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August 29, 2023, 5:20 PM
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Top News

Jay Peters / The Verge:
Google announces AI features coming soon to Meet, including Duet AI taking notes, showing mid-meeting summaries, and “attending” meetings on a user's behalf  —  If Google Meet's new AI tools are as good as advertised, you might never need to pay attention to another meeting again — or even show up at all.
Bloomberg:
Google adds other companies' AI tools, like Meta's Llama 2 and Anthropic's Claude 2, to Cloud, expands Duet AI in Workspace, partners with Fox Sports, and more  —  Alphabet Inc.'s Google is adding artificial intelligence tools from companies including Meta Platforms Inc. and Anthropic to its cloud platform …
David Pierce / The Verge:
Google plans to update Google Chat with a redesign, Duet AI tools, “huddle” audio and video calls, a group channel capacity increase from 50K to 500K, and more  —  Google is making some big changes to Google Chat, its answer to Slack and Microsoft Teams.
Gerrit De Vynck / Washington Post:
Google unveils SynthID, a tool that can embed an invisible digital “watermark” into AI-generated images, available now to Cloud customers for Imagen-made images  —  The tech giant is among companies pushing out AI tools while promising to build more tools to protect against their misuse
Abner Li / 9to5Google:
Google says Duet AI for Workspace costs $30/month/user for enterprise, consumer pricing will come in the coming months, and Workspace has 10M paying customers
Juli Clover / MacRumors:
Apple announces a September 12 event at 10am PT at Apple Park titled “Wonderlust”, where four iPhone 15 models, the Apple Watch Series 9, and more are expected  —  Apple today announced plans to hold a special event on Tuesday, September 12 at 10:00 a.m. Pacific Time.
Sergiu Gatlan / BleepingComputer:
The FBI led an effort to dismantle the Qakbot botnet, which ransomware gangs used as an infection vector for years, on August 25 after infiltrating its network  —  Qakbot, one of the largest and longest-running botnets to date, was taken down following a multinational law enforcement operation spearheaded …
Sheera Frenkel / New York Times:
Meta removes the largest Chinese influence campaign to date; the campaign spans thousands of accounts, and many are still active on TikTok, X, and Reddit  —  The campaign began at least four years ago and spanned thousands of accounts on Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, X, Substack and Chinese websites, Meta said.
Ryan Browne / CNBC:
Omdia: Apple shipped 26.5M iPhone 14 Pro Max units in H1 2023, the most out of any model from any manufacturer; Apple makes all four of the top-shipping models  —  - Last year, the iPhone 13 was the bestselling device on the market, indicating consumers were still buying flagship devices but at the entry level rather than the top end.
Eric Slivka / MacRumors:
Kuo: Apple aims for the iPhone 15 Pro Max to make up 35% to 40% of iPhone 15 shipments, optimistic about its exclusive periscope lens camera as a selling point
CoinDesk:
A US court rules that the SEC must review its rejection of Grayscale's bid to convert the Grayscale Bitcoin Trust into an ETF after approving two bitcoin ETPs  —  A federal appeals court ordered the SEC to “vacate” its rejection of the trust issuer's bid to convert the Grayscale Bitcoin Trust into an exchange-traded fund.
Mark Sullivan / Fast Company:
In a “safety” blog post, X announces “paid-for promoted political posts”, starting in the US, and plans to “provide a global advertising transparency center”  —  X (née Twitter) published a “safety” brief on its blog today outlining new policies …
Ivan Mehta / TechCrunch:
WhatsApp launches a new native macOS app via its website, coming soon to the App Store, that lets eight users join video calls and 32 users join audio calls  —  WhatsApp said that it has launched a new native app for Mac today.  The app will allow users to participate in video calls …
David Heaney / UploadVR:
Meta Avatars finally have legs in Quest Home, with the v57 update on the Public Test Channel, after the company said in October 2022 they were “coming soon”  —  Meta Avatars finally have legs in Quest Home with the v57 update on the Public Test Channel.
Sara Fischer / Axios:
TechCrunch acquires Connie Loizos' media startup StrictlyVC and names her as TC's EIC and GM; longtime EIC Matthew Panzarino will remain an adviser through 2023  —  TechCrunch, the digital tech and business publication owned by Yahoo, has acquired StrictlyVC, a media startup, from longtime Silicon Valley journalist Connie Loizos.
Alex Heath / The Verge:
Snap rolls out Dreams, Snapchat's take on the generative AI selfies that Lensa and others popularized, charging $1 for an eight-photo pack; the first is free  —  After releasing its My AI chatbot earlier this year, Snapchat is now jumping on the AI selfie bandwagon with a new feature called Dreams.

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From Mediagazer

Reuters:
Independent Russian newspaper Novaya Gazeta plans to shut down after 30+ years, following pressure from Russian authorities and the persecution of its reporters

Gavin Blair / The Hollywood Reporter:
The Association of Japanese Animations: Japan's anime industry revenue grew 15.8% YoY to a record ~$28.5B in 2025, with overseas revenue reaching ~$16B

Selome Hailu / Variety:
Sources: Reese Witherspoon's Hello Sunshine lays off about 30 employees, roughly 50% of its staff, as it focuses on film and TV projects and its book club brand

More News

Earlier Picks

Washington Post:
Interviews reveal that 34 of 36 Remotasks workers in the Philippines, who annotate data for Scale AI's US clients, faced delayed, reduced, or canceled payments
Leo Schwartz / Fortune:
In a first, the SEC charges Impact Theory with offering unregistered securities by selling NFTs; the LA-based entertainment company agreed to pay a $6.1M fine
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