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.



Russia's finance minister says Russian companies have begun using bitcoin and other digital currencies in international payments to counter Western sanctions (Gleb Bryanski/Reuters)

Gleb Bryanski / Reuters : Russia's finance minister says Russian companies have begun using bitcoin and other digital currencies in i...