Techmeme
May 20, 2024, 8:05 PM

Top News

Kris Holt / Engadget:
Microsoft unveils Copilot+ PCs as a new class of AI-capable Windows PCs with at least 40 TOPs of NPU performance, with several OEMs and chipmakers on board  —  The aim is to handle more AI processing locally rather than in the cloud.  —  We've been hearing rumblings for months now that Microsoft was working on so-called “AI PCs.”
Umar Shakir / The Verge:
Microsoft unveils Recall for Windows 11, an AI-powered search tool for Copilot+ PCs that keeps track of users' actions and gives them an explorable timeline  —  Microsoft's launching Recall for Windows 11, a new tool that keeps track of everything you see and do on your computer and …
David Pierce / The Verge:
Microsoft debuts the new Surface Pro with optional OLED display and 5G, 90% faster than last gen, a Flex keyboard with haptic feedback, more, starting at $1,000  —  Microsoft just announced the new Surface Pro, the latest in its lineup of tablet / laptop hybrid devices and the first in a new generation …
Joanna Stern / Wall Street Journal:
Impressions of Windows 11 AI features Recall, Live Captions, and Cocreator, and a chat with Satya Nadella on how the Copilot+ PC push will outperform MacBooks  —  Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella told our columnist new efficient, powerful chips equip Windows Copilot+ laptops to compete with Apple's MacBooks
Wes Davis / The Verge:
Lawrence Bonk / Engadget:
Acer, Asus, Dell, HP, Samsung, and Lenovo joined Microsoft in debuting laptops featuring Qualcomm's Snapdragon X Elite or Plus chips and a dedicated Copilot key  —  They all have similar processors, but there are plenty of differences in design and functionality.
Tom Warren / The Verge:
The Verge:
Bloomberg:
OpenAI pulls ChatGPT's Sky voice after users said it sounded like Scarlett Johansson, saying it is an actress' voice and wasn't chosen to be an “imitation”  —  - Selecting the Sky profile redirects ChatGPT users to Juniper  — Company said it was not trying to imitate Johansson's voice
Kat Tenbarge / NBC News:
Scarlett Johansson says she declined to voice ChatGPT, and when she heard Sky she was “shocked” that Sam Altman would pursue a voice so “eerily similar” to hers  —  The “Her” actor released a statement following OpenAI pulling its “Sky” voice from ChatGPT, which many people said sounded like her.
Sergiu Gatlan / BleepingComputer:
DOJ announces the arrest of a Taiwanese national at JFK Airport who allegedly owned Incognito Market, a dark web site used by 200K+ to buy $100M+ worth of drugs  —  The owner and operator of Incognito Market, a dark web marketplace for selling illegal narcotics online, was arrested at the John F. Kennedy Airport in New York on May 18.
MacKenzie Sigalos / CNBC:
NY AG announces a $2B settlement with crypto lender Genesis, after claiming Genesis misled investors about its Gemini Earn program, leading to $1B+ in losses  —  WATCH NOW  —  New York Attorney General Letitia James is settling with crypto lender Genesis for $2 billion, in an effort to repay defrauded investors.
David Heaney / UploadVR:
LG denies reports it canceled its partnership with Meta, three months after the companies agreed to develop XR devices, says it's “controlling its pace”  —  LG denied reports from Korean news outlets claiming it canceled its partnership with Meta, but said it is “controlling its pace”.
Samantha Cole / 404 Media:
The FBI has arrested a man on criminal charges for allegedly producing and distributing AI-generated images of minors engaged in sexually explicit conduct  —  He allegedly used Stable Diffusion, a text-to-image generative AI model, to create “thousands of realistic images of prepubescent minors,” prosecutors said.
Jamie Crawley / CoinDesk:
Grayscale CEO Michael Sonnenshein resigns, to be replaced by Goldman Sachs' head of strategy for asset and wealth management, Peter Mintzberg, on August 15  —  Sonnenshein's replacement will be Peter Mintzberg, currently head of strategy for asset and wealth management at Goldman Sachs.
Nilay Patel / The Verge:
Q&A with Sundar Pichai about Google I/O announcements, AI Overviews' high clickthrough rates, competing with OpenAI, future of search, AI advancements, and more  —  The head of Google sat down with Decoder last week to talk about the biggest advancements in AI, the future of Google Search, and the fate of the web.
Cory Weinberg / The Information:
Sources: Anduril has had early discussions to raise ~$1.5B at a $12.5B+ valuation, and told investors it roughly doubled revenue to about $500M last year  —  Military defense startup Anduril has had early discussions to raise what would be one of the largest venture capital rounds of the year so far …
Hannah Ellis-Petersen / The Guardian:
Meta approved AI-manipulated Facebook ads during India's election that spread disinfo and incited religious violence; civil groups submitted them as a test  —  Exclusive: Ads containing AI-manipulated images were submitted to Facebook by civil and corporate accountability groups
Todd Spangler / Variety:
Truth Social's parent company, the Trump Media and Technology Group, reports $771K in Q1 revenue, a net loss of $327.6M, and an operating loss of $12.1M  —  Trump Media and Technology Group, the company affiliated with former U.S. president Donald Trump that operates Truth Social …
Juli Clover / MacRumors:
Apple releases iOS 17.5.1 and iPadOS 17.5.1 and says the bug allowing some deleted photos to reappear has now been fixed  —  Apple today released iOS 17.5.1 and iPadOS 17.5.1, minor updates to the iOS 17 and iPadOS 17 operating system updates that came out last September.

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Sophie Shulman / CTech:
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