Friday, January 10, 2025

Disney, Fox, and WBD say they have agreed to discontinue their Venu Sports streaming joint venture and will focus on existing products and distribution channels (Alex Weprin/The Hollywood Reporter)

Alex Weprin / The Hollywood Reporter:
Disney, Fox, and WBD say they have agreed to discontinue their Venu Sports streaming joint venture and will focus on existing products and distribution channels  —  The sports-focused streaming service will not move forward, the companies said Friday.  —  Venu is dead.



In a weird X Spaces conversation, Elon Musk and Alice Weidel, the leader of the German far-right party AfD, pushed disinformation about Hitler, migrants, more (Politico)

Politico:
In a weird X Spaces conversation, Elon Musk and Alice Weidel, the leader of the German far-right party AfD, pushed disinformation about Hitler, migrants, more  —  God!  Martians!  A “communist” Hitler!  It was heavy on oddness and light on policy as the X owner and the AfD co-leader hit it off.



A look at Meta's convoluted or contradictory guidelines for those working on its user content, allowing derogatory remarks about races, nationalities, and more (Sam Biddle/The Intercept)

Sam Biddle / The Intercept:
A look at Meta's convoluted or contradictory guidelines for those working on its user content, allowing derogatory remarks about races, nationalities, and more  —  Meta is now granting its users new freedom to post a wide array of derogatory remarks about races, nationalities, ethnic groups …



A look at LexisNexis Risk Solutions, RELX's largest division, which accounts for ~35% of RELX's revenue and holds 9B device records and 3B digital identities (John Gapper/Financial Times)

John Gapper / Financial Times:
A look at LexisNexis Risk Solutions, RELX's largest division, which accounts for ~35% of RELX's revenue and holds 9B device records and 3B digital identities  —  Company once known as Reed Elsevier has moved from legal and scientific publishing into AI fraud detection



Thursday, January 9, 2025

Taiwan's National Security Bureau says daily average cyberattacks on government departments doubled in 2024 vs. 2023 to 2.4M, mostly from Chinese cyber forces (Yimou Lee/Reuters)

Yimou Lee / Reuters:
Taiwan's National Security Bureau says daily average cyberattacks on government departments doubled in 2024 vs. 2023 to 2.4M, mostly from Chinese cyber forces  —  Cyberattacks on Taiwan government departments doubled in 2024 from the previous year to an average of 2.4 million attacks a day …



Istanbul-based gaming startup Grand Games, maker of Magic Sort and Car Match, raised a $30M Series A led by Balderton, after securing a $3M seed in 2024 (Ingrid Lunden/TechCrunch)

Ingrid Lunden / TechCrunch:
Istanbul-based gaming startup Grand Games, maker of Magic Sort and Car Match, raised a $30M Series A led by Balderton, after securing a $3M seed in 2024  —  Gaming startups, specifically those building casual mobile games, are very hot in Turkey right now, and today, another one is announcing …



A new English-language Polish film about Vladimir Putin, in which AI is used to superimpose his real face onto an actor, sparks a debate about use of AI (Alicja Ptak/Notes From Poland)

Alicja Ptak / Notes From Poland:
A new English-language Polish film about Vladimir Putin, in which AI is used to superimpose his real face onto an actor, sparks a debate about use of AI  —  A new English-language Polish film about Vladimir Putin, in which the Russian president is portrayed using AI-powered special effects …



Monday, January 6, 2025

Avataar debuts Velocity, an AI tool that generates product videos based on a product link, and says HP, Victoria's Secret, Lowe's, and others are using the tool (Ivan Mehta/TechCrunch)

Ivan Mehta / TechCrunch:
Avataar debuts Velocity, an AI tool that generates product videos based on a product link, and says HP, Victoria's Secret, Lowe's, and others are using the tool  —  Generative AI models have reached a baseline capability of producing at least a passable video from a single image or short sentence.



Sam Altman says "we are now confident we know how to build AGI as we have traditionally understood it" and that OpenAI is turning its focus to superintelligence (Sam Altman)

Sam Altman:
Sam Altman says “we are now confident we know how to build AGI as we have traditionally understood it” and that OpenAI is turning its focus to superintelligence  —  The second birthday of ChatGPT was only a little over a month ago, and now we have transitioned into the next paradigm of models that can do complex reasoning.



Uber and Lyft are embracing autonomous vehicle operators like Waymo, May Mobility, and others, after abandoning their own self-driving car programs (Preetika Rana/Wall Street Journal)

Preetika Rana / Wall Street Journal:
Uber and Lyft are embracing autonomous vehicle operators like Waymo, May Mobility, and others, after abandoning their own self-driving car programs  —  After ending their own driverless plans, the ride-sharing companies are embracing autonomous-vehicle operators and offering new app features



Sources: the US State Department ordered embassies to push back against foreign influence campaigns, as officials worry anti-US views are taking root worldwide (New York Times)

New York Times : Sources: the US State Department ordered embassies to push back against foreign influence campaigns, as officials worry ...