Monday, January 29, 2024

Sunday, January 28, 2024

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 (Thomas Claburn/The Register)

Thomas Claburn / The Register:
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 (Bloomberg)

Bloomberg:
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 (Salvador Rodriguez/Wall Street Journal)

Salvador Rodriguez / Wall Street Journal:
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 (Michael Msika/Bloomberg)

Michael Msika / Bloomberg:
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



Saturday, January 27, 2024

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 (Chance Miller/9to5Mac)

Chance Miller / 9to5Mac:
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 (Yuka Hayashi/Wall Street Journal)

Yuka Hayashi / Wall Street Journal:
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 (John Herrman/New York Magazine)

John Herrman / New York Magazine:
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 (Cecilia Kang/New York Times)

Cecilia Kang / New York Times:
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.



Friday, January 26, 2024

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 (Tom Dotan/Wall Street Journal)

Tom Dotan / Wall Street Journal:
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 (Manish Singh/TechCrunch)

Manish Singh / TechCrunch:
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 (Financial Times)

Financial Times:
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 …



Thursday, January 25, 2024

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 (Apoorva Mittal/The Economic Times)

Apoorva Mittal / The Economic Times:
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 (Tom Warren/The Verge)

Tom Warren / The Verge:
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 (Thomas Buckley/Bloomberg)

Thomas Buckley / Bloomberg:
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.



Electricians are flocking to regions around the US to build data centers, as AI shapes up to be an economy-bending force that creates boom towns (New York Times)

New York Times : Electricians are flocking to regions around the US to build data centers, as AI shapes up to be an economy-bending force...