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December 8, 2023, 8:10 PM
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Adam Satariano / New York Times:
The EU reaches a deal on the AI Act, a comprehensive attempt to limit the use of the technology; the law still needs to go through a few steps for approval  —  The agreement over the A.I. Act solidifies one of the world's first comprehensive attempts to limit the use of artificial intelligence.
Leah Nylen / Bloomberg:
Source: the US FTC is examining the nature of Microsoft's investment in OpenAI and potentially antitrust law violations but hasn't opened a formal investigation  —  - The agency hasn't opened a formal probe into Microsoft-OpenAI  — Microsoft didn't report deal to FTC due to non-profit status
Bloomberg:
The UK CMA is considering an antitrust investigation into Microsoft and OpenAI's partnership, and is taking comments until January 3 before making a decision  —  - CMA seeking views on whether the relationship should be probed  — Move is less than two months since watchdog cleared Activision
Sarah Perez / TechCrunch:
As Beeper Mini experiences an outage, Beeper CEO Eric Migicovsky says that “all data indicates” Apple found a way to cut off the app's ability to function  —  Was it too good to be true?  Beeper, the startup that reverse engineered iMessage to bring blue bubble texts to Android users …
Steven Levy / Wired:
How author Steven Johnson, now a Google employee for over a year, helped create NotebookLM, which lets writers extract key themes from their research material  —  Author Steven Johnson helped Google create an app that can analyze a writer's research material and help them extract and explore the key themes.
Abner Li / 9to5Google:
Google launches NotebookLM, an “AI-first notebook” demoed at I/O 2023, available in early access since July 2023, and now powered by Gemini Pro, in the US
Nikkei Asia:
Sources: in a first, Apple is working with China's BYD to move iPad product development to Vietnam, with test production set to begin around mid-February 2024  —  China's BYD helps American giant with shift to alternative tech hubs  —  Vietnam is emerging as an increasingly important production hub …
Wall Street Journal:
Sources: Apple and its suppliers aim to make 50M+ iPhones annually in India in two to three years, which would account for a quarter of global iPhone production
Sankalp Phartiyal / Bloomberg:
Sources: Tata plans to build one of India's largest iPhone plants, employing 50,000 workers within two years, and expects operations to begin in 12 to 18 months
Jacob Knutson / Axios:
23andMe changed its TOS to prevent lawsuits days after its October data breach; to opt out, customers must email the company that they disagree within 30 days  —  Days after a data breach allowed hackers to steal 6.9 million 23andMe users' personal details, the genetic testing company changed …
Nitasha Tiku / Washington Post:
Sources: complaints from some senior OpenAI leaders that Sam Altman had been psychologically abusive were a major factor in the board's decision to fire Altman  —  The senior employees described Altman as psychologically abusive, creating chaos at the artificial-intelligence start-up …
Wall Street Journal:
Former OpenAI board member Helen Toner says the “goal in firing Sam [Altman] was to strengthen OpenAI”, but declines to say why she and others voted to fire him
Zheping Huang / Bloomberg:
Tencent's Lightspeed LA studio reveals Last Sentinel, an ambitious console game by GTA veteran Steve Martin and part of Tencent's push to create IP from scratch  —  - Lightspeed LA reveals ‘Last Sentinel’ at The Game Awards  — AAA game sets the stage in a futuristic, cyberpunk Tokyo
Jess Weatherbed / The Verge:
An untitled countdown timer viewable only on the Threads.net homepage in EU countries suggests that the service will be expanded to EU users on December 14  —  Following its rollout in countries like the US and UK this past July, Threads will finally be expanded to users in the European Union on December 14th.
Mark Gurman / Bloomberg:
Sources: Apple is reorganizing its hardware engineering group as Tang Tan, its VP in charge of iPhone and Watch product design, plans to leave in February 2024  —  - Tang Tan is set to leave the tech company in February  — Departure will spur changes at hardware engineering group
Elizabeth Lopatto / The Verge:
Grok's example responses that Elon Musk has highlighted on X shows an AI chatbot whose unfunny, “edgy”, pointlessly offensive humor can feel forced and try-hard  —  Fine.  Let's talk about xAI, which is getting funded to the tune of $1 billion or whatever.
Allison Johnson / The Verge:
Mobile network companies have backed themselves into a corner by racing to roll out 5G, taking on piles of debt with few returns to show for their investments  —  Networks spent years telling us that 5G would change everything.  But the flashiest use cases are nowhere to be found …

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About This Page

This is a Techmeme archive page. It shows how the site appeared at 8:10 PM ET, December 8, 2023.

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

Bloomberg:
Sources: WBD begins exclusive talks with Netflix to sell its film and TV studios and HBO Max; Netflix is offering a $5B breakup fee if the deal isn't approved

The Guardian:
Ireland, Spain, Slovenia, and the Netherlands exit Eurovision after Israel received an all-clear to compete; the BBC and Germany's SWR plan to participate

James Faris / Business Insider:
Kalshi strikes a deal with CNBC that will integrate Kalshi's prediction data into CNBC's channel, site, and app starting in 2026, days after striking a CNN deal

More News

Earlier Picks

Lily Hay Newman / Wired:
How Meta addressed the technical challenges of developing E2EE for Messenger, including creating an encrypted storage protocol and re-architecting chat features
Jessica Lyons Hardcastle / The Register:
A researcher says a years-old Bluetooth authentication flaw lets attackers inject keystrokes to run arbitrary commands on Apple, Android, and some Linux devices
Parmy Olson / Bloomberg:
Google's video demo of Gemini's multimodal AI capabilities wasn't carried out in real time or in voice; the model was shown still images and given text prompts
Wall Street Journal:
The US and the UK accuse Russia's FSB of orchestrating a global hacking campaign since 2015 to interfere in UK elections and target US energy networks and spies
Todd Spangler / Variety:
Spotify says CFO Paul Vogel plans to leave on March 31, 2024, and launches a search for a successor; Daniel Ek wants a CFO “with a different mix of experiences”
Jay Peters / The Verge:
Meta rolls out tags on Threads, offering support for multiple words and spaces, and no # symbol; posts can only have one tag and the tag view is the search view
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