Techmeme: After a months-long probe, Italy's data protection authority says OpenAI is suspected of violating EU privacy regulations, giving the company 30 days to respond (Natasha Lomas/TechCrunch)

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January 30, 2024, 4:50 AM

Top News

Ashley Capoot / CNBC:

Elon Musk says Neuralink implanted its device in a human for the first time on January 28, and that the first Neuralink product is called Telepathy — - Elon Musk's neurotech startup Neuralink implanted its device in a human for the first time on Sunday, and the patient is “recovering well,” according to a post on X.

More: Reuters, Wired, Silicon Republic, RTÉ, Android Authority, The Register, Business Today, Independent.ie, Mashable, Gizchina, International Business Times, TechStartups, The Sun, SlashGear, Australian Financial Review, Decrypt, Bloomberg, Rolling Stone, SiliconANGLE, The i Paper, Cybernews.com, Cointelegraph, Gizmodo, The Information, PCMag, TweakTown, South China Morning Post, TechEBlog, Engadget, Forbes, Digital Trends, NBC Bay Area, The Hill, and Gizmochina

Threads: @ryanschwartztv and @keithedwards. Mastodon: @spidermedic@techhub.social

X: @elonmusk, @elonmusk, @elonmusk, and @dhtoomey

Forums: Hacker News, r/news, r/science, and r/JoeRogan

Wall Street Journal:

X has lifted its ban on Taylor Swift searches, but “will continue to be vigilant”, following the spread of explicit AI-generated images of the singer — Social-media site restricted queries for the singer's name after the digitally altered images hit the platform

More: The Register, Bloomberg, The Hollywood Reporter, Reuters, Reuters, New York Post, and The Messenger

Washington Post:

X blocking “Taylor Swift” searches as explicit AI images spread was a blunt measure to accomplish a basic moderation task after gutting “trust and safety” staff

More: The Register, Business Today, Ars Technica, MobileSyrup, BBC, TechCrunch, CCN.com, Business Insider, The Information, Axios, Reuters, and PCMag

Threads: @drewharwell, @renee.diresta, and @drewharwell

Mastodon: @malwarejake@infosec.exchange, @vrandecic@mas.to, and @homelessjun@mas.to

Emanuel Maiberg / 404 Media:

Microsoft adds safeguards to its AI text-to-image tool Designer, after fake AI images of Taylor Swift went viral and a report of 4chan users misusing the tool

More: VentureBeat, Neowin, NBC News, Digital Music News, SiliconANGLE, New York Post, XDA Developers, Dexerto, The Verge, Futurism, Thurrott, Windows Central, Fortune, Gizmodo, and NBC News on YouTube

Mastodon: @faduda@mastodon.ie, @GossiTheDog@cyberplace.social, and @josephcox@infosec.exchange. X: @tomwarren

Juli Clover / MacRumors:

Source: Apple has sold upwards of 200K Vision Pro units; Apple began accepting pre-orders for the Vision Pro on January 19 — Apple has sold upwards of 200,000 Vision Pro headsets, MacRumors has learned from a source with knowledge of Apple's sales numbers.

More: Appleosophy, Mashable, Spyglass, UploadVR, Wccftech, GSMArena.com, and Gizmochina

X: @ideafella, @nathanwchan, @cixliv, and @benobi2000

Forums: r/apple, r/technology, and MacRumors Forums

Chance Miller / 9to5Mac:

Zoom details its visionOS app, which will support 3D file sharing, “real-world pinning” of up to five meeting participants, Apple's Persona feature, and more

More: Zoom, TechCrunch, AppleInsider, iThinkDifferent, iPhone in Canada Blog, MacRumors, MacRumors, Digital Trends, PYMNTS.com, ZDNet, iMore, UC Today, XR Today, TweakTown, Engadget, PCMag, The Verge, and Gizmochina

X: @scobleizer, @kantrowitz, and @berkowitzbt. Forums: MacRumors Forums

Zoe Kleinman / BBC:

Apple says proposed UK legislation could let the country try “to secretly veto new user protections globally”, preventing Apple from shipping them to customers — Apple has attacked proposals for the UK government to pre-approve new security features introduced by tech firms.

More: Ars Technica, MacRumors, MediaNama, iMore, and AppleInsider

Mastodon: @carnage4life@mas.to and @GossiTheDog@cyberplace.social

X: @matthew_d_green, @zsk, @counternotions, and @profwoodward

Forums: Hacker News, r/privacy, r/unitedkingdom, and Ars OpenForum

Dan Mangan / CNBC:

The DOJ and SEC file charges in an alleged $1.9B crypto fraud known as HyperFund, which collapsed in 2022, saying “the level of alleged fraud ... is staggering” — - The Department of Justice announced criminal charges against two people and the guilty plea of a third person …

More: US Securities …, The Guardian, US Department of Justice, Cybernews.com, crypto.news, CoinGape, The Block, Decrypt, Blockworks, and Milk Road

X: @justin_fenton, @justin_fenton, @seamushughes, @molly0xfff, @molly0xfff, and @molly0xfff

Simon Sharwood / The Register:

ICANN proposes .INTERNAL, a new TLD available for internal use but never plumbed into the global DNS, taking on the same role as 192.168.x.x IPv4 bloc — The plan is to keep the world at bay by never recording it in the DNS root - like may already do with a subdomain for an intranet

More: Internet Corporation …, Domain Incite, CircleID, TechSpot, TechRadar, PCWorld, and Domain Name Wire Podcast

Bluesky: @fack.bsky.social. X: @quinnypig

Natasha Lomas / TechCrunch:

After a months-long probe, Italy's data protection authority says OpenAI is suspected of violating EU privacy regulations, giving the company 30 days to respond — OpenAI has been told it's suspected of violating European Union privacy, following a multi-month investigation of its AI chatbot …

Tom Warren / The Verge:

Xbox President Sarah Bond says that “Apple's new policy is a step in the wrong direction”, in response to an X post by Spotify's CEO about Apple's DMA changes — Apple's new plan to comply with the European Union's tech regulations has already drawn criticism from Epic Games CEO Tim Sweeney and Spotify.

More: AppleInsider, The Information, Neowin, Windows Central, Thurrott, Android Headlines, 9to5Mac, VentureBeat, TechSpot, AppleInsider, games fray, iClarified, and Digital Music News

X: @bondsarah_bond, @aatilley, @tomwarren, and @jezcorden

Michael Nuñez / VentureBeat:

Meta releases Code Llama 70B, a new version of its code generation model, featuring improved code correctness, a variant optimized for Python, and more — Meta AI, the company that brought you Llama 2, the gargantuan language model that can generate anything from tweets to essays …

More: Meta, Forbes, MediaNama, Analytics Insight, The Information, SiliconANGLE, Cryptopolitan, Neowin, The Verge, MSPoweruser, The Decoder, and Analytics India Magazine

X: @aiatmeta, @ollama, @scobleizer, @jpineau1, @osanseviero, @omarsar0, @soumithchintala, @awnihannun, @reach_vb, @wolfejosh, @scobleizer, @syhw, @ollama, @b_roziere, @sentdex, @_philschmid, @_akhaliq, and @ylecun. LinkedIn: Ahmad Al-Dahle. Facebook: Mark Zuckerberg

Forums: Hacker News and r/singularity

Bloomberg:

Blizzard names Johanna Faries, former general manager for Call of Duty at Activision, as its president, succeeding Mike Ybarra, who left last week after layoffs — Replaces Mike Ybarra who left the video-game company last week as part of mass layoffs under new owner Microsoft

More: Blizzard News, Silicon Republic, TweakTown, PCMag, PC Gamer, Video Games Chronicle, Neowin, Windows Central, Destructoid, IGN, Thurrott, GameSpot, VentureBeat, Game Developer, TechPowerUp, Dot Esports, Gematsu, Reuters, Engadget, GamesIndustry.biz, Blue's News, and The Verge

X: @charlieintel, @joh_burg, @dinabass, @bludgeonparagon, @owcavalry, @yougotsnowd, @matlagan, @aarongreenberg, @bondsarah_bond, @klobrille, @mradamap, @attlka, @prorebornyt, @synthpotato, @jaywood2010, @sunnydg23, @blizzard_ent, and @joshscorcher

LinkedIn: Paw Linnemann Larsen and Jason Schreier

Forums: r/pcgaming, r/Competitiveoverwatch, and r/gamingnews

The Information:

Source: Alphabet executives told staff at its moonshot X lab that Alphabet will not convert promising investment projects into Other Bets subsidiaries in 2024 — Alphabet, the parent company of Google, is cutting back its commitment to ambitious moonshot projects.

X: @carnage4life and @amir

Theo Francis / Wall Street Journal:

Reed Hastings donates $1.1B worth of his Netflix shares, or ~40% of his stake, to the Silicon Valley Community Foundation, a popular charity among tech founders — Reed Hastings donates to foundation with $10 billion in assets after gifts from Mark Zuckerberg and other tech founders

More: Bloomberg, The Verge, Deadline, The Information, Variety, Variety, and CNBC

Bloomberg:

Amazon drops its $1.4B acquisition of Roomba maker iRobot after clashing with EU regulators and will pay a $94M fee; iRobot has ~$500M in net losses since 2021 — - IRobot CEO steps down and company cuts workforce by 31% — Tech giant to pay $94 million to iRobot over deal termination

More: The Verge, TechCrunch, NBC News, Mashable, Android Central, Fortune, Telegraph, iPhone in Canada Blog, TechSpot, Independent.ie, TechRadar, Chain Store Age, TechStartups, The Register, Engadget, Associated Press, Android Headlines, The Messenger, New York Times, The Information, Axios, Financial Times, Associated Press, Wall Street Journal, and Thurrott

Threads: @moskov, @moskov, @moskov, and @firstadopter

LinkedIn: Emil Protalinski and Josh Chessman. Forums: r/technology

Rohan Goswami / CNBC:

After Amazon ended its acquisition, iRobot plans to lay off 31% of its staff, or ~350 people, and says chair and CEO Colin Angle would step down; IRBT drops 5%+

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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.

From Mediagazer

Jessica Toonkel / Wall Street Journal:

Sources: Paramount Global's board is considering replacing CEO Bob Bakish with an “Office of the CEO” made up of division heads on an interim basis

Jeff Jarvis / BuzzMachine:

The New York Times is broken, shown by its entitled, petulant reaction to Politico's report on its tense relationship with Biden

Andrew Marchand / The Athletic:

Sources: Amazon Prime Video has a framework deal for NBA broadcast rights for at least a decade, starting in 2025-26; ESPN/ABC is expected to keep the finals

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More News

Yiwen Lu / New York Times:

The AI boom has spurred law firms, hospitals, insurance companies, government agencies, and others to create chief AI officer roles to navigate the use of AI

More: The Hacker News and Cryptopolitan

Daniel Bader / Android Police:

An interview with Google Play VP and General Manager Sam Bright on Play Store curation, AI, the quality gap between Android and iOS apps, openness, and more

Forums: r/Android

Financial Times:

PitchBook: US VCs have $311B in unspent cash, as investors shy away from risky bets and focus on dividends, after raising a record $435B between 2020 and 2022

Bloomberg:

A look at chip equipment maker J.E.T, which is up 166% since its September 2023 Tokyo IPO, as the company eyes subsidy-fueled demand to lower its China reliance

Reuters:

Sources: the US DOJ and FBI received legal authorization to disable aspects of Volt Typhoon, a Chinese hacking operation that compromised thousands of devices

More: CNN. X: @ericgeller

Kate Park / TechCrunch:

South Korea-based Rebellions, which develops AI chips, raised a ~$124M Series B led by KT at a ~$658M post-money valuation, taking its total raised to ~$210M

More: DealStreetAsia, Bloomberg, and TweakTown

Ina Fried / Axios:

OpenAI partners with Common Sense Media on new AI guidelines, curating a family-friendly section of OpenAI's GPT Store, educational materials, and more

More: Common Sense Media, Ars Technica, Engadget, Analytics India Magazine, CNBC, and TechCrunch

X: @commonsense, @gdb, and @openai

Earlier Picks

Alex Barinka / Bloomberg:

TikTok is testing a feature that could make all posts shoppable, by identifying objects in videos and prompting users to “find similar items on TikTok Shop”

More: Social Media Today, PYMNTS.com, The Information, and Gizmodo

Mastodon: @tob@hachyderm.io. X: @carnage4life. LinkedIn: Alex Barinka