French's CNIL fines Amazon France Logistique $35M for an "excessively intrusive" surveillance system set up to monitor the performance of its staff (Sudip Kar-Gupta/Reuters)

Sudip Kar-Gupta / Reuters:
French's CNIL fines Amazon France Logistique $35M for an “excessively intrusive” surveillance system set up to monitor the performance of its staff  —  French regulator CNIL said on Tuesday it had fined Amazon France Logistique (AMZN.O) 32 million euros ($35 million) …

Meta plans to let EU users unlink their Instagram and Facebook accounts, as well as other Meta services, ahead of the EU's DMA taking effect in March 2024 (Jon Porter/The Verge)

Jon Porter / The Verge:
Meta plans to let EU users unlink their Instagram and Facebook accounts, as well as other Meta services, ahead of the EU's DMA taking effect in March 2024  —  EU users will be able to unlink their Instagram and Facebook accounts, as well as other Meta services ahead of the bloc's new Digital Markets Act …

Source: in a low-key tour, Jensen Huang visited Nvidia's offices in Shenzhen, Shanghai, and Beijing earlier in January, as the US curbs Nvidia's China exports (Bloomberg)

Bloomberg:
Source: in a low-key tour, Jensen Huang visited Nvidia's offices in Shenzhen, Shanghai, and Beijing earlier in January, as the US curbs Nvidia's China exports  —  - Company's chips have become central to US-China tech race  — Huang kept a low profile during his visit to the country

ElevenLabs, which uses AI tools to create and edit synthetic voices, raised an $80M Series B co-led by a16z, Nat Friedman, and Daniel Gross at a $1B+ valuation (Kyle Wiggers/TechCrunch)

Kyle Wiggers / TechCrunch:
ElevenLabs, which uses AI tools to create and edit synthetic voices, raised an $80M Series B co-led by a16z, Nat Friedman, and Daniel Gross at a $1B+ valuation  —  There's a lot of money in voice cloning.  —  Case in point: ElevenLabs, a startup developing AI-powered tools to create …

British Library hack lessons for the UK: ransomware is a national security issue, a national response is required, policy mitigations are available, and more (Ciaran Martin/Ciaran's Crispy Cogitations)

Ciaran Martin / Ciaran's Crispy Cogitations:
British Library hack lessons for the UK: ransomware is a national security issue, a national response is required, policy mitigations are available, and more  —  The most important lesson to figure out is why it is taking so long to restore services.  That will tell us how to prevent …

Architects are incorporating DALL-E, Midjourney, and other generative AI tools for complex design work, threatening the industry of professional illustrators (Edwin Heathcote/Financial Times)

Edwin Heathcote / Financial Times:
Architects are incorporating DALL-E, Midjourney, and other generative AI tools for complex design work, threatening the industry of professional illustrators  —  Programs such as Dall-E and Midjourney are revolutionising the designs of buildings, but threatening the industry too

OpenAI bans the developer of a chatbot mimicking presidential hopeful Dean Phillips, the company's first action against use of its tech in political campaigns (Elizabeth Dwoskin/Washington Post)

Elizabeth Dwoskin / Washington Post:
OpenAI bans the developer of a chatbot mimicking presidential hopeful Dean Phillips, the company's first action against use of its tech in political campaigns  —  It's the ChatGPT maker's first known action against the use of its technology in a political campaign

A look at the reasons for the less-than-expected developer enthusiasm for Apple's Vision Pro, including an uncertain ROI and anger at the App Store policies (Mark Gurman/Bloomberg)

Mark Gurman / Bloomberg:
A look at the reasons for the less-than-expected developer enthusiasm for Apple's Vision Pro, including an uncertain ROI and anger at the App Store policies  —  Apple's new Vision Pro will lack some key apps when it debuts, renewing concerns about an already-tense relationship with certain developers.

In an unpublished manuscript, David Bunnell, co-founder of PC Magazine, PC World, and Macworld, details the origins of the enduring media brands in the 1980s (Harry McCracken/Technologizer)

Harry McCracken / Technologizer:
In an unpublished manuscript, David Bunnell, co-founder of PC Magazine, PC World, and Macworld, details the origins of the enduring media brands in the 1980s  —  In an unpublished manuscript, the cofounder of three enduring media brands looks back. … “But Flying Upside Down is more than that.

After two failed attempts, a bipartisan effort is being made to remedy the issues caused by US tax law Section 174, which forces amortization of software labor (Kia Kokalitcheva/Axios)

Kia Kokalitcheva / Axios:
After two failed attempts, a bipartisan effort is being made to remedy the issues caused by US tax law Section 174, which forces amortization of software labor  —  The Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017 is impacting some startups' tax bills, thanks to a provision that changes how R&D costs are deducted.

BreachForums admin Conor Brian Fitzpatrick, aka "Pompompurin", is sentenced to 20 years of supervised release for his role in running the cybercrime forum (Lawrence Abrams/BleepingComputer)

Lawrence Abrams / BleepingComputer:
BreachForums admin Conor Brian Fitzpatrick, aka “Pompompurin”, is sentenced to 20 years of supervised release for his role in running the cybercrime forum  —  Conor Brian Fitzpatrick was sentenced to 20 years of supervised release today in the Eastern District of Virginia …

Apple and Google reducing their app store fees by just 3-4% for external payment methods simply make alternative options non-viable for app developers (Eric Benjamin Seufert/Mobile Dev Memo)

Eric Benjamin Seufert / Mobile Dev Memo:
Apple and Google reducing their app store fees by just 3-4% for external payment methods simply make alternative options non-viable for app developers  —  The Supreme Court this week declined to hear Apple's appeal of an antitrust case that compels the company to allow app developers to link to external, web-based payment options.

How AI has been helping criminals who use deepfakes and voice cloning for financial scams, forcing banks and fintechs to invest in AI to counter fraud (Siddharth Venkataramakrishnan/Financial ...)

Siddharth Venkataramakrishnan / Financial Times:
How AI has been helping criminals who use deepfakes and voice cloning for financial scams, forcing banks and fintechs to invest in AI to counter fraud  —  Voice cloning is just one of the new tools in the tricksters' armoury  —  It was last spring when Paddric Fitzgerald received a telephone call at work.

China forms a metaverse working group with members from government, academia, and tech companies like Huawei and Baidu to push for standardization in the sector (Timmy Shen/The Block)

Timmy Shen / The Block:
China forms a metaverse working group with members from government, academia, and tech companies like Huawei and Baidu to push for standardization in the sector  —  - The country's top industrial authority said that working group members include those from Chinese tech giants such as Huawei, Ant Group, Tencent and Baidu.

The EU Commission is seeking feedback on concessions Apple offered, including opening its Tap to Pay tech to third-party wallets for 10 years, to settle a probe (Piotr Lipinski/Reuters)

Piotr Lipinski / Reuters:
The EU Commission is seeking feedback on concessions Apple offered, including opening its Tap to Pay tech to third-party wallets for 10 years, to settle a probe  —  The European Commission is seeking feedback from rivals and customers on concessions Apple (AAPL.O) offered …