Techmeme
January 7, 2024, 6:40 PM

Top News

Mark Gurman / Bloomberg:
A look at Apple's preparations for the Vision Pro's US launch and main challenges in 2024, like lagging in generative AI, reviving revenue growth, and antitrust  —  Apple has a big year ahead for new products, but also faces challenges ranging from trying to catch up in AI to dealing with changes to the App Store.
Wall Street Journal:
Sources: some executives and board members fear that Elon Musk's use of LSD, cocaine, ecstasy, mushrooms, ketamine, and other drugs could harm his companies  —  Some executives and board members fear the billionaire's use of drugs—including LSD, cocaine, ecstasy, mushrooms and ketamine—could harm his companies
IEEE Spectrum:
How Midjourney v6 and DALL-E 3 produce “plagiaristic outputs”, even when not directly asked to do so, which could expose users to copyright infringement claims  —  This is a guest post.  The views expressed here are solely those of the authors and do not represent positions of IEEE Spectrum or the IEEE.
Nikhilesh De / CoinDesk:
TRM Labs: North Korea-affiliated hackers were responsible for almost a third of all crypto thefts in 2023, stealing $600M+, which is ~30% less than in 2022  —  U.S. national security officials have raised concerns about North Korea's use of stolen crypto to develop nuclear weapons.  —  Register Now
Connie Loizos / TechCrunch:
Linear's CEO, who uses Carta to manage its cap table, says Carta tried to sell Linear shares without its consent; Carta CEO blames a rogue employee  —  “This might be the end of Carta as the trusted platform for startups”  —  Carta, an ambitious 12-year-old Silicon Valley outfit …
Steven Levy / Wired:
A defense of AI hallucinations, which can spur creativity and, by requiring fact-checks, act as a firewall in the transition to coexist with superintelligent AI  —  It's a big problem when chatbots spew untruths.  But we should also celebrate these hallucinations as prompts for human creativity and a barrier to machines taking over.
Adi Robertson / The Verge:
Xreal unveils the $699 Air 2 Ultra AR glasses, adding dual 3D cameras to map the wearer's environment and enable features like hand tracking, shipping in March  —  Augmented reality company Xreal has revealed a new entry in its Air glasses lineup: the $699 Air 2 Ultra.
Ashley Carman / Bloomberg:
Music industry insiders reflect on the waning influence of popular, human-curated Spotify playlists, as the company shifts towards AI-driven personalization  —  The streaming giant's shift to automation is impacting the supremacy of curated music selections  —  Welcome back to Soundbite, and happy New Year!
Kyle Wiggers / TechCrunch:
DeepMind spinout Isomorphic Labs partners with Eli Lilly and Novartis on AI-based drug discovery, for $82.5M paid upfront and $2.9B in performance incentives  —  Isomorphic Labs, the London-based, drug discovery-focused spin-out of Google AI R&D division DeepMind, today announced that it's entered …
Ben Schoon / 9to5Google:
Acer announces Intel Core Ultra-based Swift laptops, including the Swift X 14 with Nvidia RTX 4070 and 120Hz OLED display, starting at $1,399  —  Acer is rolling out new laptops based on Intel Core Ultra including the Acer Swift X 14, a powerhouse PC with Intel Core Ultra, RTX 4070, a 120Hz OLED display, and more.

Sponsor Posts

Command Line:
What will the next generation of developers do when AI writes the code?  —  Microsoft and Carnegie Mellon are betting that the junior devs we train today will be the senior engineers of tomorrow.
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:
UK tax compliance with Zoho Books  —  The evolving tax landscape in the UK has added an additional responsibility to business owners, accountants, and bookkeepers to ensure their choice of accounting software supports compliance …
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 IPO Panic, A Spy At OpenAI?, The Great Food Slop Debate
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.
Great Chat:
What happened to tech's backbone?
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.
The Upstarts Podcast:
The $7B Startup Mapping Your Health In Just One Hour | Neko's Hjalmar Nilsonne
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.
Cheeky Pint:
The company building underwater drones for $50,000
Stripe cofounder John Collison interviews founders, builders, and leaders over a pint.
Subscribe to Cheeky Pint.
BG2 Pod:
Jensen Huang | Does AI Revenue Justify Capex, '27 AI Bottlenecks, Singularity, Open vs Closed & more
Open-source podcast on all things tech, markets, investing, and capitalism, hosted by Brad Gerstner.
Subscribe to BG2 Pod.
Channels with Peter Kafka:
How to Run a Political Campaign in the TikTok Era (And How Not To)
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.
 

About This Page

This is a Techmeme archive page. It shows how the site appeared at 6:40 PM ET, January 7, 2024.

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

Benj Edwards / Ars Technica:
More: New.blicio.us, The Decoder, and Watcher Guru
Threads: @luokai and @luokai.  Mastodon: @Luk@mamot.fr.  X: @nickfloats.  Forums: Ars OpenForum
Ann Carrns / New York Times:
Lawrence Abrams / BleepingComputer:
Jay Peters / The Verge:
Financial Times:

Earlier Picks

Daniel Stenberg / daniel.haxx.se:
Washington Post:
The Verge: