Techmeme: Google unveils ARM-based Axion chips for AI, claiming they have up to 30% better performance over the top ARM rivals, coming to Google Cloud customers in 2024 (Wall Street Journal)

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April 9, 2024, 1:40 PM

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Wall Street Journal:

Google unveils ARM-based Axion chips for AI, claiming they have up to 30% better performance over the top ARM rivals, coming to Google Cloud customers in 2024 — Tech giant develops new chips to cut reliance on outside vendors as the AI arms race intensifies

Bloomberg:

Google Cloud CEO Thomas Kurian unveils AI updates: corporate Gemini users can “ground” responses in reliable sources, Search as a Gemini answer source, and more — The company unveiled updates to its AI offerings at its annual cloud conference — Google unveiled a host …

David Pierce / The Verge:

Google announces Vids, an app to help companies and consumers make collaborative, shareable video, powered by Gemini, launching in public beta in summer 2024 — For decades, work has revolved around documents, spreadsheets, and slide decks. Word, Excel, PowerPoint; Pages, Numbers, Keynote; Docs, Sheets, Slides.

More: VentureBeat, Mashable, PhoneArena, TechEBlog, Neowin, Phandroid, Engadget, Android Authority, TechRadar, ZDNet, TechCrunch, TechCrunch, SiliconANGLE, 9to5Google, Engadget, and NewsBytes

LinkedIn: Emil Protalinski. Forums: Hacker News and Slashdot

Abner Li / 9to5Google:

Google details Workspace updates: Gmail's “Help me write” voice input and “instant polish”, Docs tabs, Sheets tables, Gemini in Chat, Meet translation, and more — Besides Vids, Google Workspace is getting a slew of new features and Gemini capabilities at Cloud Next 2024.

More: Google Workspace Blog, The Keyword, TechRadar, AndroidGuys, PhoneArena, VentureBeat, Android Authority, TechCrunch, and ITPro

Kyle Wiggers / TechCrunch:

Google releases Gemini 1.5 Pro in public preview on Vertex AI, offering support for up to 1M tokens, and says the model will power new features in Code Assist — Gemini 1.5 Pro, Google's most capable generative AI model, is now available in public preview on Vertex AI, Google's enterprise-focused AI development platform.

More: MarkTechPost, The Verge, Google Cloud, Android Authority, ZDNet, TechCrunch, Engadget, and Google Cloud Blog

X: @sundarpichai, @sebkrier, and @thomasortk

Forums: Hacker News and Slashdot

Kyle Wiggers / TechCrunch:

Google makes its Imagen 2 image generator generally available in Vertex AI, and adds inpainting and outpainting to remove or add elements and expand borders

More: How-To Geek, The Decoder, VentureBeat, and The Indian Express

Mark Gurman / Bloomberg:

Automattic acquires Beeper, a source says for $125M, and absorbs its 27 employees; Beeper co-founder Eric Migicovsky will become Automattic's head of messaging — - Automattic purchases Beeper in $125 million deal; CEO to join — Beeper briefly brought Apple's iMessage to Android devices

More: Beeper Blog, TechCrunch, New York Times, Beeper Blog, Ars Technica, The Verge, Engadget, 9to5Google, 9to5Mac, iMore, Droid Life, Android Headlines, Wired, MacStories, Pocket-lint, and Automattic

Mastodon: @andypiper@macaw.social, @timbray@cosocial.ca, @jamesdoc@mas.to, @vmstan@vmst.io, and @matthewcassinelli …

X: @kylekashuv, @ericmigi, @onbeeper, @davidsven, @ericmigi, @artemr, @automattic, @ericmigi, @colejryan, @onbeeper, @onbeeper, @onbeeper, and @markgurman

Forums: Hacker News, r/beeper, and Beehaw

Paul Alcorn / Tom's Hardware:

Intel debuts Gaudi 3, set for Q3 mass production, claiming up to 1.7x the training performance, 50% more inference, and 40% better efficiency than Nvidia's H100 — GPUs fall the wayside as Intel goes all-in on Gaudi for AI. — Intel made a slew of announcements during its Vision 2024 event today …

Natasha Singer / New York Times:

In some US schools, boys have used AI “nudification” apps to create and share deepfakes of clothed female classmates, leading to varying district responses — After boys at Francesca Mani's high school fabricated and shared explicit images of girls last year, she and her mother …

More: The Information. X: @privacydigest and @hargreaves_s

Mark Bergen / Bloomberg:

In London, Meta execs downplayed the negative impact of AI on elections, touted open-source AI, and confirmed Llama's next version will arrive by next month — - AI not used on “systemic basis” to subvert elections: Clegg — Political deepfakes on the rise as voters head to polls

More: Telegraph, Seeking Alpha, The Mirror, and The Independent

X: @mikebutcher and @mikebutcher

Sylvia Varnham O'Regan / The Information:

Source: Meta plans to launch two small non-multimodal versions of Llama 3 next week; the biggest Llama 3 model will be multimodal and is set for summer 2024

More: The Verge, TechCrunch, Tom's Guide, Ben's Bites, The Decoder, and Analytics India Magazine

Threads: @paul_rietschka. X: @quinnypig, @andrewcurran_, @corbtt, and @mattshumer_

Forums: r/singularity and r/LocalLLaMA

Wall Street Journal:

An investigation finds a shadowy supply chain for Starlink terminals to US foes in Russia and Sudan via Africa, Asia, and the UAE; SpaceX has not shut them off — The satellite-internet devices are helping Russian fighters in Ukraine and paramilitary forces in Sudan; SpaceX hasn't shut them off

More: Engadget, PCMag, Techpoint Africa, and Benzinga

Mastodon: @karakam@mastodon.social. X: @gksteinhauser, @gksteinhauser, @gksteinhauser, @micahmaidenberg, @tonyromm, @twmcltd, and @alfaiomi

Forums: Hacker News, r/TrueReddit, and r/EnoughMuskSpam

Leo Schwartz / Fortune:

Monad Labs, which is building a Layer 1 blockchain to rival Ethereum and Solana, raised $225M led by Paradigm and plans to launch its mainnet by the end of 2024 — With crypto markets roaring back, different blockchains are jockeying to become the solution that hoovers up demand in the next wave …

More: Decrypt, CoinDesk, Monad, The Block, FinSMEs, The Crypto Times, Coinspeaker, NFTgators, Cointelegraph, Crypto Briefing, and CoinGape

X: @intern, @mdudas, @monad_xyz, and @monad_xyz

Naoki Watanabe / Nikkei Asia:

Microsoft plans to invest $2.9B in data centers in Japan by 2025, its biggest investment in the country, and will add advanced AI chips at two existing sites — Move comes in response to push for ‘data sovereignty’ among governments — PALO ALTO, Calif. — Microsoft will invest $2.9 billion …

More: Reuters, PYMNTS.com, The Information, Bloomberg, DatacenterDynamics, and Proactive

Washington Post:

How OpenAI is preparing to fight lawsuits, investigations, and legislation: growing its staff from 200 in 2022 to ~1,000, hiring ~24 in-house lawyers, and more — The company has hired more than two dozen in-house lawyers and adopted a new Washington playbook

X: @toddbigphoto and @danraile

Sarah Perez / TechCrunch:

eBay adds an AI-powered “shop the look” feature to its iOS app, with personalized recommendations for users that have viewed 10+ fashion items in six months — EBay on Tuesday launched a new generative AI-powered feature to appeal to fashion enthusiasts: a “shop the look” …

More: Chain Store Age

Alexandra Alper / Reuters:

Sources: the US plans to award Samsung $6B+ next week to build four chip facilities in Taylor, Texas, including a $17B plant, as part of the $52.7B CHIPS Act — The Biden administration plans to announce it is awarding more than $6 billion to South Korea's Samsung (005930.KS) …

More: ExtremeTech, PC Gamer, The Korea Herald, Sammy Fans, eeNews Europe, Proactive, MediaNama, Android Headlines, TweakTown, Neowin, and GSMArena.com. Forums: Slashdot

Rebecca Bellan / TechCrunch:

Cruise resumes manually driving its vehicles without autonomous systems engaged to create maps and gather road information in select cities, starting in Phoenix — Cruise is redeploying robotaxis in Phoenix after nearly five months of paused operations, the company said in a blog post. The catch?

More: CNBC, Inc.com, Bloomberg, and Benzinga

Nilay Patel / The Verge:

Q&A with Cloudflare CEO Matthew Prince on the company's role in protecting free speech online, operating in war zones, moderation, never doing layoffs, and more — What free speech, war zones, and Aristotle have to do with internet infrastructure. … Today, I'm talking with Cloudflare co-founder and CEO Matthew Prince.

More: PCMag. Threads: @reckless1280

Abner Li / 9to5Google:

Google debuts its Find My Device network in the US and Canada, initially for lost Android phones and tablets; third-party tracker tag support is coming in May — Google is launching its new Find My Device (FMD) network in the US and Canada starting today. It will initially find lost Android phones …

More: Android Authority, The Keyword, Google Online Security Blog, BGR, 9to5Mac, Ars Technica, TalkAndroid.com, 9to5Google, AndroidGuys, Engadget, Mashable, ABC13, BetaNews, Sammy Fans, MSPoweruser, Gizchina, MySmartPrice, Wccftech, Neowin, Financial Express, TechCrunch, The Verge, Ghacks, Business Insider, CBS News, iThinkDifferent, Xiaomiui.Net, Daring Fireball, Tom's Guide, OSnews, Thurrott, BleepingComputer, PCMag, Liliputing, and PhoneArena

Threads: @lukejannazzo, @danseifert, and @backlon

X: @mishaalrahman, @artemr, @chipolotm, @davey_burke, @mishaalrahman, @mishaalrahman, @android, @mishaalrahman, and @mishaalrahman. LinkedIn: Dave Kleidermacher

Forums: r/GooglePixel, r/Android, and r/Android

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From Mediagazer

Dan Mangan / CNBC:

President Trump files a $10B defamation lawsuit against the BBC, alleging it intentionally doctored a Panorama documentary to misrepresent his January 6 speech

Jem Bartholomew / Columbia Journalism Review:

US Press Freedom Tracker: 32 journalists arrested or charged in 2025, vs. 50 in 2024, and 170 assaulted, nearly as many as the previous three years combined

Byron Tau / Associated Press:

Sources: Bay Area radio station KCBS-AM, which faced MAGA backlash over ICE coverage, scaled back political reporting after Brendan Carr's threats of a probe

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Anna Tong / Reuters:

Symbolica, which develops foundation models offering an alternative to the transformer AI architecture, raised a $31M Series A led by Khosla Ventures

More: TechCrunch, VentureBeat, and Fortune

Ingrid Lunden / TechCrunch:

Enterprise data security startup Cyera raised a $300M Series C led by Coatue at a $1.4B valuation, taking its funding to $460M, after a $100M Series B in 2023

More: FinSMEs, Globes Online, and SecurityWeek

Bailey Lipschultz / Bloomberg:

Trump Media & Technology Group's stock is down 36% since March 26, wiping out ~$2.8B in market value as retail traders sell; Trump's stake is now worth ~$2.9B

More: Benzinga, Barron's Online, CNN, Reuters, and International Business Times

Forums: r/technology and r/inthenews

Reuters:

South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol says the country plans to invest ~$7B in AI by 2027, and will create a separate ~$1B fund to foster AI chip companies

More: Business Today, Cryptopolitan, Benzinga, Tech in Asia, and International Business Times

Financial Times:

Interviews with 12+ former and current employees: ByteDance faces a backlash from its US TikTok staff over large tax bills on stock shares that they cannot sell

More: Fortune. X: @niubi, @joemosch, @samgoodman22, and @tanarrowz

Mishaal Rahman / Android Authority:

A look at Android 15's Private Space feature, which creates a separate profile for hiding apps and data, similar to Samsung's Secure Folder

More: ZDNet, Droid Life, and Business Today

X: @mishaalrahman. Forums: r/Android

Heather Landi / Fierce Healthcare:

Grow Therapy, which provides services like patient-provider matching and EHR to help therapists run their own practices, raised an $88M Series C led by Sequoia

More: SignalFire, PR Newswire, and FinSMEs

X: @joshconstine and @gradypb

Shira Stein / San Francisco Chronicle:

Sources: Applied Materials may scale back or cancel plans to open a $4B R&D facility in Silicon Valley due to a lack of government funding

More: Benzinga, Reuters, and Tom's Hardware. X: @_danilo

Earlier Picks

Kate Knibbs / Wired:

The Internet Archive is hosting the new Aruba Collection, which contains 101,376 items from Aruba's National Library, National Archives, and other institutions

More: The Information and Internet Archive Blogs

Mastodon: @josemurilo@mato.social. X: @internetarchive, @brewster_kahle, and @neilturkewitz

Forums: Hacker News, r/Futurology, r/technology, Beehaw, Slashdot, and Ars OpenForum