Techmeme: Germany-based Sastrify, which operates a marketplace for buying and managing SaaS subscriptions, raised a $32M Series B, bringing its total funding to $55.2M (FinSMEs)

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May 26, 2023, 5:35 PM

Top News

Reuters:

Sam Altman says OpenAI “of course” has no plans to leave Europe, reversing a threat to exit the region if the company can't comply with the EU's upcoming AI Act — OpenAI has no plans to leave Europe, CEO Sam Altman said on Friday, reversing a threat made earlier this week …

More: The Information, Gizmodo, BBC, TechCrunch, OnMSFT.com, TNW, Associated Press, Forbes, CNBC, Quartz, Insider, Inside Bitcoins, Tech.co, Livemint, ITPro, WinBuzzer, Cryptopolitan, Computerworld, PYMNTS.com, GovInfoSecurity.com, Politico, The Economic Times, Agence France-Presse, BGR, MakeUseOf, Financial Times, Metaverse Post, and TechCircle

Tweets: @sama, @thierrybreton, @robleclerc, @superglaze, @emilybell, @jefflonsdale, @hare_brain, @riptari, and @sama

Kyle Wiggers / TechCrunch:

OpenAI launches a program to award 10 grants of $100K to develop proof-of-concepts for a “democratic process” to set rules for AI “within the bounds” of the law

More: OpenAI, Reuters, Cointelegraph, Cryptopolitan, TechCircle, SiliconANGLE, and The Verge

LinkedIn: Shashay Tadesse. Tweets: @openai, @alliekmiller, @darrenpjones, @stefanfschubert, @ourielohayon, @sama, @tristanharris, @punk6529, @gdb, @chloe21e8, @metaviv, and @glenweyl

Emma Roth / The Verge:

German newspaper Handelsblatt: a Tesla whistleblower leaked 100GB of customer FSD complaint data from 2015 to 2022, including 2,400+ self-acceleration issues — A Tesla whistleblower has leaked 100GB of data to the German outlet Handelsblatt containing thousands of customer complaints …

More: Ars Technica, Los Angeles Times, The Information, Wired, Jalopnik, Fortune, Engadget, PCMag, Quartz, Tech Monitor, Reuters, Dark Reading, SlashGear, gHacks Technology News, Redmond Pie, Electrek, and Barron's Online

Tweets: @karaswisher, @garymarcus, @stewart819, @parismarx, @resnikoff, @andreworlowski, and @benshooter

CNBC:

Sources: as part of its layoffs, Meta cut a project that would have let third-party fact-checkers like Reuters add comments at the top of articles on Facebook — - Meta, Amazon, Alphabet and Twitter have all drastically reduced the size of their teams focused on internet trust and safety …

More: Neowin. LinkedIn: Hayden Field. Tweets: @jesselehrich, @omgno2trump, @emmakinery, @brianstelter, @mattrosoff, and @haydenfield

See also Mediagazer

Scott J. Shapiro / IEEE Spectrum:

How three US teenagers built Mirai, a DDoS botnet that exploited IoT devices, and avoided prison by helping the FBI with cybercrime and cybersecurity matters — First-year college students are understandably frustrated when they can't get into popular upper-level electives. But they usually just gripe.

Tweets: @ieeespectrum and @scottjshapiro

The Verge:

A California jury finds Google's products infringed on a Sonos smart speaker patent and orders Google to pay $32.5M, or $2.30 for each of the 14M+ devices sold — Google has been ordered to pay Sonos $32.5 million for infringing on the company's smart speaker patent.

More: Law360 and Engadget. Tweets: @chriswelch

Karissa Bell / Engadget:

Bluesky rolls out a “custom feeds” feature that lets users subscribe to different algorithms and make their own for others to use; most are not chronological — A future update will allow users to create their own within the app. — Bluesky, the Jack Dorsey-backed decentralized …

More: The Verge

FinSMEs:

Germany-based Sastrify, which operates a marketplace for buying and managing SaaS subscriptions, raised a $32M Series B, bringing its total funding to $55.2M — Sastrify, a Cologne, Germany-based provider of a platform for buying and managing SaaS subscriptions, raised $32M in Series B funding.

More: Sifted, Sastrify, PYMNTS.com, IBS Intelligence, Tech Funding News, Tech.eu, EU-Startups, and Silicon Canals

Mengqi Sun / Wall Street Journal:

Sources: the US SEC's record $279M whistleblower award in May 2023 stemmed from Ericsson pleading guilty to breaching a $1.1B settlement in a 2019 bribery case — The largest-ever award in the SEC's cash-for-tips program was related to Ericsson's bribery case

More: DatacenterDynamics and Reuters

Tweets: @clancyreports, @davidmwessel, and @swrighteconomy

Wired:

An interview with Pitchfork EIC Puja Patel on how AI is infiltrating every single aspect of music, AI-generated music's ownership and money concerns, and more — We talk to Puja Patel, editor in chief of Pitchfork and cohost of The Pitchfork Review, about how AI is taking over our feeds and where it goes from here.

Tweets: @laurengoode and @wired

Bloomberg:

France's CNIL says Microsoft changed the way the company tracks Bing users; CNIL fined Microsoft €60M in December 2022 and threatened fines of €60K per day — Microsoft Corp. has dodged further French privacy fines after the US firm made changes to the way it tracks users of its bing.com search engine.

More: Commission Nationale de l'Informatique et des Libertés. Tweets: @cnil_en

Hugh Son / CNBC:

Trademark filing: JPMorgan Chase is developing IndexGPT, a ChatGPT-like service that uses AI for “analyzing and selecting securities tailored to customer needs” — - JPMorgan Chase is developing a ChatGPT-like software service that leans on a disruptive form of artificial intelligence …

More: Decrypt, Quartz, VentureBeat, Fortune, CryptoPotato, CryptoGlobe, Barron's Online, and U.S. Patent and Trademark Office

Mastodon: @paul@social.paulkedrosky.com. Tweets: @peterschiff, @hugh_son, @trengriffin, @caroljsroth, @eclamb, @mfwarder, @manpageman, @donanderson88, @jeffrey_cane, @gregbensinger, and @j2dubyas

Emily A. Vogels / Pew Research Center:

A survey from March 2023: 58% of US adults have heard of ChatGPT but only 14% tried the tool themselves; 74% say ChatGPT is extremely, very, or somewhat useful — About six-in-ten U.S. adults (58%) are familiar with ChatGPT, though relatively few have tried it themselves, according to a Pew Research Center survey conducted in March.

More: The New Consumer. LinkedIn: Alicia Aebersold. Mastodon: @HilliTech@techhub.social. Tweets: @gregmushen, @dhtoomey, @lutherlowe, @joshuaogundu, @scottmaustin, @profjasonpotts, @benbajarin, @jai_bhavnani, @wwwojtekk, @alber_romgar, and @emollick

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From Mediagazer

Axios:

Sources: G/O Media sold business news brand Quartz and commerce site The Inventory to software firm Redbrick, the fourth Quartz ownership change in seven years

Katie Campione / Deadline:

WGA members “overwhelmingly” ratify a new three-year deal with CBS News that includes AI protections and is modeled after a recent ABC News contract

Ella Creamer / The Guardian:

A judicial panel consolidates 12 copyright cases against OpenAI and Microsoft in New York, including cases from Ta-Nehisi Coates, John Grisham, and the NYT

More News

Reuters:

The UK CMA says Meta offered to limit its use of other businesses' ad data for Facebook Marketplace, which the regulator thinks address its competition concerns

More: GOV.UK, GOV.UK, The Register, GOV.UK, Neowin, TechCrunch, Reuters, and Cryptopolitan. Tweets: @tweets_sachin1

Bloomberg:

DCG plans to shut down its institutional crypto trading service TradeBlock on May 31, 2023, citing the “crypto winter” and challenging US regulatory environment

Akriti Sharma / Reuters:

Neuralink says the company received US FDA approval to conduct its first in-human clinical trial of brain implants and plans to offer more details soon

Sarah Perez / TechCrunch:

YouTube plans to shut down Stories on June 26, 2023, as the company focuses on other key areas, like Shorts, Community posts, live videos, and its usual content

More: YouTube Community, Thurrott, The Verge, PCMag, iPhone in Canada Blog, Android Central, Gizchina, gHacks Technology News, Phandroid, Android Police, Techlusive, PhoneArena, Android Authority, GSMArena.com, Neowin, Social Media Today, Ars Technica, MobileSyrup, BGR, SlashGear, Gizmodo, Lifewire, 9to5Google, Mashable, Digital Trends, and Slashdot

Mastodon: @carnage4life@mas.to. Tweets: @ibxtoycat and @mukund

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

More: TechCrunch, Voicebot.ai, 9to5Mac, Wccftech, MacRumors, Livemint, Metaverse Post, MobileSyrup, Gizchina, Coinspeaker, BGR, Inc42 Media, Techlusive, methodshop, Thurrott, SiliconANGLE, Engadget, gHacks Technology News, and iMore. Tweets: @openai

Earlier Picks

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”

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

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

More: New York Times, Bloomberg, Microsoft On the Issues, Reuters, Cointelegraph, OnMSFT.com, Engadget, Cryptonews, Silicon Republic, CyberScoop, Decrypt, BigTechWire, CNN, Wall Street Journal, iTnews, PCMag, Neowin, GeekWire, The Hill, CNBC, Livemint, and Slashdot

LinkedIn: Satya Nadella, Frank X. Shaw, Eric Horvitz, Jon Adams, and Hector de Rivoire

Tweets: @bradsmi, @alexplitsas, @stevesi, @cat_zakrzewski, @dcallahan2, @wavesblog, @erichorvitz, @satyanadella, @dinabass, @dinabass, @adamthierer, and @wavesblog

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