Techmeme: Microsoft plans to invest $2.9B in data centers in Japan by 2025, its biggest investment in the country, and will add advanced AI chips at two existing sites (Naoki Watanabe/Nikkei Asia)

Open Links In New Tab

Mobile Archives Advertise Site News

April 9, 2024, 2:40 PM

Top News

Wall Street Journal:

Google unveils ARM-based Axion chips for AI, claiming they have up to 30% better performance over the top ARM rivals, coming to Google Cloud customers in 2024 — Tech giant develops new chips to cut reliance on outside vendors as the AI arms race intensifies

Bloomberg:

Google Cloud CEO Thomas Kurian unveils AI updates: corporate Gemini users can “ground” responses in reliable sources, Search as a Gemini answer source, and more — The company unveiled updates to its AI offerings at its annual cloud conference — Google unveiled a host …

David Pierce / The Verge:

Google announces Vids, an app to help companies and consumers make collaborative, shareable video, powered by Gemini, launching in public beta in summer 2024 — For decades, work has revolved around documents, spreadsheets, and slide decks. Word, Excel, PowerPoint; Pages, Numbers, Keynote; Docs, Sheets, Slides.

More: PCWorld, The Keyword, VentureBeat, Mashable, TechEBlog, Phandroid, PhoneArena, Neowin, TechRadar, TechCrunch, Engadget, Engadget, TechCrunch, 9to5Google, Android Authority, ZDNet, SiliconANGLE, and NewsBytes

LinkedIn: Emil Protalinski. Forums: Hacker News and Slashdot

Abner Li / 9to5Google:

Google details Workspace updates: Gmail's “Help me write” voice input and “instant polish”, Docs tabs, Sheets tables, Gemini in Chat, Meet translation, and more — Besides Vids, Google Workspace is getting a slew of new features and Gemini capabilities at Cloud Next 2024.

More: Google Workspace Blog, The Keyword, AndroidGuys, TechRadar, PhoneArena, Android Authority, VentureBeat, ITPro, and TechCrunch

Kyle Wiggers / TechCrunch:

Google releases Gemini 1.5 Pro in public preview on Vertex AI, offering support for up to 1M tokens, and says the model will power new features in Code Assist — Gemini 1.5 Pro, Google's most capable generative AI model, is now available in public preview on Vertex AI, Google's enterprise-focused AI development platform.

More: MarkTechPost, The Verge, ZDNet, Google Cloud, Android Authority, TechCrunch, and Engadget

X: @sundarpichai, @sebkrier, and @thomasortk

Forums: Hacker News and Slashdot

Kyle Wiggers / TechCrunch:

Google makes its Imagen 2 image generator generally available in Vertex AI, and adds inpainting and outpainting to remove or add elements and expand borders

More: How-To Geek, The Decoder, VentureBeat, and The Indian Express

Mark Gurman / Bloomberg:

Automattic acquires Beeper, a source says for $125M, and absorbs its 27 employees; Beeper co-founder Eric Migicovsky will become Automattic's head of messaging — - Automattic purchases Beeper in $125 million deal; CEO to join — Beeper briefly brought Apple's iMessage to Android devices

More: Beeper Blog, TechCrunch, Beeper Blog, New York Times, Ars Technica, Engadget, The Verge, 9to5Google, 9to5Mac, iMore, Droid Life, Android Headlines, Wired, MacStories, Automattic, and Pocket-lint

Mastodon: @andypiper@macaw.social, @timbray@cosocial.ca, @vmstan@vmst.io, @jamesdoc@mas.to, and @matthewcassinelli …

X: @kylekashuv, @ericmigi, @markgurman, @onbeeper, @ericmigi, @ericmigi, @davidsven, @colejryan, @onbeeper, @automattic, @onbeeper, @artemr, and @onbeeper

Forums: Hacker News, r/beeper, and Beehaw

Paul Alcorn / Tom's Hardware:

Intel debuts Gaudi 3, set for Q3 mass production, claiming up to 1.7x the training performance, 50% more inference, and 40% better efficiency than Nvidia's H100 — GPUs fall the wayside as Intel goes all-in on Gaudi for AI. — Intel made a slew of announcements during its Vision 2024 event today …

Leo Schwartz / Fortune:

Monad Labs, which is building a Layer 1 blockchain to rival Ethereum and Solana, raised $225M led by Paradigm and plans to launch its mainnet by the end of 2024 — With crypto markets roaring back, different blockchains are jockeying to become the solution that hoovers up demand in the next wave …

More: Monad, SiliconANGLE, Decrypt, CoinDesk, The Crypto Times, The Block, FinSMEs, Coinspeaker, Cointelegraph, NFTgators, CoinGape, and Crypto Briefing

X: @intern, @mdudas, @monad_xyz, and @monad_xyz

Mark Bergen / Bloomberg:

In London, Meta execs downplayed the negative impact of AI on elections, touted open-source AI, and confirmed Llama's next version will arrive by next month — - AI not used on “systemic basis” to subvert elections: Clegg — Political deepfakes on the rise as voters head to polls

More: The Guardian, Telegraph, Seeking Alpha, The Independent, and The Mirror

X: @mikebutcher and @mikebutcher

Sylvia Varnham O'Regan / The Information:

Source: Meta plans to launch two small non-multimodal versions of Llama 3 next week; the biggest Llama 3 model will be multimodal and is set for summer 2024

More: The Verge, TechCrunch, Tom's Guide, Ben's Bites, The Decoder, and Analytics India Magazine

Threads: @paul_rietschka. X: @andrewcurran_, @quinnypig, @corbtt, and @mattshumer_

Forums: r/singularity and r/LocalLLaMA

Wall Street Journal:

An investigation finds a shadowy supply chain for Starlink terminals to US foes in Russia and Sudan via Africa, Asia, and the UAE; SpaceX has not shut them off — The satellite-internet devices are helping Russian fighters in Ukraine and paramilitary forces in Sudan; SpaceX hasn't shut them off

More: Engadget, PCMag, Techpoint Africa, and Benzinga

Mastodon: @karakam@mastodon.social. X: @gksteinhauser, @gksteinhauser, @gksteinhauser, @twmcltd, @tonyromm, @micahmaidenberg, and @alfaiomi

Forums: Hacker News, r/EnoughMuskSpam, and r/TrueReddit

Natasha Singer / New York Times:

In some US schools, boys have used AI “nudification” apps to create and share deepfakes of clothed female classmates, leading to varying district responses — After boys at Francesca Mani's high school fabricated and shared explicit images of girls last year, she and her mother …

More: The Information. X: @privacydigest and @hargreaves_s

Naoki Watanabe / Nikkei Asia:

Microsoft plans to invest $2.9B in data centers in Japan by 2025, its biggest investment in the country, and will add advanced AI chips at two existing sites — Move comes in response to push for ‘data sovereignty’ among governments — PALO ALTO, Calif. — Microsoft will invest $2.9 billion …

More: Reuters, Benzinga, Microsoft, PYMNTS.com, The Information, The Decoder, Bloomberg, DatacenterDynamics, and Proactive

Washington Post:

How OpenAI is preparing to fight lawsuits, investigations, and legislation: growing its staff from 200 in 2022 to ~1,000, hiring ~24 in-house lawyers, and more — The company has hired more than two dozen in-house lawyers and adopted a new Washington playbook

X: @danraile and @toddbigphoto

Alexandra Alper / Reuters:

Sources: the US plans to award Samsung $6B+ next week to build four chip facilities in Taylor, Texas, including a $17B plant, as part of the $52.7B CHIPS Act — The Biden administration plans to announce it is awarding more than $6 billion to South Korea's Samsung (005930.KS) …

More: ExtremeTech, PC Gamer, The Korea Herald, Sammy Fans, eeNews Europe, Proactive, MediaNama, Android Headlines, TweakTown, GSMArena.com, and Neowin. Forums: Slashdot

Rebecca Bellan / TechCrunch:

Cruise resumes manually driving its vehicles without autonomous systems engaged to create maps and gather road information in select cities, starting in Phoenix — Cruise is redeploying robotaxis in Phoenix after nearly five months of paused operations, the company said in a blog post. The catch?

More: CNBC, Inc.com, Benzinga, and Bloomberg

Zack Whittaker / TechCrunch:

Researchers found an exposed Azure server with credentials used by Microsoft staff to access internal systems; Microsoft was told Feb. 6 and secured it March 5 — Microsoft has resolved a security lapse that exposed internal company files and credentials to the open internet.

Sarah Perez / TechCrunch:

eBay adds an AI-powered “shop the look” feature to its iOS app, offering personalized recommendations to users who have viewed 10+ fashion items in six months — EBay on Tuesday launched a new generative AI-powered feature to appeal to fashion enthusiasts: a “shop the look” …

More: Chain Store Age

Nilay Patel / The Verge:

Q&A with Cloudflare CEO Matthew Prince on the company's role in protecting free speech online, operating in war zones, moderation, never doing layoffs, and more — What free speech, war zones, and Aristotle have to do with internet infrastructure. … Today, I'm talking with Cloudflare co-founder and CEO Matthew Prince.

More: PCMag. Threads: @reckless1280

Abner Li / 9to5Google:

Google debuts its Find My Device network in the US and Canada, initially for lost Android phones and tablets; third-party tracker tag support is coming in May — Google is launching its new Find My Device (FMD) network in the US and Canada starting today. It will initially find lost Android phones …

More: Android Authority, The Keyword, BGR, Google Online Security Blog, 9to5Mac, Ars Technica, TalkAndroid.com, 9to5Google, NTD, Engadget, AndroidGuys, Mashable, ABC13, BetaNews, MSPoweruser, Gizchina, Wccftech, Neowin, Financial Express, MySmartPrice, Sammy Fans, TechCrunch, Ghacks, The Verge, Business Insider, Xiaomiui.Net, iThinkDifferent, Daring Fireball, CBS News, Tom's Guide, OSnews, Thurrott, and BleepingComputer

Threads: @lukejannazzo, @danseifert, and @backlon

X: @mishaalrahman, @artemr, @chipolotm, @davey_burke, @mishaalrahman, @mishaalrahman, @android, @mishaalrahman, and @mishaalrahman. LinkedIn: Dave Kleidermacher

Forums: r/GooglePixel, r/Android, and r/Android

Anna Tong / Reuters:

Symbolica, which develops foundation models offering an alternative to the transformer AI architecture, raised a $31M Series A led by Khosla Ventures — - Artificial intelligence startup Symbolica, which develops foundation models to compete with ChatGPT creator OpenAI …

More: TechCrunch, VentureBeat, and Fortune

Sponsor Posts

Soxton:

Fast, affordable 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!

F5:

Accelerate AI Adoption at F5's AI Virtual Summit — Learn how to architect, secure, and scale AI for production with real-world insights from industry leaders on June 23. Register now to save your spot.

Zoho:

10 essential project management reports every team should use — Let's be honest about how projects usually go sideways. A task gets blocked and nobody notices. A dependency changes and nobody updates the plan.

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.

Sponsor Techmeme

Featured Podcasts

Big Technology Podcast:

AI Fact or Fiction: The Fable Ban, Tokenmaxxing, Saaspocolypse — With Ara Kharazian

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.

Hard Fork:

'Hard Fork' Live Part 2: Dylan Field on Standing Out in the A.I. Era

The future is already here. Each week, journalists Kevin Roose and Casey Newton explore and make sense of the latest in the rapidly changing world of tech.

Subscribe to Hard Fork.

Channels with Peter Kafka:

A Hollywood Manager Explains the New Rules of Show Biz

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:

Simulating Humans at Scale: Simile's Joon Sung Park

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.

Invest Like the Best:

Kareem Amin - The Unusual Approach to Company Building

The leading destination to learn about business and investing. We do this by showcasing exceptional talent and ideas.

Subscribe to Invest Like the Best.

Tools and Weapons with Brad Smith:

AI's Mythos Moment: Rishi Sunak on preparing governments for AI

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.

Add your podcast here

About This Page

This is a Techmeme archive page. It shows how the site appeared at 2:40 PM ET, April 9, 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.

From Mediagazer

Ellise Shafer / Variety:

Memo: the BBC says it will cut 550 jobs including in its news and content divisions by the start of FY 2027-2028 in the first phase of a plan to save $670M

Thomas Escritt / Bloomberg:

Viktor Orban's media empire collapses two months after his election defeat; about 400 journalists at Mediaworks outlets have been given notices of termination

Jake Kanter / Deadline:

Email: BBC says commissioning spend will be reduced by £80M by March 2028 and TV development budget will be slashed by 15% annually

Upcoming Tech Events

Cerebral Valley AI Summit

London

Jun 29-Jul 2

AI Engineer World's Fair

HYBRID: Dreamforce REGISTER NOW

More News

Ingrid Lunden / TechCrunch:

Enterprise data security startup Cyera raised a $300M Series C led by Coatue at a $1.4B valuation, taking its funding to $460M, after a $100M Series B in 2023

More: Crunchbase News, FinSMEs, VC News Daily, SecurityWeek, and Globes Online

Bailey Lipschultz / Bloomberg:

Trump Media & Technology Group's stock is down 36% since March 26, wiping out ~$2.8B in market value as retail traders sell; Trump's stake is now worth ~$2.9B

More: Benzinga, Barron's Online, CNN, and Reuters

Forums: r/technology and r/inthenews

Reuters:

South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol says the country plans to invest ~$7B in AI by 2027, and will create a separate ~$1B fund to foster AI chip companies

More: Business Today, Cryptopolitan, Benzinga, Tech in Asia, and International Business Times

Financial Times:

Interviews with 12+ former and current employees: ByteDance faces a backlash from its US TikTok staff over large tax bills on stock shares that they cannot sell

More: The Information and Fortune

X: @niubi, @joemosch, @samgoodman22, and @tanarrowz

Mishaal Rahman / Android Authority:

A look at Android 15's Private Space feature, which creates a separate profile for hiding apps and data, like Samsung's Secure Folder encrypted storage space

More: ZDNet, Droid Life, and Business Today

X: @mishaalrahman. Forums: r/Android

Heather Landi / Fierce Healthcare:

Grow Therapy, which provides services like patient-provider matching and EHR to help therapists run their own practices, raised an $88M Series C led by Sequoia

More: SignalFire, PR Newswire, and FinSMEs

X: @joshconstine and @gradypb

Shira Stein / San Francisco Chronicle:

Sources: Applied Materials may scale back or cancel plans to open a $4B R&D facility in Silicon Valley due to a lack of government funding

More: Benzinga and Reuters. X: @_danilo

Kate Knibbs / Wired:

The Internet Archive is hosting the new Aruba Collection, which contains 101,376 items from Aruba's National Library, National Archives, and other institutions

More: The Information and Internet Archive Blogs

Mastodon: @josemurilo@mato.social. X: @internetarchive, @brewster_kahle, and @neilturkewitz

Forums: Hacker News, r/Futurology, r/technology, Beehaw, Slashdot, and Ars OpenForum

Earlier Picks

Trisha Thadani / Washington Post:

Filing: Tesla settles a lawsuit over Apple engineer Walter Huang's 2018 fatal Autopilot crash a day before the trial was set to start; details weren't disclosed

Kyle Bradshaw / 9to5Google:

Google rebrands Studio Bot, its AI-powered app development chatbot for Android Studio, to “Gemini in Android Studio”, and upgrades its model to Gemini 1.0 Pro

More: Android Developers Blog, WinBuzzer, PiunikaWeb, Neowin, Thurrott, NewsBytes, SiliconANGLE, Maginative, Android Central, and Android Headlines. Threads: @jonkeeganstories

Paul Sawers / TechCrunch:

Vista Equity Partners acquires Model N, a public company focusing on helping health companies automate pricing and compliance decisions, for $1.25B

More: Axios, Dow Jones Newswires, Investing.com, Law360, and Model N

Bluesky: @chirag.bsky.social. X: @vista_equity. LinkedIn: Model N

Kaya Yurieff / The Information:

TikTok expands TikTok Lite, which gives people financial incentives to watch its videos, to Spain and France, as the app's growth in Europe slows

More: TechCrunch, The Verge, BBC, Gizmodo, Daily Mail, PCMag, PhoneArena, Android Headlines, Music Ally, Mashable, and Phandroid

Mastodon: @carnage4life@mas.to. X: @kyurieff, @erinkwoo, and @kyurieff