Many Apple Vision Pro users are returning their devices for being too expensive, heavy, or isolating, as the 14-day return window closes for launch day buyers
Many early adopters seem set on returning their Apple Vision Pro headsets. As the 14-day return window approaches for people …
The European Court of Human Rights rules backdoors that weaken E2EE can undermine human rights, after Russia began forcing Telegram to decrypt messages in 2017
Cops have alternative means to access encrypted messages, court says. — The European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) …
X removes paid checkmarks from some accounts after a watchdog group found 28 verified accounts allegedly tied to Hezbollah and other US-sanctioned entities
X (aka Twitter) accused of violating sanctions by taking payment from terrorists. — A watchdog group's investigation found …
Google launches Gemini 1.5 for developers and enterprise users, with a context window of up to 1M tokens, and says Gemini 1.5 Pro is on par with Gemini Ultra
Barely two months after launching Gemini, the large language model Google hopes will bring it to the top of the AI industry, the company is already announcing its successor.
Zuckerberg makes valid points on the Quest 3 being better overall than the Vision Pro today, but he risks having his own “Ballmer laughs off the iPhone” moment
NYC sues ByteDance, Meta, Snap, and Google to hold the companies accountable “for fueling the nationwide youth mental health crisis” by manipulating young users
New York City filed a lawsuit against TikTok, Meta, Snap and Google's YouTube to hold the companies accountable …
TikTok launches its native Apple Vision Pro app, offering a similar UI to the mobile apps; an executive said TikTok “redesigned the entire TikTok experience”
Apple's Vision Pro headset now has a native TikTok app, the shortform video service has announced.
Meta struggles to precisely define what political content is, offering only a vague statement, after saying Threads would not amplify political content
What constitutes “political” content? — It's an important question that Meta has conspicuously left unanswered …
Google makes Gemini 1.0 Pro and Gemini 1.0 Ultra generally available, adds support for adapter-based tuning in Vertex, and rolls out new developer tools
Google is expanding the range of Gemini large language models it is making available to developers on its Vertex AI platform today.
Meta plans to start charging a 30% fee for boosting Facebook and Instagram posts on iOS later in February, after Apple extended its 30% cut to boosting in 2022
Meta said Thursday that it will start charging a 30 percent fee when advertisers pay to boost the visibility of their posts in Facebook's and Instagram's iOS apps.
A look at The Shotline, a project using ElevenLabs' tech to create audio deepfakes of kids killed by gun violence, to place AI-generated calls to US lawmakers
Grieving parents made these audio deepfakes to stir the emotions of lawmakers. But they also mark a new era for artificial intelligence.
Source: OpenAI has been developing a web search product partly powered by Bing
OpenAI has been developing a web search product that would bring the Microsoft-backed startup into more direct competition with Google, according to someone with knowledge of OpenAI's plans.
Google plans to let businesses install auto-updating ChromeOS Flex to Windows devices, to help stop millions of Windows 10 PCs from hitting landfills in 2025
Google will allow businesses to install an auto-updating version of the Chrome operating system to Windows devices …
Microsoft President Brad Smith says the company plans to invest €3.2B in Germany in the next two years with a focus on AI, its biggest German investment ever
- President Brad Smith says investments planned over two years — Microsoft is investing heavily in data centers to fuel AI boom
Sources: Meta is reducing payments to news outlets that fact-check potential WhatsApp misinformation, including on elections, and has cut CrowdTangle funding
The Information :
Richard Blumenthal and Marsha Blackburn announce an updated Kids Online Safety Act and say 60+ US senators support the bill; KOSA faces uncertainty in the House
With more than 60 backers, an updated Kids Online Safety Act finally has a path to passage in the Senate but faces uncertainty in the House.
In a video, Mark Zuckerberg shares his thoughts on the Vision Pro, saying Quest 3 “is the better product, period”, highlighting Apple's tradeoffs, and more
closed won mobile but open won PC, and i believe open will win the next” is not only brilliant but even more bullish for crypto than VR Tobi Lutke / @tobi : Great message, lots of good points @levelsi...
YouTube adds the ability for users to incorporate, or “remix”, a music video in their Shorts, weeks after UMG pulled its song catalog from TikTok
YouTube is introducing the ability for users to incorporate or “remix” a music video in their short-form videos, called Shorts, as the company continues to challenge TikTok.
Nvidia passed Alphabet on February 14 as the third most valuable US company and the world's fourth with a market cap of ~$1.83T, one day after overtaking Amazon
- Chip giant is up 49% in 2024, adding $602 billion in value — Market cap of $1.83 trillion exceeds Alphabet's $1.82 trillion
Canva CFO Damien Singh resigned last week, as the company prepares for a $1.5B share sale; Canva confirms an investigation of Singh for inappropriate behavior
A series of online posts that sparked an investigation into alleged inappropriate behaviour by former Canva chief financial officer Damien Singh …
Amazon researchers detail BASE TTS, the largest text-to-speech model yet, which they claim exhibits “emergent” qualities improving its natural speaking ability
Researchers at Amazon have trained the largest ever text-to-speech model yet, which they claim exhibits “emergent” …
A look at robots.txt, a good will-based social contract governing the behavior of web crawlers, as experts call for more rigid tools for managing AI crawlers
For decades, robots.txt governed the behavior of web crawlers. But as unscrupulous AI companies seek out more and more data … Threads: @anildash and @reckless1280 Forums: r/aiwars and Lobsters Thread...
Italian app developer Bending Spoons raised $155M from Baillie Gifford and others at a $2.6B valuation, after raising $100M in 2023, and seeks acquisitions
- Italian app developer has raised $155 million in new funding — Company on track to generate $500 million in sales this year
OpenAI starts testing a “memory” feature that is on by default and lets ChatGPT and custom GPTs remember info about users and their conversations over time
Samsung announces an upcoming Galaxy S24 series update that adds a Vividness display slider, after users complained that the more natural color tuning is dull
Sources: Sam Altman told people that the $7T figure represents the total investments needed for his chip project, including real estate, over some years
Contrary to popular belief, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman isn't raising trillions of dollars for a large project to develop new server chips for artificial intelligence. Bluesky: @marypcbuk.bsky.social . X: @...
A US judge approves Genesis' plan to sell ~$1.6B in Grayscale crypto trust shares to repay creditors, including 35M GBTC shares, worth ~$1.38B
Dietrich Knauth / Reuters :
DuckDuckGo adds a Sync & Backup tool to its browser that syncs passwords, bookmarks, and favorites without requiring an account, and says the data is E2EE
https://arstechnica.com/... It's getting closer to mainstream parity, minus one major feature @Caution@tech.lgbt : Ok, I have to admit that this begins to tempt me as to giving their browser another ...
Cisco reports Q2 revenue down 6% YoY to $12.79B, vs. $12.71B est., and plans to cut 5% of its global workforce, or about 4,250 jobs; CSCO drops 5%+
Jordan Novet / CNBC :
Leaked Google documents detail Goose, a Gemini-based LLM designed for internal use to help employees write code faster, as part of an AI-driven efficiency push
Hugh Langley / Business Insider :
A look at OpenAI's business model, as the company works to more than double its yearly run rate by 2025; ChatGPT Enterprise now has 300+ paying customers
The AI startup is one of the fastest-growing companies in history, but questions remain about the long-term viability of its revenue stream X: @madhumita29 and @jbrowder1 X: Madhumita Murgia / @madhum...
Meta appoints Hock E. Tan, the president and CEO of Broadcom, and philanthropist John Arnold, an Arnold Ventures co-founder, to its board, effective immediately
Corporate governance, folks. [embedded post] X: Jordan McNamee / @optimist_fund : I love picturing Hock Tan talking in the $META board meetings on cost cutting. If he ran $META operating margins woul...
Stability AI details Stable Cascade, a new image generation model built on the Würstchen architecture, which improves performance and accuracy compared to SDXL
TSMC rises ~8% in its first post-Lunar New Year trading session, reaching a record $575B market cap and passing Visa as the world's 12th most valuable company
Bloomberg :
Rasa, which provides a framework and a low-code UI to help enterprises build AI chatbots, raised a $30M Series C co-led by StepStone Group and PayPal Ventures
Japanese chipmaker Renesas agrees to acquire PCB design software company Altium for ~$5.9B in cash, a 33.6% premium on Altium's February 14 closing price
Bloomberg :
Omdia: South African streaming company Showmax had 2.1M subscribers in Africa at the end of November 2023, ahead of Netflix's 1.8M and Amazon Prime Video's 300K
Damilare Dosunmu / Rest of World :
Microsoft schedules Build 2024 for May 21 to May 23 in Seattle and online; the announcement says to expect to hear updates about “AI, Copilots, and more”
Microsoft Build 2024, the next edition … Simon Batt / XDA Developers : Microsoft Build 2024 will show off new AI tools on May 21-23 X: @msdev : ❤️ Microsoft Build loves developers! Here's a reminder o...
Sources: Together AI, which helps developers access Nvidia server chips to train AI models, is raising $100M+ led by Salesforce Ventures at a $1B+ valuation
The Information :
The CEO of Greek payments company Viva Wallet, co-owned by JPMorgan, sues the bank for allegedly suppressing Viva's growth, as JPMorgan files a counter claim
Owen Walker / Financial Times :
Lambda, which offers cloud computing services and computers to train AI, raised $320M led by Thomas Tull's US Innovative Technology at a $1.5B valuation
Rachel Metz / Bloomberg :
Some European entrepreneurs believe the EU's scrutiny of deals involving tech giants will lead to less M&A activity, reducing exit routes from their business
The Financial Times writes about how EU startups now agree and worry about the consequences of these regulator actions. … X: Lewis Crofts / @lewis_crofts : Start-ups getting nervous about @EU_Commissi...
Extremely Hardcore book excerpt: how Elon Musk's decision to impose rate limits on Twitter in summer 2023 helped upsell Blue, as he prepared to launch xAI
Zoë Schiffer / Wired : Bluesky: @zoeschiffer.bsky.social . X: @laurengoode . Forums: r/Twitter Bluesky: Zoë Schiffer / @zoeschiffer.bsky.social : For Wired, a new excerpt from my book, Extremely Hard...
Twilio reports Q4 revenue up 5% YoY to $1.08B vs. $1.05B est., 305K+ active customer accounts vs. 290K+ YoY, and Q1 revenue forecast below est.; TWLO drops 7%+
The prospects of a wide-ranging AI bill in the US in 2024 are rapidly dimming, despite Senator Chuck Schumer's push to put regulation at the top of the agenda
Brian Fung / CNN : Forums: r/AntiTrumpAlliance Forums: r/AntiTrumpAlliance : Be diligent this year. Misinformation is going to be out of control.
Shopify: Revolutionizing Commerce with Winter Edition '26
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