Techmeme
December 5, 2024, 1:30 PM

Top News

Kylie Robison / The Verge:
OpenAI launches ChatGPT Pro, a $200/month subscription tier that gives unlimited access to all of its models, including a version of o1 with extra compute  —  OpenAI is creating a new, more expensive tier for its flagship chatbot ChatGPT, and is bringing its “reasoning” model series out of preview with an update.
Allison Johnson / The Verge:
Google releases Android 15's first major update, including expressive video captions, Spotify extension for Gemini, and Screenshots app updates for the Pixel 9  —  New features for all eligible Android phones include more descriptive video captions, a Gemini-powered update to the Lookout app, and a Spotify extension for Gemini.
Zaheer Kachwala / Reuters:
Helen Partz / Cointelegraph:
Bitcoin passes $100K for the first time after rallying 126%+ since January 2024, driven by Bitcoin ETF demand, April's halving, and Donald Trump's election win  —  Bitcoin has rallied 126% since January to reach $100,000, driven by Bitcoin ETF demand, April's halving and Donald Trump's US election win.
New York Times:
At the DealBook Summit, Jeff Bezos said he is “very hopeful” about President-elect Donald Trump, and praised his deregulatory agenda and Elon Musk's leadership  —  The Amazon founder said he saw signs of a “calmer” Donald J. Trump on the eve of his return to the White House.
Bill Toulas / BleepingComputer:
Microsoft and Lumen's Black Lotus Labs find Russia-linked Turla hackers hijacked Pakistan-based hackers' servers to launch their own attacks since December 2022  —  The notorious Russian cyber-espionage group Turla is hacking other hackers, hijacking the Pakistani threat actor Storm-0156's infrastructure …
Jillian Deutsch / Bloomberg:
The UK CMA clears the £15B Vodafone-Three deal after a 10-month inquiry, subject to investing £11B in UK digital infrastructure, creating the UK's biggest telco  —  - CMA approved the merger with Three in UK on Thursday  — Europe's telcos have spent years lobbying for consolidation
Kyle Wiggers / TechCrunch:
Microsoft rolls out Copilot Vision in preview to analyze text and images on webpages and answer queries, starting with some Copilot Pro users in the US  —  Microsoft's AI can now read your screen — or rather, the websites you're browsing.  —  On Thursday, the company began rolling out a limited …
Tom Mitchelhill / Cointelegraph:
Viral influencer Haliey Welch's Hawk Tuah memecoin sparks outrage across social media as it briefly pumped to a peak market cap of $490M and then dumped 90%+  —  Haliey Welch's memecoin HAWK has plunged 90% since its launch, though Welch has denied any insider sales from herself or her team.
Reuters:
Sources: TSMC is in discussions with Nvidia to make its Blackwell AI chips at TSMC's new Arizona plant starting in early 2025, expanding on production in Taiwan  —  Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (2330.TW) is in discussions with Nvidia Corp (NVDA.O) to produce its Blackwell artificial …
CNBC:
Waymo says it will expand its fleet into Miami in 2025 with human safety drivers and plans to open up paid rides to local users via its Waymo One app by 2026  —  Waymo is setting its sights on its next location: the Sunshine State.  —  The Alphabet-owned company announced Thursday that it will be hitting the roads in Miami.
New York Times:
Trump picks former SEC Commissioner Paul Atkins, who is seen as a strong advocate for looser regulation of crypto assets, to succeed Gary Gensler as SEC Chair  —  Mr. Atkins, a pro-business conservative, would likely take a lighter regulatory approach than the current chair of the Securities and Exchange Commission.
Charles Rollet / TechCrunch:
Three of Google's NotebookLM team members, lead Raiza Martin, a designer, and an engineer, are leaving to launch a startup focused on “a user-first AI product”  —  Three members of Google's NotebookLM team, including its team lead and designer, have announced they are leaving Google for a new stealth startup.
Greg Otto / CyberScoop:
The White House says the Salt Typhoon hack has impacted eight telecom companies in the US, and also affected dozens of other countries, for as long as two years  —  A senior administration official said Wednesday the Salt Typhoon hack has impacted dozens of countries in a sweeping espionage campaign
Reuters:
Meta plans to invest $10B to build an AI data center in Louisiana, in what would be its largest data center in the world, and expects work to start in December  —  Facebook-parent Meta (META.O) said on Wednesday it plans to invest $10 billion to set up an AI data center in Louisiana …
Alice Kantor / Bloomberg:
US authorities: Dubai has quietly become a leading home for crypto scamming in the past decade, including Ponzi and pyramid schemes that made $3.4B+ since 2017  —  Ponzi and pyramid schemes dressed in startup clothes have been running rampant in the UAE, experts and US authorities say.
Simon Willison / Simon Willison's Weblog:

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