive page. It shows how the site appeared at 12:05 PM ET, December 6, 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

New York Times:

Earlier Picks

Financial Times:
Natasha Mascarenhas / The Information:
Jay Peters / The Verge:
Hayden Field / CNBC:
Samantha Cole / 404 Media:
Sarah Fielding / Engadget: