Techmeme: Cambridge, UK-based CuspAI, which is developing AI-powered tech for designing new materials, raised a $30M seed and adds Geoffrey Hinton to its advisory board (Mark Bergen/Bloomberg)

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June 18, 2024, 4:15 AM

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Emma Roth / The Verge:

The US DOJ sues Adobe for allegedly harming “consumers by enrolling them in its default, most lucrative subscription plan without clearly disclosing” plan terms — The US government is suing Adobe for allegedly hiding expensive fees and making it difficult to cancel a subscription.

More: Federal Trade Commission, Adobe Press Releases, TechCrunch, Ars Technica, Silicon Republic, Business Today, New York Times, Android Authority, PetaPixel, US Department of Justice, Bloomberg, BBC, SiliconANGLE, Variety, Mercury News, MacRumors, Cybernews.com, PYMNTS.com, Pixel Envy, The Stack, IGN, Mashable, mjtsai.com, The Register, KRQE-TV, Quartz, Gizmodo, Benzinga, WinBuzzer, Neowin, PCMag, Engadget, 9to5Mac, and PCWorld

Threads: @carnage4life. Mastodon: @joelhousman@mastodon.social. X: @linakhanftc, @usao_ndca, @ftc, @aaschapiro, @robertfreundlaw, @gergelyorosz, @gergelyorosz, @janschakowsky, @s8mb, @dougrathbone, @moreperfectus, @synthpotato, @swiftstories, @mysk_co, @drea_got_banned, @chopracfpb, and @matthewstoller. LinkedIn: Peter Evans

Forums: Hacker News, r/Anticonsumption, r/technews, r/it, r/austrian_economics, r/UXDesign, r/LinusTechTips, r/technology, r/Affinity, r/photoshop, r/Piracy, r/graphic_design, and Beehaw

Chance Miller / 9to5Mac:

Apple says it will no longer offer Apple Pay Later, the BNPL service launched in the US in 2023, and will focus on installment loan features coming in 2024 — Apple has announced that it is no longer offering Apple Pay Later, the “buy now, pay later” service that launched in the United States last year.

More: The Verge, Engadget, Bloomberg, CNBC, Proactive, Reuters, TipRanks Financial, Livemint, Android Authority, Cult of Mac, Invezz, How-To Geek, Payments Dive, PhoneArena, Patently Apple, Tom's Guide, iThinkDifferent, Axios, BGR, CNET, Neowin, Financial Times, Gizmodo, Finextra, iMore, Supercharged, AppleInsider, MacRumors, Appleosophy, Quartz, Macworld, Six Colors, and NewsBytes

X: @bzamayo, @neilcybart, @maxwinebach, @aaronp613, @bzamayo, @parismarx, @apollozac, @maxwinebach, @neilcybart, and @tailosivetech

Forums: Hacker News, r/apple, r/technology, r/AppleWallet, and Slashdot

María Paula Mijares Torres / Bloomberg:

Stablecoin provider Tether announces a synthetic dollar backed by gold that will trade as aUSDT via smart contracts on the Ethereum Mainnet blockchain — - Alloy by Tether designed to track dollar with gold collateral — Tether Gold has a $573 million market capitalization

Amar Subramanya / Google:

Google launches a Gemini app for Android in India, supporting English and nine other languages; Gemini will be available on Google's iOS app in the coming weeks — Vice President, Engineering, Gemini Experiences — Gemini, your AI assistant from Google, has had an exciting first year in India.

More: 9to5Google, Financial Express, Hindustan Times, Business Standard, The Hindu, Android Authority, TechCrunch, Livemint, PhoneArena, Inc42 Media, NDTV, Sammy Fans, AIM, and NewsBytes

X: @baxiabhishek, @_arohan_, @abhaysingh_13, and @sundarpichai

Wency Chen / South China Morning Post:

Sources: Shein CEO Xu Yangtian has deliberately kept a low profile for fear of attracting unwanted public attention; Shein has never published any photos of him — - Even by the standards of Chinese tech business leaders, the lack of public information about Xu Yangtian is unusual

Eleanor Olcott / Financial Times:

A look at Shein's efforts to diversify away from fast fashion, as the company struggles to get third-party merchants to sign up for its marketplace

Calvin Wankhede / Android Authority:

Adobe updates Acrobat with Firefly-powered AI image generation, AI Assistant supporting analysis of multiple documents, including non-PDF files, and more — Acrobat's AI Assistant is getting more useful, just months after its debut. — • — TL;DR

More: Adobe Press Releases, Financial Express, The Adobe Blog, Livemint, ZDNet, Computerworld, Android Headlines, PhoneArena, Lifewire, WinBuzzer, Thurrott, Investor's Business Daily, Neowin, and TechRadar

Threads: @jonkeeganstories. X: @ashleyrcummings

Natasha Lomas / TechCrunch:

Signal president Meredith Whittaker warns the EU's recent “upload moderation” proposal to detect CSAM “fundamentally undermines encryption” of messaging apps — A controversial European Union legislative proposal to scan the private messages of citizens in a bid …

More: Signal Blog, Cointelegraph, WebProNews, RestorePrivacy, Euractiv, and The Record

X: @mer__edith, @jsrailton, @profwoodward, @nzahn42, @mer__edith, @echo_pbreyer, and @bpreneel1. Forums: r/europe

Alan Ohnsman / Forbes:

Uber says “tens of thousands of riders” in Phoenix have matched with a “Waymo (AI) driver” and have given “a nearly 4.9 average star rating” since the launch — The Alphabet Inc. unit, which operates its commercial ride service in three major cities …

X: @pkafka, @johnpaczkowski, @waymo, and @waymo

LinkedIn: Alan Ohnsman and Suzanne Philion

Forums: r/waymo and r/SelfDrivingCars

Scott Stein / CNET:

Logitech unveils the MX Ink, a $130 stylus coming in September for the Meta Quest 2, Quest 3, and “future headsets”, the Quest's first third-party input device — The stylus works in 2D or 3D art in VR and AR, arriving this fall. Your move, Apple.

Mark Bergen / Bloomberg:

Cambridge, UK-based CuspAI, which is developing AI-powered tech for designing new materials, raised a $30M seed and adds Geoffrey Hinton to its advisory board — Former Google AI researcher to work with CuspAI, which has raised $30 million to combat climate change with AI-designed materials.

More: FinSMEs, TechCrunch, EU-Startups, Fortune, and Tech Funding News. X: @business

Nilay Patel / The Verge:

Q&A with Tubi CEO Anjali Sud, who joined from Vimeo in September 2023, on the streaming industry, working within Fox, subscription fatigue, copyright, and more — TV isn't just competing with Netflix for your time — it needs to beat TikTok, too. … Today, I'm talking with Anjali Sud, the CEO of Tubi.

Threads: @reckless1280 and @hi.im.vijay. X: @anjsud. Forums: r/television

Bloomberg:

Mandiant: up to 10 companies breached in a campaign targeting Snowflake customers have been extorted with stolen data and face ransom demands from $300K to $5M — - As many as 10 companies are being extorted with stolen data — Scammers previously made death threats against researchers

More: Cybernews.com, Mandiant, PYMNTS.com, SiliconANGLE, and Cybersecurity Dive

X: @laurenbalik. Forums: Slashdot

Kim Zetter / Wired:

Hacking group ShinyHunters claims to have breached contractor EPAM Systems to steal data from Ticketmaster and ~165 other Snowflake users; EPAM denies the claim

Mastodon: @kimzetter@infosec.exchange, @GossiTheDog@cyberplace.social, and @briankrebs@infosec.exchange

X: @kimzetter and @kimzetter. LinkedIn: Spence Witten. Forums: r/cybersecurity

Mark Hachman / PCWorld:

Microsoft says Windows 11 version 24H2, now in the Release Preview Channel, is “targeting Copilot+ PCs devices” and devices previously using Insider 24H2 builds — Microsoft has split the future of Windows between two user groups: those with AI-powered Copilot+ PCs and those without.

More: BetaNews, XDA Developers, Windows Latest, How-To Geek, TechRadar, TweakTown, Windows Central, and Pureinfotech

Mastodon: @GossiTheDog@cyberplace.social. X: @standa_t and @rquandt

Manish Singh / TechCrunch:

A look at India's quick commerce market, which has become an important distribution channel for Indian food brands, as Zepto and others expand beyond groceries — India's 2023 e-commerce sales of $60B-$65B were less than half of China's Singles Day sales — Even as quick commerce startups …

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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

Todd Spangler / Variety:

A Paramount shareholder lawsuit claims David and Larry Ellison made an illegal deal with Trump in trade for approval of the WBD merger, promising to revamp CNN

Ted Johnson / Deadline:

Brendan Carr proposes repealing the national ownership cap, which restricts amassing TV stations that cover more than 39% of households, and sets an Aug. 6 vote

Michael M. Grynbaum / New York Times:

The NYT filed a motion Wednesday to quash DOJ subpoenas of three of its reporters demanding they disclose their sources, following coverage of Air Force One

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More News

Wall Street Journal:

Social media creators say earning a decent, reliable income is getting harder, as platforms pay less for popular posts and brands get pickier about partnerships

More: Business Insider. Forums: r/technology

Associated Press:

Down-ballot campaigns in the US are experimenting with AI, which can help them save money and time, while also raising fears about the threats of AI deepfakes

X: @merica and @garanceburke

Ingrid Lunden / TechCrunch:

Finbourne, which helps financial companies organize and use their data in AI and other models, raised a £55M Series B at a valuation just over £280M

More: UKTN

Abhinaya Prabhu / Tech Funding News:

Constructor, which provides an AI-powered product discovery and search service for e-commerce companies, raised a $25M Series B at a $550M valuation

More: PYMNTS.com, Tech.eu, Constructor, Business Insider, and FinSMEs

X: @vbartonicek, @vbartonicek, and @constructor_io

Paul Solotaroff / Rolling Stone:

Inside Snapchat's teen opioid crisis: law-enforcement sources and parents allege that Snap has helped fuel a US overdose epidemic via fake pills sold online

X: @rollingstone, @rollingstone, @matthewstoller, @rollingstone, @zamaan_qureshi, @zamaan_qureshi, @rollingstone, and @nhegde. LinkedIn: Richard Baum

Romain Dillet / TechCrunch:

Real-time data analytics startup Tinybird raised a $30M Series B, at a “significantly higher” valuation than its $37M Series A; source: it's now valued at $240M

More: Tinybird and SiliconANGLE. X: @tinybirdco

Lawrence Lewitinn / The Block:

Coinbase debuts “pre-launch markets” to let International and Advanced users outside of the US, the UK, and Canada trade tokens before they hit spot exchanges

More: Coinbase, Cryptonews, The Crypto Times, Cointelegraph, crypto.news, and CoinGape

X: @0xrishi, @altcoinpsycho, @coinbaseintexch, @edkeonl, @whatslukedoing, @coinbasetraders, and @adamscochran

Kyle Wiggers / TechCrunch:

DeepMind is developing AI tech to take raw pixels of videos and generate synced soundtracks; it's not too convincing, and there are no plans to release publicly

More: Google DeepMind. X: @steph_parrott, @tolgabilge_, and @googledeepmind

Earlier Picks

Ingrid Lunden / TechCrunch:

Finaloop, which offers accounting tools to e-commerce businesses, raised a $35M Series A led by Lightspeed and says its customer base grew 400% in the last year

More: CMSWire.com, Pulse 2.0, CTech, SiliconANGLE, and FinSMEs

Carl Franzen / VentureBeat:

Runway unveils Gen-3 Alpha, a model to generate high-quality, highly realistic 10-second-long video clips; it's unclear if it will come to a free or paid tier

More: Runway, TechCrunch, Decrypt, SiliconANGLE, WinBuzzer, Tom's Guide, The Decoder, and PetaPixel

Threads: @luokai. X: @runwayml, @runwayml, @sarahcat21, @soumithchintala, @ivan_bezdomny, and @clementdelangue

Jess Weatherbed / The Verge:

TikTok expands its Symphony generative AI ad suite with dubbing, stock Digital Avatars based on paid actors, and custom Avatars resembling specific creators

More: TikTok For Business, PhoneArena, Mashable, Engadget, Business Insider, Cointelegraph, Hypebeast, Tubefilter, MediaPost, Digital Trends, The Information, Gizmodo, Ad Age, VentureBeat, The Drum, and TechCrunch