Techmeme
May 21, 2024, 5:35 PM

Top News

Frederic Lardinois / TechCrunch:
Microsoft launches Copilot Extension for GitHub, letting developers build third-party skills into Copilot, starting with DataStax, Stripe, MongoDB, and more  —  Build is Microsoft's largest developer conference and of course, it's all about AI this year.  So it's no surprise that GitHub's Copilot …
Ken Yeung / VentureBeat:
Microsoft partners with Khan Academy, moving the Khanmigo agent, used by 65K+ students, to its Azure OpenAI Service and making it free for US K-12 teachers  —  Microsoft is partnering with Khan Academy in a multifaceted deal to demonstrate how AI can transform the way we learn.
Kevin Okemwa / Windows Central:
Ken Yeung / VentureBeat:
Todd Bishop / GeekWire:
Bloomberg:
Sources: in the event that China invades Taiwan, ASML and TSMC have ways to disable their sophisticated chipmaking machines; ASML reassured Dutch officials  —  - Firms can remotely shut off advanced EUV chip-making machines  — US officials concerned over risk of conflict to chip industry
Bradley Keoun / CoinDesk:
Farcaster, a blockchain-based social media project built on Ethereum, raised $150M in a round led by Paradigm and says it has 350K paid sign-ups  —  Dan Romero's Farcaster made waves earlier this year with the introduction of “Frames,” a feature allowing apps to run within posts, so users don't have to click off to another site.
Paresh Dave / Wired:
Google plans to test search and shopping ads in its AI Overviews, drawing from advertisers' existing campaigns; AI Overviews rolled out to US users last week  —  Google is set to start mixing ads into its new AI-generated search answers.  It's a test of how the company's biggest revenue stream can adapt to the age of generative AI.
Steven Levy / Wired:
Anthropic researchers detail attempts to peer inside the “black box” of LLMs, learning which combinations of neurons evoke specific concepts  —  What goes on in artificial neural networks work is largely a mystery, even to their creators.  But researchers from Anthropic have caught a glimpse.
Glenn Rifkin / New York Times:
Gordon Bell, who helped design several influential minicomputers at Digital Equipment Corporation, including the 12-bit PDP-8, died on May 17 at age 89  —  It cost $18,000 when it was introduced in 1965, but it bridged the world between room-size mainframes and the modern desktop.
Financial Times:
AI data labeling startup Scale AI raised $1B led by Accel at a ~$14B valuation, up from $7.3B in April 2021; a source says Scale AI had ~$700M in 2023 revenue  —  Alexandr Wang's company brings in $1bn in latest fundraising round as investors bet that data is the new oil
Michael Nuñez / VentureBeat:
Generative AI music startup Suno raised $125M from Lightspeed Venture Partners, Nat Friedman, Daniel Gross, Matrix, Founder Collective, and others  —  Suno, a trailblazing music AI startup, announced today that it has raised a staggering $125 million in its latest funding round …
Sean Hollister / The Verge:
Microsoft announces the developer preview of Windows Volumetric Apps, giving access to an API that lets devs put Windows apps in 3D space on Meta Quest headsets  —  You can already beam your flat Windows desktop and its VR games onto your Meta Quest headset — but what if Windows could send HoloLens …
Kris Holt / Engadget:
Joyce Lee / Reuters:
Google, Meta, Microsoft, OpenAI, Amazon, IBM, and 10 other companies commit to safe AI development at the AI Seoul Summit 2024, hosted by South Korea and the UK  —  Sixteen companies involved in AI including Alphabet's Google (GOOGL.O), Meta (META.O), Microsoft (MSFT.O) and OpenAI …
Jess Weatherbed / The Verge:
Adobe adds generative AI tools to Lightroom, including Firefly-powered Generative Remove to let users “paint” over unwanted objects, available in early access  —  Adobe is adding some new generative AI tools to Lightroom that aim to make the photo editing platform easier to use …
Jeff John Roberts / Fortune:
Tech Against Scams, a coalition to fight “pig butchering” ploys with better industry coordination, launches with Meta, Coinbase, Match, Kraken, others on board  —  Bad people who prey on those looking for love, or hoping to make a quick buck, have been around since biblical times.
Financial Times:
AWS says it has “fully transitioned” its previous orders for Nvidia's Grace Hopper chips to the successor Grace Blackwell chips, announced in March 2024  —  Delay from the world's biggest cloud computing provider gives investors jitters over potential ‘air pocket’ in demand for AI chips
Reuters:
EU countries vote to approve the landmark EU AI Act, agreed in December 2023, to ensure “trust, transparency, and accountability”, taking effect in June 2024  —  Europe's landmark rules on artificial intelligence will enter into force next month after EU countries endorsed …
Bloomberg:
OpenAI pulls ChatGPT's Sky voice after users compared the sound to Scarlett Johansson, saying Sky 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:
More: NPR, Platformer, The Verge, CNN, Ed Zitron's Where's Your Ed At, GeekWire, Benzinga, PYMNTS.com, Forbes, RTÉ, Business Insider, The Wrap, E! Online, BGR, Reuters, Washington Post, Wired, Digital Music News, CNBC, Global News, iPhone in Canada Blog, Tech Startups, Vanity Fair, DataBreachToday.com, Hollywood Life, The Hill, Tech Xplore, Tom's Guide, TechCircle, Proactive, PC Gamer, New York Times, Variety, and Cointelegraph
LinkedIn: Mark Humphrey and David Deal
Samuel Stolton / Bloomberg:
Sources: Apple files a lawsuit at the EU's General Court to challenge a March 2024 decision to impose a €1.8B fine for thwarting competition in music streaming  —  - Company files suit at EU's General Court to topple penalty  — Fine was sparked by long-running dispute with top music rival

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X: @rverrier, @latimes, and @latimes
LinkedIn: Tony Knopp and Agnes M. Sokol
Forums: r/LosAngeles and r/TechLA
Julia Love / Bloomberg: