Techmeme
December 20, 2024, 7:10 PM

Top News

Maxwell Zeff / TechCrunch:
OpenAI unveils o3 and o3-mini, trained to “think” before responding via what OpenAI calls a “private chain of thought”, and plans to launch them in early 2025  —  OpenAI announced its new o3 models on Friday.  —  In a tweet ahead of its final livestream for its …
More: The Information, OpenAI on YouTube, OpenAI, Gizmodo, Ars Technica, Engadget, Yahoo Finance, The Verge, Axios, Digital Trends, Fortune, NBC News, Quartz, Tom's Guide, and ZDNET
LinkedIn: Jan Beke and Stefan Bauschard
ARC Prize:
o3, trained on the ARC-AGI-1 Public Training set, scored 87.5% on ARC Prize's Semi-Private Evaluation in a high-compute configuration; GPT-4o scored 5% in 2024  —  OpenAI's new o3 system - trained on the ARC-AGI-1 Public Training set - has scored a breakthrough 75.7% on the Semi-Private Evaluation set …
Bloomberg:
Bloomberg:
Qualcomm prevails in a trial against Arm's claim that it breached a license for chip technology that Qualcomm acquired in the $1.4B purchase of Nuvia in 2021  —  - US jury finds Qualcomm didn't violate terms of agreement  — Delaware jurors were unable to agree on Nuvia's alleged breach
Hugh Son / CNBC:
The US CFPB sues Zelle operator EWS, JPMorgan Chase, Bank of America, and Wells Fargo, alleging that customers lost $870M+ to fraud since Zelle's launch in 2017  —  The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau on Friday sued the operator of the Zelle payments network and the three U.S. banks …
Liz Pelly / Harper's:
How Spotify used its Perfect Fit Content program to rig its system against musicians, filling popular playlists with “ghost artists” to cut its royalty payouts  —  I first heard about ghost artists in the summer of 2017.  At the time, I was new to the music-streaming beat.
Jamie Tarabay / Bloomberg:
The US charges dual Russian and Israeli national Rostislav Panev for allegedly working with the LockBit ransomware group and seeks his extradition from Israel  —  - Extortion group targeted Boeing, Royal Mail and thousands more  — Israeli-Russian national allegedly hired via Telegram chat app
Fortune:
Sam Altman says Elon Musk is “clearly a bully” who is suing OpenAI because the startup is doing really well and calls the lawsuits “a little bit of a sideshow”  —  - Sam Altman called Elon Musk a “bully” for his continued criticism of and several lawsuits against OpenAI, the organization they cofounded in 2015.
Sergiu Gatlan / BleepingComputer:
US DOJ says a Romanian involved in Netwalker ransomware attacks has been sentenced to 20 years in prison after pleading guilty to computer fraud and wire fraud  —  Daniel Christian Hulea, a Romanian man charged for his involvement in NetWalker ransomware attacks, was sentenced to 20 years …
Andrew J. Hawkins / The Verge:
A study by Waymo and insurer Swiss Re finds Waymo's vehicles were safer than those driven by humans, with a 92% reduction in bodily injury claims and more  —  Waymo's autonomous vehicles cause less property damage and fewer bodily injuries when they crash than human-driven vehicles …
Stephen Alpher / CoinDesk:
Rumble announces a $775M investment from Tether and plans to use $525M to fund a tender offer for ~70M shares of its common stock; RUM jumps 35%+ after hours  —  YouTube competitor Rumble (RUM) is in a deal for a $775 million strategic investment from stablecoin giant Tether.
Sergiu Gatlan / BleepingComputer:
US hospital operator Ascension notifies nearly 5.6M patients and employees that their personal and health data was stolen in a May 2024 Black Basta cyberattack  —  Ascension, one of the largest private U.S. healthcare systems, is notifying over 5.6 million patients and employees that their personal …
Robert Booth / The Guardian:
The UK ICO criticizes Google as “irresponsible” after the company announced plans to let advertisers employ fingerprinting techniques from February 16, 2025  —  ICO says allowing advertisers to track digital ‘fingerprints’ will undermine consumers' control over information
Lorenzo Franceschi-Bicchierai / TechCrunch:
Experts say Apple's spyware notifications for victims are a game changer for research; the notifications direct the victims to nonprofit security lab Access Now  —  Before the elections, the cybersecurity team of U.S. vice president and then-presidential candidate Kamala Harris reached …
Kiyoshi Takenaka / Reuters:
Sony buys ~$320M of shares in Japanese media powerhouse Kadokawa, which owns FromSoftware, taking its stake to ~10% and becoming Kadokawa's top shareholder  —  Sony Group (6758.T) said on Thursday it will invest about 50 billion yen ($320 million) to acquire new shares of Kadokawa (9468.T) …

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Earlier Picks

Emily Nicolle / Bloomberg:
Malcolm Owen / AppleInsider:
Benj Edwards / Ars Technica:
Kyle Wiggers / TechCrunch: