US and UK law enforcement are bracing for an explosion of AI-generated CSAM, and criticize Meta, the authorities' best partner for flagging CSAM, over E2EE — Law enforcement officials are bracing for an explosion of material generated by artificial intelligence that realistically depicts children …
Silicon Valley's powerful companies claim to embrace Enlightenment values, but instead are leading an antidemocratic, illiberal, and authoritarian technocracy — Silicon Valley has its own ascendant political ideology. It's past time we call it what it is.
ByteDance co-founder and CEO Liang Rubo urges staff to resist mediocrity after the company missed the initial wave of generative AI, in a company-wide meeting — - Co-founder said the company showed signs of complacency — Chinese peer Baidu claims its model can rival OpenAI's ChatGPT
Berlin-based Delivery Hero plans to sell 68.2M shares of Deliveroo, or a ~4.5% stake worth ~£83M, and does not expect to hold any Deliveroo stock afterwards — Sector has been coming under increasing pressure to demonstrate profitability as cost of capital has risen
Raspberry Pi CEO Eben Upton says the company is in the early stages of planning a London IPO, appointing two banks, after considering a listing in early 2022 — - Peel Hunt, Jefferies are working on possible listing — Raspberry Pi previously attempted a London listing in 2022
The AI boom has spurred law firms, hospitals, insurance companies, government agencies, and others to create chief AI officer roles to navigate the use of AI — Many feared that artificial intelligence would kill jobs. But hospitals, insurance companies and others are creating roles to navigate and harness the disruptive technology.
Source: Japanese telecom NTT and Intel plan to build tech to mass-produce next-gen chips using optical tech to reduce power consumption, a possible game changer — SK Hynix to also join, with Tokyo providing $300m government support — Demand for the next-generation semiconductors …
Apple updates Shazam to add support for identifying songs from other apps while listening via wired or Bluetooth headphones — Apple's Shazam is now better than ever. — Shazam has long been the go-to app for people who want to know what song they're listening to but now it's better than ever thanks to a new version 17.3 update.
Q&A with Simon Willison, Django co-creator and an influential observer of AI software, on copyright concerns over AI, open-source AI models, LLMs, and more — Code assistance is like having a weird intern who memorized the docs — AI SOFTWARE WEEK Simon Willison …
Sources: Reddit is targeting a valuation “in the mid-single-digit billions” for its planned IPO in March, after raising funds at a $10B valuation in 2021 — - Firm, advisers considering figure after early investor talks — Private trades value social media company below $5 billion
Sources: Meta believes Apple's Vision Pro can reinvigorate its metaverse effort, with the Quest ecosystem filling the role Android played in smartphones — Company executives are optimistic about competition as billions spent have yet to translate into wide consumer adoption
Europe's blue-chip stocks index Euro Stoxx 50 hits its highest level since 2001, with ASML and SAP, the region's two biggest tech stocks, leading the charge — - Rally in megacaps SAP, ASML and LVMH boosts Euro Stoxx 50 — Diversification by sector and geography seen as tailwinds
Apple removes a requirement that apps with third-party log-ins must offer Sign in with Apple, but requires an equivalent option with certain privacy features — There's another small but notable change coming to the App Store. Apple has revised its App Store guidelines to remove the requirement …
Sources: the US plans to award billions in subsidies to Intel, TSMC, and other chip makers in coming weeks, amid concerns about slow implementation of CHIPS Act — Industry, lawmakers worry semiconductor production could take years because of negotiations, permitting and worker shortages
Chrome's upcoming “Help Me Write” experimental AI feature could be a key step in making the web a place where most words are written by bots instead of people — Starting next month, Google will begin rolling on a new experimental feature in Chrome, the most popular browser on Earth …
A look at the US Copyright Office, which is in the spotlight as it plans to release three key reports in 2024 revealing its position on copyright law and AI — The office is reviewing how centuries-old laws should apply to artificial intelligence technology, with both content creators and tech giants arguing their cases.
Source: Salesforce plans to lay off ~700 employees, or ~1% of its staff, after cutting 10% of its workforce in January 2023; the company has 1,000 open jobs — The layoffs, which will affect around 1% of its workforce, follow a 10% reduction last year — Salesforce is laying off around …
Ola Group CEO Bhavish Aggarwal's Krutrim, which is building a multilingual LLM, raised a $50M “first round” led by Matrix Partners India at a $1B valuation — Krutrim, an AI startup founded by Ola founder Bhavish Aggarwal, said it has raised a funding round that values it at $1 billion.
Sources: Elon Musk's xAI is in talks to raise up to $6B from family offices in the Hong Kong and sovereign wealth funds in the Middle East at a $20B valuation — Tesla chief targets $20bn valuation in bid to take on OpenAI — Elon Musk's xAI is in talks to raise up to $6bn …
Indian cricket NFT startup Rario plans to close on January 29 and relaunch in March 2024, leaving users with losses; Rario raised a $120M Series A in April 2022 — Dream Sports-backed Rario in an X post on Tuesday night said it will shut its current product effective January 29 and relaunch …
Microsoft launches Mesh, its immersive 3D meeting platform in Teams, out of preview, with custom environments, games, and more; Mesh only supports Meta Quest — Microsoft is launching its immersive 3D meetings inside Microsoft Teams today. Microsoft Mesh, the company's mixed reality platform …
How the rising prices of streaming services are driving a new era of US pirate sites, bringing ~$2B per year in ads and subscriptions with a 90% profit margin — Illegal subscription services that steal films or TV shows bring in $2 billion a year in ads and subscriber fees.
NYC-based Bilt Rewards, which converts rental payments to points, raised $200M led by General Catalyst at a $3.1B valuation, and says users spend $20B annually — - General Catalyst, Eldridge invest in $200 million equity round — Startup wants to add neighborhood merchants to rewards program
As Wikimedia Russia shuts down, a look at the Kremlin-compliant Wikipedia alternative Ruwiki, which recently went live, led by an ex-Wikimedia Russia director — A campaign to replace the country's Wikipedia with a more pliant alternative seems near completion.
MIT CSAIL study: only 23% of US wages paid to humans for doing vision tasks would be economically attractive to automate with AI, due to large upfront costs — Will AI automate human jobs, and — if so — which jobs and when? — That's the trio of questions a new research study …
William Brown / Firstyear's blog-a-log : Google and Apple use passkeys to capture users by locking credentials into their platforms an...
