Sources: Meta believes Apple's Vision Pro can reinvigorate its metaverse effort, with the Quest ecosystem filling the role Android played in smartphones — Company executives are optimistic about competition as billions spent have yet to translate into wide consumer adoption
Europe's blue-chip stocks index Euro Stoxx 50 hits its highest level since 2001, with ASML and SAP, the region's two biggest tech stocks, leading the charge — - Rally in megacaps SAP, ASML and LVMH boosts Euro Stoxx 50 — Diversification by sector and geography seen as tailwinds
Apple removes a requirement that apps with third-party log-ins must offer Sign in with Apple, but requires an equivalent option with certain privacy features — There's another small but notable change coming to the App Store. Apple has revised its App Store guidelines to remove the requirement …
Sources: the US plans to award billions in subsidies to Intel, TSMC, and other chip makers in coming weeks, amid concerns about slow implementation of CHIPS Act — Industry, lawmakers worry semiconductor production could take years because of negotiations, permitting and worker shortages
Chrome's upcoming “Help Me Write” experimental AI feature could be a key step in making the web a place where most words are written by bots instead of people — Starting next month, Google will begin rolling on a new experimental feature in Chrome, the most popular browser on Earth …
A look at the US Copyright Office, which is in the spotlight as it plans to release three key reports in 2024 revealing its position on copyright law and AI — The office is reviewing how centuries-old laws should apply to artificial intelligence technology, with both content creators and tech giants arguing their cases.
Source: Salesforce plans to lay off ~700 employees, or ~1% of its staff, after cutting 10% of its workforce in January 2023; the company has 1,000 open jobs — The layoffs, which will affect around 1% of its workforce, follow a 10% reduction last year — Salesforce is laying off around …
Ola Group CEO Bhavish Aggarwal's Krutrim, which is building a multilingual LLM, raised a $50M “first round” led by Matrix Partners India at a $1B valuation — Krutrim, an AI startup founded by Ola founder Bhavish Aggarwal, said it has raised a funding round that values it at $1 billion.
Sources: Elon Musk's xAI is in talks to raise up to $6B from family offices in the Hong Kong and sovereign wealth funds in the Middle East at a $20B valuation — Tesla chief targets $20bn valuation in bid to take on OpenAI — Elon Musk's xAI is in talks to raise up to $6bn …
Indian cricket NFT startup Rario plans to close on January 29 and relaunch in March 2024, leaving users with losses; Rario raised a $120M Series A in April 2022 — Dream Sports-backed Rario in an X post on Tuesday night said it will shut its current product effective January 29 and relaunch …
Microsoft launches Mesh, its immersive 3D meeting platform in Teams, out of preview, with custom environments, games, and more; Mesh only supports Meta Quest — Microsoft is launching its immersive 3D meetings inside Microsoft Teams today. Microsoft Mesh, the company's mixed reality platform …
How the rising prices of streaming services are driving a new era of US pirate sites, bringing ~$2B per year in ads and subscriptions with a 90% profit margin — Illegal subscription services that steal films or TV shows bring in $2 billion a year in ads and subscriber fees.
NYC-based Bilt Rewards, which converts rental payments to points, raised $200M led by General Catalyst at a $3.1B valuation, and says users spend $20B annually — - General Catalyst, Eldridge invest in $200 million equity round — Startup wants to add neighborhood merchants to rewards program
As Wikimedia Russia shuts down, a look at the Kremlin-compliant Wikipedia alternative Ruwiki, which recently went live, led by an ex-Wikimedia Russia director — A campaign to replace the country's Wikipedia with a more pliant alternative seems near completion.
MIT CSAIL study: only 23% of US wages paid to humans for doing vision tasks would be economically attractive to automate with AI, due to large upfront costs — Will AI automate human jobs, and — if so — which jobs and when? — That's the trio of questions a new research study …
Amy Thomson / Bloomberg : OpenAI pauses the use of the Sky voice in ChatGPT after users said it sounded too much like Scarlett Johansson,...
