Techmeme
January 4, 2025, 7:35 AM

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 …
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.
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  —  In November 2023, after OpenAI added the ability for ChatGPT to generate images from DALL-E 3 within the ChatGPT web interface …
Emma Roth / The Verge:
Samsung and Google plan to bring Eclipsa Audio, a new open-source 3D audio standard, to some YouTube videos later this year on Samsung's 2025 TVs and soundbars  —  Samsung and Google are ready to push a new standard, Eclipsa Audio. … Over the years, Samsung notably hasn't supported Dolby Vision HDR …
Aroon Deep / The Hindu:
India releases the draft Digital Personal Data Protection Rules, 2025, aimed at enforcing the Digital Personal Data Protection Act, 2023, for public comments  —  The Digital Personal Data Protection Rules, lay out the tentative terms of enforcing the Digital Personal Data Protection Act, which was passed in Parliament in 2023
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.
Bloomberg:
Sources: Getty Images is exploring a merger with rival Shutterstock; Getty jumped 13% for a $983M market value, Shutterstock rose 7.9% for a $1.1B market value  —  - Getty weighing how to structure combo with stock-photo rival … Getty has been weighing how to structure a combination …
More: Reuters and The Information
Bluesky: @siscoX: @davidclinchnews and @unusual_whalesLinkedIn: Paul MelcherForums: Slashdot
The Block:
The GMCI Meme index, which tracks leading memecoins by market cap, delivered 320% returns in 2024, outpacing AI at 91% and the top 30 cryptocurrencies at 88%  —  - The GMCI Meme index represents broader market trends rather than specific token performance.  — The following is an excerpt …
Stephen Morris / Financial Times:

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Earlier Picks

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Reuters: