How "made for advertising" sites, which are criticized for their UX and dubious results for advertisers, get ~15% of automated ad spend or $10B/year, per ANA (Megan Graham/Wall Street Journal)

Megan Graham / Wall Street Journal:
How “made for advertising” sites, which are criticized for their UX and dubious results for advertisers, get ~15% of automated ad spend or $10B/year, per ANA  —  Industry leaders want brands to shun ‘MFA’ websites.  Others think more nuance is needed.

A UK judge throws out Apple's motion to dismiss a $979M lawsuit representing more than 1,500 developers alleging that App Store's 30% commission is unfair (Reuters)

Reuters:
A UK judge throws out Apple's motion to dismiss a $979M lawsuit representing more than 1,500 developers alleging that App Store's 30% commission is unfair  —  Apple (AAPL.O) on Friday lost a bid to throw out a mass lawsuit valued at just under $1 billion, brought in London on behalf …

An interview with DocuSign CEO Allan Thygesen on the company's new Intelligent Agreement Management service, now in beta, moving beyond e-signatures, and more (Richard Nieva/Forbes)

Richard Nieva / Forbes:
An interview with DocuSign CEO Allan Thygesen on the company's new Intelligent Agreement Management service, now in beta, moving beyond e-signatures, and more  —  In an exclusive interview with Forbes, Docusign CEO Allan Thygesen calls its new platform, which tackles contract management beyond …

Instagram plans to automatically detect and blur nude images sent to teens via DMs, showing a pop-up to sender and recipient, rolling out in the coming months (Julie Jargon/Wall Street Journal)

Julie Jargon / Wall Street Journal:
Instagram plans to automatically detect and blur nude images sent to teens via DMs, showing a pop-up to sender and recipient, rolling out in the coming months  —  Obscured photos and warnings will discourage users from exchanging nude photos with potential strangers

Documents: Adobe offers its photographer and artist network $120 for videos of people engaged in everyday actions, or ~$2.62 to ~$7.25 per minute, to train AI (Brody Ford/Bloomberg)

Brody Ford / Bloomberg:
Documents: Adobe offers its photographer and artist network $120 for videos of people engaged in everyday actions, or ~$2.62 to ~$7.25 per minute, to train AI  —  - OpenAI's Sora has increased competitive pressure on Adobe  — Adobe has built AI models with stock library, procured media

Sources: Foxconn is considering a new rotating CEO system, a major and unusual overhaul to nurture talent; a source says the plan is a response to investors (Yimou Lee/Reuters)

Yimou Lee / Reuters:
Sources: Foxconn is considering a new rotating CEO system, a major and unusual overhaul to nurture talent; a source says the plan is a response to investors  —  Apple supplier Foxconn is considering introducing a rotating chief executive system in a major overhaul of its management structure designed …

Adobe updates Frame.io, adding new workflow and tagging capabilities for project management, in beta for Free and Pro customers on the web, iOS, and iPadOS (Jess Weatherbed/The Verge)

Jess Weatherbed / The Verge:
Adobe updates Frame.io, adding new workflow and tagging capabilities for project management, in beta for Free and Pro customers on the web, iOS, and iPadOS  —  Adobe has introduced the latest version of Frame.io, overhauling the cloud-based media collaboration service with oodles of new workflow …

Trump Media & Technology Group's stock slumped 36% since March 26, wiping out $2.8B in market value as retail traders sell; Trump's stake is now worth ~$2.9B (Bailey Lipschultz/Bloomberg)

Bailey Lipschultz / Bloomberg:
Trump Media & Technology Group's stock slumped 36% since March 26, wiping out $2.8B in market value as retail traders sell; Trump's stake is now worth ~$2.9B  —  - DJT has struggled to retain the attention of retail traders  — Paper windfall for Donald Trump drops by $1.6 billion in weeks

The US awards TSMC $6.6B in grants and up to $5B in loans to build a third Arizona fab, slated to make 2nm chips by 2030, alongside TSMC's $65B+ investment (Bloomberg)

Bloomberg:
The US awards TSMC $6.6B in grants and up to $5B in loans to build a third Arizona fab, slated to make 2nm chips by 2030, alongside TSMC's $65B+ investment  —  - World's top chipmaker to add capacity with third fab in state  — Raimondo says latest US package aimed at AI, national security

Elon Musk says X is "lifting all restrictions" it imposed in Brazil after a court ruling to block "certain popular accounts" and is defying the court's ruling (Anthony Boadle/Reuters)

Anthony Boadle / Reuters:
Elon Musk says X is “lifting all restrictions” it imposed in Brazil after a court ruling to block “certain popular accounts” and is defying the court's ruling  —  Elon Musk is challenging a decision by a Supreme Court justice in Brazil who ordered his social media platform X …

Canada unveils a CA$2.4B fund to boost its AI sector by giving access to computing capabilities and technical infrastructure and creates its AI Safety Institute (Mathieu Dion/Bloomberg)

Mathieu Dion / Bloomberg:
Canada unveils a CA$2.4B fund to boost its AI sector by giving access to computing capabilities and technical infrastructure and creates its AI Safety Institute  —  - The centerpiece is money for ‘technological infrastructure’  — Canada has yet to pass law regulating artificial intelligence

Thoughts on Apple's search for a new growth engine, Spatial Personas, and Kevin Lynch's move to the AI group; sources: new iPads may launch the week of May 6 (Mark Gurman/Bloomberg)

Mark Gurman / Bloomberg:
Thoughts on Apple's search for a new growth engine, Spatial Personas, and Kevin Lynch's move to the AI group; sources: new iPads may launch the week of May 6  —  Apple's search for a bold new product category is back on, and it includes a foray into robots.

A look at Huawei's efforts to make HarmonyOS a formidable rival to iOS and Android; Counterpoint: 16% of smartphones sold in China in Q4 2023 used HarmonyOS (Nikkei Asia)

Nikkei Asia:
A look at Huawei's efforts to make HarmonyOS a formidable rival to iOS and Android; Counterpoint: 16% of smartphones sold in China in Q4 2023 used HarmonyOS  —  Chinese tech giant unveiled new operating system in January  —  Huawei Technologies may be close to succeeding where Microsoft …

Source: Y Combinator is inviting some alumni entrepreneurs to invest a minimum of $250,000, which will be split among the three funds it is currently raising (Kia Kokalitcheva/Axios)

Kia Kokalitcheva / Axios:
Source: Y Combinator is inviting some alumni entrepreneurs to invest a minimum of $250,000, which will be split among the three funds it is currently raising  —  - The accelerator is requiring limited partners invest in all three of its new funds, a somewhat bold move in the current environment.

Sources: OpenAI transcribed 1M+ hours of YouTube videos through Whisper and used the text to train GPT-4; Google also transcribed YouTube videos to harvest text (New York Times)

New York Times:
Sources: OpenAI transcribed 1M+ hours of YouTube videos through Whisper and used the text to train GPT-4; Google also transcribed YouTube videos to harvest text  —  OpenAI, Google and Meta ignored corporate policies, altered their own rules and discussed skirting copyright law …

A look at Monument Valley, a puzzle game developed by ustwo that won Apple's design award in 2014 and stood out in a market dominated by free-to-play titles (Lewis Gordon/The Ringer)

Lewis Gordon / The Ringer:
A look at Monument Valley, a puzzle game developed by ustwo that won Apple's design award in 2014 and stood out in a market dominated by free-to-play titles  —  A scene as still and pure as it is confounding: towers stretching up, flags billowing gently in the wind, stone walkways appearing to defy the principles of architecture.

CB Insights: global VC investment in fintech fell 16% QoQ to $7.3B over 904 deals in Q1 2024, the lowest amount of funding the sector has seen since 2017 (Mary Ann Azevedo/TechCrunch)

Mary Ann Azevedo / TechCrunch:
CB Insights: global VC investment in fintech fell 16% QoQ to $7.3B over 904 deals in Q1 2024, the lowest amount of funding the sector has seen since 2017  —  When it comes to funding, the fintech sector didn't have a very good start to the year.  —  Fintech funding slid by 16% quarter …

Microsoft warns that China plans to disrupt elections in the US, South Korea, and India this year with AI-generated content after making a dry run in Taiwan (Dan Milmo/The Guardian)

Dan Milmo / The Guardian:
Microsoft warns that China plans to disrupt elections in the US, South Korea, and India this year with AI-generated content after making a dry run in Taiwan  —  Beijing did a test run in Taiwan using AI-generated content to influence voters away from a pro-sovereignty candidate

Sources: Samsung plans to more than double its total chip investment in Taylor, Texas to ~$44B, a significant breakthrough for US' chip manufacturing plans (Wall Street Journal)

Wall Street Journal:
Sources: Samsung plans to more than double its total chip investment in Taylor, Texas to ~$44B, a significant breakthrough for US' chip manufacturing plans  —  South Korean firm plans to add a second semiconductor factory and advanced-packaging facility at its new hub outside Austin

Paris-based Pigment, a subscription-based business planning and forecasting service, raised $145M, sources say at a $1B+ valuation, for $393M in total funding (Mark Bergen/Bloomberg)

Mark Bergen / Bloomberg:
Paris-based Pigment, a subscription-based business planning and forecasting service, raised $145M, sources say at a $1B+ valuation, for $393M in total funding  —  - French software startup said to be valued above $1 billion  — Funding round comes as VC financing remains sluggish globally