Sam Altman claims “deep learning worked”, superintelligence may be “a few thousand days” away, and “astounding triumphs” will incrementally become commonplace
In the next couple of decades, we will be able to do things that would have seemed like magic to our grandparents.
Google plans to include the standalone Gemini app as standard in its Workspace Business, Enterprise, and Frontline plans from Q4, replacing the Gemini add-on
Google is making Gemini AI a core part of its Workspace productivity suite, which could see the chatbot adopted by millions more users.
WP Engine sends a cease-and-desist letter to Automattic to “retract false, harmful, and disparaging statements”, after Matt Mullenweg called it a “cancer”
WordPress hosting service WP Engine on Monday sent a cease-and-desist letter to Automattic …
US intelligence officials say Russia, Iran, and China are using AI tools to boost US election influence campaigns and Russia's efforts are the most aggressive
American intelligence officials say Moscow's efforts, aimed mostly at undermining Harris, are the most aggressive.
Google updates Google Photos' mobile video editor for Android and iOS, adding editing tools and AI presets that should make trimming and tweaking clips easier
Features coming to Android devices include a new “Speed” tool for creating slo-mo or sped-up videos, a new “Auto enhance” …
Google Cloud debuts Gemini 1.5 Flash and 1.5 Pro with a 2M context window, twice as big as before, “grounding” for better Google search accuracy, and new agents
Larry Dignan / Constellation Research :
Warner Bros. Discovery partners with Google to add its “caption AI” tool built on Vertex AI to Max to automatically generate captions for unscripted programming
Warner Bros. Discovery is partnering with Google to integrate the internet giant's AI technology …
Spotify rolls out its AI Playlist feature in beta to Premium subscribers in the US, Canada, Ireland, and New Zealand, after launching in the UK and Australia
Spotify is expanding an AI feature that creates customized playlists from your text descriptions to additional English-speaking regions.
Sources: Mark Zuckerberg wants to get away from politics, pulling back from charitable causes that may seem partisan, tamping down employee activism, and more
It was only a little more than a decade ago that Mark Zuckerberg had few qualms about airing his politics. X: @fredbauerblog , @argojournal , @nick_field90 , and @teddyschleifer X: Fred Bauer / @fredb...
Snap says it will use Google's Gemini to help add new features to Snapchat's chatbot, including translating menus, after starting to use Gemini earlier in 2024
Aisha Counts / Bloomberg :
The Celestia Foundation, which is behind the Celestia modular blockchain network, raised $100M led by Bain Capital Crypto, taking its total raised to $155M
- The organization behind the modular blockchain network has raised $100 million in a round led by Bain Capital Crypto, bringing its total financing to $155 million.
Memo: a US arbitrator awards a full severance package to a former Twitter employee who was laid off when Musk took over, a possible precedent for 2K+ complaints
Elon Musk lost a legal fight over unpaid severance to a former Twitter employee who was laid off when he took over the social media platform …
Logitech MX Creative Console review: the $200 control surface for apps like Lightroom is an affordable entry point, but pros may find the controls limiting
The quality and design are solid, but pros may find the controls limiting. — Last year, Logitech leaped into the content creator market …
Roku unveils the $100 Roku Ultra, which is 30% faster than its other streaming players and has Wi-Fi 6, HDMI 2.1, Dolby Atmos, the Voice Remote Pro, and more
One day after the Google TV Streamer hit stores, Roku is announcing its latest streaming player.
TikTok says it plans to shut down TikTok Music on November 28 and delete user data; originally called Resso, the app launched in 2019 and was in five countries
TikTok Music will go offline on Nov. 28 and customer data will be deleted, the music division said in a post on its website.
TikTok permanently removes accounts associated with the parent organizations of Russian state media outlets RT and Sputnik, citing “covert influence operations”
but Still Trusted Worldwide Henry Moore / LBC : TikTok bans Russian state media accounts ahead of US election amid ‘covert influence operations’ Katie Scott / Tech.co : TikTok Follows Facebook and Ban...
Collaboration software maker Smartsheet agrees to be acquired by Blackstone and Vista Equity Partners for ~$8.4B, or $56.50/share, set to close in January 2025
Collaboration software maker Smartsheet on Tuesday announced Blackstone and Vista Equity Partners will acquire it in an all-cash deal valuing …
GitHub says all enterprise cloud customers will be able to select an EU region for Azure, in the Netherlands or Sweden, to store all their code from October 29
GitHub will soon allow cloud customers to store their code data in the European Union (EU), part of a growing push in the technology realm …
A profile of Jim Covello, Goldman Sachs' head of stock research who has become Wall Street's leading AI skeptic after joining the bank in 2000 as a tech analyst
Jim Covello, Goldman Sachs's head of stock research, warned that building too much of what the world doesn't need “typically ends badly.”
California Governor Gavin Newsom signs the Phone-Free Schools Act, which will require schools to restrict cellphone use during school hours by July 1, 2026
New York Times :
Sources: some key staff working on Microsoft's distilled AI models trained on synthetic data, like Phi, have left the Microsoft AI unit led by Mustafa Suleyman
In case you missed it, my colleagues broke news yesterday about Anthropic's attempt to draft off OpenAI's pending fundraising, by looking to do its own funding round.
Sources describe Meta's efforts to de-emphasize political content across its family of apps, its reduction and reshuffling of election integrity staff, and more
New York Times :
Swedish prosecutors say Iran was behind 15K text messages sent on August 1, 2023 to sow fear in Sweden, asking recipients to exact revenge after Koran burnings
Niclas Rolander / Bloomberg :
The US House approves a bill exempting some chipmaking projects from federal permitting requirements after Senate approval in 2023, sending it to Biden's desk
Mackenzie Hawkins / Bloomberg :
US customers of Kaspersky antivirus find that UltraAV was installed remotely to replace Kaspersky on their PCs, after a Kaspersky deal with UltraAV owner Pango
switchover caught many users by surprise Ernestas Naprys / Cybernews.com : Kaspersky users shocked by automatic antivirus replacement without explicit permission Sofia Elizabella Wyciślik-Wilson / Bet...
On its Chinese website, Huawei says its HarmonyOS now has 10,000 apps and meta-services; the latest HarmonyOS update blocked the ability to install Android apps
Ben Schoon / 9to5Google :
Kaspersky finds a new Necro malware version in Google Play apps with 11M+ total downloads; in 2019, researchers found Necro in Play apps with 100M+ downloads
here's what we know Mark Campbell / OC3D : “Necro” infects 11 million Android devices and hits the Google Play Store Dwaipayan Roy / NewsBytes : This malware has infected 11M Android devices via Play ...
An interview with The Browser Company CEO Josh Miller on Arc Search being an operating system, competing with Chrome and Safari, monetization, AI, and more
The Browser Company cofounder thinks it's time to modernize the browser and reinvent the web. Threads: @manton and @joshmcconnell Threads: Manton Reece / @manton : Listening to the latest Decoder podc...
Portland-based Torq, which helps IT teams automate security workflows, raised a $70M Series C led by Evolution Equity Partners, for $192M in total funding
Kyle Wiggers / TechCrunch :
Raspberry Pi reports H1 2024 revenue up 61% YoY to $144M, gross profit up 47% YoY to $34.2M, and unit volume up 31% YoY to 3.66M; RPI jumps 5%+ pre-market
Stephanie Stacey / Financial Times :
Apple says Apple Intelligence will require 4GB of storage on compatible iPhones, and the storage requirement “will increase as more features roll out”
what you need to know MacDailyNews : At least 4GB of iPhone storage required for Apple Intelligence Mastodon: Brian Dear / @brianstorms@mastodon.social : @Techmeme — And even if you never ever ever ...
How WhatsApp Channels, launched in late 2023, are driving traffic to digital news outlets, especially readers from outside the US, as social media traffic falls
An illustration of a man sitting on a green chair reading a newspaper called “World News” as he looks at his phone behind it.Jackson Gibbs X: @mikeisaac and @mikeisaac See also Mediagazer X: Rat King ...
A profile of Li-Chen Miller, Meta VP of product for wearables and a former Microsoft CVP; IDC says Meta has shipped 700K+ Ray-Ban units after the 2023 launch
Bloomberg :
The US, Meta, Anthropic, Google, IBM, Microsoft, Nvidia, and OpenAI launch the Partnership for Global Inclusivity on AI to advance “sustainable” AI development
United States and Eight Companies Launch the Partnership for Global Inclusivity on AI Ruth Berry / NVIDIA : NVIDIA Partners for Globally Inclusive AI in U.S. Government Initiative X: @timcomucunski : ...
Sources: Scale AI grew sales nearly 4X YoY to almost $400M in H1 2024 and had ~$980M in cash; the data labeling startup raised $1B at a $13.8B valuation in May
Helping artificial intelligence companies improve the accuracy of their large language models is turning into a giant business for Scale AI …
Source: Meta plans to launch the voices of Judi Dench, Kristen Bell, John Cena, Awkwafina, and Keegan-Michael Key for its Meta AI chatbot at Connect this week
but definitely not OpenAI's Scarlett Johansson soundalike Jay Peters / The Verge : Meta isn't quite done mixing celebrities and chatbots. Sean Burch / The Wrap : Meta AI to Begin Speaking in Voices of...
Myntra founder Mukesh Bansal's Nurix AI, which builds custom AI agents for enterprise services, raises a $27.5M seed from Accel, General Catalyst, and others
Digbijay Mishra / The Economic Times :
In a controversial move, Israel's ISA clears AI startup Bridgewise to launch a chatbot that gives stock picking advice, slated to debut with a big Israeli bank
Other governments have raised alarms that artificial intelligence might destabilize financial markets.
A teardown of Huawei's popular Qingyun L540 laptop, which relies on some foreign tech, reveals the challenges ahead for China's tech self-sufficiency efforts
Ryan McMorrow / Financial Times :
Q&A with Vinod Khosla on investing in AI and OpenAI, AI risks, the impact of AI in the labor market, regulation, dominance within the global AI race, and more
Astha Rajvanshi / TIME :
Access Now and 24+ others wrote to Pavel Durov in late 2021 asking Telegram to add transparent content rules, an appeals process, and more; Durov didn't respond
Georgia Wells / Wall Street Journal :
Shopify: Revolutionizing Commerce with Winter Edition '26
Over 150+ new features transform how merchants build, design, and grow—with technology that amplifies creative vision.
Email fatigue is real: Here's how smart email tools help you regain control
Picture this: It's Monday morning. You walk into the office feeling energized and ready to take on the week.
Protecting your Cloud Applications Data
Backing up Office 365, Google Workspace, Dropbox & Box data is critical to preventing data loss or corruption, complying with laws and avoiding critical downtime in case of a disaster.