Techmeme
April 16, 2024, 9:40 PM

Top News

Connor Jones / The Register:
UnitedHealth says the February ransomware attack on Change Healthcare cost the company $872M in Q1; another ransomware group appears to be extorting the company  —  First glimpse at attack financials reveals huge pain  —  UnitedHealth, parent company of ransomware-besieged Change Healthcare …
Rob Golum / Bloomberg:
Filing: Take-Two plans to lay off 5% of its workforce, expecting to incur up to $200M in charges as part of the downsizing, including $140M from canceled titles  —  The company sees expenses of up to $200 million as part of the effort, including as much as $140 million from canceled projects …
Priya Anand / Bloomberg:
Sensor Tower: Naval Ravikant and Brian Norgard's audio-focused invitation-only social app Airchat has been downloaded 30K+ times since it relaunched this month  —  - The app feels like a combination of voice notes and Twitter  — Invite-only Airchat has won over VCs and early adopters
Dell Cameron / Wired:
The Senate is set to vote on RISAA, which reauthorizes FISA's Section 702 and could force new types of businesses to eavesdrop on Americans without a warrant  —  A controversial bill reauthorizing the Section 702 spy program may force whole new categories of businesses to eavesdrop …
Financial Times:
Microsoft invests $1.5B in Abu Dhabi-based AI startup 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:
Abner Li / 9to5Google:
Benjamin Sandofsky / Sandofsky:
How Humane's attempt to build its Ai Pin “The Apple Way” led to disastrous results, after taking six years to build it and raising $230M  —  Why You Can't Build Apple with Venture Capital  —  An ex-Apple designer who went on to startup success once told me …
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 …
Natasha Lomas / TechCrunch:
Apple debuts web distribution of iOS apps to EU users, allowing qualifying devs who opt in to its Core Technology Fee to offer direct downloads from their sites  —  Apple is opening up web distribution for iOS apps targeting users in the European Union from today.
Lizette Chapman / Bloomberg:
Andreessen Horowitz raised $7.2B, including $600M for American Dynamism, $3.75B for late-stage startups, and $600M for gaming, exceeding its target by ~4%  —  Andreessen Horowitz, one of Silicon Valley's biggest venture capital firms, has raised $7.2 billion in new funding — a sizable haul after a rocky period for the startup world.
PA Media:
The UK proposes legislation to outlaw creating sexually explicit deepfake photos without consent, regardless of whether creators intended to share the images  —  Offenders could face jail if image is widely shared under proposed amendment to criminal justice bill

Sponsor Posts

Subquadratic:
Subquadratic: the LLM built for 12M-token reasoning  —  SubQ can reason across entire codebases and document sets in one pass with no RAG workarounds.  Read how SubQ 1.1 Small holds near-perfect retrieval out to 12M tokens.
Cloudflare:
Cloudflare Connect 2026: The Agentic Conference  —  Stop preparing for agents.  Start running them.  100+ sessions, workshops, and speakers from OpenAI, Arm, and Cloudflare across AI, security, and performance.
Zoho:
Stop re-entering Shopify order details in Zoho CRM  —  This is a guest blog from Xapplets (Zeeyes AI Inc).Here's a scene that plays out in many growing Shopify stores every day: a customer places an order …
IDrive:
IDrive Autonomy: low-cost L2+ driver assistance with AI  —  L2+ driver assistance with a scalable AI stack built for automotive companies and laying the foundation for the autonomous future.

Featured Podcasts

Big Technology Podcast:
GPT-6 & OpenAI's Comeback, Hugging Face Attack Debate, Ballmer's Scandalous Legacy
The Big Technology Podcast takes you behind the scenes in the tech world featuring interviews with plugged-in insiders and outside agitators.
Subscribe to Big Technology Podcast.
Hard Fork:
The A.I. Mob That Attacked Hugging Face + METR's Ajeya Cotra
The future is already here. Each week, journalists Kevin Roose and Casey Newton explore and make sense of the latest in the rapidly changing world of tech.
Subscribe to Hard Fork.
Channels with Peter Kafka:
Data Centers, Elon Musk, and the New Politics of Tech, with David Weigel
Media and tech aren't just intersecting - they're fully intertwined. To understand how those worlds work, Peter Kafka talks to industry leaders, upstarts and observers.
Subscribe to Channels with Peter Kafka.
Sources:
Sam Altman on OpenAI's next model and the AI backlash
Candid conversations with the leaders shaping what's next in AI and the broader tech industry. Hosted by Alex Heath, who has covered Silicon Valley for more than a decade.
Subscribe to Sources.
Uncapped with Jack Altman:
Brian Singerman from GPx
Conversations with people I admire about things I'm genuinely interested in.
Subscribe to Uncapped with Jack Altman.
Tools and Weapons with Brad Smith:
Connecting the Unconnected: Doreen Bogdan-Martin
Microsoft Vice Chair and President Brad Smith speaks with leaders in government, business, and culture to explore the most critical challenges at the intersection of technology and society.
Subscribe to Tools and Weapons with Brad Smith.
 

About This Page

This is a Techmeme archive page. It shows how the site appeared at 9:40 PM ET, April 16, 2024.

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.

More News

Todd Spangler / Variety:
Paul Alcorn / Tom's Hardware:
Jane Lanhee Lee / Bloomberg:

Earlier Picks

Vittoria Elliott / Wired:
Natasha Lomas / TechCrunch:
Jennifer A. Kingson / Axios:
Stephen Nellis / Reuters: