Sunday, September 1, 2024

A US court ordered Nigerian businessman Dozy Mmobuosi, founder of NJ-based Tingo, to pay $250M+ in fines after SEC alleged he inflated Tingo's financial records (Aanu Adeoye/Financial Times)

Aanu Adeoye / Financial Times:
A US court ordered Nigerian businessman Dozy Mmobuosi, founder of NJ-based Tingo, to pay $250M+ in fines after SEC alleged he inflated Tingo's financial records  —  Decision against Dozy Mmobuosi by US court comes after civil complaint by SEC against his Nasdaq-listed companies



A look at NightCafe, a bootstrapped generative art marketplace with 25M users who created ~1B images; source: it has $4M annualized revenue with a ~50% margin (Kyle Wiggers/TechCrunch)

Kyle Wiggers / TechCrunch:
A look at NightCafe, a bootstrapped generative art marketplace with 25M users who created ~1B images; source: it has $4M annualized revenue with a ~50% margin  —  The OG of image generation is a success, minus some moderation challenges  —  Elle Russell, co-founder of Cairns …



A look at Apple's strategy to keep retiring execs involved in a reduced role; sources: M4 Mac mini will have 5 USB-C ports, internal power supply, and no USB-A (Mark Gurman/Bloomberg)

Mark Gurman / Bloomberg:
A look at Apple's strategy to keep retiring execs involved in a reduced role; sources: M4 Mac mini will have 5 USB-C ports, internal power supply, and no USB-A  —  Apple's succession strategy has come into focus with the upcoming exit of its chief financial officer.



A look at the surge of interest-based sites as users grow weary of big platforms; MAUs for Letterboxd, Strava, and AllTrails grew 55%, 20%, and 10% YoY in H1 (Teresa Xie/Bloomberg)

Teresa Xie / Bloomberg:
A look at the surge of interest-based sites as users grow weary of big platforms; MAUs for Letterboxd, Strava, and AllTrails grew 55%, 20%, and 10% YoY in H1  —  - Biking, reading and dining apps draw users seeking connection  — Niche apps take hold as alternative to larger online platforms



Saturday, August 31, 2024

X is right to stand up to Brazil's unjust "hostage laws," but Musk's fight highlights his cynical free speech stance after he caved to Modi's censorship demands (Mike Masnick/Techdirt)

Mike Masnick / Techdirt:
X is right to stand up to Brazil's unjust “hostage laws,” but Musk's fight highlights his cynical free speech stance after he caved to Modi's censorship demands  —  In the battle between Elon Musk and Brazil, there are no heroes — only two sides engaged in an epic display of hypocrisy and overreach.



A reporter tries fixing his reputation with AI chatbots, including by adding a "strategic text sequence" to data sources, and via an AI optimization startup (Kevin Roose/New York Times)

Kevin Roose / New York Times:
A reporter tries fixing his reputation with AI chatbots, including by adding a “strategic text sequence” to data sources, and via an AI optimization startup  —  When I set out to improve my tainted reputation with chatbots, I discovered a new world of A.I. manipulation.



How the Israeli army's Unit 8200 became an incubator for cybersecurity startups, with its alumni starting Wiz, Palo Alto Networks, and other companies (Wall Street Journal)

Wall Street Journal:
How the Israeli army's Unit 8200 became an incubator for cybersecurity startups, with its alumni starting Wiz, Palo Alto Networks, and other companies  —  Unit 8200 has become an incubator for cybersecurity startups defending the world's biggest companies against hackers



It's time for audio services like Spotify to deal with AI by using labels and banning or downweighting music made with AI tools that don't license training data (Ed Newton-Rex/Music Business Worldwide)

Ed Newton-Rex / Music Business Worldwide:
It's time for audio services like Spotify to deal with AI by using labels and banning or downweighting music made with AI tools that don't license training data  —  The following MBW Views op/ed comes from Ed Newton-Rex (pictured inset), CEO of the ethical generative AI non-profit, Fairly Trained.



Friday, August 30, 2024

A federal judge dismisses a lawsuit claiming Elon Musk and Tesla pumped up Dogecoin into a "pyramid scheme", finding that Musk's statements were "aspirational" (Rachel Graf/Bloomberg)

Rachel Graf / Bloomberg:
A federal judge dismisses a lawsuit claiming Elon Musk and Tesla pumped up Dogecoin into a “pyramid scheme”, finding that Musk's statements were “aspirational”  —  Investors who lost tens of thousands of dollars investing in the cryptocurrency faulted Musk for promoting …



As Russia plans a trial of cross-border payments using crypto, some senior Russian leaders suggest it can help counter sanctions; experts doubt it will work (CoinDesk)

CoinDesk:
As Russia plans a trial of cross-border payments using crypto, some senior Russian leaders suggest it can help counter sanctions; experts doubt it will work  —  Experts doubt it will work, given the traceability of blockchains and the risk of even tougher sanctions for Russia.



China's top antitrust regulator says it has seen "effective results" that Alibaba has ceased the monopolistic practices that prompted an investigation in 2020 (Bloomberg)

Bloomberg:
China's top antitrust regulator says it has seen “effective results” that Alibaba has ceased the monopolistic practices that prompted an investigation in 2020  —  - Antitrust watchdog says Alibaba has ceased monopolistic acts  — Fallout from the crackdown years persists across the industry



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...