Techmeme
October 4, 2024, 11:30 AM

Top News

Bloomberg:
Sources: Ubisoft's founding Guillemot family and Tencent consider options, including a buyout of Ubisoft after it lost 50%+ of its value in 2024; UBI jumps 25%+  —  - Deliberations come after fall in game developer's share price  — Tencent, Guillemot family hold minority stakes in French firm
Reece Rogers / Wired:
Meta announces Movie Gen, a suite of AI models for generating realistic video and audio clips; Movie Gen Video has 30B parameters and Movie Gen Audio has 13B  —  The next frontier in generative AI is video—and with Movie Gen, Meta has now staked its claim.
Kurt Wagner / Bloomberg:
Meta Movie Gen can create up to 16-second videos based on a text prompt, available to some staff and external partners; Meta plans to add it to its apps in 2025  —  Movie Gen tool can create short videos from a text prompt  —  Facebook parent Meta Platforms Inc. debuted a new artificial intelligence tool …
Natasha Lomas / TechCrunch:
The CJEU rules that social networks, such as Facebook, cannot keep using people's data for ad targeting indefinitely, siding with privacy campaigner Max Schrems  —  The European Union's top court has sided with a privacy challenge to Meta's data retention policies.
Jess Weatherbed / The Verge:
Google confirms it is “running a small experiment” showing blue verified checkmarks beside official site links for companies like Microsoft, Meta, and Apple  —  Google is experimenting with a new verification feature in search that should make it easier for users to avoid clicking on fake or fraudulent website links.
Ivan Mehta / TechCrunch:
Matt Mullenweg says 159 Automattic employees, or ~8.4% of staff, took “generous” severance after disagreeing with WordPress' direction and handling of WP Engine  —  Automattic CEO Matt Mullenweg said on Thursday that 159 employees (roughly 8.4% of staff) accepted a severance package …
Filipe Espósito / 9to5Mac:
Sources: the iPhone SE 4, coming in spring 2025, will have Apple's first 5G modem, the iPhone 15's rear camera, and an A18 and 8GB of RAM for Apple Intelligence  —  Apple has been working on a new generation of the iPhone SE, and a recent Bloomberg report revealed that it should be introduced …
Juli Clover / MacRumors:
Apple releases iPadOS 18.0.1, bringing iPadOS 18 to the M4 iPad Pro models for the first time since pulling the update for the devices after reports of bricking  —  Apple today released iPadOS 18..1 for the iPad, and it brings iPadOS 18 to the for M4 iPad Pro models for the first time since …
Lucy Craymer / Reuters:
Google says it'll stop linking to news and drop its deals with outlets in New Zealand if the country passes a law forcing digital platforms to pay for content  —  Google said on Friday it will stop linking to New Zealand news articles and ditch the agreements it has with local news organisations …
Katrina Manson / Bloomberg:
The US and Microsoft seize 107 websites used by Russian intelligence agents and their proxies in the US operating under Star Blizzard, a group active since 2016  —  - Russian group Star Blizzard targeted civil society, US says  — Group has conducted election influence operations in UK
Emma Roth / The Verge:
Google rolls out ads in AI Overviews for when a user's question has a “commercial angle”, and identifies the ads with a “sponsored” header, on mobile in the US  —  Google is rolling out ads in AI Overviews, which means you'll now start seeing products in some of the search engine's AI-generated summaries.
Emma Roth / The Verge:
Rachel Metz / Bloomberg:
How Sam Altman concentrated his power as OpenAI's CEO since he was fired and rehired 11 months ago; source: Altman is not looking to hire a CTO for now  —  Five years ago, OpenAI was a scrappy startup run by a handful of executives, with a heavy emphasis on research.
Ina Fried / Axios:

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More News

Pooja Salhotra / The Texas Tribune:
Kyle Wiggers / TechCrunch:
Google Developers Blog:
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Earlier Picks

Sarah Perez / TechCrunch:
Ivan Mehta / TechCrunch:
Bill Toulas / BleepingComputer: