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May 13, 2024, 11:30 AM

Top News

Jason Koebler / 404 Media:

Many US farmers had to halt their planting operations after a solar storm broke critical GPS and precision farming functionality in tractors and other equipment — The solar storm that brought the aurora borealis to large parts of the United States this weekend also broke critical GPS …

More: The Register, The Verge, Engadget, New York Times, The Overspill, Silicon Republic, and John Deere

X: @josephfcox, @dbeyer123, @robotbeat, @jason_koebler, @jason_koebler, @weldpond, @jason_koebler, @dancow, @ericgeller, @agarri_fr, and @tolstoybb

Forums: Hacker News, r/interstellar, r/PrepperIntel, and r/technology

Javier Espinoza / Financial Times:

Sources: the EU is set to issue new antitrust charges against Microsoft over concerns of undermining Teams competitors, despite the company offering concessions — Tech group's effort to avoid action by unbundling videoconferencing app from its other software appears to have failed

More: Ars Technica, Thurrott, BetaNews, Benzinga, Computerworld, TechRadar, 9to5Mac, and MSPoweruser

Mastodon: @1br0wn@eupolicy.social. X: @florian4gamers. Forums: Slashdot

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 …

More: CNBC, Squarespace, TechCrunch, Proactive, The Verge, Quartz, Benzinga, and DealStreetAsia

Paul Alcorn / Tom's Hardware:

Top500: the Intel-powered Aurora supercomputer, not yet fully operational, came second behind the AMD-powered Frontier, but did take first in an AI benchmark — Aurora faces stability issues from hardware failures, cooling malfunctions, and operational errors.

More: TOP500, TechSpot, DatacenterDynamics, WinBuzzer, Network World, HPCwire, LUMI, Wccftech, The Register, TechPowerUp, insideHPC, Phoronix, and OC3D

X: @glennklockwood, @mobile_dom, @cscfi, @glennklockwood, @hpc_guru, @glennklockwood, @bmabey, @hpc_guru, @hpc_guru, and @simonmcs. Forums: r/hardware

Charlotte Trueman / DatacenterDynamics:

Isambard-AI, the UK's fastest supercomputer that cost £225M and ranks 128th on the Top500 list, comes online; the system will contain 5,448 Nvidia GH200 chips

More: Tom's Hardware, ComputerWeekly.com, University of Bristol, and The Stack. X: @bristoluni

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

More: TechCrunch, Euractiv, European Commission, Reuters, and Tech Xplore

Bluesky: @hern.bsky.social. X: @kayjebelli, @eu_competition, @eu_commission, @adamkovac, @lewis_crofts, and @mseltzermayr

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.”

Threads: @karaswisher, @motorcityadam, @karaswisher, @yonetteajoseph, @markjacobnews, and @lorakolodny

Bluesky: @rmac.bsky.social, @delexical.bsky.social, and @kateconger.bsky.social

X: @ryp__, @flitteronfraud, @rmac18, @rmac18, @ericgeller, @kateconger, and @markjacob16

Forums: Hacker News, r/RealTesla, r/Fuckthealtright, r/musked, and r/inthenews

Sam Rutherford / Engadget:

Google Pixel 8a review: a 120Hz OLED display, strong battery life, excellent cameras, and great value at $499+, but slow wireless charging and thick bezels — The company didn't mess with its winning formula for the A-series, delivering another great handset for $499. — Senior Writer, Reviews

More: The Verge, PCMag, ZDNet, Pocket-lint, and Digital Trends

Keith Laing / Bloomberg:

The US NHTSA opens an investigation into Amazon's Zoox after two of its automated Toyota SUVs braked unexpectedly, resulting in motorcyclists rear-ending them — - Bikers rear-ended Zoox SUVs that suddenly, unexpectedly braked — US agency estimates 500 vehicles are subject to investigation

More: The Information, The Verge, PCMag, CNBC, Associated Press, Quartz, Reuters, and Self Drive News

Qianer Liu / The Information:

Sources: in recent months, China told ByteDance, Tencent, Alibaba, Baidu, and others to cut back on Nvidia purchases in favor of chips made by local companies — Chinese authorities have a message for the local tech industry: Buy Chinese. — Officials with government agencies in recent months …

More: Silicon Valley Business … and Benzinga

Sudip Kar-Gupta / Reuters:

Brad Smith says Microsoft plans to invest €4B in France, mostly focused on AI, and the company will set up a data center in the city of Mulhouse — Technology and software giant Microsoft (MSFT.O) will invest 4 billion euros ($4.3 billion) in France as part of the annual ‘Choose France’ business summit …

More: Microsoft, Reuters, Business Today, PYMNTS.com, Quartz, DatacenterDynamics, Unite.AI, CNBC, TNW, Tech Funding News, Neowin, TechRadar, Proactive, Bloomberg, and Benzinga

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.

More: 9to5Mac, PhoneArena, The Information, and Associated Press

Threads: @carnage4life, @carnage4life, and @lucas_shaw. Forums: r/television

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From Mediagazer

Sara Fischer / Axios:

Source: Bari Weiss is planning to create a masthead for CBS News as part of a broader overhaul of standards and procedures

Todd Spangler / Variety:

Trump says Stephen Colbert is a “pathetic trainwreck” and “CBS should, ‘put him to sleep,’ NOW”; earlier CBS aired the Kennedy Center Honors, hosted by Trump

Lorcan Lovett / Nieman Reports:

A look at the state of independent media in Myanmar, which lost US and Swedish funding this year and where subscriptions aren't a dependable source of revenue

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More News

Nilay Patel / The Verge:

Q&A with Adobe CEO Shantanu Narayen on running Adobe since 2007, new AI features, AI investments, Firefly, monetizing AI, copyright, AI misuse, PDFs, and more

More: MakeUseOf

Mark Bergen / Bloomberg:

Abu Dhabi's Technology Innovation Institute releases Falcon 2 11B, an open-source LLM to compete with Llama and Gemini that supports five European languages

More: Reuters and The Technology Innovation …

Eva Dou / Washington Post:

The US and China are set to hold their first high-level AI talks on May 14 in Geneva, as the governments seek to prevent disastrous accidents and unintended war

More: Reuters, Blockworks, CoinGape, Benzinga, Tech Xplore, Nextgov/FCW, Axios, Financial Times, Nikkei Asia, and The Decoder

Zachary Small / New York Times:

Christie's confirms eight auctions will proceed this week after a “technology security issue” on May 9 knocked its website offline, the second breach in a year

More: Cybernews.com, UPI, The Guardian, New York Times, and Bloomberg

Stuart Condie / Wall Street Journal:

An Australian judge refuses the eSafety commissioner's request to extend an order for X to hide a video of a religious leader's stabbing, without giving reasons

More: Associated Press, Forbes, The Guardian, Reuters, Financial Times, Benzinga, and The Verge

Arjun Kharpal / CNBC:

SoftBank reports a $4.6B gain on its Vision Fund in the fiscal year to March 2024, the first gain since 2021, after ByteDance and DoorDash rose in value

More: Associated Press, Financial Times, Reuters, Proactive, Benzinga, Tech in Asia, Bloomberg, and RTÉ

Bloomberg:

The US, the EU, and other superpowers have funneled nearly $81B towards supporting chip companies, the first wave of ~$380B earmarked by global governments

More: MIT Technology Review and International Business Times

X: @mackhawk and @scottlincicome

Financial Times:

How GPS warfare is affecting civilian populations; an analysis finds ~40M people lived in areas with unreliable GPS for at least half of the past six months

More: TNW. X: @_nickrogers_ and @snellarthur. LinkedIn: Katherine Dunn

Earlier Picks

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

Heather Somerville / Wall Street Journal:

As VC firms pivot to investing in startups developing defense tech for the US and its allies, some of their business ties with China still linger

More: EU-Startups. X: @tomaxwell and @jchengwsj

Reuters:

Sources: Shein steps up preparations for a London listing amid regulatory hurdles for a New York IPO; a source says Shein plans to file in London as soon as May

More: The Sunday Times, City A.M., Watcher Guru, TechNode, The Guardian, and Proactive

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

More: Cryptopolitan and Benzinga

X: @sbeastwindy, @marikakatanuma, @01ai_yi, @saritharai, @_philschmid, and @dorialexander

Forums: Hacker News and r/LocalLLaMA

Melissa Korn / Wall Street Journal:

A look at the rise and fall of 2U, which provides online degree programs for top US universities and is currently valued at ~$30M, down from $5B+ in 2018

More: Livemint. X: @melissakorn and @jillbarshay

Henry Mance / Financial Times:

Researcher Sonia Livingstone says constraining tech companies and empowering young people and parents are better alternatives to banning kids from social media

X: @soph_butch, @henrymance, @mollyroseorg, @henrymance, @cooksimon, @katebevan, @henrymance, @alecmuffett, @ciesiolkiewicz, @henrymance, and @livingstone_s. LinkedIn: Sonia Livingstone

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

More: Business Insider, Financial Express, and Benzinga

Threads: @renee.diresta, @renee.diresta, @renee.diresta, and @renee.diresta

X: @elonmusk, @jack, @nicoleperlroth, @huntclancy, @aukehoekstra, @jamesstout, @zarawesome, @vitalikbuterin, @deftechpat, @matthew_d_green, @erratarob, @matthew_d_green, @nkulw, @matthew_d_green, @samadlerbell, @matthew_d_green, @thebluematt, and @mer__edith. Forums: Hacker News