Techmeme
July 15, 2024, 9:25 PM

Top News

Wall Street Journal:
Nullbulge, a hacktivist group critical of AI art, leaks Slack messages allegedly from Disney due to “how it handles artist contracts” and “its approach to AI”  —  ‘Hacktivist’ group critical of AI-generated art says it has obtained swaths of data from Disney's Slack channels …
Wes Davis / The Verge:
Apple launches the public betas for iOS 18, iPadOS 18, macOS Sequoia, tvOS 18, and watchOS 11, but without any Apple Intelligence features  —  You can now download the public betas for iOS 18, iPadOS 18, macOS Sequoia, and watchOS 11.  Apple's updated operating systems will eventually include …
Chance Miller / 9to5Mac:
iOS 18, iPadOS 18, and macOS Sequoia add a “Recovered” album to the Photos app that shows previously lost or damaged photos and videos  —  There's a new feature in iOS 18 that you probably haven't heard about.  With the all-new Photos app, Apple has added a new “Recovered” …
Brian Krebs / Krebs on Security:
Researchers: hackers have exploited a Squarespace flaw to hijack domains, apparently mostly from crypto businesses, that were migrated from Google Domains  —  At least a dozen organizations with domain names at domain registrar Squarespace saw their websites hijacked last week.
Kim Zetter / ZERO DAY:
Kaspersky plans to close its US business and eliminate US-based positions, following the country's ban on the sale of its antivirus tool starting July 20  —  Russian cybersecurity firm, Kaspersky Lab, has told workers in its U.S.-based division that they are being laid off this week …
Jon Brodkin / Ars Technica:
Record labels, including UMG and Sony, sue Verizon for $2.6B+, alleging it violated copyright law by continuing to serve customers accused of pirating music  —  Lawsuit: One user's IP address was identified in 4,450 infringement notices.  —  Major record labels sued Verizon on Friday …
Gavin Bonshor / AnandTech:
A look at the AMD Ryzen AI 300 series, its AI PC chip family for laptops, and the Ryzen 9000 series for desktops, both built on the new Zen 5 CPU architecture  —  Back at Computex 2024, AMD unveiled their highly anticipated Zen 5 CPU microarchitecture during AMD CEO Dr. Lisa Su's opening keynote.
Sean Endicott / Windows Central:
Michael Nuñez / VentureBeat:
Microsoft researchers unveil SpreadsheetLLM, an encoding method designed to enable LLMs to efficiently understand and analyze complex spreadsheet data  —  Microsoft researchers have unveiled “SpreadsheetLLM,” a new AI model designed to understand and work with spreadsheets, in a significant development for the world of enterprise AI.
The Information:
Sources: Index is Wiz's largest outside shareholder, with an 11%+ stake; Sequoia owns 10%+, Insight owns ~9%, Greenoaks owns ~5%, and Cyberstarts owns ~4%  —  Google's proposed $23 billion acquisition of cloud security startup Wiz would help it compete with Microsoft, the top seller of security software.
Wall Street Journal:
Vittoria Elliott / Wired:
A look at Trump VP pick JD Vance's tech ties, including working at Peter Thiel's Mithril Capital and investing in Rumble; Vance advocated repealing Section 230  —  Vance has long had connections to Silicon Valley through his former life as a venture capitalist, including to long-time Donald Trump supporter and investor Peter Thiel.
Wall Street Journal:
Sources: Elon Musk plans to commit ~$45M/month to America PAC, a new pro-Trump super PAC; other backers include Palantir's Joe Lonsdale and the Winklevoss twins  —  Other backers of America PAC include Palantir Technologies co-founder Joe Lonsdale and the Winklevoss twins
Dan Primack / Axios:
Source: Sequoia emailed LPs in funds raised between 2009 and 2011, offering to buy up to $861M of Stripe shares at $27.51 per share, valuing Stripe at $70B  —  - The purchasers would be other, more recent Sequoia Capital funds — a process partially enabled by the firm's 2021 restructuring.

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Sankalp Phartiyal / Bloomberg:
Bloomberg: