Techmeme: Intel's Gaudi 3 white paper details the made-for-China processors HL-328 and HL-388, likely designed to comply with US export controls by reducing performance (Matthew Connatser/The Register)

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April 16, 2024, 11:30 AM

Top News

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 …

More: Microsoft, New York Times, Bloomberg, G42, PYMNTS.com, The Official Microsoft Blog, Forbes, Coinspeaker, Network World, Analytics India Magazine, The Information, Reuters, The Crypto Times, and Cointelegraph

X: @bradsmi, @dinabass, @omunderdal, @g42ai, @g42ai, and @g42ai. Forums: Hacker News

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 — - Agreement with US helped G42 preserve access to Nvidia chips — Negotiations set stage for $1.5 billion Microsoft investment

More: Benzinga, The Register, TechCrunch, CNBC, The Verge, TechCircle, Tech in Asia, Reuters, New York Times, The Decoder, Silicon Republic, Maginative, Wall Street Journal, CCN.com, Cryptopolitan, GeekWire, and Tech Xplore

X: @mackhawk, @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: The Register, SC Media, Metacurity, The Record, Security Affairs, The Hacker News, Infosecurity, ComputerWeekly.com, and Cybersecurity Dive

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

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 …

More: Constellation Research, BleepingComputer, TechCrunch, BleepingComputer, CRN, Forbes, Fierce Healthcare …, Proactive, Cybernews.com, CNBC, SecurityWeek, and PYMNTS.com

Mastodon: @danhon@dan.mastohon.com, @GossiTheDog@cyberplace.social, and @zackwhittaker@mastodon.social

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: Marques Brownlee on YouTube, Platformer, BBC, Cryptopolitan, Macworld, and Business Insider

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

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

Abner Li / 9to5Google:

YouTube strengthens its “enforcement on third-party apps” violating its ToS, “specifically ad-blocking apps”, leading to error messages and “buffering issues” — Following the ad blocker crackdown, YouTube is explicitly going after third-party …

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 export controls 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, Benzinga, Reuters, Pandaily, TechNode, and TrendForce Insights

Vittoria Elliott / Wired:

Meta's Oversight Board plans to investigate two deepfake porn cases involving unnamed US 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: The Guardian, Engadget, Oversight Board, TechCrunch, PCMag, Business Standard, Blaze Media, Reuters, The News International, Oversight Board, The Charlotte Observer, WHDH-TV, Agence France-Presse, Bloomberg, and Panda Security Mediacenter

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

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

X: @ecranmobilefr and @checkfirsthq

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+.

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., The Register, TechRadar, 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

LinkedIn: LinkedIn and Dan Siroker. Forums: Hacker News

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: Reuters and Daring Fireball

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: PCMag, Phoronix, XDA Developers, Advanced Micro Devices, Inc., PCWorld, Windows Central, ExtremeTech, Windows Experience Blog, CNBC, Game Rant, Liliputing, Wccftech, and MSPoweruser. Forums: Hacker News

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. X: @rakeshlobster

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 — China's Baidu (9888.HK) said on Tuesday its artificial intelligence chatbot “Ernie Bot” has garnered more than 200 million users …

More: South China Morning Post, WinBuzzer, CNBC, Business Standard, Pandaily, Benzinga, and Wall Street Journal

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 — - US upstart targets data analytics and generative AI markets — Matrix Capital leads round, with Intel, MediaTek participating

More: DatacenterDynamics, FinSMEs, Reuters, Verdict, and Tech Startups

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

Todd Spangler / Variety:

TikTok signs a deal with ticketing provider AXS to let users buy tickets to live events in the US, UK, and more; TikTok has had a Ticketmaster deal since 2022 — TikTok inked a partnership with ticketing provider AXS to let users of the popular video app discover and buy tickets to live events.

More: TechCrunch, The Verge, IQ Magazine, Music Business Worldwide, and Music Week

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From Mediagazer

Jaspreet Singh / Reuters:

Memo: Skydance names WBD's Sarah Bergman and Paramount's Mickey Carter to lead its distribution business, as eight executives are set to leave the company

Blake Brittain / Reuters:

The NYT, the New York Daily News, and others sue browser maker Brave for allegedly scraping their articles for AI training and letting users bypass paywalls

Jan Lopatka / Reuters:

Czech public television and radio workers held a one-day strike on Tuesday against a government plan to cut financing and move funding to the state budget

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More News

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

X: @blakersdozen

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, finmid, Silicon Canals, Crowdfund Insider, FinSMEs, Tech Funding News, and Tech.eu. 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: FinSMEs, Tech.eu, Asia Blockchain Review, Tech Funding News, CTech, and Bridgewise

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

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

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

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

More: Social Media Today and CoinGape

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

Earlier Picks

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

More: Proton and Bloomberg

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

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

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

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: @zamaan_qureshi, @jason_kint, @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: @carnage4life, @theromit, @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 Information, The i Paper, The Overspill, 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