Techmeme: Mark Zuckerberg wins his bid to avoid personal liability in about two dozen lawsuits accusing Meta and other companies of addicting children to their products (Rachel Graf/Bloomberg)

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April 16, 2024, 9:25 AM

Top News

Financial Times:

Microsoft invests $1.5B in Abu Dhabi-based AI group G42 for a minority stake, after G42 severed ties with Chinese suppliers; Brad Smith will join G42's board — Agreement is latest move by US tech group to extend its reach into fast-growing sector — Microsoft has agreed to invest $1.5bn …

Bloomberg:

Sources: in 2023, Abu Dhabi's G42 and the US Commerce Department held talks that led to G42 agreeing to pare back its China presence to avoid punitive measures

More: Reuters, New York Times, CCN.com, Maginative, Silicon Republic, Cryptopolitan, Wall Street Journal, GeekWire, and Tech Xplore

X: @dinabass and @stuartlwallace

Raphael Satter / Reuters:

The Open Source Security Foundation and the OpenJS Foundation say the attempt to insert a secret backdoor into XZ Utils “may not be an isolated incident” — The recent attempt by an unknown actor to sabotage a widely used software program may have been one of several attempts …

More: Open Source Security …, Security Affairs, TechRadar, Infosecurity, ComputerWeekly.com, The Record, and Cybersecurity Dive

Mastodon: @danimo@chaos.social, @thegibson@hackers.town, and @rechelon@mastodon.social. X: @_msw_

Matthew Connatser / The Register:

Intel's Gaudi 3 white paper details the made-for-China processors HL-328 and HL-388, likely designed to comply with US sanctions by reducing performance — Intel is set to launch two China-exclusive models of its Gaudi 3 AI accelerator, and they'll be substantially crippled to fit in with US sanctions.

More: Intel, Reuters, Benzinga, Pandaily, TechNode, and TrendForce Insights

Abner Li / 9to5Google:

YouTube begins “strengthening our enforcement on third-party apps that violate” its ToS and “specifically ad-blocking apps”, leading to app error messages — Following the ad blocker crackdown, YouTube is explicitly going after third-party — often mobile — apps that let viewers skip advertising.

Benjamin Sandofsky / Sandofsky:

A look at the failure of Humane's Ai Pin, which took six years to ship after raising $230M, including building the device “the Apple way” and raising too much — Why You Can't Build Apple with Venture Capital — An ex-Apple designer who went on to startup success once told me …

More: Platformer, Macworld, BBC, TechSpot, and Business Insider

Mastodon: @akosma@mastodon.online, @jasonpettus@mastodon.cloud, and @sandofsky@mastodon.social

X: @samsheffer, @carnage4life, @gergelyorosz, @wesamo__, and @mkbhd. Forums: r/videos

Foo Yun Chee / Reuters:

EU antitrust regulators are questioning Broadcom about changes to VMware's licensing conditions, following complaints from EU business users and a trade group — U.S. chipmaker Broadcom (AVGO.O) is being asked by EU antitrust regulators about changes to newly acquired cloud computing company …

More: Tech Monitor, Broadcom Inc., TechRadar, The Register, Constellation Research, and Benzinga

Bluesky: @marypcbuk.bsky.social. X: @codykirkpatrick, @broadcom, and @dcasota. Forums: r/vmware

David Pierce / The Verge:

Limitless launches the $99 Limitless Pendant, a wearable AI gadget that transcribes meetings and provides real-time notes and summaries, shipping in August 2024 — The Limitless Pendant doesn't exactly scream “AI.” As Dan Siroker, the CEO of the company behind the new device …

More: Tom's Guide, iMore, and Spyglass

Threads: @martinsfp and @hi.nixson. Mastodon: @peter@thepit.social. Bluesky: @mikalfm.bsky.social

X: @petergyang, @dsiroker, @dsiroker, @linusekenstam, @gartenberg, @erondu, @scobleizer, @quinnypig, @stevendarlow, @stammy, @dsiroker, @stammy, @rauchg, @stammy, @scobleizer, @lan8ach, and @nickadobos. Forums: Hacker News

Jennifer A. Kingson / Axios:

Meta plans to launch a new education product for Quest that will let teachers access education apps for students ages 13+ and manage multiple headsets at once — - In time for the fall semester, it'll make available a suite of visually engrossing education apps that teachers can use with students ages 13+.

Vittoria Elliott / Wired:

Meta's Oversight Board plans to investigate two deepfake porn cases, both involving unnamed celebrities who had their images altered to create explicit content — Social platforms have struggled to quickly remove deepfake porn depicting celebrities. — As AI tools become increasingly sophisticated …

More: Engadget, Oversight Board, PCMag, Reuters, TechCrunch, Business Standard, The Hill, The News International, WHDH-TV, Oversight Board, Agence France-Presse, Bloomberg, and Panda Security Mediacenter

X: @oversightboard, @oversightboard, and @oversightboard. LinkedIn: Simona Sikimic-French

Artificial Intelligence Index:

Stanford's AI Index report: training top AI models is way more expensive, AI still trails humans on complex tasks, people are more nervous about AI, and more — Welcome to the seventh edition of the AI Index report. The 2024 Index is our most comprehensive to date and arrives …

More: Artifical Intelligence Index, Semafor, IEEE Spectrum, Axios, WinBuzzer, New York Times, Stanford HAI, PYMNTS.com, The Decoder, Stanford HAI, San Francisco Chronicle, EnterpriseAI, and SiliconANGLE

X: @stanfordhai, @jamiemetzl, @jordannovet, @benjaminklieger, @stanfordhai, @epochairesearch, @stanfordhai, @jsevillamol, @stanfordnlp, @stanfordnlp, @ankareuel, @russellwald, and @stanfordnlp

LinkedIn: Corey Noles and Heather E.

Forums: r/singularity, r/MachineLearning, r/artificial, and Slashdot

Rachel Graf / Bloomberg:

Mark Zuckerberg wins his bid to avoid personal liability in about two dozen lawsuits accusing Meta and other companies of addicting children to their products — US District Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers, who is overseeing the cases, sided with the Meta chief executive officer in a ruling issued Monday.

More: 9to5Mac, Reuters, TechSpot, International Business Times, Benzinga, and NewsBytes

Natasha Lomas / TechCrunch:

Mozilla and CheckFirst: Apple, Google, Meta, and others' ad transparency efforts are a work in progress, months after the EU's DSA mandated a searchable library — Efforts by tech giants to be more transparent about the ads they run are — at very best — still a work in progress …

More: 9to5Mac, Euractiv, Mozilla Foundation, Cybernews.com, CNBC, CheckFirst, Mozilla Foundation, and Adweek

X: @ecranmobilefr and @checkfirsthq

Julie Creswell / New York Times:

Ghost kitchens and virtual restaurant brands, which boomed during the pandemic after raising billions, are disappearing due to overtaxed kitchens and complaints — Ghost kitchens and virtual brands became a way for idle restaurant kitchens to generate revenue.

Mastodon: @carnage4life@mas.to

Paul Alcorn / Tom's Hardware:

AMD unveils Ryzen Pro 8040 series for commercial laptops and mobile workstations and Ryzen Pro 8000 series for desktops, adding a neural processing unit for AI — AMD is the first with a Pro desktop PC chip with an NPU for AI workloads. — AMD announced its Ryzen Pro portfolio today …

More: PCWorld, PCMag, Windows Central, CNBC, Phoronix, Game Rant, Liliputing, Advanced Micro Devices, Inc., and Wccftech

Olivia Carville / Bloomberg:

How scammers, often from Nigeria, are using sextortion to target teenage boys on social media in the US, leading to at least 20 suicides over an 18-month period — One word from a stranger on social media was all it took. “Hey,” she said. — Jordan DeMay read the Instagram message at 10:19 p.m. on a Thursday night in March 2022.

More: Bloomberg. X: @livcarville, @markmilian, @sonalibasak, @cavandy, and @rfriedman305. Forums: r/Instagram

Sabrina Willmer / Bloomberg:

Filing: MGM sues the FTC to stop an investigation into a 2023 cyberattack and asks for Chair Lina Khan's recusal; Khan stayed at the MGM Grand in September 2023 — - Agency chair Lina Khan was visiting resort during cyber attack — Lawsuit alleges FTC asked company for ‘100 categories’ of data

More: Daring Fireball

Ricardo Brito / Reuters:

Letter: X's lawyers tell Brazil's Supreme Court that the social media platform will comply with every ruling issued by the court or Brazil's top electoral court — Lawyers representing Elon Musk's X told Brazil's Supreme Court that the social media platform will comply with every ruling issued …

More: Social Media Today and CoinGape

Threads: @wolfgangbremer. X: @globalaffairs, @apagliar, and @xdaily. Forums: r/technology

Bloomberg:

Bain Capital agrees to sell UK payroll software company Zellis, acquired in 2017, to Apax Partners; sources say the deal values Zellis at ~£1.25B — - Apax said to fund deal with £450 million private credit loan — Zellis counts Harrods and carmaker Jaguar among its customers

More: PYMNTS.com

Yoolim Lee / Bloomberg:

South Korea-based AI startup Upstage raised a $72M Series B from SK Networks, SBVA, formerly known as SoftBank Ventures Asia, and other investors — Artificial intelligence startup Upstage secured 100 billion won ($72 million) from investors including SK Networks Co. and KT Corp. to bankroll …

More: Pulse 2.0, Upstage, KED Global, Tech in Asia, and The Investor

Kari Paul / The Guardian:

A look at Neopets, a website launched in 1999 to let users care for virtual pets, including how the site survived multiple acquisitions and Flash's phasing out — An icon of millennials' childhoods languished for nearly two decades. Now it's attempting a comeback - banking on the fact that it hasn't changed at all

X: @blakersdozen

Billy Perrigo / TIME:

Google's Jigsaw expands Perspective API, a set of ML tools that help moderators and researchers identify toxicity, with seven attributes, including nuance — In the 1990s and early 2000s, technologists made the world a grand promise: new communications technologies would strengthen democracy …

X: @mer__edith, @prestonjbyrne, @jigsaw, @billyperrigo, @jigsaw, and @jigsaw. LinkedIn: Reza Ghazinouri

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About This Page

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From Mediagazer

CNN:

Source: UFC CEO Dana White has declined Trump's offer to become press secretary

Ethan Gach / Kotaku:

Valnet agrees to a $2M settlement to end a 2023 suit accusing it of misclassifying some workers as contractors rather than full-time employees to deny them pay

Washington Post:

Sources: Trump ally Laura Loomer was paid, including via wire transfers worth ~$60K, for political social media posts without publicly disclosing the payments

More News

Jane Lanhee Lee / Bloomberg:

AI chip developer Rivos, which recently settled with Apple over trade secret theft, raised $250M+ led by Matrix to compete with Nvidia using its RISC-V chips

More: Reuters and TechCrunch

Times of India:

India-based B2B e-commerce marketplace ProcMart raised a $30M Series B led by Fundamentum and Edelweiss Discovery Fund, following a $10M Series A in 2022

More: Entrackr, Livemint, VCCircle, The Economic Times, Moneycontrol, and The Hindu BusinessLine. LinkedIn: ProcMart

Anna Heim / TechCrunch:

Berlin-based finmid, which makes embedded fintech tools for SMBs, raised a €23M Series A at a €100M post-money valuation, bringing its total raised to €35M

More: EU-Startups, Tech.eu, FinSMEs, Crowdfund Insider, Tech Funding News, finmid, and Silicon Canals. LinkedIn: finmid

Saritha Rai / Bloomberg:

Tel Aviv-based Bridgewise, which uses AI to provide investment analysis to brokerages, wealth advisors, and exchanges, raised a $21M Series A led by SIX Group

More: Tech.eu, Bridgewise, Asia Blockchain Review, Tech Funding News, and CTech

Josh Ye / Reuters:

Baidu says that eight months after launch its AI chatbot Ernie Bot now has 200M+ users and 85K enterprise clients, after reaching 100M+ users in December 2023

More: South China Morning Post, Wall Street Journal, Reuters, CNBC, Pandaily, and Benzinga

Tim De Chant / TechCrunch:

Kode Labs, which develops tools that integrate data from building management systems and IoT devices, raised a $30M Series B led by Maverix Private Equity

More: PR Newswire, FinSMEs, and Venture Capital Journal

X: @tdechant and @kodelabs

LinkedIn: Etrit Demaj and Nick Viscuso

Ellen Milligan / Bloomberg:

Sources: the UK plans talks this month with Apple, Meta, and others to push a voluntary charter granting parents more control of social media use by young teens

X: @arollingsloane, @jamesrbuk, @alecmuffett, and @webdevlaw

Fred Lambert / Electrek:

Sources: Tesla is focused on building a giant Texas data center for its robotaxi project, now a top priority, after postponing work on a cheaper vehicle

More: Benzinga, W Media Research, Forbes, Brad Ideas, and Notebookcheck

Threads: @sofainatl and @fredlambert94. Bluesky: @cathygellis.bsky.social

Forums: r/teslamotors, r/mlscaling, r/electricvehicles, r/teslainvestorsclub, and r/RealTesla

Earlier Picks

Katie McQue / The Guardian:

As nine US states advance online child safety bills, a look at tech giants' lobbying efforts against the legislation, led by industry group NetChoice

X: @jason_kint, @zamaan_qureshi, @ttp_updates, and @blakersdozen

Peter Kafka / Business Insider:

Impressions of Waymo's robotaxis after several rides: amazing tech that quickly feels “normal”, but the car failed to understand a traffic cop's hand signals

Threads: @theromit, @carnage4life, @emetelka, @joeypadge3, @nick_poitier, @motorcityadam, @pkafka, and @nemeseri

X: @carnage4life, @tomaxwell, @pranay01, @alexia, @noampomsky, and @kazanjy

Forums: r/SelfDrivingCars and r/waymo

Vittoria Elliott / Wired:

ISD: fake footage of Iran's attack on Israel went viral on X, including AI-made videos and photos, with many posts from verified accounts and “OSINT experts”

More: The i Paper, Cointelegraph, and ISD

Threads: @laurengoode. X: @shayan86, @shayan86, @shayan86, @shayan86, @shayan86, @shayan86, @shayan86, @ghonchehazad, @shayan86, @shayan86, @shayan86, @arsenkeklikoglu, @merlynthomas, @eliothiggins, @shayan86, @vabvox, @shayan86, @decodingfoxnews, @shayan86, and @talhagin

Brian Krebs / Krebs on Security:

CISA warns that locks from RealPage's Chirp Systems, reportedly on ~50K US dwellings, can be unlocked via a hack; Chirp was told in 2021 but has remained quiet

More: The Register. Mastodon: @briankrebs@infosec.exchange, @lpar@infosec.exchange, @briankrebs@infosec.exchange, and @kurtseifried@infosec.exchange

LinkedIn: Dirk Anderson, Art Cooper, and Brian Krebs

New York Times:

Sources: Instagram is in the early stages of testing “Creator AI” chatbots for top influencers, which would automate DM responses to fans in a creator's “voice”

More: Fast Company, Benzinga, PYMNTS.com, Social Media Today, Forbes, Crowdfund Insider, and The Korea Herald

Threads: @mr.michaelmiller. Bluesky: @blowdart.me and @mikalfm.bsky.social

X: @sen_stackhouse, @kateconger, @mikeisaac, @mikeisaac, @baxiabhishek, @baekdal, and @mikeisaac. LinkedIn: Emil Protalinski