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Techmeme
May 22, 2024, 3:30 PM
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Top News

Kate Rooney / CNBC:
Sources: Amazon plans to launch a more conversational Alexa with generative AI features later in 2024, and charge a monthly subscription to offset the cost  —  WATCH NOW  —  Amazon is upgrading its decade-old Alexa voice assistant with generative artificial intelligence and plans to charge …
Bloomberg:
Sources: Humane is seeking a buyer for its business, after the rocky launch of its Ai Pin; a source says the startup, founded in 2018, is seeking $750M to $1B  —  - Humane's AI pin was billed as an alternative to smartphones  — AI hardware product received poor reviews after its launch
Imran Rahman-Jones / BBC:
The UK ICO is “making enquiries with Microsoft” over the company's Recall feature, which some privacy campaigners have called a potential “privacy nightmare”  —  The UK data watchdog says it is “making enquiries with Microsoft” over a new feature that can take screenshots of your laptop every few seconds.
Abner Li / 9to5Google:
Google starts rolling out its Magic Editor and other AI tools to all Android and iOS users for free via Photos, offering 10 Magic Editor library saves per month  —  Last month, Google Photos announced that it would be making Magic Editor and other AI-powered tools free for all Android and iOS users.
Charlie Warzel / The Atlantic:
OpenAI's Scarlett Johansson debacle is merely a reminder of AI's manifest-destiny philosophy: “This is happening, whether you like it or not”, consent be damned  —  If you're looking to understand the philosophy that underpins Silicon Valley's latest gold rush, look no further than OpenAI's Scarlett Johansson debacle.
Dominic-Madori Davis / TechCrunch:
Techstars CEO Maëlle Gavet says she is leaving at the end of May for health reasons; Techstars co-founder and board chairman David Cohen will become the new CEO  —  Techstars CEO Maëlle Gavet announced on LinkedIn that she is leaving the company at the end of the month for health reasons.
Aisha Malik / TechCrunch:
TikTok launches its Symphony AI suite for brands, using generative AI to let marketers write scripts, produce videos, and enhance current assets  —  TikTok is the latest tech company to incorporate generative AI into its ads business, as the company announced on Tuesday that it's launching a new “TikTok Symphony” AI suite for brands.
Lauren Forristal / TechCrunch:
Link-in-bio startup Linktree passes 50M users, up from 41M in December 2023 and 47M+ in March 2024, and launches a beta of its social commerce product  —  Link-in-bio startup Linktree said on Wednesday that it has surpassed 50 million users.  —  The figure represents a significant uptick …
Austin Weinstein / Bloomberg:
Intercontinental Exchange, which owns the NYSE, agreed to pay $10M to settle SEC allegations that it failed to immediately tell the agency about a hack in 2021  —  The SEC said that in April 2021 ICE learned that its virtual private network had been hacked by a “threat actor.”
Scott Gilbertson / Wired:
A review of privacy-focused /e/OS, a fully “deGoogled” OS based on the Android Open Source Project, that combines Micro G, to handle Google APIs, and LineageOS  —  Even if you aren't technically inclined, this privacy-first mobile operating system helps you escape surveillance capitalism.
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Isabelle Bousquette / Wall Street Journal:
Cologne-based AI translation startup DeepL, which develops its own models, raised $300M led by Index Ventures at a $2B valuation and reports 100K+ customers  —  The round, led by Index Ventures, reflects businesses' increasing interest in function-specific AI models
Sam Biddle / The Intercept:
Doc: WhatsApp staff warned of traffic analysis flaws where attackers may reveal who is in a conversation; Meta calls them theoretical and not unique to WhatsApp  —  In March, WhatsApp's security team issued an internal warning to their colleagues: Despite the software's powerful encryption …
Wired:
An investigation into ticketing service Eventbrite found 7,400+ illicit listings, such as for escort services and drugs, some of which its algorithm recommended  —  A WIRED investigation found thousands of Eventbrite posts selling escort services and drugs like Xanax and oxycodone …
Tom Warren / The Verge:
Microsoft will soon let businesses build custom Copilot AI agents for automating tasks, and unveils Team Copilot to help with tasks in Teams, Loop, and Planner  —  Microsoft will soon allow businesses and developers to build AI-powered Copilots that can work like virtual employees and perform tasks automatically.

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About This Page

This is a Techmeme archive page. It shows how the site appeared at 3:30 PM ET, May 22, 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

Janko Roettgers / The Verge:
Apple TV relies on a few tentpole titles to draw audiences, like HBO did in the past, while Netflix uses its catalog size and algorithms to keep viewers engaged

Sara Fischer / Axios:
Disney study: the Toy Story franchise has driven $16B in total revenue for the company over 30 years; nearly half of the revenue was generated domestically

Sarah Rumpf / Mediaite:
The Washington Post faces a proposed class action lawsuit that claims the company covertly used surveillance pricing to charge loyal subscribers higher rates

More News

Manish Singh / TechCrunch:
Paytm parent One 97 Communications reports a ~$66.1M net loss in Q4, up from ~$20.11M in Q4 2023, on ~$272.4M in revenue, as it faces a regulatory clampdown
Stephen Nellis / Reuters:
AWS says the transition from Nvidia's Grace Hopper to Blackwell chips applies only to Project Ceiba, a supercomputer that AWS and Nvidia are building together
Mimi Billing / Sifted:
London-based LabGenius, which uses ML to find and design antibody therapies to treat cancer, raised a £35M Series B led by Merck's VC arm, M Ventures

Earlier Picks

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
Michael Nuñez / VentureBeat:
Generative AI music startup Suno raised $125M from Lightspeed Venture Partners, Nat Friedman, Daniel Gross, Matrix, Founder Collective, and others
Louise Matsakis / Wired:
Google is rolling out a new ad format that uses AI-generated images to show shoppers how items of clothing would look on different skin tones and body types
Steven Levy / Wired:
Anthropic researchers detail attempts to peer inside the “black box” of LLMs, learning which combinations of neurons evoke specific concepts
Bradley Keoun / CoinDesk:
Farcaster, an Ethereum-based social media project, raised $150M led by Paradigm, with participation from a16z and others, and reports “350,000 paid sign-ups”
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
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
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