Techmeme
May 25, 2023, 3:35 PM

Top News

Financial Times:
Morgan Meaker / Wired:
OpenAI CEO Sam Altman visited London this week, part of a tour to ~17 cities, including Paris, Warsaw, and Lagos, to discuss AI, balanced regulation, and more  —  On a stop in London, the OpenAI CEO called for balanced regulation and warned of the risks of deepfake disinformation.
Cat Zakrzewski / Washington Post:
A profile of Microsoft President Brad Smith, a DC veteran testing his well-worn playbook to shape AI regulation, such as by endorsing the creation of an agency  —  In 2017, Microsoft president Brad Smith made a bold prediction.  Speaking on a panel at the Davos World Economic Forum …
Sarah Perez / TechCrunch:
TikTok is testing its chatbot, Tako, in select markets; from the right side of the app, the bot helps users discover new content and ask questions about a video  —  AI chatbots, like ChatGPT, are all the rage, so it's no surprise to learn that TikTok is now testing its own AI chatbot, as well.
Kevin Breuninger / CNBC:
Florida Governor Ron DeSantis' presidential campaign announcement on Twitter Spaces was delayed by ~25 minutes of crashes, feedback glitches, and audio failures  —  - Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis' presidential campaign announcement plans evening were derailed by massive technical glitches …
More: CNN, New York Times, Associated Press, CoinDesk, TechCrunch, The Verge, Wall Street Journal, Ars Technica, Insider, Mashable, The Register, New York Magazine, The Guardian, Washington Post, Wall Street Journal, USA Today, Bitcoinist.com, Vox, Bloomberg, Quinnipiac University Poll, Semafor, The Verge, The Hollywood Reporter, Gizmodo, The Hill, Wired, Fox News, CNN, NBC News, Wall Street Journal, Mediaite, Daily Mail, Washington Examiner, TMZ.com, TIME, Forbes, Rolling Stone, Newsweek, New York Post, Decrypt, The Hill, Reuters, Insider, Engadget, Deadline, TechCrunch, and Variety
Emily Nicolle / Bloomberg:
Fahrenheit, bidders led by Arrington Capital, wins an auction for Celsius Network's assets, including loans, investments, and $500M in “liquid cryptocurrency”  —  Failed crypto lender Celsius Network LLC is poised to restart as a new company after Fahrenheit LLC …
Abner Li / 9to5Google:
Google starts rolling out its LLM-powered Search Generative Experience, with features like a conversational mode and shopping aspects, to Search Labs members  —  Announced at I/O 2023, Google is now rolling out the AI/LLM-powered Search Generative Experience (SGE) to users that signed up for the Search Labs program.
Stan Schroeder / Mashable:
OpenAI expands its free ChatGPT iOS app, which launched in the US last week, to 11 more countries, including the UK, Germany, France, Nigeria, and South Korea  —  The smart chat assistant is at your service in 11 new markets.  —  OpenAI's ChatGPT app for iOS is available in 11 new markets.
Samuel Stolton / Bloomberg:
Margrethe Vestager says the EU and the UK disagreeing on Microsoft's Activision deal raises “important questions” and that the remedies offered convinced the EU  —  The European Union's decision to approve Microsoft Corp.'s $69 billion plan to buy Activision Blizzard Inc …
Hannah Miller / Bloomberg:
Tools for Humanity, co-founded by Sam Altman to build Worldcoin, raised a $115M Series C led by Blockchain Capital, aiming to scan everyone's eyes to create IDs  —  A crypto startup co-founded by OpenAI Chief Executive Officer Sam Altman has raised new funding to further its mission of providing a digital ID for everyone on the planet.
Access Now:
Pegasus was used in the Azerbaijan-Armenia conflict to target a government worker, a UN official, and others in 2021 and 2022, the first documented use in a war  —  The Armenia spyware victims include a former Human Rights Defender of the Republic of Armenia (the Ombudsperson) …
Oliver Whang / New York Times:
A study describes how a patient who was paralyzed from the waist down was able to walk naturally again with brain and spine implants using an AI thought decoder  —  In a new study, researchers describe a device that connects the intentions of a paralyzed patient to his physical movements.
Wall Street Journal:
A look at Disney and Comcast's Hulu fight; sources say their Hulu valuations vary by tens of billions, they're in arbitration, and Comcast stopped funding Hulu  —  Parent companies are in final phase of battle marked by legal threats, broken promises and secret arbitration
Ingrid Lunden / TechCrunch:
Starling Bank CEO Anne Boden steps down and COO John Mountain steps up as interim CEO; Starling, which has raised $1B+, reports FY revenue up 110% YoY to £453M  —  Anne Boden nearly lost a grip on Starling Bank years ago when the neobank was in the middle of a coup effort led by its CTO …
Jay Peters / The Verge:
Google DeepMind details how its visual language model Flamingo generates descriptions for YouTube Shorts, stored as metadata and helping improve discoverability  —  Google just combined DeepMind and Google Brain into one big AI team, and on Wednesday, the new Google DeepMind shared details …
The Verge:
Sony announces “Project Q”, a handheld device with an 8-inch screen for streaming games from a PlayStation 5 via Remote Play over Wi-Fi, launching later in 2023  —  Sony has officially confirmed it's working on a PlayStation handheld to make it easier to play your PS5 games.

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UiPath:
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Elizabeth Chamberlain / iFixit News:
Annie Palmer / CNBC:
Kif Leswing / CNBC:
Rohan Goswami / CNBC: