Techmeme
May 4, 2024, 6:15 AM

Top News

Wendy Lee / Los Angeles Times:
How the AI-generated music video for Washed Out's The Hardest Part was created entirely using OpenAI's Sora, a first from a major record label  —  “The Hardest Part,” a new song from indie pop artist Washed Out, is all about love lost, among the most human of themes.
Sarah Perez / TechCrunch:
X launches Stories on X, with news curated and summarized by Grok AI, available for Premium subscribers in the Explore tab on iOS and on the web  —  X, formerly Twitter, is now using Elon Musk's AI chatbot Grok to power a feature that summarizes the personalized trending stories in the app's Explore section.
Alex Kantrowitz / Big Technology:
Nikhilesh De / CoinDesk:
Russian national Alexander Vinnik, one of the operators of crypto exchange BTC-e from 2011 to 2017, pleads guilty to conspiracy to commit money laundering  —  Vinnik was first arrested in 2017, but faced a lengthy extradition process that saw him spend time in Greece and France before being sent to the U.S.
C.C. Weiss / New Atlas:
Natron Energy starts production of sodium-ion batteries that it says charge and discharge 10x faster than lithium-ion, initially for use at data centers  —  Two years ago, sodium-ion battery pioneer Natron Energy was busy preparing its specially formulated sodium batteries for mass production.
Isabelle Bousquette / Wall Street Journal:
A look at AI companies gathering data from real people to create “digital twins”, to use as fashion models, focus group members, or clinical trial participants  —  AI that can predict how specific humans will look, act and feel could do the jobs of fashion models, focus group members and clinical trial participants
Tim Stelloh / NBC News:
Defense lawyers question the accuracy and reliability of Cybercheck, an AI tool used in thousands of US cases to identify suspects' locations and other details  —  Cybercheck's founder has said the software tops 90% accuracy.  Defense lawyers have said he lied under oath about his expertise …
Ron Miller / TechCrunch:
Synergy Research: cloud revenue grew 21% YoY in Q1 2024 to $76B; Altimeter: AWS now has 31% market share followed by Azure with 25% and Google with 11%  —  Last year's doldrums are in the rearview thanks to AI  —  If you were concerned about slowing cloud infrastructure growth for a time in 2023 …
Agence France-Presse:
Ukraine unveils an AI-generated foreign ministry spokesperson called Victoria Shi, who will make official statements “written and verified by real people”  —  Victoria Shi is modelled on Rosalie Nombre, a singer and former contestant on Ukraine's version of the reality show The Bachelor
Joanna Stern / Wall Street Journal:
Meta's Ray-Ban smart glasses are a simple, reliable, and smartly priced AI gadget, whereas Humane's AI Pin and the Rabbit R1 are more akin to science projects  —  There's a new WANTED poster in town... PUBLIC ENEMY NO. 1: The smartphone ACCUSED OF: Stealing your attention, sanity and well-being REWARD …
Manish Singh / TechCrunch:
Filing: CRM software maker Freshworks acquires Connecticut-based Device42, which helps companies manage their IT infrastructure and had raised $38.5M, for $230M  —  Freshworks, the publicly listed SaaS firm, is acquiring U.S.-based startup Device42 for $230 million, the company disclosed in an SEC filing.

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Featured Podcasts

Access:
A top iPhone app developer reacts to Apple's new Siri
A show about the tech industry's inside conversation, hosted by tech reporter Alex Heath and founder whisperer Ellis Hamburger.
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Hard Fork:
'Hard Fork' Live, Part 1: Satya Nadella and Cindy Cohn
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.
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The Upstarts Podcast:
TBC's Alex Ksendzovsky: The Neurosurgeon Using Brain Cells To Build Better AI
Veteran tech reporter Alex Konrad sits down with breakout entrepreneurs taking on the status quo to shake up their fields in AI, design, nuclear energy, space, and more.
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BG2 Pod:
The SpaceX IPO, Fable 5, AI Capex Update & Market Check w/ Gavin Baker, Andrew Fox & Clark Tang
Open-source podcast on all things tech, markets, investing, and capitalism, hosted by Brad Gerstner.
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The Nick, Dick and Paul Show:
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Nick Bilton, Dick Costolo, and Paul Kedrosky pull back the curtain on AI, startups, and the future rushing toward us, all with healthy dose of irreverence.
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Tools and Weapons with Brad Smith:
AI's Mythos Moment: Rishi Sunak on preparing governments for AI
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.
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More News

Nico Grant / New York Times:
Alison Snyder / Axios:

Earlier Picks

Tom Warren / The Verge:
Mark Gurman / Bloomberg:
Olga Kharif / Bloomberg:
MacKenzie Sigalos / CNBC:
Apple: