Techmeme
May 13, 2024, 7:25 AM

Top News

Jason Koebler / 404 Media:
US farmers had to halt their planting operations after the solar storm broke critical GPS and precision farming functionality in tractors and other equipment  —  The accuracy of some critical GPS navigation systems used in modern farming have been “extremely compromised,” a John Deere dealership told customers Saturday.
Lucas Shaw / Bloomberg:
Sources: Apple has met with Hollywood talent representatives to propose a new performance-based compensation regime, as Amazon and Netflix work on similar plans  —  Apple builds a bonus system around sign-ups, viewer loyalty and production costs.  —  Good afternoon from 30,000 feet.
Akash Sriram / Reuters:
Squarespace says private equity firm Permira plans to take the company private in a $6.9B all-cash deal, or $44 per share, a 15.2% premium on Friday's close  —  Private equity firm Permira will take Squarespace (SQSP.N) private in an all-cash deal valued at about $6.9 billion, the website-design platform said on Monday.
Matthew Green / @matthew_d_green:
Following attempts to malign Signal as insecure by Telegram's CEO and Elon Musk, a look at why Signal is widely regarded by experts as more secure than Telegram  —  Telegram has launched a pretty intense campaign to malign Signal as insecure, with assistance from Elon Musk. The goal seems to be to get activists to switch away from encrypted Signal to mostly-unencrypted Telegram. I want to talk about this a bit. 1/
Bloomberg:
The EU designates Booking as a DMA gatekeeper, saying “holidaymakers will start benefiting from more choice and hotels will have more business opportunities”  —  - Travel site is designated as a ‘gatekeeper’ under EU's DMA  — X avoids rules for now as officials open probe into its status
Keith Laing / Bloomberg:
The US NHTSA opens an investigation into Amazon's Zoox after two automated SUVs braked unexpectedly, both causing collisions with motorcyclists  —  The top US auto-safety regulator has opened an investigation into Zoox, the autonomous-vehicle subsidiary of Amazon.com Inc. …
More: Reuters
New York Times:
A look at how Elon Musk uses X to support right-wing world leaders like Narendra Modi who could help secure advantages for his businesses  —  Minutes after it became clear that Javier Milei had been elected president of South America's second-largest nation in November, Elon Musk posted on X: “Prosperity is ahead for Argentina.”
Saritha Rai / Bloomberg:
A look at 01.AI, which is launching Wanzhi, a free generative AI assistant focused on the Chinese market; CEO Kai-Fu Lee says 01.AI is nearing profitability  —  - His startup 01.AI is introducing its first consumer AI app  — China needs a catalyst in the same way ChatGPT fueled the US
Washington Post:
A look at the growing number of startups offering AI deepfake detection services, with some claiming startling levels of accuracy despite untested capabilities  —  A surge of companies now claim to offer hyper-accurate detection services, but their capabilities are largely untested.

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Henry Mance / Financial Times: