Techmeme
May 9, 2024, 12:10 PM

Top News

Jason Schreier / Bloomberg:
Sources: after closing several video game studios, Microsoft plans more cuts, as the massive Activision acquisition has ramped up scrutiny on the Xbox division  —  Xbox is offering voluntary severance agreements to producers, quality assurance testers and other staff at ZeniMax as part of a broader cost-cutting initiative
Ash Parrish / The Verge:
Town hall: Xbox Game Studios head Matt Booty discussed wanting small and prestigious games, after closing the studio behind small, prestigious hit Hi-Fi Rush  —  Today, one day after Microsoft announced that it would shut down four of its games studios, Matt Booty, head of Xbox Game Studios …
Wall Street Journal:
Binance sources and docs: an internal investigator, dismissed in late 2023, found evidence of secret internal trading accounts and DWF Labs' market manipulation  —  Former company insiders say the firing of an internal investigator showed that the crypto exchange neglected evidence of market manipulation.
Wall Street Journal:
In a blog post, Neuralink details a problem with its implant in patient Noland Arbaugh's brain that reduced data collection after the implant's threads came out  —  Amount of data captured from the device declined, although the patient and the Elon Musk-owned company still staged a successful demonstration
Dan Milmo / The Guardian:
As part of its Model Spec release, OpenAI says it is considering letting developers and users “responsibly” generate “NSFW content in age-appropriate contexts”  —  Critics say ChatGPT creator's proposal to allow erotica, slurs and other adult content undermines its mission statement
Carl Franzen / VentureBeat:
OpenAI publishes Model Spec, which specifies how its AI models should act, including objectives, rules, and default behaviors, and asks the public for feedback  —  OpenAI isn't done trying to live up to the “open” in its name.  —  While not making any of its new models open source …
Bloomberg:
Sources: Alphabet has been progressing in its talks to acquire marketing software provider HubSpot and has discussed deal terms; HubSpot has a $30B market cap  —  Alphabet has discussed terms of a potential deal with HubSpot, said the people, who asked not to be identified because the information is private.
More: Benzinga
Mark Gurman / Bloomberg:
A look at potential successors to Tim Cook; sources say Apple's hardware engineering chief John Ternus is the most likely long-term successor  —  John Ternus, the head of hardware engineering, is emerging as a potential successor to the CEO.  —  Tim Cook has transformed Apple Inc. since taking …
Emily Chang / Bloomberg:
An interview with Sundar Pichai on playing the long game on AI, how Gemini image generation “got it wrong”, AI search, the US DOJ lawsuits, layoffs, and more  —  In this episode of The Circuit with Emily Chang, the Alphabet CEO explains how he's in it for the long haul—and won't dance to anyone else's tune.
Financial Times:
TikTok plans to start automatically labeling some AI content, including from Dall-E and Adobe's Firefly, and joins the Adobe-led content credential coalition  —  Social media companies under pressure to identify deepfakes and prevent spread of misinformation
Chris Welch / The Verge:
Sonos responds to criticism of its app redesign, saying it takes “courage to rebuild” a product from the ground up and it plans to reintroduce missing features  —  In the days since, customers have complained about missing features like sleep timers, broken local music library management …
Shahram Mokhtari / iFixit News:
Huawei Pura 70 Pro teardown: the 7nm Kirin 9010 is only marginally better than Kirin 9000S, and the majority of the chips are designed and manufactured in China  —  Huawei released the Pura 70 line of smartphones in April 2024 and it's already made a bit of a stir.
Pratik Jain / Reuters:
US hospital operator Ascension reports disruptions to its clinical operations due to a suspected cybersecurity incident and engages Mandiant to help investigate  —  Hospital operator Ascension reported disruptions to its clinical operations on Wednesday due to a suspected cybersecurity incident …
Dallin Grimm / Tom's Hardware:
A Stack Overflow user says the site suspended his account for a week after he altered his posts in protest of its OpenAI partnership to use data for AI training  —  Stack Overflow is overflowing with salt.  —  Stack Overflow, a legendary internet forum for programmers and developers …
Zaheer Kachwala / Reuters:
Roblox reports Q1 revenue up 22% YoY to $801M, bookings up 19% YoY to $923M, DAUs up 17% YoY to 77.7M, and cuts its full-year bookings forecast; RBLX drops 30%  —  Roblox (RBLX.N) cut its annual bookings forecast on Thursday, in a sign that people were dialing back on spending within …
Dade Hayes / Deadline:
Disney and WBD announce a streaming bundle of Disney+, Hulu, and Max, with ad-supported and ad-free plans, beginning this summer in the US, with pricing to come  —  Disney and Warner Bros. Discovery are breaking ground in streaming with a bundled offering featuring Disney+, Hulu and Max in a single package.

Sponsor Posts

Google:
Try Gemini 3 Pro  —  Google's newest and most intelligent AI model that helps you bring any idea to life
Shopify:
Shopify: Revolutionizing Commerce with Winter Edition '26  —  Over 150+ new features transform how merchants build, design, and grow—with technology that amplifies creative vision.
Zoho:
The best time to become a Zoho Partner  —  The business world is not only changing but it is being rebuilt.  Customers want connected ecosystems that will help them automate, unify their data, and do more with less.
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:
OpenAI's 2026 Priority, Disney's AI Play, Datacenter Buildout Trouble
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:
Australia Kicks Kids Off Social Media + Is the A.I. Water Issue Fake? + Hard Fork Wrapped
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.
Access:
Why the next AI frontier is phone calls, with Beside CEO Maxime Germain
A show about the tech industry's inside conversation, hosted by tech reporter Alex Heath and founder whisperer Ellis Hamburger.
Subscribe to Access.
Great Chat:
So what happens after AGI?
A podcast mostly about tech. Brought to you weekly by Angela Du, Sally Shin, Mac Bohannon, Helen Min, and Ashley Mayer.
Subscribe to Great Chat.
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.
Subscribe to Tools and Weapons with Brad Smith.
Channels with Peter Kafka:
Lachlan Cartwright Started in Tabloids. Now He's a Must-Read Media Gossip.
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.
 

About This Page

This is a Techmeme archive page. It shows how the site appeared at 12:10 PM ET, May 9, 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

Financial Times:
Nicholas Yong / Rest of World:
James Thomason / VentureBeat:

Earlier Picks

Jesse Pound / CNBC:
Ashley Capoot / CNBC:
Reuters:
BBC:
Michael Peel / Financial Times: