A profile of Alexander Reben, who will become OpenAI's first artist in residence for three months starting January 2024, amid a debate over the use of AI in art — Alexander Reben is taking his tech-savvy perspective to OpenAI, a company that some in the art world believe is a threat to their future.
The lawsuits against AI companies could shape the future of copyright or may simply serve as leverage for plaintiffs to secure more favorable licensing deals — The use of content from news and information providers to train artificial intelligence systems may force a reassessment of where to draw legal lines.
The scale of layoffs in the gaming industry in 2023 was far beyond a typical year, with an estimated 9,000+ workers losing their jobs globally — Layoffs are an unfortunate reality of any industry, but the scope and scale of video game layoffs in 2023 are far beyond a typical year.
With its emphasis on user privacy, Apple is one of the few tech companies that can develop new AI data usage paradigms, setting much-needed industry standards — Apple has carved out a prestigious position in the consumer tech market through sleek designs, user-friendly interfaces, and a robust ecosystem.
People's Bank of China lists Ant Group's Alipay as having no controller, as Ant finished removing controlling stakeholders almost a year after Jack Ma's promise — The bank now lists Ant's Alipay as a firm without an actual controller. — Ma, co-founder of Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. …
How Figma is adding AI into its products, including launching FigJam AI in public beta in November to help improve meetings with summaries, next steps, and more — By now, we've all heard the worries about artificial intelligence replacing workers and laying siege to entire industries (if not the world at large).
A look at Australia's maturing tech sector, which faces challenges like a shortage of late-stage capital and a scarcity of executives with scaling experience — The country has punched above its weight on a global scale for years. Can it attract the funding and talent, and become inclusive enough, to play at the top?
IVC: Israeli startups raised ~$1.5B in Q4 2023, down 15% QoQ, despite increased foreign investor participation, and ~$7B in all of 2023, vs. nearly $16B in 2022 — Israeli high tech firms raised $1.5 billion in the fourth quarter of 2023, preliminary data showed on Thursday …
Huawei says its full-year sales for 2023 would be more than $99B, up 9% YoY but down 20% from 2020 peak; Chairman Ken Hu says “we're pretty much back on track” — Sanctions-hit telecoms group records highest revenues in three years but still below 2020 levels
JD.com says a Beijing court fined Alibaba ~$141M after finding that Alibaba's Tmall adopted monopolistic practices known as “choosing one from two” — Chinese online retailer JD.com (9618.HK) said on Friday that it won a lawsuit against rival Alibaba (9988.HK) …
Financial Intelligence Unit India (FIU IND) issues compliance Show Cause Notices to nine offshore Virtual Digital Assets Service Providers (VDA SPs) — FIU IND writes to Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology to block URLs of the nine entities operating illegally without complying with the provisions of PML Act in India
Affirm stock grew 430% in 2023, outperforming all US tech companies worth $5B+ and rebounding from 2022's 90% fall, thanks to partnerships with Amazon, others — - Affirm shares have skyrocketed more than 400% this year, outperforming all U.S. tech companies worth $5 billion or more.
Filing shows Apple supplier Luxshare plans to buy a 62.5% stake in Pegatron's Kunshan unit in eastern China for about $300M, as it seeks to compete with Foxconn — - Pegatron to sell majority stake of Kunshan campus to Luxshare — Apple's fostering Chinese suppliers to boost ties with Beijing
Transgender people say games help them explore their identities; character creation in RPGs like Starfield and Baldur's Gate 3 makes fewer gendered assumptions — Transgender people have turned to games, some with robust character creators, as places where they can safely express themselves.
As more high-performance computing chips pushed past 1 kW in 2023, like Nvidia's GH200 Superchips, many manufacturers embraced direct liquid cooling — Air cooling holdouts take notice, the fun stuff is all liquid — ANALYSIS As Moore's Law slowed to a crawl, chips …
A look at the challenges Amazon faces in selling cars in the US: only 11% of its customers report buying $1,000+ items, dealerships sell most new cars, and more — Company aims to make online car purchases as seamless as getting everyday essentials — Willie Hall loves to browse and buy cars online, but he wants more options.
China struggles to contain a shadow market for business data, as most companies shun the 48 official exchanges for data sales set up by local governments — Dozens of marketplaces have sprung up since a 2020 initiative but most transactions still happen on the black market
Amazon Prime Video plans to start showing ads starting on January 29, with an option for customers to pay an additional $2.99 per month to avoid the ads — Earlier this year, Amazon announced plans to start incorporating ads into movies and TV shows streamed from its Prime Video service …
A legal dispute about a Bitcoin mine in a small Texas town reveals how Chinese nationals are using Tether to move money to the US without drawing attention — A legal dispute in a tiny Texas town unexpectedly reveals how Chinese nationals can move money to the U.S. without drawing the attention of authorities in either country.
Israel's government agrees to give Intel a $3.2B grant for a $25B chip plant the company plans to build in Kiryat Gat in southern Israel, set to open in 2027 — Israel's government agreed to give Intel Corp (INTC.O) a $3.2 billion grant for new $25 billion chip plant it plans to build in southern Israel, both sides said on Tuesday.
A look at AI apps like Bluey-GPT, Oscar, Once Upon a Bot, and Bedtimestory.ai, which create stories for kids, and concerns over copyright, trademark, and safety — Artificial intelligence can now tell tales featuring your kids' favorite characters. It's copyright chaos—and a major headache for parents and guardians.
After vocal commitments following George Floyd's murder in 2020, DEI programs at Big Tech companies, including Meta and Google, are in broad retreat in 2023 — - After vocal commitments following the murder of George Floyd in 2020, DEI programs in the tech industry are in broad retreat.
Kuo: Apple Vision Pro shipments are estimated to be approximately 500,000 units in 2024 and will most likely be available in late January or early February — An earlier Apple Vision Pro launch timeline stated that the mixed-reality headset's shipments would start in February next year …
The US is focusing on blocking North Korea's ability to launder its crypto stolen via cyberattacks, which the US thinks funds North Korea's weapons programs — The Biden administration is doing more to counter North Korean hackers amid concerns their cryptocurrency heists are powering the country's weapons programs.
Researchers from Apple and Columbia University released Ferret, an open source multimodal LLM that can recognize and describe any shape in an image, in October — With little fanfare, researchers from Apple and Columbia University released an open source multimodal LLM, called Ferret, in October 2023.
Nvidia and its staff donated $15M to Israeli nonprofits helping civilians affected by the Israel-Hamas war, the largest humanitarian fundraiser for the company — U.S. chipmaker Nvidia (NVDA.O) and its employees have donated $15 million to Israeli non-profit organisations …
William Brown / Firstyear's blog-a-log : Google and Apple use passkeys to capture users by locking credentials into their platforms an...
