Techmeme
February 26, 2024, 8:05 PM

Top News

Romain Dillet / TechCrunch:
Mistral AI releases Mistral Large, a cheaper GPT-4 rival that supports 32K-token context windows, and Le Chat, a ChatGPT-like chat assistant in public beta  —  Paris-based AI startup Mistral AI is gradually building an alternative to OpenAI and Anthropic as its latest announcement shows.
Madhumita Murgia / Financial Times:
Microsoft takes a minor stake in Mistral AI and plans to help bring the French startup's AI models to market, as regulators probe Microsoft's OpenAI alliance  —  Tech giant unveils partnership with French AI start-up as regulators probe $13bn alliance with ChatGPT maker
Bloomberg:
During oral arguments, justices seemed reluctant to completely strike down Texas and Florida social media laws but worried about impacts to companies' 1A rights  —  - Justices wary of entirely striking down Texas, Florida laws  — But court voices concern about impact on company speech rights
Washington Post:
Steve Dent / Engadget:
Samsung unveils the Galaxy Ring at MWC 2024; the device will be centered around health and wellness, come in three colors, and be available later in 2024  —  After teasing it (again) yesterday, Samsung has finally shown off the Galaxy Ring in physical form at Mobile World Conference (MWC 2024) and revealed some additional details.
Javier Espinoza / Financial Times:
The EU is asking developers about the impact of Apple's decision to disable PWAs in the EU, seen as a precursor to a formal investigation into the company  —  Competition regulators in Brussels send questions to developers over iPhone maker's decision  —  The EU has taken the first steps towards …
Neil Long / Mobilegamer.biz:
Sources detail their concerns with Apple Arcade: declining developer payouts, cancelled projects, a shift to only greenlighting family-friendly games, and more  —  Multiple mobilegamer.biz sources have voiced their concern for Apple Arcade's future, citing a glut of cancelled projects and ever-declining developer payouts.
Reuters:
Sources: the BlackCat ransomware gang is behind the outage at UnitedHealth's technology unit that has disrupted services at pharmacies in the US for six days  —  Figurines with computers and smartphones are seen in front of the words “Cyber Attack” in this illustration taken, February 19, 2024.
Tom Gerken / BBC:
Meta outlines its strategy to combat generative AI misuse ahead of the European elections in June 2024, including setting up an EU-specific operations center  —  Facebook and Instagram owner Meta says it will form a team to tackle deceptive artificial intelligence (AI) content in the upcoming EU elections in June.
Ben Thompson / Stratechery:
While Google paused Gemini's image generation, its text generation tool also offers some absurd responses, highlighting the need for flourishing open source AI  —  Last Wednesday, when the questions about Gemini's political viewpoint were still limited to its image creation capabilities, I accused the company of being timid:
Cheyenne MacDonald / Engadget:
Google unveils new Android features: Gemini integrated in Messages, AI-powered text summaries in Android Auto, AI-generated image captions in Lookout, and more  —  The Android updates announced at MWC also include new accessibility features and casting controls for Spotify.
Katrina Manson / Bloomberg:
The CTO for US Central Command says AI developed for Project Maven was used to narrow down targets for 85+ air strikes in the Middle East on February 2  —  - Algorithms were developed under the Pentagon's Project Maven  — AI isn't ready to recommend the order of attack, official says
Tatum Hunter / Washington Post:
How AI is changing the adult entertainment industry, raising concerns about performers' compensation and rights to their likeness, abuse prevention, and more  —  AI will change adult entertainment forever.  The risks — for sex workers and the rest of us — are profound.
Todd Bishop / GeekWire:
Expedia plans to cut about 1,500 roles this year, mainly in its Product & Technology division; the company had 17,100 employees at the end of 2023  —  Expedia Group expects about 1,500 roles to be impacted, primarily in its Product & Technology division, under an operational review announced …
More: Bloomberg and Reuters

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More News

Ryan Gallagher / Bloomberg:
Randy Thanthong-Knight / Bloomberg:
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Earlier Picks

Samrhitha Arunasalam / Reuters:
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Jon Porter / The Verge:
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Sidhartha Shukla / Bloomberg: