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Techmeme
January 3, 2025, 6:55 PM
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Top News

Jason Koebler / 404 Media:
After backlash, Meta says newly viral AI profiles on Facebook and Instagram were created in 2023 in “an early experiment”, and it is deleting the profiles  —  Earlier this week, Meta executive Connor Hayes told the Financial Times that the company is going to roll out AI character profiles …
Carly Page / TechCrunch:
The US sanctions Beijing-based cybersecurity company Integrity Technology over its alleged links to China-backed hacking group Flax Typhoon  —  The U.S. government has sanctioned a Beijing-based cybersecurity company over its alleged links to a China government-backed hacking group, tracked as Flax Typhoon.
Mike Allen / Axios:
Sources: Tim Cook will personally donate $1M to President-elect Trump's inaugural committee in the spirit of unity; Apple is not expected to donate  —  The company is not expected to give.  — Cook, with a consistent presence in Washington, has made it clear over the years that he believes …
Jordan Novet / CNBC:
Microsoft says it expects to spend $80B in FY 2025 on the construction of data centers that can handle AI workloads, with 50%+ of the spending in the US  —  Microsoft expects to spend $80 billion in fiscal 2025 on the construction of data centers that can handle artificial intelligence workloads, the company said in a Friday blog post.
Alexandra S. Levine / Bloomberg:
An unredacted lawsuit from Utah's AG claims TikTok has long known that TikTok Live promoted sexual content streams to minors and facilitated money laundering  —  - Unredacted lawsuit claims TikTok knew about teen safety issues  — Lawsuit also alleges company facilitated money laundering
Reuters:
China says shipments of foreign smartphones, including iPhones, fell 47.4% YoY in November, after a 44.25% YoY drop in October, marking four months of decline  —  Shipments to China of foreign-branded smartphones, including Apple Inc's (AAPL.O) iPhone, fell by 47.4% in November from a year earlier …
Victoria Song / The Verge:
Apple and Strava partner to feature Strava athletes in Apple Fitness+ programming, add more detailed Fitness+ workout summaries in the Strava app, and more  —  Apple Fitness Plus is getting a fresh makeover in the Strava app.  The two companies just announced they're collaborating to revamp …
Bloomberg:
Car rental app Turo, which uses a risk algorithm to screen drivers, was used to book trucks in both fatal New Year's Day incidents in Las Vegas and New Orleans  —  - Startup uses risk algorithm to determine price of each rental  — Attacks in New Orleans, Las Vegas, used Turo vehicles
Winston Cho / The Hollywood Reporter:
Anthropic agrees with three publishers to stop Claude from providing lyrics to their songs or new lyrics based on copyrighted content, pending a court ruling  —  While the case is proceeding, Anthropic's Claude will no longer provide lyrics to songs owned by the music publishers or new lyrics based on copyrighted material.

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About This Page

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The most current version of the site as always is available at our home page. To view an earlier snapshot click here and then modify the date indicated.

From Mediagazer

Dan Shanoff / The Athletic:
Nielsen: the 2026 World Cup final drew 38.9M viewers on Fox and 22M+ on Telemundo; taken together, the US audience size rivaled that of NFL playoff games

Andrew Marchand / The Athletic:
Memo: ESPN's Jimmy Pitaro announces layoffs, mostly due to the NFL Network acquisition; sources: on-air personalities Karl Ravech and Ryan Clark are affected

Cecilia D'Anastasio / Bloomberg:
A look at the relationship between the Mormon Church and influencers; the church owns several advertising companies with influencer-marketing arms

More News

Max Woolf / Max Woolf's Blog:
In a test, asking Claude 3.5 Sonnet to “write better code” iteratively improved the code's features and speed, but more aggressive prompt engineering added bugs
Molly White / Citation Needed:
An in-depth look at Elon Musk's criticisms of Wikipedia, as he joins a growing chorus of right-wing voices attacking information sources outside their control
Jess Weatherbed / The Verge:
Elon Musk fanboy Adrian Dittmann's X activity and alleged 4chan posts suggest he might be Musk's fake online persona; source: the viral 4chan screenshot is fake
Dave Lee / Bloomberg:
Meta required a public statesman like Nick Clegg after the Cambridge Analytica scandal, but now turns to the in-house Republican Joel Kaplan to appease Trump

Earlier Picks

Katie Deighton / Wall Street Journal:
Influencer marketing company Later acquires Mavely, which pays commissions to social-media creators for the sales they generate, for $250M in cash and stock
Rita El Khoury / Android Authority:
Google fixes a days-old issue wherein Nest Hub and Nest Audio devices stopped responding to basic commands, like about the weather and the time, for many users
Bob Van Voris / Bloomberg:
Terraform Labs co-founder Do Kwon pleads not guilty before a US federal judge in New York to nine counts, including wire fraud, over the $40B TerraUSD collapse
David Shepardson / Reuters:
A US appeals court rules the FCC did not have legal authority to reinstate net neutrality rules; incoming FCC Chair Brendan Carr opposed the 2024 reinstatement
Ivan Mehta / TechCrunch:
Telegram rolls out a new account verification method powered by third-parties, new search filters for private chats, and the ability to turn gifts into NFTs
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