Techmeme: Avataar debuts Velocity, an AI tool that generates product videos based on a product link, and says HP, Victoria's Secret, Lowe's, and others are using the tool (Ivan Mehta/TechCrunch)

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January 6, 2025, 9:10 AM

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Josh Tyrangiel / Bloomberg:

Q&A with Sam Altman on OpenAI's and ChatGPT's first few years, his removal as CEO, OpenAI's structure, AGI, AI safety, nuclear fusion, Trump, Musk, and more — On Nov. 30, 2022, traffic to OpenAI's website peaked at a number a little north of zero. It was a startup so small and sleepy …

More: PYMNTS.com, Business Insider, The Decoder, Marginal REVOLUTION, CCN.com, Cryptopolitan, and TechCrunch

X: @andrewcurran_, @bradstone, @newley, @0xlaiyuen, @tsarnick, and @tyrangiel. LinkedIn: Mattias Rost

Forums: r/OpenAI and r/slatestarcodex

Kyle Wiggers / TechCrunch:

Sam Altman says that OpenAI, which isn't profitable, is losing money on its $200-per-month ChatGPT Pro plan because “people use it much more than we expected” — OpenAI CEO Sam Altman says that the company is currently losing money on its $200-per-month ChatGPT Pro plan because people are using it more than expected

More: Business Today, diginomica, Benzinga, Nairametrics, Analytics India Magazine, WinBuzzer, Business Insider, and Tech in Asia

Bluesky: @edzitron.com and @amardguru

X: @sama, @rmedranollamas, @cuenca, @nickadobos, @koltregaskes, @sama, @yoheinakajima, @mattprd, @hkproj, and @teslatommy1. Forums: r/technology

Sam Altman:

Sam Altman says “we are now confident we know how to build AGI as we have traditionally understood it” and that OpenAI is turning its focus to superintelligence — The second birthday of ChatGPT was only a little over a month ago, and now we have transitioned into the next paradigm of models that can do complex reasoning.

More: The Economic Times, MakeUseOf, Maginative, TechCrunch, Constellation Research, BGR, Neowin, CryptoSlate, Decrypt, The Crypto Times, Analytics India Magazine, and Cointelegraph

Bluesky: @domw, @daniloc.xyz, and @theopriestley.com. Threads: @mergesort

X: @jeffjarvis, @teortaxestex, @nickadobos, @singularitynet, @alliekmiller, @skirano, @edkrassen, and @kimmonismus. Forums: Hacker News

Wall Street Journal:

A look at Chinese hackers' attacks on US infrastructure and telecoms; sources: Charter, Consolidated Communications, and Windstream networks were also breached — Massive ‘Typhoon’ cyberattacks on U.S. infrastructure and telecoms sought to lay groundwork for potential conflict with Beijing …

More: CSO, Security Affairs, TechRadar, The Defense Post, Reuters, Android Headlines, New York Post, Tom's Hardware, Livemint, Semafor, and Bloomberg

Bluesky: @hatr and @retr0.id. Threads: @carnage4life

X: @e_atpitt_, @jerrydunleavy, @andrewcmyers, @dnvolz, @hraleighspeaks, @0xalexei, @0xalexei, @lukolejnik, @committeeonccp, @lukolejnik, @jerrydunleavy, @jerrydunleavy, @fdd, @drewfitzgerald, @m_miho_jpn, @dnvolz, and @dnvolz

LinkedIn: Sarah Krouse and Isaac Stone Fish

Forums: r/craftofintelligence and Slashdot

Ivan Mehta / TechCrunch:

Avataar debuts Velocity, an AI tool that generates product videos based on a product link, and says HP, Victoria's Secret, Lowe's, and others are using the tool — Generative AI models have reached a baseline capability of producing at least a passable video from a single image or short sentence.

Forums: r/artificial

Bloomberg:

Sources: India plans ~$2.7B in fresh subsidies and import tariff cuts to help boost local manufacturing, especially of smartphones made by companies like Apple — - Proposed incentives will help smartphone makers like Apple — Final decision to be made by cabinet; details likely in budget

More: MacRumors and 9to5Mac

Preetika Rana / Wall Street Journal:

Uber and Lyft are embracing autonomous vehicle operators like Waymo, May Mobility, and others, after abandoning developing their own driverless taxis years ago — After ending their own driverless plans, the ride-sharing companies are embracing autonomous-vehicle operators and offering new app features

More: PYMNTS.com and New York Times

Bloomberg:

Sources: Italy is in advanced talks for a €1.5B, five-year SpaceX deal to provide the government with secure telecom services, Europe's largest such project — - Starlink would provide secure internet for Italian government — Prime Minister Meloni met with Trump in Florida on Saturday

More: PCMag, Light Reading, Fortune, CCN.com, Hindustan Times, TechRadar, Proactive, Semafor, Seeking Alpha, Reuters, and The Independent

Bluesky: @quinnypig.com and @timlatimer

Forums: r/esa, r/Starlink, r/technology, r/worldnews, and r/europe

Dean Takahashi / VentureBeat:

Samsung unveils a suite of AI experiences for its TVs, including Click to Search, Live Translate, and a way to recognize food on the screen and provide recipes — For this year's lineup, Samsung said that AI will come to life in more ways than just great picture quality.

More: Samsung Newsroom, T3, Moneycontrol, Windows Central, The Verge, TechRadar, Internet of Things News, Interesting Engineering, 9to5Toys, Phandroid, TechCrunch, Sammy Fans, PhoneArena, SammyGuru, Android Authority, Android Police, TechSpot, Advanced Television, Neowin, TechCrunch, Analytics India Magazine, and SamMobile

Bluesky: @antiquequaalude, @bdsams.com, and @kentindell. Threads: @chriswelch

Todd Spangler / Variety:

Disney and Fubo announce a deal as part of which Disney will combine Hulu + Live TV with Fubo in a joint venture and Fubo will drop Venu Sports lawsuit — Disney, Fox and Warner Bros. Discovery will pay Fubo $220 million to settle antitrust suit — Disney announced a deal …

More: Bloomberg, The Hollywood Reporter, Reuters, Business Wire, The Streamable, Deadline, and Cord Cutters News

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From Mediagazer

Sara Fischer / Axios:

Source: Bari Weiss is planning to create a masthead for CBS News as part of a broader overhaul of standards and procedures

Todd Spangler / Variety:

Comcast extends Mike Cavanagh's contract through January 1, 2029, and grants a ~$35M performance-based stock package; he's set to become co-CEO in January 2026

Winston Cho / The Hollywood Reporter:

A US judge denies WBD's bid to block Sling TV from selling short-term offerings that let users sign up for access to its bundles for as little as one day

Upcoming Tech Events

Jan 4

Samsung "The First Look" media event

Game Developers Conference

More News

Gabrielle Canon / The Guardian:

A look at the rise of Watch Duty, a wildfire monitoring app active in 14 US states that has gained up to 7.2M active users in the three years since its launch

Bluesky: @jdaldern and @guardian-climate. Mastodon: @salixsericea@mastodon.social

Margaux MacColl / TechCrunch:

A profile of headhunter Peterson Conway, who worked with Palantir and other Silicon Valley defense and hard tech firms and is now the talent head at VC firm A*

Yantoultra Ngui / Reuters:

Singapore-based Digital Edge, which operates 21 data centers in Japan, South Korea, India, and others, raised $1.6B+, including ~$640M in equity and $1B in debt

More: DatacenterDynamics, Enterprise Times, Bloomberg, Silicon Republic, Pulse 2.0, Digital Edge, TNGlobal, and Tech in Asia

Teresa Xie / Bloomberg:

Advertising company Outfront, whose clients include Mercury, Brex, Klarna, and Venmo, says fintech ad spend is up 45%+ YoY on average over the past three years

More: PYMNTS.com

Financial Times:

Malaysia's environment minister says global tech companies should expect to pay a premium for access to energy and water to serve data centers in the country

More: Wall Street Journal and Global Corporate Venturing

Earlier Picks

Jane Lanhee Lee / Bloomberg:

Foxconn reports Q4 revenue of ~$64.6B, up 15% YoY vs. est. of a 13% rise, boosted by data center spending, with December 2024 bringing in ~$19.8B, up 42% YoY

More: Barron's Online, Wall Street Journal, Quartz, GreenBot, Benzinga, Reuters, Cryptopolitan, Hon Hai Technology Group, BNN Bloomberg, Tech in Asia, and Livemint. X: @dnystedt

Madhumita Murgia / Financial Times:

PitchBook: AI startups building medical note-taking apps raised $800M in 2024, up from $390M in 2023, as Microsoft, Amazon, and others compete for market share

More: PYMNTS.com and Cryptopolitan

Bluesky: @petetrainor.fyi. LinkedIn: Dr Harpreet Sood and Mona Sloane

Eva Dou / Washington Post:

How Huawei is flourishing despite harsh US sanctions, demonstrating the resilience of a company at the center of a worsening cold war between the US and China

More: Light Reading, DigiTimes, South China Morning Post, and Notebookcheck

Stephanie Stacey / Financial Times:

CrowdStrike, whose botched software update caused a global IT outage in July 2024, has more than recovered the $30B in market value it shed after the crisis

More: TechRadar and PYMNTS.com

Bluesky: @bruces. Mastodon: @1br0wn@eupolicy.social

Coco Feng / South China Morning Post:

Douyin, Pinduoduo, and Xiaohongshu vow to improve their algorithms after China's three-month campaign from November 2024 to fix “typical issues with algorithms”

More: TechNode and Tech in Asia

Bluesky: @kwerb.com. X: @sehof