Saturday, March 4, 2023

Singapore-based e-commerce aggregator Una Brands raised a $30M pre-Series C, following a $30M Series B in September 2022, bringing its total funding to $100M+ (Kate Park/TechCrunch)

Kate Park / TechCrunch:
Singapore-based e-commerce aggregator Una Brands raised a $30M pre-Series C, following a $30M Series B in September 2022, bringing its total funding to $100M+  —  Una Brands, a Singapore-based e-commerce aggregator, has raised $30 million in pre-Series C financing just five months after announcing …



A profile of Slack CEO Lidiane Jones, who was a Sonos VP of software management before joining Salesforce, as she leads Slack through its "biggest product year" (Harry McCracken/Fast Company)

Harry McCracken / Fast Company:
A profile of Slack CEO Lidiane Jones, who was a Sonos VP of software management before joining Salesforce, as she leads Slack through its “biggest product year”  —  Over a few days in late November and early December of 2022, it became clear that Slack was about to go through …



US adds China's Inspur, one of the world's largest server makers that has joint ventures with IBM and Cisco, to an Entity List, limiting its access to US tech (Yuan Gao/Bloomberg)

Yuan Gao / Bloomberg:
US adds China's Inspur, one of the world's largest server makers that has joint ventures with IBM and Cisco, to an Entity List, limiting its access to US tech  —  The Biden administration's blacklisting of China's Inspur Group Co. targets a company that US tech giants like Cisco Systems Inc. …



BidenCash, a dark web site dealing in stolen credit and debit cards, leaks a free database of 2M+ cards revealing emails, card expiry dates, CVV codes, and more (Sergiu Gatlan/BleepingComputer)

Sergiu Gatlan / BleepingComputer:
BidenCash, a dark web site dealing in stolen credit and debit cards, leaks a free database of 2M+ cards revealing emails, card expiry dates, CVV codes, and more  —  A carding marketplace known as BidenCash has leaked online a free database of 2,165,700 debit and credit cards in celebration of its first anniversary.



Snapchat ‘Color your city’ Holi AR lens filter: What are they

Snapchat is introducing new augmented reality filters for Holi season. These filters include a Color Your City lens that lets users paint the city in India in vibrant colours, a Bitmoji fashion drop that lets users create fashionable Holi-themed Bitmojis, localised stickers that let users add festive flair to their chats, and new AR lenses themed around Holi. https://ift.tt/RTGxLl7

ChatGPT fails one of India's biggest competitive exam

OpenAI's chatbot ChatGPT has reportedly failed one of India's biggest competitive exams, the Indian Civil Services Examination. According to a report, ChatGPT failed to clear the examination with questions ranging from topics such as Geography, Economy, History, Ecology, General Science and current affairs. Bengaluru-based Analytics India Magazine, subjected it to clear the examination with questions ranging from topics such as Geography, Economy, History, Ecology, General Science and current affairs. https://ift.tt/3GOkctm

Friday, March 3, 2023

Family office of Nintendo heirs says patience is a super power

The investment firm managing nearly $1.5 billion of assets for members of Nintendo's founding family is willing to play a long game when it comes to portfolio companies and can wait more than a decade to see a turnaround, a top executive said. That timeline helps explain why Yamauchi-No.10 Family Office shows no sign of relenting nearly a year into its quest to take marine construction firm Toyo Construction Co private, a takeover battle that could see a critical turn at an annual shareholder meeting in June. https://ift.tt/YthP2xS

Meta plans to fully or partly implement 26 of 32 Oversight Board recommendations on the cross-check system, including producing regular transparency reports (Jeff Horwitz/Wall Street Journal)

Jeff Horwitz / Wall Street Journal:
Meta plans to fully or partly implement 26 of 32 Oversight Board recommendations on the cross-check system, including producing regular transparency reports  —  Meta Platforms accepts most recommendations from its oversight board, but rejects key provisions



Few US lawmakers are taking action to regulate AI, as many struggle to understand the technology and its dangers, unlike the EU which proposed AI rules in 2021 (New York Times)

New York Times:
Few US lawmakers are taking action to regulate AI, as many struggle to understand the technology and its dangers, unlike the EU which proposed AI rules in 2021  —  Tech innovations are again racing ahead of Washington's ability to regulate them, lawmakers and A.I. experts said.



Q&A with former NYT photo editor Fred Ritchin on AI destroying the credibility of the photo, ensuring readers understand if an image is manipulated, and more (Amanda Darrach/Columbia Journalism Review)

Amanda Darrach / Columbia Journalism Review:
Q&A with former NYT photo editor Fred Ritchin on AI destroying the credibility of the photo, ensuring readers understand if an image is manipulated, and more  —  b  —  In recent years, artificial intelligence engineers have used millions of real photographs—taken by journalists all over the world …



Instagram expands age verification tools to more countries: What does it mean for users

Meta has been long experimenting with AI-based face scanning, especially for age verification. Last year, face scanning was introduced within Instagram for age verification, starting in the US. Now, it is being expanded to more countries in Europe, Mexico, Canada, South Korea, Australia and Japan. The social media app plans to bring age verification tools to more countries in the coming months. https://ift.tt/MtS7Ozi

UK Supreme Court hears landmark patent case over AI 'inventor'

An American computer scientist urged the United Kingdom's Supreme Court to rule he is entitled to patents over inventions created by his artificial intelligence system, in a landmark case about whether AI can own patent rights. https://ift.tt/7yMFmNg

Thursday, March 2, 2023

Apple still working on classical music app

Tech giant Apple has released its second beta of iOS 16.4 to developers, and code in the update revealed that the company is still working on its classical music application. https://ift.tt/GbZ3qmf

Swiggy sells Cloud Kitchen biz to Kitchens@ as food delivery growth slows down

Online delivery platform Swiggy has sold its Cloud Kitchen business to Kitchens@, a leading player in the rapidly growing cloud kitchen industry, for an undisclosed sum, as the growth rate for food delivery slows down. https://ift.tt/N6w78ro

Meituan reports Q1 revenue up 5.6% YoY to ~$13.5B, above ~$13.4B est., and a ~$1B net loss, its third straight quarter of losses amid a food delivery price war (Tracy Qu/Wall Street Journal)

Tracy Qu / Wall Street Journal : Meituan reports Q1 revenue up 5.6% YoY to ~$13.5B, above ~$13.4B est., and a ~$1B net loss, its third st...