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January 11, 2024, 4:20 PM
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Mediagazer
memeorandum
WeSmirchTop News
| Louise Matsakis / Semafor: |
Google lays off hundreds of staff working on Assistant and says the restructuring would help improve Assistant as the company explores integrating newer AI tech — Google is laying off hundreds of people working on its voice-activated Google Assistant software and eliminating a similar number …
More: The Verge, Reuters, CNN, Fortune, The Guardian, TechCrunch, Bloomberg, 9to5Google, Mashable, Search Engine Land, Pocket-lint, PCMag, New York Post, Axios, Neowin, Computerworld, The Register, MacDailyNews, TechStartups, Silicon Republic, Gizchina, MSPoweruser, and Tech in Asia
Mastodon: @carnage4life@mas.to. X: @izzyz, @byjulialove, and @lmatsakis. LinkedIn: Emil Protalinski. Forums: Hacker News
| Abner Li / 9to5Google: |
Google reorganizes its Devices & Services teams responsible for Pixel, Fitbit, and Nest; Fitbit co-founders James Park and Eric Friedman are leaving Google — Google is reorganizing the Devices & Services teams responsible for Pixel, Nest, and Fitbit hardware.
More: The Verge, TechCrunch, CNBC, Thurrott, Android Police, Beyond Search, Gadgets & Wearables, Droid Life, MSPoweruser, Proactive, Phandroid, Road to VR, MIXED Reality News, Business Insider, Android Authority, and Neowin
Threads: @ztlaidlaw. Bluesky: @mhwilliams.bsky.social. X: @parkerortolani, @killedbygoogle, @ztlaidlaw, and @jrichlive. LinkedIn: Henry Kirk
Forums: Hacker News and Beehaw
| Nico Grant / New York Times: |
Sources: several hundred Google engineering employees received notices that their roles were eliminated and lost corporate access; most hardware cuts were in AR — The company, which has been working to trim expenses, laid off employees who worked on core engineering, the Google Assistant product and hardware such as the Pixel phone.
More: Washington Post, The Information, Ars Technica, Forbes, Dexerto, Data Center Knowledge, Engadget, Android Central, Proactive, San Francisco Business Times, The Messenger, HotHardware, Tech.co, TIME, The Information, Business Today, Wall Street Journal, and GSMArena.com
Mastodon: @james@bne.social. X: @perpetualmaniac, @carnage4life, @kristileilani, @kristileilani, @nicoagrant, and @byjulialove
Forums: Hacker News and Blind
| Alex Heath / The Verge: |
Internal memo: Discord CEO Jason Citron says the company is laying off 17% of its staff, or 170 people, after growing its workforce “by 5x since 2020” — Discord is laying off 17 percent of its staff, a move that CEO Jason Citron said is meant to “sharpen our focus and improve …
More: IGN, The Information, gamedeveloper, New York Times, GamesIndustry.biz, PC Gamer, Neowin, Aftermath, Video Games Chronicle, and Dot Esports
Threads: @alexheath. Mastodon: @carnage4life@mas.to, @mttaggart@infosec.town, @EposVox@glitch.lgbt, @HelenG@mastodon.social, and @miah@hachyderm.io
| Abner Li / 9to5Google: |
Google plans to remove 17 “underutilized” Assistant features in February, including controlling audiobooks, media alarms, recipes, messages, events, and more — Bard is the future of Assistant. Ahead of that happening, Google announced today that Assistant features with low usage will be removed in February.| Jesse Hamilton / CoinDesk: |
US SEC Chair Gary Gensler concedes that losing in court after rejecting Grayscale's spot bitcoin ETF left the agency with little choice but to approve such ETFs — The SEC chair said a court forced his hand and that the agency's decision to greenlight a spot bitcoin ETF doesn't signal support of that or any other digital asset.
More: US Securities …, US Securities …, US Securities …, The Block, Reuters, US Securities …, Bloomberg, Cryptopolitan, Decrypt, Axios, The Crypto Basic, Bitcoinist.com, Bitcoin Insider, CCN.com, crypto.news, KNSD-TV, 24/7 Wall St., Finextra, CryptoPotato, Coinpedia Fintech News, CoinGape, Blockonomi, and The Block
| Reuters: |
More: CoinDesk, Cointelegraph, Financial Times, Coinbase, Finbold, New York Times, CoinDesk, Grayscale Investments, Cryptopolitan, New York Times, Crypto Daily, CryptoSlate, Financial Times, CoinDesk, BBC, Bitcoin Insider, Fortune, Decrypt, Wall Street Journal, Reuters, Cointelegraph, Bloomberg, The Block, Bitcoin News, Reuters, The Block, Bitwise Investments, Cointelegraph, CoinDesk, Business Insider, Unchained, Engadget, Blockworks, The Daily Hodl, Decrypt, The Defiant, Ticker, Nasdaq, BNN Bloomberg, Fortune, Decrypt, and The Block
X: @hesterpeirce, @sherlock_hodles, @bitwiseinvest, @gopmajoritywhip, @fti_us, @s_alderoty, @balajis, @tree_of_alpha, @jseyff, @stevennerayoff, @senlummis, @grayscale, @defisquared, @bitcoinpierre, @repjohnrose, @johnedeaton1, @dougielarge, @ryansadams, @demirelo, @econoar, @grayscale, @propelforward, @aubreystrobel, @jbrukh, @downtown, @pythianism, @tusharjain_, @neerajka, @daveweisberger1, @laurashin, @nategeraci, @3orovik, @shaunmmaguire, @twobitidiot, @punk6529, @iampaulgrewal, @gaborgurbacs, @snowden, @campbelljaustin, @mattomattik, @adamscochran, @tradermercury, @fintechfrank, @fintechfrank, @barrysilbert, @fintechfrank, @collins_belton, @saylor, @janvaneck3, @davidsacks, @hhorsley, @jbsdc, @daancrypto, @tradermayne, @pentosh1, @lsdinmycoffee, @cburniske, @teeznutz11, @tree_of_alpha, @neuralinkdb, @nitwitty, @ericbalchunas, @cgasparino, @jseyff, @nategeraci, and @fintechfrank
Forums: Hacker News and Slashdot
| Carly Page / TechCrunch: |
Ivanti confirms hackers are exploiting two critical vulnerabilities in its corporate VPN software, but says patches won't be available until the end of January — U.S. software giant Ivanti has confirmed that hackers are exploiting two critical-rated vulnerabilities affecting … | Reuters: |
USDC stablecoin issuer Circle confidentially files for a US IPO, without saying the number of shares for sale or a price range; Circle was valued at $9B in 2022 — Circle Internet Financial, the company behind stablecoin USDC, said on Thursday that it had confidentially filed …
More: Circle Internet Financial, Crunchbase News, The Information, SiliconANGLE, PYMNTS.com, CNBC, TechStartups, Financial Times, Crypto Daily, Fortune, CoinDesk, CoinGape, Coinpedia Fintech News, Bitcoin News, Crypto Briefing, Cryptonews, Unchained, Axios, Bloomberg, crypto.news, TechCrunch, The Block, Crowdfund Insider, Finextra, Cointelegraph, Watcher Guru, CryptoSlate, and Forkast
| Charisma Madarang / Rolling Stone: |
Dudesy, an AI-driven podcast curated by humans, releases an hour-long comedy special featuring an AI-generated recreation of George Carlin, who died in 2008 — The hour-long special arrived from Dudesy, a podcast run by artificial intelligence … Following the special's release …
More: Polygon, VICE, The Guardian, Variety, Dudesy on YouTube, Dexerto, Deadline, Newser, BGR, IGN, Mashable, New.blicio.us, TMZ.com, NBC News, MovieWeb, TIME, Cryptopolitan, The Hollywood Reporter, Consequence, The Messenger, Forbes, and USA Today
Bluesky: @harbourfordyce.bsky.social and @remeneramasi.bsky.social
| Bloomberg: |
Sources describe how AI replaced the metaverse as Mark Zuckerberg's top priority, leading Meta to ruthlessly cut jobs and focus on quickly releasing AI products — Meta's founder has become deeply engaged in his company's AI efforts ahead of its 20th anniversary, but his close attention hasn't always proved to be a recipe for success.| Krystal Hu / Reuters: |
Ripple Labs, the creator of the XRP cryptocurrency, plans to buy back $285M in shares from early investors and employees, sources say at an $11.3B valuation — Cryptocurrency company Ripple Labs, known for its XRP coins, is buying back $285 million worth of shares in the company … | Jason Koebler / 404 Media: |
Google formally endorses right to repair and will testify in favor of a law in Oregon, says regulators should ban “parts pairing”, a tactic used by Apple — Google says repair should be easy and “parts pairing” should be illegal. — Google formally endorsed the concept of right … | Dina Bass / Bloomberg: |
Google Cloud eliminates fees for customers who leave for a rival service, effective immediately, which may put pressure on Amazon and Microsoft to do the same — Antirust officials have been looking at cloud data-transfer policies — The cost of switching between cloud-computing providers … | Emma Roth / The Verge: |
After announcing the $199 R1 “Large Action Model” AI handheld at CES, Rabbit sold 10K units in one day; second batch orders are set to ship in April to May 2024 — The R1, the pocket-size gadget from Rabbit that's supposed to use your apps for you, has already sold out of its first batch.
More: ZDNet, HotHardware, New.blicio.us, MobileSyrup, BGR, Gizmodo, TechSpot, SamMobile, TweakTown, Analytics India Magazine, and Business Today
| Alanna Durkin Richer / Associated Press: |
eBay will pay $3M to resolve charges over a harassment campaign by staffers who sent spiders and other disturbing items to those behind the EcommerceBytes blog — Online retailer eBay Inc. will pay a $3 million fine to resolve criminal charges over a harassment campaign waged by employees …
More: The Verge, Associated Press, US Department of Justice, The Messenger, New York Post, Chain Store Age, and Boing Boing
X: @joywave and @marshacollier
| Matt Burgess / Wired: |
A researcher finds 800GB of data online tied to school software maker Raptor, used by 5,300+ US districts, including evacuation plans and student medical files — More than 4 million school records, including safety procedures, student medical files, and court documents, were also publicly accessible online.
More: vpnMentor, DataBreaches.net, and New.blicio.us
Mastodon: @simontsui@infosec.exchange and @mattburgess@infosec.exchange
| Alex Koller / CNBC: |
Google Cloud launches new generative AI tools for retailers to improve online shopping, including a chatbot that can offer product recommendations to consumers — - Google launched several new AI tools for retailers to improve online shopping experiences and other retail operations.
More: VentureBeat, Google Cloud, SiliconANGLE, TechCircle, TechCrunch, and E-Commerce Times
| Shubham Sharma / VentureBeat: |
1X, an OpenAI-backed developer of humanoid robots with plans to bring its bipedal robot NEO to the market, raised a $100M Series B from EQT Ventures and others — 1X Technologies, a Norwegian startup robotics startup backed by OpenAI, among others, today announced it has raised $100 million …
More: 1X Technologies, The Robot Report, TNW, Sifted, Tech Funding News, Tech.eu, and Bloomberg. X: @1x_tech
| Dominic-Madori Davis / TechCrunch: |
PitchBook: female-founded US companies raised $44.4B out of $170.59B in VC funding in 2023; companies with all-female founding teams raised ~$3.1B, down 39% YoY — Female-founded companies in the U.S. raised $44.4 billion out of the $170.59 billion in venture capital allocated last year.Sponsor Posts
Command Line:
Beyond violation rates: Are your AI evaluations measuring the right things? — Structured eval design can improve both the breadth of behaviors tested and the interpretability of resulting failures.
Beyond violation rates: Are your AI evaluations measuring the right things? — Structured eval design can improve both the breadth of behaviors tested and the interpretability of resulting failures.
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.
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:
Ask an Expert: How to effectively recover stuck TDS refunds with reduced TDS reconciliation time — The 26AS/Form 168 gets updated quarterly and often gets checked only during the time of ITR filing.
Ask an Expert: How to effectively recover stuck TDS refunds with reduced TDS reconciliation time — The 26AS/Form 168 gets updated quarterly and often gets checked only during the time of ITR filing.
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.
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
Training Data:
Google's AI Infrastructure Chief, Amin Vahdat, on the Physics & Economics of Frontier AI
Sequoia Capital partners host conversations with leading AI builders and researchers to develop a deeper understanding of the evolving technologies and their implications.
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Invest Like the Best:
Andrew Huberman - The Frontier of Neurotechnology
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Big Technology Podcast:
Who Wins The AI Assistant Wars? + Why Didn't Google Build Muse?
The Big Technology Podcast takes you behind the scenes in the tech world featuring interviews with plugged-in insiders and outside agitators.
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Sources:
Reflection's founders on building a DeepSeek of the West
Candid conversations with the leaders shaping what's next in AI and the broader tech industry. Hosted by Alex Heath, who has covered Silicon Valley for more than a decade.
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Grit:
How Vercel Is Rethinking Go-to-Market With AI | COO Jeanne Grosser
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Lenny's Podcast:
OpenAI's Head of ChatGPT: We're entering a new era of AI (again) | Tibo Sottiaux
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