Sunday, April 28, 2024

Lawmakers, TikTok staff, and others detail how TikTok lost the war in Washington, including due to CEO Shou Zi Chew's failure to build support on Capitol Hill (Wall Street Journal)

Wall Street Journal:
Lawmakers, TikTok staff, and others detail how TikTok lost the war in Washington, including due to CEO Shou Zi Chew's failure to build support on Capitol Hill  —  Combination of coordinated efforts by its critics and missteps by the company led to the law forcing a sale or ban of the popular app



Elon Musk visits China, a source says to discuss with senior officials the rollout of FSD in the country and permission to transfer data overseas (Reuters)

Reuters:
Elon Musk visits China, a source says to discuss with senior officials the rollout of FSD in the country and permission to transfer data overseas  —  Tesla (TSLA.O) CEO Elon Musk arrived in Beijing on Sunday on an unannounced visit, where he is expected to meet senior officials to discuss …



Sources: the new iPad Pro may launch with an M4 chip, kicking off Apple's AI strategy that will be expanded at WWDC; the new Pencil will have haptic feedback (Mark Gurman/Bloomberg)

Mark Gurman / Bloomberg:
Sources: the new iPad Pro may launch with an M4 chip, kicking off Apple's AI strategy that will be expanded at WWDC; the new Pencil will have haptic feedback  —  Apple's top rivals are revamping their strategies for smartphones and headsets in a sign they smell an opportunity.



A profile of Ethan Mollick, a University of Pennsylvania professor whose early embrace of AI made him a go-to expert for policymakers and corporate leaders (Christopher Mims/Wall Street Journal)

Christopher Mims / Wall Street Journal:
A profile of Ethan Mollick, a University of Pennsylvania professor whose early embrace of AI made him a go-to expert for policymakers and corporate leaders  —  Ethan Mollick at the University of Pennsylvania has become the go-to authority on the new technology



Saturday, April 27, 2024

Microsoft, Meta, and Alphabet disclosed that they had spent $32B+ combined on data centers and other capital expenses in Q1, as they accelerate AI spending (Karen Weise/New York Times)

Karen Weise / New York Times:
Microsoft, Meta, and Alphabet disclosed that they had spent $32B+ combined on data centers and other capital expenses in Q1, as they accelerate AI spending  —  The spending that the industry's giants expect artificial intelligence to require is starting to come into focus — and it is jarringly large.



Trump is using the prospect of a TikTok ban to court younger voters, blaming Biden for setting a ban in motion, as the new law rattles pro-Biden TikTok creators (Akayla Gardner/Bloomberg)

Akayla Gardner / Bloomberg:
Trump is using the prospect of a TikTok ban to court younger voters, blaming Biden for setting a ban in motion, as the new law rattles pro-Biden TikTok creators  —  Biden's campaign is making an unprecedented effort to court influencers, even though he signed a bill that could lead to TikTok vanishing in the US.



A look at the rise in video podcasts, as YouTube leads in podcast consumption in the US and companies invest in video to gain new audiences and boost ad revenue (Reggie Ugwu/New York Times)

Reggie Ugwu / New York Times:
A look at the rise in video podcasts, as YouTube leads in podcast consumption in the US and companies invest in video to gain new audiences and boost ad revenue  —  To some, “video podcasts” are a contradiction in terms.  That hasn't made them any less popular.



Google and Apple use passkeys to capture users by locking credentials into their platforms and have made the UX of passkeys worse than that of password managers (William Brown/Firstyear's blog-a-log)

William Brown / Firstyear's blog-a-log:
Google and Apple use passkeys to capture users by locking credentials into their platforms and have made the UX of passkeys worse than that of password managers  —  At around 11pm last night my partner went to change our lounge room lights with our home light control system.



Friday, April 26, 2024

A look at Abu Dhabi-based AI startup G42, as sources say US intelligence officials fixated on CEO Xiao Peng ahead of its China divestment and Microsoft deal (Bloomberg)

Bloomberg:
A look at Abu Dhabi-based AI startup G42, as sources say US intelligence officials fixated on CEO Xiao Peng ahead of its China divestment and Microsoft deal  —  Abu Dhabi-based G42 found it could no longer play for both teams.  —  G42, a startup in Abu Dhabi, has made itself …



The EU Commission says Shein will have to comply with DSA rules for content handling, starting August 2024, as the retailer has more than 45M users in the EU (Clothilde Goujard/Politico)

Clothilde Goujard / Politico:
The EU Commission says Shein will have to comply with DSA rules for content handling, starting August 2024, as the retailer has more than 45M users in the EU  —  Europe tightens scrutiny of China-based tech companies.  —  BRUSSELS — Chinese fashion app Shein will face stringent rules …



Sam Altman, Satya Nadella, Sundar Pichai, Jensen Huang, and others join a panel to advise US DHS on deploying AI safely within America's critical infrastructure (Dustin Volz/Wall Street Journal)

Dustin Volz / Wall Street Journal:
Sam Altman, Satya Nadella, Sundar Pichai, Jensen Huang, and others join a panel to advise US DHS on deploying AI safely within America's critical infrastructure  —  Panel will advise Department of Homeland Security on deploying artificial intelligence safely within America's critical infrastructure



Thursday, April 25, 2024

Google Meet rolls out an update to let users seamlessly transfer calls between devices "without hanging up and rejoining" via its Android, iOS, and web apps (Abner Li/9to5Google)

Abner Li / 9to5Google:
Google Meet rolls out an update to let users seamlessly transfer calls between devices “without hanging up and rejoining” via its Android, iOS, and web apps  —  Let's say you start a call on your phone because you're not at your desk yet.  Once you get to a computer …



Garry's Mod is removing "all Nintendo related stuff" from its Steam Workshop, covering "20 years of uploads", after receiving a takedown request from Nintendo (Andy Chalk/PC Gamer)

Andy Chalk / PC Gamer:
Garry's Mod is removing “all Nintendo related stuff” from its Steam Workshop, covering “20 years of uploads”, after receiving a takedown request from Nintendo  —  Fans aren't happy, as you can imagine.  —  Following a takedown request issued by Nintendo …



Interviews with 24+ current and ex-ByteDance staff: the Beijing-based company has increasingly taken a grip over TikTok's operations, leading to a culture clash (Financial Times)

Financial Times:
Interviews with 24+ current and ex-ByteDance staff: the Beijing-based company has increasingly taken a grip over TikTok's operations, leading to a culture clash  —  Insiders say ByteDance exerting increasing influence over platform despite US pressure over ownership



Analysis: mentions of deepfakes or AI-made content in X's Community Notes were more correlated with new image generation model releases than elections in 2024 (Clara Murray/Financial Times)

Clara Murray / Financial Times : Analysis: mentions of deepfakes or AI-made content in X's Community Notes were more correlated with ...