Techmeme: Perplexity says its AI search engine answered ~250M queries in the past month vs. 500M in 2023; sources: Perplexity recently raised $250M at a $3B valuation (Financial Times)

Top News

Michael Kan / PCMag:

Intel delays its Innovation event, slated for September and expected to include details about new CPUs, until 2025, citing its financial results and H2 outlook — The chipmaker is delaying one of its biggest events, which was slated for September and expected to include more details about upcoming processors.

More: AnandTech, HotHardware, TipRanks Financial, Pocket-lint, OC3D, ExtremeTech, Neowin, TechRadar, Tom's Hardware, Wccftech, TechSpot, HackerNoon, Club386, KitGuru, PC Guide, TechPowerUp, The Verge, TweakTown, VideoCardz.com, and Notebookcheck. X: @kylebrussell

Matt Burgess / Wired:

A researcher shows five proof-of-concept ways that Copilot can be manipulated by attackers, including turning it into an automatic spear-phishing machine — Attacks on Microsoft's Copilot AI allow for answers to be manipulated, data extracted, and security protections bypassed, new research shows.

More: The Register, PC Gamer, Security Boulevard, Dark Reading, Cybernews.com, and Zenity

Mastodon: @mattburgess@infosec.exchange. LinkedIn: Lana Salameh. Forums: r/technews and r/technology

Andy Greenberg / Wired:

IOActive researchers detail “Sinkclose”, a vulnerability in almost all AMD chips dating back to 2006 that allows attackers to run code in System Management Mode — Researchers warn that a bug in AMD's chips would allow attackers to root into some of the most privileged portions of a computer …

More: PCMag, Engadget, BleepingComputer, Tom's Hardware, and IOActive

Mastodon: @agreenberg@infosec.exchange. X: @a_greenberg, @notolymp1a, and @ioactive

Forums: Hacker News, r/technology, r/cybersecurity, r/Amd, r/pcmasterrace, r/hardware, r/wallstreetbets, Beehaw, and Lobsters

The Guardian:

UK PM Keir Starmer says ministers will review the Online Safety Act, after London mayor Sadiq Khan said it was “not fit for purpose” following far-right riots — Move comes after London mayor Sadiq Khan said role of misinformation in unrest showed law was unfit for purpose

More: Financial Times, Washington Post, TechCrunch, The Verge, and The Economic Times

Forums: r/ukpolitics, r/unitedkingdom, and r/technology

Financial Times:

Perplexity says its AI search engine answered ~250M queries in the past month vs. 500M in 2023; sources: Perplexity recently raised $250M at a $3B valuation — Artificial intelligence app boosts usage and sales despite controversy over its data-gathering techniques

More: Benzinga and 24/7 Wall St.

X: @mandarkagade. LinkedIn: Damian Burns

Clothilde Goujard / Politico:

The Irish Data Protection Commission says X has agreed to pause training Grok using millions of Europeans' public posts it collected between May 7 and August 1 — X will pause training its artificial intelligence chatbot Grok with some European users' posts, according to Europe's chief privacy watchdog.

More: TechCrunch, Tech Xplore, Silicon Republic, The Cyber Express, PYMNTS.com, Computerworld, MEDIANAMA, and PhoneArena

Reuters:

Sources: Cisco plans a second round of layoffs in 2024, affecting at least as many as the 4,000 laid off in February, to be announced as soon as August 14 — Cisco (CSCO.O) will cut thousands of jobs in a second round of layoffs this year as the U.S. networking equipment maker shifts focus …

More: CRN, Bloomberg, and Reuters

LinkedIn: Utkarsh Shetti and Dave Lewis

Financial Times:

Since the OpenAI board dispute, Microsoft diversified AI investments and partnerships, built its own models, and hired aggressively for its consumer AI efforts — The tech giant has worked to execute an AI strategy independent of Sam Altman's start-up following a leadership crisis last year

X: @hkanji and @rwang07

Tom's Hardware:

Intel details a microcode patch, available through BIOS updates, to address the elevated voltage issues that can damage some Core 13th and 14th Gen desktop CPUs — You need to install a BIOS update to ensure that your Raptor Lake CPU is not frying itself. — For the first time …

More: The Register, Ars Technica, AnandTech, The Verge, PCWorld, Windows 11 Forum, and TechSpot

Katie Roof / Bloomberg:

DevRev, which develops AI tools to improve the efficiency of employees on support, product, and engineering teams, raised $100M at a $1.15B valuation — - The corporate software developer raised $100 million — Nutanix co-founder Dheeraj Pandey co-founded and leads DevRev

More: Reuters

@martin_casado:

[Thread] A roundup of recent announcements from researchers, businesses, and academic institutions opposing California's AI safety bill — .@Scott_Wiener continues to falsely claim narrow opposition to SB 1047. When in reality there is massive public outcry across research, academic, public and private business and finance. Here is a mega roundup of recent announcements that fully debunk the Senator's claims 🧵

More: Semafor and The San Francisco Standard

X: @drfeifei, @tituswu100, @animaanandkumar, @anjneymidha, @danhendrycks, @martin_casado, @martin_casado, @robsaker, @aftfuture, @abcampbell, @deanwball, @psychosort, @andrewyng, @m2saxon, and @noahpinion

Bloomberg:

Sources: Guangzhou-based robotaxi company WeRide is seeking ~$100M in a US initial public offering and around $200M to $300M in a concurrent private placement — - Chinese robotaxi firm granted securities regulator nod in 2023 — Renault Nissan Mitsubishi Alliance agreed to back listing

More: TechCrunch and Pandaily

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