Techmeme
September 24, 2024, 10:35 AM

Top News

Ivan Mehta / TechCrunch:
Sam Altman:
Sam Altman claims “deep learning worked”, superintelligence may be “a few thousand days” away, and “astounding triumphs” will incrementally become commonplace  —  In the next couple of decades, we will be able to do things that would have seemed like magic to our grandparents.
Jess Weatherbed / The Verge:
Google updates Google Photos' mobile video editor for Android and iOS, adding editing tools and AI presets that should make trimming and tweaking clips easier  —  Features coming to Android devices include a new “Speed” tool for creating slo-mo or sped-up videos, a new “Auto enhance” …
Aaron Holmes / The Information:
Sources: some key staff working on Microsoft's distilled AI models like Phi, trained on synthetic data, have left the Microsoft AI unit led by Mustafa Suleyman  —  In case you missed it, my colleagues broke news yesterday about Anthropic's attempt to draft off OpenAI's pending fundraising, by looking to do its own funding round.
David Ingram / NBC News:
TikTok permanently removes accounts associated with the parent organizations of Russian state media outlets RT and Sputnik, citing “covert influence operations”  —  Social media rivals Meta and YouTube have announced similar suspensions of Russian state media accounts this month.
Chris Welch / The Verge:
Roku unveils the $100 Roku Ultra, which is 30% faster than its other streaming players and has Wi-Fi 6, HDMI 2.1, Dolby Atmos, the Voice Remote Pro, and more  —  One day after the Google TV Streamer hit stores, Roku is announcing its latest streaming player.
Cory Weinberg / The Information:
Sources: Scale AI nearly quadrupled sales YoY to ~$400M in H1 2024 and had ~$980M in cash; the data labeling startup raised $1B at a $13.8B valuation in May  —  Helping artificial intelligence companies improve the accuracy of their large language models is turning into a giant business for Scale AI …
Daniel Kuhn / The Block:
The Celestia Foundation, which is behind the Celestia modular blockchain network, raised $100M led by Bain Capital Crypto, taking its total raised to $155M  —  - The organization behind the modular blockchain network has raised $100 million in a round led by Bain Capital Crypto, bringing its total financing to $155 million.
Lorenzo Franceschi-Bicchierai / TechCrunch:
US customers of Kaspersky antivirus find that UltraAV was installed remotely to replace Kaspersky on their PCs, after a Kaspersky deal with UltraAV owner Pango  —  Customers of Kaspersky antivirus in the United States found out in the last few days that their cybersecurity software …
Ionut Arghire / SecurityWeek:
Kaspersky finds a new Necro malware version in Google Play apps with 11M+ total downloads; in 2019, researchers found Necro in Play apps with 100M+ downloads  —  The Necro trojan was found in two Android applications in Google Play with a combined downloads count of over 11 million.
Katie Paul / Reuters:
Source: Meta plans to launch the voices of Judi Dench, Kristen Bell, John Cena, Awkwafina, and Keegan-Michael Key for its Meta AI chatbot at Connect this week  —  Facebook owner Meta Platforms (META.O) is planning to announce this week that it has secured deals with actors including Judi Dench …
New York Times:
California Governor Gavin Newsom signs the Phone-Free Schools Act, which will require schools to restrict cellphone use during school hours by July 1, 2026  —  Calls for crackdowns have mounted with reports of cyberbullying and studies indicating that smartphones are harmful to children's mental health.

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More News

US Department of State:
Bloomberg:

Earlier Picks

Mackenzie Hawkins / Bloomberg:
Cade Metz / New York Times:
Tom Warren / The Verge: