Open Links In New Tab
Mobile Archives Advertise Site News
Techmeme
May 22, 2024, 10:35 AM
Mediagazer memeorandum WeSmirch
Home River Leaderboards About Events Newsletter

Top News

Bloomberg:
Sources: Humane is seeking a buyer for its business, after the rocky launch of its Ai Pin; a source says the startup is seeking a price between $750M and $1B  —  - Humane's AI pin was billed as an alternative to smartphones  — AI hardware product received poor reviews after its launch
Imran Rahman-Jones / BBC:
The UK ICO is “making enquiries with Microsoft” over the company's Recall feature, which some privacy campaigners have called a potential “privacy nightmare”  —  The UK data watchdog says it is “making enquiries with Microsoft” over a new feature that can take screenshots of your laptop every few seconds.
Tom Warren / The Verge:
Microsoft will soon let businesses build custom Copilot AI agents to automate tasks, and unveils Team Copilot to help with tasks in Teams, Loop, and Planner  —  Microsoft will soon allow businesses and developers to build AI-powered Copilots that can work like virtual employees and perform tasks automatically.
Sean Hollister / The Verge:
Microsoft unveils the developer preview of Windows Volumetric Apps, letting developers access an API to put Windows apps in 3D space on Meta Quest headsets
Frederic Lardinois / TechCrunch:
Microsoft launches Copilot Extension for GitHub, letting developers build third-party skills into Copilot, starting with DataStax, Stripe, MongoDB, and more
Charlie Warzel / The Atlantic:
OpenAI's Scarlett Johansson debacle is merely a reminder of AI's manifest destiny philosophy: “This is happening, whether you like it or not”, consent be damned  —  If you're looking to understand the philosophy that underpins Silicon Valley's latest gold rush, look no further than OpenAI's Scarlett Johansson debacle.
Kate Rooney / CNBC:
Sources: Amazon plans to make Alexa more conversational later in 2024, adding generative AI features, and will charge a fee to offset the cost of the tech  —  WATCH NOW  —  Amazon is upgrading its decade-old Alexa voice assistant with generative artificial intelligence and plans to charge …
Glenn Rifkin / New York Times:
Gordon Bell, who helped design several influential minicomputers at Digital Equipment Corporation, including the 12-bit PDP-8, died on May 17 at age 89  —  It cost $18,000 when it was introduced in 1965, but it bridged the world between room-size mainframes and the modern desktop.
Louise Matsakis / Wired:
Google is rolling out a new AI-powered ad format that shows shoppers how items of clothing would look on different skin tones and body types  —  A new breed of online ad allows brands to pay Google to offer shoppers AI-generated images that show how items of clothing would look on different skin tones and body types.
Paresh Dave / Wired:
Google plans to test search and shopping ads in its AI Overviews, drawing from advertisers' existing campaigns; AI Overviews rolled out to US users last week
Scott Gilbertson / Wired:
A review of privacy-focused /e/OS, a fully “deGoogled” OS based on the Android Open Source Project, that combines Micro G, to handle Google APIs, and LineageOS  —  Even if you aren't technically inclined, this privacy-first mobile operating system helps you escape surveillance capitalism.
Mastodon: @serpicojam@mas.to
Wired:
An investigation into online ticketing service Eventbrite found 7.4K+ illicit listings, including illegal drug sales, some of which its algorithm recommended  —  A WIRED investigation found thousands of Eventbrite posts selling escort services and drugs like Xanax and oxycodone …
Andy Greenberg / Wired:
Chinese automotive cybersecurity firm GoGoByte demonstrates a cheap and simple relay attack to unlock a Tesla Model 3 despite an ultra-wideband keyless system  —  Ultra-wideband radio has been heralded as the solution for “relay attacks” that are used to steal cars in seconds.
Lauren Forristal / TechCrunch:
Link-in-bio startup Linktree passes 50M users, up from 41M in December 2023 and 47M+ in March 2024, and launches a beta of its social commerce product  —  Link-in-bio startup Linktree said on Wednesday that it has surpassed 50 million users.  —  The figure represents a significant uptick …
Arjun Kharpal / CNBC:
Chinese smartphone maker Honor plans to include Google's Gemini and Imagen 2, powered by Google Cloud, in upcoming devices, one of the first companies to do so  —  Chinese smartphone maker Honor on Wednesday became one of the first device makers to say it will bring Google's artificial intelligence features to its upcoming devices.
More: HONOR and Mashable
Bloomberg:
Sources: Snowflake's talks to acquire Reka AI, which builds LLMs for businesses, for more than $1B have broken down  —  Snowflake Inc.'s talks to acquire startup Reka AI for more than $1 billion have broken down, dashing an effort by the software company to bring more generative AI muscle in-house.
More: Tech in Asia
Michael Nuñez / VentureBeat:
Generative AI music startup Suno raised $125M from Lightspeed Venture Partners, Nat Friedman, Daniel Gross, Matrix, Founder Collective, and others  —  Suno, a trailblazing music AI startup, announced today that it has raised a staggering $125 million in its latest funding round …
Steven Levy / Wired:
Anthropic researchers detail attempts to peer inside the “black box” of LLMs, learning which combinations of neurons evoke specific concepts  —  What goes on in artificial neural networks work is largely a mystery, even to their creators.  But researchers from Anthropic have caught a glimpse.

Sponsor Posts

ElevenLabs:
ElevenAgents by ElevenLabs  —  You know us for voice.  Now meet ElevenAgents — featuring Expressive Mode, our most human-sounding AI voice technology in 70+ languages with ultra-low latency.  Hear it for yourself.
Intel:
5G's most deployed platform  —  Powering live networks with built-in Inference across Core and RAN.  That's the power of Intel Inside®
Zoho:
Accessibility in Zoho People: Our commitment to an inclusive HR experience  —  According to a recent statistic, nearly 1.3 billion people live with a disability.  In 2024, the employment rate for working-age people …
IDrive:
Protecting your Cloud Applications Data  —  Backing up Office 365, Google Workspace, Dropbox & Salesforce data is critical to preventing data loss or corruption, complying with laws and avoiding critical downtime in case of a disaster.
Sponsor Techmeme

Featured Podcasts

The Social Radars:
 Paul Graham, Founder, Y Combinator
Come be a fly on the wall as Y Combinator's Jessica Livingston and Carolynn Levy talk to some of the most successful founders in Silicon Valley about how they did it.
Subscribe to The Social Radars.
The Upstarts Podcast:
 Star Catcher's Andrew Rush: Harnessing The Sun To Build The First Energy Grid In Space
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.
Subscribe to The Upstarts Podcast.
The Nick, Dick and Paul Show:
 Why Countries Go to War
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.
Subscribe to The Nick, Dick and Paul Show.
Great Chat:
 Are startup HR teams okay?
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.
The Talk Show With John Gruber:
 'The Pogue Feature', With David Pogue
The director's commentary track for Daring Fireball. Long digressions on Apple, technology, design, movies, and more.
Subscribe to The Talk Show With John Gruber.
Tools and Weapons with Brad Smith:
 Everybody Goes Home: How technology is helping prevent wildfires from spreading
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.
Add your podcast here
 

About This Page

This is a Techmeme archive page. It shows how the site appeared at 10:35 AM ET, May 22, 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.

From Mediagazer

Stuart Dredge / Music Ally:
Sony Music exec Dennis Kooker says the company has sent 135K+ takedown notices for deepfakes of its artists, but sees opportunities in AI with proper licensing

Nilay Patel / The Verge:
Q&A with LightShed Partners' Rich Greenfield on Paramount's WBD deal, the need to ramp up content production, media as a trophy asset, streaming tech, and more

David Shepardson / Reuters:
Eight US states, including CA, CO, and NY, sue to block Nexstar's proposed $3.54B merger with Tegna on antitrust grounds; DirecTV files a separate suit

More News

Manish Singh / TechCrunch:
Paytm parent One 97 Communications reports a $66.1M net loss in Q4, up from $20.11M in Q4 2023, on $272.3M revenue, as it grapples with a regulatory clampdown
Stephen Nellis / Reuters:
AWS says the transition from Nvidia's Grace Hopper to Blackwell chips applies only to Project Ceiba, a supercomputer that AWS and Nvidia are building together
Mimi Billing / Sifted:
London-based LabGenius, which uses ML to find and design antibody therapies to treat cancer, raised a £35M Series B led by Merck's VC arm, M Ventures

Earlier Picks

Ken Yeung / VentureBeat:
Microsoft partners with Khan Academy, moving the Khanmigo agent, used by 65K+ students, to its Azure OpenAI Service and making it free for US K-12 teachers
Ken Yeung / VentureBeat:
Microsoft announces the general availability of its Phi-3 models, including Phi-3-Silica, a 3.3B parameter model that will be embedded on all Copilot+ PCs
Bradley Keoun / CoinDesk:
Farcaster, an Ethereum-based social media project, raised $150M led by Paradigm, with participation from a16z and others, and reports “350,000 paid sign-ups”
Jeff John Roberts / Fortune:
Tech Against Scams, a coalition to fight “pig butchering” ploys with better industry coordination, launches with Meta, Coinbase, Match, Kraken, others on board
Jess Weatherbed / The Verge:
Adobe adds generative AI tools to Lightroom, including Firefly-powered Generative Remove to let users “paint” over unwanted objects, available in early access
Mediagazer memeorandum WeSmirch
Home River Leaderboards About Events Newsletter