Techmeme
December 6, 2023, 1:00 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  —  Microsoft's Copilot Is Getting a GPT-4 Turbo Boost  —  Science  —  SpaceX May Test Key Technique for Moon Mission on Starship's Third Flight
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.
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 …
Casey Newton / Platformer:
Q&A with Google CEO Sundar Pichai and DeepMind CEO Demis Hassabis on Gemini, digital agents, changing search's UX, the pace of AI development, coding, and more  —  CEO Sundar Pichai and DeepMind's Demis Hassabis talk to Platformer about the promise — and product roadmap — of their answer to GPT-4
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 and Google say the US government prevented them from detailing governments' push notification 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 a DMA carve out for iMessage as the app is not popular enough with business users, as 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 …
Financial Times:
Sources: Apple tells component suppliers of its preference to source iPhone 16 batteries from Indian factories, as part of plans to diversify away from China  —  Tech giant wants suppliers to build key component in India as part of broader effort to diversify supply chain
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 …
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.
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” …
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.
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.
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.

Sponsor Posts

Google:
Try Gemini 3 Pro  —  Google's newest and most intelligent AI model that helps you bring any idea to life
Shopify:
Shopify's new AI commerce stack  —  Their VP of Product digs into just-launched products to help entrepreneurs and developers build with the latest AI and tech.
Zoho:
Why eIDAS 2.0 might be the EU's boldest digital move yet  —  eIDAS: The first building block of digital trust More than a decade ago, the EU introduced the eIDAS regulation (Regulation [EU] No 910/2014) …
IDrive:
Protecting your Cloud Applications Data  —  Backing up Office 365, Google Workspace, Dropbox & Box data is critical to preventing data loss or corruption, complying with laws and avoiding critical downtime in case of a disaster.

Featured Podcasts

Access:
Betting on reality with Kalshi CEO Tarek Mansour
A show about the tech industry's inside conversation, hosted by tech reporter Alex Heath and founder whisperer Ellis Hamburger.
Subscribe to Access.
Lenny's Podcast:
The new AI growth playbook for 2026: How Lovable hit $200M ARR in one year | Elena Verna (Head of Growth)
Interviews with world-class product leaders and growth experts to uncover actionable advice to help you build, launch, and grow your own product.
Subscribe to Lenny's Podcast.
Big Technology Podcast:
CNBC's Jim Cramer: Big Tech Hot Takes, NVIDIA $10 Trillion?, Building Wealth In Any Market
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.
Channels with Peter Kafka:
"Neither Side Is Used to Losing." Lucas Shaw on What's Next for Netflix and Paramount in the Battle for Warner Bros.
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.
Uncapped with Jack Altman:
Saam Motamedi from Greylock Partners
Conversations with people I admire about things I'm genuinely interested in.
Subscribe to Uncapped with Jack Altman.
Tools and Weapons with Brad Smith:
Ted Sarandos: Netflix and how tech changed storytelling
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 1:00 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

Earlier Picks

Financial Times:
Natasha Mascarenhas / The Information:
Hayden Field / CNBC:
Samantha Cole / 404 Media: