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September 24, 2024, 3:45 PM
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WeSmirchTop News
| Larry Dignan / Constellation Research: |
Google Cloud debuts Gemini 1.5 Flash and 1.5 Pro with a 2M context window, twice as big as before, “grounding” for better Google search accuracy, and new agents — Google Cloud launched a series of updates including new Gemini 1.5 Flash and 1.5 Pro models with a 2 million context window …
More: Google Developers Blog, Reuters, CRN, Google DeepMind, and AIM
| Jess Weatherbed / The Verge: |
Google plans to include the standalone Gemini app as standard in its Workspace Business, Enterprise, and Frontline plans from Q4, replacing the Gemini add-on — Google is making Gemini AI a core part of its Workspace productivity suite, which could see the chatbot adopted by millions more users.| Ryan Browne / CNBC: |
More: Google Cloud, TechHive, Engadget, PCMag, The Verge, TVNewsCheck, Tv Technology, The Wrap, Variety, Quartz, Benzinga, and The Hollywood Reporter. Forums: r/television
| New York Times: |
Sources: Mark Zuckerberg wants to get away from politics, pulling back from charitable causes that may seem partisan, tamping down employee activism, and more — It was only a little more than a decade ago that Mark Zuckerberg had few qualms about airing his politics.
More: Business Insider. X: @argojournal, @nick_field90, @fredbauerblog, and @teddyschleifer. Forums: r/neoliberal
| New York Times: |
Sources describe Meta's efforts to de-emphasize political content across its family of apps, its reduction and reshuffling of election integrity staff, and more — In January 2021, after pro-Trump rioters stormed the U.S. Capitol, Mark Zuckerberg announced a new priority for Meta …
More: The Wrap
| Gaby Del Valle / The Verge: |
The US DOJ sues Visa, alleging it has an illegal monopoly over debit network markets and has tried to unlawfully crush competitors, including PayPal and Square — The financial service company reportedly tried to ‘smother’ competitors and feared Apple as an ‘existential threat.’| Jess Weatherbed / The Verge: |
Spotify rolls out its AI Playlist feature in beta to Premium subscribers in the US, Canada, Ireland, and New Zealand, after launching in the UK and Australia — Spotify is expanding an AI feature that creates customized playlists from your text descriptions to additional English-speaking regions.| Ivan Mehta / TechCrunch: |
WP Engine sends a cease-and-desist letter to Automattic to “retract false, harmful, and disparaging statements”, after Matt Mullenweg called it a “cancer” — WordPress hosting service WP Engine on Monday sent a cease-and-desist letter to Automattic …
More: r/Wordpress, Search Engine Journal, TechSpot, TechRadar, WordPress News, and Sherwood News
Mastodon: @jalefkowit@vmst.io. X: @wpengine, @justinferriman, @rarst, @jacobwolf, @katiekeithbarn2, @mattpaulsonsd, @photomatt, @photomatt, @twentworth12, and @asmartbear
Forums: Hacker News and r/Wordpress
| 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 trained on synthetic data, like Phi, 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.
More: CNBC and New York Times
| Bloomberg: |
Memo: a US arbitrator awards a full severance package to a former Twitter employee who was laid off when Musk took over, a possible precedent for 2K+ complaints — Elon Musk lost a legal fight over unpaid severance to a former Twitter employee who was laid off when he took over the social media platform …
More: Wccftech. Threads: @kurtwag8, @kurtwag8, and @karaswisher. Bluesky: @carljanderson.bsky.social
| Tripp Mickle / New York Times: |
A profile of Jim Covello, Goldman Sachs' head of stock research who has become Wall Street's leading AI skeptic after joining the bank in 2000 as a tech analyst — Jim Covello, Goldman Sachs's head of stock research, warned that building too much of what the world doesn't need “typically ends badly.”
More: Fortune, Australian Financial Review, and The Information
| Lucas Shaw / Bloomberg: |
TikTok says it plans to shut down TikTok Music on November 28 and delete user data; originally called Resso, the app launched in 2019 and was in five countries — TikTok Music will go offline on Nov. 28 and customer data will be deleted, the music division said in a post on its website.| Paul Sawers / TechCrunch: |
GitHub says all enterprise cloud customers will be able to select an EU region for Azure, in the Netherlands or Sweden, to store all their code from October 29 — GitHub will soon allow cloud customers to store their code data in the European Union (EU), part of a growing push in the technology realm …
More: The GitHub Blog, CNBC, WinBuzzer, Neowin, and TechRadar
| Rohan Goswami / CNBC: |
Collaboration software maker Smartsheet agrees to be acquired by Blackstone and Vista Equity Partners for ~$8.4B, or $56.50/share, set to close in January 2025 — Collaboration software maker Smartsheet on Tuesday announced Blackstone and Vista Equity Partners will acquire it in an all-cash deal valuing … | Emma Roth / The Verge: |
Marques Brownlee says “I hear you” after criticism of his new freemium wallpaper app Panels, over privacy concerns, a $50/year price for full access, and more — Marques Brownlee, the YouTuber known as MKBHD, has responded to backlash over the launch of his new wallpaper app, called Panels.
More: POCIT, Benzinga, TechCrunch, Boing Boing, Dexerto, Wavelengths, Digital Trends, and NewsBytes
Threads: @crumbler, @mkbhd, @bernardgatt, @ashjcoronado_, @letterboxd_steve, @eshwarnag, @jonathangarelick, @devyn1989, @tomgehrke, and @ruidamosher
Mastodon: @seb@androiddev.social, @julipuli@mastodon.social, @aulia@mementomori.social, @ljpuk@twit.social, @engravecavedave …, @thomholwerda@exquisite.social, @harshil@mastodon.social, @DJDarren@mendeddrum.org, @harshil@mastodon.social, @harshil@mastodon.social, @TimDuran@twit.social, and @andyn@social.lol. Bluesky: @radiobeartime.com
X: @mkbhd, @mkbhd, @concept_central, @ianzelbo, @mkbhd, @0interestrates, @growing_daniel, @ludyfrfr, @snazzylabs, @imsh4yy, @dylanmcd8, @hahaluastudios, @mkbhd, @gvnsmth, @leakerapple, @lauren_lawls, @sank_alp, @flyosity, @0x, @ilyamiskov, @ashleevance, @vadimyuryev, @parikpatelcfa, @mkbhd, @mkbhd, @bocabola_, @mkbhd, @jordanarnold, @mkbhd, and @hosecollector. Forums: r/technology
| Maxwell Zeff / TechCrunch: |
OpenAI adds five voices to Advanced Voice Mode, which is now rolling out to ChatGPT Plus and Teams users and, next week, to enterprise and education users — OpenAI announced it is rolling out Advanced Voice Mode (AVM) to an expanded set of ChatGPT's paying customers on Tuesday.
More: VentureBeat, ZDNET, The Verge, XDA Developers, Fast Company, and Tom's Guide
X: @alexeheath and @sama
| Richard Nieva / Forbes: |
Duolingo unveils an interactive AI feature to “video call” with its Lily mascot, as part of its $30/month Duolingo Max tier; the dialogue is generated by GPT-4o — Luis von Ahn, who grew up with little money in Guatemala, aims to transform the popular language-learning app into an automated AI tutor.
More: CNET, Neowin, PocketGamer.biz, Investor's Business Daily, Digital Trends, PCMag, and VentureBeat
| Steve Dent / Engadget: |
Logitech MX Creative Console review: the $200 control surface for apps like Lightroom is an affordable entry point, but pros may find the controls limiting — The quality and design are solid, but pros may find the controls limiting. — Last year, Logitech leaped into the content creator market … | Kyle Wiggers / TechCrunch: |
Microsoft debuts Correction in preview as part of the Azure AI Content Safety API; the service tries to find and revise AI-generated text that's factually wrong — AI is a notorious liar, and Microsoft now says it has a fix for that. Understandably, that's going to raise some eyebrows, but there's reason to be skeptical.
More: Microsoft Tech Community and The Decoder
| Gian Volpicelli / Bloomberg: |
Meta says it will not sign the EU's voluntary AI safety pledge that's planned as a stopgap before the EU's AI Act takes full effect in 2027, but may join later — - Company could join at a later date, spokesperson says — EU wants compliance with AI Act rules before they take effect| Katie Roof / Bloomberg: |
Ujet, which uses AI to help businesses with customer support, raised $76M led by Sapphire Ventures, valuing the company at $500M, and promotes its COO to co-CEO — Customer service startup UJET Inc. has raised $76 million from investors and named a new co-chief executive officer.
More: Crunchbase News, UJET, Inc., Tech Funding News, Silicon Canals, and SiliconANGLE
| Nilay Patel / The Verge: |
An interview with The Browser Company CEO Josh Miller on Arc Search being an operating system, competing with Chrome and Safari, monetization, AI, and more — The Browser Company cofounder thinks it's time to modernize the browser and reinvent the web.| Kyle Wiggers / TechCrunch: |
NYC-based Torq, which helps IT teams automate security workflows, raised a $70M Series C led by Evolution Equity Partners, for $192M in total funding — As the volume of cyberattacks grows, there's increasing interest from the corporate sector in tech to help automate responses to breaches.| 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.
More: TikTok, The Record, New York Daily News, Sky News, Associated Press, CNN, Tech.co, Engadget, pravda.com.ua, Benzinga, LBC, The Hill, and Anadolu Ajansı …
| Joseph Menn / Washington Post: |
More: PCMag, NBC News, GZERO, Reuters, Cybernews.com, The Crypto Times, Tech.co, NPR, CNN, ODNI, Washington Examiner, USA Today, ABC News, and Cryptopolitan
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