Techmeme
February 14, 2024, 5:55 AM

Top News

Alex Heath / The Verge:
In a video, Mark Zuckerberg shares his thoughts on the Vision Pro, saying Quest 3 “is the better product, period”, highlighting Apple's tradeoffs, and more  —  Now that it can be strapped to our faces and worn in strange places, opinions about Apple's Vision Pro are flying left and right.
David Pierce / The Verge:
OpenAI starts testing a “memory” feature that is on by default and lets ChatGPT and custom GPTs remember info about users and their conversations over time  —  Talking to an AI chatbot can feel a bit like Groundhog Day after a while, as you tell it for the umpteenth …
The Information:
AI researcher Andrej Karpathy, one of the founding members of OpenAI, leaves the company; Karpathy was developing a product that he described as an AI assistant  —  Andrej Karpathy, one of the founding members of OpenAI, has left the company, a spokesperson confirmed.
Mark Gurman / Bloomberg:
Sources: Apple's longest-serving senior industrial designer, Bart Andre, told colleagues this month that he is retiring; Andre joined in 1992 alongside Jony Ive  —  - Bart Andre retiring after three decades on design team  — Departure marks near-complete turnover of group since Ive era
Wall Street Journal:
Sources: Walmart is in talks to buy smart TV manufacturer Vizio for $2B+, as the company looks to bolster its advertising business in its battle with Amazon  —  Retail giant discussing a more than $2 billion deal that would boost its advertising business in battle with Amazon
Alison Snyder / Axios:
Cohere's nonprofit research lab releases its open-source multilingual LLM Aya, which the lab says can follow instructions in more than 100 languages  —  A new open-source generative AI model can follow instructions in more than 100 languages. … - It covers more than twice as many languages …
Michael Nuñez / VentureBeat:
In a research paper, Apple researchers detail a new AI tool called Keyframer, which uses LLMs to animate static images through natural language prompts  —  Apple researchers have unveiled a new AI tool called “Keyframer,” which harnesses the power of large language models (LLMs) …
Mary Ann Azevedo / TechCrunch:
Foundry Group, an 18-year-old VC firm with nearly $3.5B in assets under management, has quietly decided to wind down and not raise any more funds  —  Foundry Group, an 18-year-old venture firm with nearly $3.5 billion in assets under management, has quietly decided to shut down and not raise any more funds.
Tom Dotan / Wall Street Journal:
Copilot for Microsoft 365 testers question the $30/seat price and find Copilot the most useful in Teams and the least in Excel; Dow and others plan big rollouts  —  Artificial-intelligence aide handles email, meetings and other things, but its price and limited use have some skeptical
Alistair Barr / Business Insider:
A typo in Lyft's Q4 release mistakenly forecast a 500 BPS of EBITDA margin improvement for 2024, causing a stock surge, before the error was corrected to 50 BPS  —  - Lyft mistakenly forecast 500 basis points of margin improvement for 2024, causing a stock surge.
Antonia Mufarech / Bloomberg:
Bloomberg:
Sony reports Q3 revenue up 22% YoY to ~$25.11B, operating income up 10% YoY to ~$3.1B, meeting est., and 8.2M PS5s sold, roughly 1M units lower than projected  —  - Company reversing course after taking the unit private in 2020  — Underwhelming PlayStation 5 sales led to sales outlook cut
Cagan Koc / Bloomberg:
ASML CFO Roger Dassen says the chip market “has now reached the lowest point of the dip” and “the recovery is nascent”; ASML's top client spent €8.78B in 2023  —  - ‘Recovery is nascent,’ CFO Dassen says in firm's annual report  — Demand for ASML products is a bellwether for chip industry
More: Reuters
Mike Wheatley / SiliconANGLE:
Sydney-based quantum computing startup Diraq extends its Series A to $35M led by Quantonation, taking its total funding to $120M+, to build quantum processors  —  Australian quantum computing startup Diraq Pty Ltd. said today it has closed on a $15 million capital raise that will be used …
More: Diraq
Hayden Field / CNBC:
Instacart reports Q4 revenue up 6% YoY to $803M, vs. $804M est., and plans to cut ~250, or ~7%, of its staff; three top execs are leaving for personal reasons  —  - Instacart on Tuesday announced it would lay off about 250 employees, or roughly 7% of the company, alongside reporting fourth-quarter earnings …
Frederic Lardinois / TechCrunch:
Sources: Mozilla plans to scale back its investment in its VPN, Relay, its Online Footprint Scrubber, and mozilla.social, shut down Hubs, and cut ~60 employees  —  After installing a new interim CEO earlier this month, Mozilla, the organization behind the Firefox browser …

Sponsor Posts

Okara:
Meet Okara, the AI platform that doesn't train on your data  —  Chat with 30+ open-source models (Llama, Kimi, Qwen, DeepSeek) through encrypted infrastructure.  Used by teams handling proprietary code and strategy.
Soxton:
AI-powered law for startups  —  Soxton automates startup legal so founders can move faster and sleep better.  We handle incorporation, advisor, employment and commercial contracts.  Join the waitlist for early access!
Zoho:
Saudi Arabia's data localisation era: Why compliance-ready clouds are now essential  —  Saudi Arabia is in a key phase in its digital transformation, where data governance, cybersecurity, and digital sovereignty are as vital as innovation.
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

Access:
Building an autonomous car utopia with Rivian's RJ Scaringe
A show about the tech industry's inside conversation, hosted by tech reporter Alex Heath and founder whisperer Ellis Hamburger.
Subscribe to Access.
Lenny's Podcast:
How to show up in any room with a low heart rate: Silicon Valley's missing etiquette playbook | Sam Lessin
Interviews with world-class product leaders and growth experts to uncover actionable advice to help you build, launch, and grow your own product.
Subscribe to Lenny's Podcast.
The Nick, Dick and Paul Show:
Three New Influencers
Nick Bilton, Dick Costolo, and Paul Kedrosky pull back the curtain on AI, startups, and the future rushing toward us, all with healthy dose of irreverence.
Subscribe to The Nick, Dick and Paul Show.
Big Technology Podcast:
Who Wins if AI Models Commoditize? — With Mistral CEO Arthur Mensch
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.
Uncapped with Jack Altman:
Daniele Perito from depthfirst
Conversations with people I admire about things I'm genuinely interested in.
Subscribe to Uncapped with Jack Altman.
Tools and Weapons with Brad Smith:
Special Edition: Key findings from the Microsoft AI Diffusion Report
Microsoft Vice Chair and President Brad Smith speaks with leaders in government, business, and culture to explore the most critical challenges at the intersection of technology and society.
Subscribe to Tools and Weapons with Brad Smith.
 

About This Page

This is a Techmeme archive page. It shows how the site appeared at 5:55 AM ET, February 14, 2024.

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.

More News

Earlier Picks

MK Manoylov / The Block:
Kylie Robison / Fortune:
Lucas Ropek / Gizmodo:
Tom Warren / The Verge:
Samuel Stolton / Bloomberg:
Tom Warren / The Verge: