Techmeme
April 16, 2024, 12:25 PM

Top News

Financial Times:
Microsoft invests $1.5B in Abu Dhabi-based AI startup G42 for a minority stake, after G42 severed ties with Chinese suppliers; Brad Smith will join G42's board  —  Agreement is latest move by US tech group to extend its reach into fast-growing sector  —  Microsoft has agreed to invest $1.5bn …
Bloomberg:
Raphael Satter / Reuters:
The Open Source Security Foundation and the OpenJS Foundation say the attempt to insert a secret backdoor into XZ Utils “may not be an isolated incident”  —  The recent attempt by an unknown actor to sabotage a widely used software program may have been one of several attempts …
Connor Jones / The Register:
UnitedHealth says the February ransomware attack on Change Healthcare cost the company $872M in Q1; another ransomware group appears to be extorting the company  —  First glimpse at attack financials reveals huge pain  —  UnitedHealth, parent company of ransomware-besieged Change Healthcare …
Abner Li / 9to5Google:
Benjamin Sandofsky / Sandofsky:
A look at the failure of Humane's Ai Pin, which took six years to ship after raising $230M, including building the device “the Apple way” and raising too much  —  Why You Can't Build Apple with Venture Capital  —  An ex-Apple designer who went on to startup success once told me …
Vittoria Elliott / Wired:
Meta's Oversight Board plans to investigate two deepfake porn cases involving unnamed US celebrities who had their images altered to create explicit content  —  Social platforms have struggled to quickly remove deepfake porn depicting celebrities.  —  As AI tools become increasingly sophisticated …
The Guardian:
The UK announces legislation to outlaw making sexually explicit deepfake photos without consent, regardless of whether the creator intended to share the image  —  Offenders could face jail if image is widely shared under proposed amendment to criminal justice bill
Paul Alcorn / Tom's Hardware:
AMD unveils the Ryzen Pro 8040 series for business laptops and mobile workstations and the Ryzen Pro 8000 series for desktops, adding an NPU for AI processing  —  AMD is the first with a Pro desktop PC chip with an NPU for AI workloads.  —  AMD announced its Ryzen Pro portfolio today …
Natasha Lomas / TechCrunch:
Mozilla and CheckFirst: Apple, Google, Meta, and others' ad transparency efforts are a work in progress, months after the EU's DSA mandated a searchable library  —  Efforts by tech giants to be more transparent about the ads they run are — at very best — still a work in progress …
Jennifer A. Kingson / Axios:
Meta plans to launch a new education product for Quest that will let teachers access education apps for students ages 13+ and manage multiple headsets at once  —  - In time for the fall semester, it'll make available a suite of visually engrossing education apps that teachers can use with students ages 13+.
Foo Yun Chee / Reuters:
EU antitrust regulators are questioning Broadcom about changes to VMware's licensing conditions, following complaints from EU business users and a trade group  —  U.S. chipmaker Broadcom (AVGO.O) is being asked by EU antitrust regulators about changes to newly acquired cloud computing company …
David Pierce / The Verge:
Limitless unveils the $99 Limitless Pendant, a wearable AI gadget that transcribes meetings and provides real-time notes and summaries, shipping in August 2024  —  The Limitless Pendant doesn't exactly scream “AI.”  As Dan Siroker, the CEO of the company behind the new device …
Lizette Chapman / Bloomberg:
Andreessen Horowitz raised $7.2B, with $600M for American Dynamism, $3.75B for late-stage startups, and $600M for gaming, exceeding its target by ~4%  —  Andreessen Horowitz, one of Silicon Valley's biggest venture capital firms, has raised $7.2 billion in new funding — a sizable haul after a rocky period for the startup world.

Sponsor Posts

Command Line:
GitHub Universe 2026: Highlights from the developer's developer conference  —  Copilot Fusion was the belle of the ball, but the hero at the heart of the two-day event was the developer community.
Will Reed:
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Featured Podcasts

The Upstarts Podcast:
The Accidental YC Founder Solving AI's GPU Crisis | SF Compute's Evan Conrad
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.
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Cheeky Pint:
Why Sam Altman is against a single superintelligence
Stripe cofounder John Collison interviews founders, builders, and leaders over a pint.
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Great Chat:
The case for AI optimism
A podcast mostly about tech. Brought to you weekly by Angela Du, Sally Shin, Mac Bohannon, Helen Min, and Ashley Mayer.
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Sources:
Tobi Lütke on the AI agent revolution and future of Shopify
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.
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Big Technology Podcast:
This AI Expert Argues We're Underestimating AI's Productivity Impact — With Ethan Mollick
The Big Technology Podcast takes you behind the scenes in the tech world featuring interviews with plugged-in insiders and outside agitators.
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Machine Gods:
Inside Anthropic's IPO + How AI agents spy on your messages
The official podcast of the singularity, from Casey Newton and Kevin Roose. Twice-weekly news, analysis, and interviews with the people who are building the future.
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Billy Perrigo / TIME:
Fred Lambert / Electrek:
Peter Kafka / Business Insider:
Stephen Nellis / Reuters: