Techmeme
February 23, 2020, 9:25 AM

Top News

Manish Singh / TechCrunch:
CB Insights: fintech startups across the world raised $33.9B across 1,912 deals in 2019, which is down from $40.8B raised across 2,049 deals in 2018  —  Financial services startups raised less money in 2019 than they did in 2018 as VC firms looked to back late stage firms and focused on developing markets, a new report has revealed.
Wall Street Journal:
Sources: Intuit is nearing a deal to buy personal finance portal Credit Karma for about $7B in cash and stock; the deal could be announced as soon as Monday  —  Acquisition would be Intuit's largest ever and the first sizable transaction under CEO Sasan Goodarzi
FinSMEs:
Cyber insurance company At-Bay, which helps businesses assess risk across their tech stack with continuous vulnerability monitoring, raises $34M Series B  —  At-Bay, a Mountain View, CA-based cyber insurance company, raised $34m in Series B funding.  —  The round was led by Acrew Capital and Munich Re Ventures, through its HSB fund.
Will Knight / Wired:
Interview with Garry Kasparov, the first chess world champion to be defeated by a computer, about chess, AI, and a strategy for staying a step ahead of machines  —  Twenty-three years after he lost to Deep Blue, Kasparov says people need to work with machines.  You have to “nudge the flock of intelligent algorithms.”
Johannes Hellstrom / Reuters:
Swedish game developer Embracer to buy US-based Saber Interactive, maker of the game World War Z, for up to $525M in cash and stock, most of which is deferred  —  STOCKHOLM (Reuters) - Swedish video game group Embracer is buying U.S. game developer Saber Interactive for up to $525 million, the Swedish company said on Wednesday.
Mon(IoT)r Research Group:
Study: smart speakers accidentally activate to random words between 1.5 and 19 times per day on average, with HomePod and Cortana devices activating the most  —  WHEN SPEAKERS ARE ALL EARS  —  Understanding when smart speakers mistakenly record conversations

Sponsor Posts

Command Line:
Bringing local models and sandboxed tools to Windows and GitHub Copilot  —  GitHub Copilot will soon determine when a task is best handled by on-device AI and when it needs cloud-scale models.
Will Reed:
The best sales leaders aren't job hunting.  Here's how to reach them without months of cold outreach.  —  Our team came from Box, Square, and Brex, so we already know the GTM leaders worth meeting.
Zoho:
Zoho Books now supports CT600 & Final Accounts Filing as an add-on in the FREE plan  —  Managing end-of-year filing for limited companies in the UK is often expensive and multi-layered.
IDrive:
Protecting your Cloud Applications Data  —  Backing up Office 365, Google Workspace, Dropbox & Salesforce data is critical to preventing data loss or corruption, complying with laws and avoiding critical downtime in case of a disaster.

Featured Podcasts

Sources:
Qualcomm's CEO on the coming AI phone supercycle
Candid conversations with the leaders shaping what's next in AI and the broader tech industry. Hosted by Alex Heath, who has covered Silicon Valley for more than a decade.
Subscribe to Sources.
The Upstarts Podcast:
Bringing Back Mammoths And Building Noah's Ark 2.0 | Colossal's Ben Lamm
Veteran tech reporter Alex Konrad sits down with breakout entrepreneurs taking on the status quo to shake up their fields in AI, design, nuclear energy, space, and more.
Subscribe to The Upstarts Podcast.
Great Chat:
The launch industrial complex
A podcast mostly about tech. Brought to you weekly by Angela Du, Sally Shin, Mac Bohannon, Helen Min, and Ashley Mayer.
Subscribe to Great Chat.
Big Technology Podcast:
Can AI Keep Growing Exponentially? Let's Ask SemiAnalysis — With Dylan Patel and Jordan Nanos
The Big Technology Podcast takes you behind the scenes in the tech world featuring interviews with plugged-in insiders and outside agitators.
Subscribe to Big Technology Podcast.
Channels with Peter Kafka:
Larry Ellison's Media Ambitions & Kevin Roose on AI's Biggest Gamble
Media and tech aren't just intersecting - they're fully intertwined. To understand how those worlds work, Peter Kafka talks to industry leaders, upstarts and observers.
Subscribe to Channels with Peter Kafka.
Training Data:
Google's AI Infrastructure Chief, Amin Vahdat, on the Physics & Economics of Frontier AI
Sequoia Capital partners host conversations with leading AI builders and researchers to develop a deeper understanding of the evolving technologies and their implications.
Subscribe to Training Data.
 

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Earlier Picks

Los Angeles Times:
Joseph Cox / VICE: