Techmeme
May 4, 2024, 8:40 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.
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.
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:
Cheng Ting-Fang / Nikkei Asia:
As chipmakers move into or expand in the region around Germany's Dresden, skeptics say more government subsidies, skilled workers, and end customers are needed  —  Skeptics say more government subsidies, skilled workers and end customers are needed  —  DRESDEN, Germany/TAIPEI …
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 …
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 …
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
Vikas SN / Moneycontrol:
Ola founder Bhavish Aggarwal's Krutrim launches its developer offerings, including cloud infrastructure access, and an Android app for its eponymous AI chatbot  —  Krutrim's mobile app launch comes as the country's first AI unicorn gears up to launch its developer offerings, which includes cloud infrastructure and mapping solutions.

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Zoho:
Enhancements to Zoho Writer's automation flow designer: New PDF operations, password protection, and more  —  Once we rolled out the automation flow designer in Zoho Writer's merge templates …
IDrive:
Protecting your Cloud Applications Data  —  Backing up Office 365, Google Workspace, Dropbox & Box data is critical to preventing data loss or corruption, complying with laws and avoiding critical downtime in case of a disaster.

Featured Podcasts

Big Technology Podcast:
2025 In Review, 2026 Predictions — With Reed Albergotti
The Big Technology Podcast takes you behind the scenes in the tech world featuring interviews with plugged-in insiders and outside agitators.
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Channels with Peter Kafka:
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BG2 Pod:
AI Enterprise - Databricks & Glean
Open-source podcast on all things tech, markets, investing, and capitalism, hosted by Brad Gerstner.
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Great Chat:
The stories we told ourselves in 2025
A podcast mostly about tech. Brought to you weekly by Angela Du, Sally Shin, Mac Bohannon, Helen Min, and Ashley Mayer.
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Grit:
How Brands Stay Visible When AI Decides | Profound CEO James Cadwallader
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Tools and Weapons with Brad Smith:
Ted Sarandos: Netflix and how tech changed storytelling
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:
MacKenzie Sigalos / CNBC:
Apple: