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April 4, 2024, 10:15 AM
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Financial Times:
Sources: Google considers adding certain AI-powered search features to its premium subscription services, which already offer access to Gemini in Gmail and Docs  —  Proposals would mark first time any of the software group's core product falls behind a paywall
Mark Gurman / Bloomberg:
Sources: Apple is exploring home robotic devices, including a mobile robot that can follow users and a table-top device that uses robotics to move a display  —  - The company has teams working on automated home devices  — The search is on for new growth sources after EV gets nixed
The Guardian:
Sources: Israel's bombing campaign in Gaza used Lavender, an AI system that identified 37,000 potential human targets based on their apparent links to Hamas  —  Israeli intelligence sources reveal use of ‘Lavender’ system in Gaza war and claim permission given to kill civilians in pursuit of low-ranking militants
More: +972 Magazine, Business Today, Gizmodo, The i Paper, ScheerPost.com, SiliconANGLE, Cryptopolitan, FRANCE 24 English on YouTube, The Sun, The Times of Israel, Firstpost, Daily Kos, and The Guardian
Threads: @technicallymims.  Mastodon: @JapanProf@mastodon.social, @Khrys@mamot.fr, @anilmc@hachyderm.io, @shentonfreude@mastodon.online, @seriouslyjeff@social.jeffl.es, @bpettis@mastodon …, @makingarecord@friend.camp, @left_adjoint@tilde.zone, @ErikJonker@mastodon.social, @risottobias@tech.lgbt, @jesopo@chaos.social, @Khrys@mamot.fr, @reedmideke@mastodon.social, @65dBnoise@mastodon.social, @yanone@typo.social, @reedmideke@mastodon.social, @remixtures@tldr.nettime.org, and @Mer__edith@mastodon.world.  Bluesky: @saddestrobots.bsky.social
X: @rafaelshimunov, @docmattmoudi, @alonso_gd, @tomgara, @lana_tatour, @jehadabusalim, @peterharling, @heerjeet, @sturgeons_law, @nickkristof, @psychicyogamat, @mehdirhasan, @btselem, @paulbernaluk, @dirkmoses, @spectrathegame, @pixelatedboat, @mitchprothero, @bonzerbarry, @ugarles, @hamzamsyed, @provisionalidea, @masadfrost, @bcmerchant, @arictoler, @brian_castner, @heidykhlaaf, @evanhill, @evanhill, @mrjoncryer, @thegreenebj, @madamajab, @jeremiahdjohns, @hermit_hwarang, @mer__edith, @rohantalbot, @schock, @charlie533080, @evanhill, @rnaudbertrand, @jakegodin, @tksshawa, @yuval_abraham, @rnaudbertrand, @bcmerchant, @adhaque110, @rosen_br, @972mag, @robertdownen_, @ggreenwald, @arictoler, @evkontorovich, @elivalley, @yanisvaroufakis, and @arictoler
LinkedIn: Ana Brandusescu and Sahar Aziz
Forums: Hacker News, Hacker News, r/jewishleft, r/ABoringDystopia, r/LabourUK, r/technews, r/Foodforthought, r/PrepperIntel, r/Israel_Palestine, r/DemocraticSocialism, r/boringdystopia, r/OrphanCrushingMachine, r/worldevents, r/internationalpolitics, r/technology, r/metalgearsolid, r/PLTR, r/stupidpol, r/france, r/theworldnews, r/LateStageCapitalism, r/singularity, r/TrueAnon, r/Futurology, r/VaushV, r/InternationalNews, r/InternationalNews, and r/worldnews
Amrita Khalid / The Verge:
X adds blue checks to some large accounts as part of its plan to give free Premium memberships to users with at least 2,500 “verified subscriber followers”  —  Just as Elon Musk said, X is doling out free Premium and Premium memberships to accounts with a high number of verified followers.
Tim Stelloh / NBC News:
A Washington state judge barred the use of AI-enhanced video as trial evidence in a ruling that experts say may be the first-of-its-kind in a US criminal court  —  Lawyers for a man charged with murder in a triple homicide had sought to introduce cellphone video enhanced by machine-learning software.
Scott Stein / CNET:
An interview with Andrew Bosworth on the 10th anniversary of Reality Labs, the past and future of VR/AR/AI, Meta's next AR glasses prototype, and more  —  Meta CTO Andrew Bosworth talks with CNET about the past and future of VR, AR and AI.  —  2014 doesn't seem that long ago to me.
Lauren Feiner / The Verge:
Google sues two alleged crypto scammers, accusing them of using its Play Store to offer fraudulent crypto trading and investment apps to steal users' money  —  Google is suing two alleged crypto scammers, accusing them of using its Play Store to offer fraudulent cryptocurrency trading apps …
Bloomberg:
Elon Musk says “Tesla is increasing comp ... of our AI engineering team”, after OpenAI has been “aggressively recruiting Tesla engineers” with “massive” offers  —  - CEO says carmaker is going extra mile to retain specialists  — Exodus may exacerbate concerns about conflicts, governance
Andy Greenberg / Wired:
A profile of hacker P4x, aka Alejandro Caceres, who took down North Korea's internet in 2022 and says the US needs to wield its hacking powers more aggressively  —  As “P4x,” Alejandro Caceres single-handedly disrupted the internet of an entire country.  Then he tried to show the US military how it can—and should—adopt his methods.
Lindsay Ellis / Wall Street Journal:
How some MBA programs in the US are reorienting their courses around AI by adding AI-related classwork, encouraging using AI to solve lab assignments, and more  —  American University, other top M.B.A. programs reorient courses around artificial intelligence; ‘It has eaten our world’
Kevin Roose / New York Times:
An interview with Andres Freund, a Microsoft database engineer working on PostgreSQL, on discovering the XZ Utils backdoor, doubting his own findings, and more  —  The internet, as anyone who works deep in its trenches will tell you, is not a smooth, well-oiled machine.
More: The Intercept and MakeUseOf
Threads: @jenvalentino_nyt.  Mastodon: @couts@mastodon.social.  X: @kevinroose.  LinkedIn: Affan Dar.  Forums: Hacker News, r/technology, and r/neoliberal
Andrea Grimes / Home With The Armadillo:
Substack's new emphasis on followers, not subscriptions, and its opaque steps to migrate paid subscriptions off the platform make leaving harder for writers  —  And it'll be worse this time around!  —  The writing life, which has never exactly been a picnic for independent journalists and freelancers …
Reuters:
Sources: Alphabet has been talking to its advisers about making an offer for HubSpot, an online marketing company with a $32B market value  —  Google parent Alphabet (GOOGL.O) has been talking to its advisers about the possibility of making an offer for HubSpot (HUBS.N) …
More: Benzinga
Sebastian Herrera / Wall Street Journal:
Some Amazon merchants complain of scam returns, where buyers ship junk back to sellers and claim they are returns, and say Amazon's policies favor customers  —  Merchants receive junk instead of returned purchases, a sore point as they say Amazon's policies favor customers
More: PYMNTS.com
Sam Kessler / CoinDesk:
Ripple plans to launch its own stablecoin later this year “100% backed by US dollar deposits, short-term US government Treasuries, and other cash equivalents”  —  The token will be “100% backed by U.S. dollar deposits, short-term U.S. government Treasuries and other cash equivalents.” according to the company.
Joyce Lee / Reuters:
SK Hynix plans to invest ~$3.87B in an advanced packaging plant and R&D facility in West Lafayette, Indiana, to produce high bandwidth memory chips from H2 2028  —  SK Hynix (000660.KS), the world's second-largest memory chip maker, said on Wednesday it will invest around $3.87 billion …
Shirin Ghaffary / Bloomberg:
Cohere releases Command R+, a new business-focused model the startup says performs competitively against OpenAI and others on “business-critical” tasks  —  Cohere says its new technology is cheaper than OpenAI's offerings.  —  Artificial intelligence startup Cohere Inc. is releasing …
Daniel Thomas / Financial Times:
US rock band Kiss sells rights to its music, name, image, and likeness to Swedish entertainment company Pophouse to create a live show, a source says for ~$300M  —  Sale to Swedish entertainment group Pophouse set to 'fulfil the band's vision to become immortal'

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From Mediagazer

Benjamin Mullin / New York Times:
Arkansas PBS severs ties with the PBS network, the first state public TV system to do so since Congress cut CPB funds, citing the annual $2M+ membership cost

Sam Roberts / New York Times:
Arthur L. Carter, who started a Connecticut newspaper in 1981, bought and sold The Nation, and founded the New York Observer in 1987, has died at 93

Pamela McClintock / The Hollywood Reporter:
Disney's Zootopia 2 surpasses $1B at the global box office, the fastest PG-rated film to do so after just 17 days in release

More News

Jagmeet Singh / TechCrunch:
Singapore-based SingleInterface, which lets offline businesses manage and grow an online presence, raised $30M, its first external raise since its 2015 founding
Business Insider:
Meta is testing giving cash bonuses to creators who post engaging content on Threads, as part of an invite-only program

Earlier Picks

TechCrunch:
A look at some exciting startups from day one of YC's Winter 2024 Demo Day, including those using AI for creating music and helping lawyers review documents
Alex Koller / CNBC:
Uber Eats rolls out delivery services with Waymo's self-driving cars in the Phoenix area, Uber's seventh site with autonomous deliveries and first with Waymo
Richard Lawler / The Verge:
Apple resolves an outage impacting some of its online services, including the App Store, Apple TV, Podcasts, and Music, that lasted for over an hour on April 3
Kirsten Korosec / TechCrunch:
Self-driving software startup Ghost Autonomy, formerly Ghost Locomotion, shuts down, after raising ~$220M, and just five months after partnering with OpenAI
Amrita Khalid / The Verge:
Facebook updates its mobile video player with a TikTok-like vertical look and new controls for Reels, Live, and longform videos, starting with the US and Canada
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