Techmeme
June 29, 2023, 3:45 PM

Top News

Alex Konrad / Forbes:
Inflection AI, a startup led by DeepMind co-founder Mustafa Suleyman that released its Pi chatbot in May 2023, raised $1.3B, a source says at a $4B valuation  —  Backed by Microsoft, Nvidia and billionaires Reid Hoffman, Bill Gates and Eric Schmidt, the startup led by ex-DeepMind leader Mustafa Suleyman …
Kent Walker / Google:
Google tells Canada's government it will remove Canadian news links from Search, News, and Discover and close Google News Showcase when Bill C-18 takes effect  —  President of Global Affairs, Google & Alphabet … The Government of Canada has enacted a new law called Bill C-18 …
Hannah Murphy / Financial Times:
Sources: Linda Yaccarino plans to add full-screen, sound-on video ads to Twitter's short-video feed and is wooing celebrities in the hopes of selling more ads  —  New CEO hits the ground running with plans for new ads offering and tells staff to get ready for ‘hand-to-hand combat’
Kotaku:
Niantic lays off 230 employees, closes its Los Angeles studio, and moves away from in-house game development, saying its expenses grew faster than its revenue  —  Pokémon Go will remain one of Niantic's top priorities moving forward  —  Niantic is shuttering its Los Angeles studio …
Frederic Lardinois / TechCrunch:
Microsoft adds AI-powered shopping tools, including GPT-generated buying guides in the US, to its Bing search engine and the Bing AI chatbot in Edge's sidebar  —  Microsoft today announced a slew of new AI-powered shopping tools for its new Bing search engine and the Bing AI chatbot in the Edge sidebar.
Patrick McGee / Financial Times:
Advertisers demand significant refunds from YouTube after an Adalytics report found millions of ads served via YouTube's TrueView system are hidden from users  —  Study shows millions of ads are hidden away in violation of Google-owned group's policies  —  Advertising industry figures …
Bloomberg:
Documents and sources: in the coming weeks, the FTC plans to file a far-reaching antitrust lawsuit against Amazon's marketplace, after months of honing its case  —  Lina Khan's Federal Trade Commission has already filed three cases against Amazon.com Inc. Now she's gearing up for the Big One.
Kellen Browning / New York Times:
Jess Weatherbed / The Verge:
Meta publishes a deep dive into how AI recommends Facebook and Instagram content, including 22 “system cards” covering AI use in Feed, Stories, Reels, and more  —  Meta has published a deep dive into the company's social media algorithms in a bid to demystify how content is recommended for Instagram and Facebook users.
Joshua Wolens / PC Gamer:
Reddit user sliced_lime, most likely Mojang's Mikael Hedberg, says Mojang no longer plans to post changelogs to r/Minecraft due to Reddit's API pricing changes  —  The Minecraft subreddit won't be a source for official Mojang communications going forward.  —  If you want official updates …
Jay Peters / The Verge:
Krisztian Sandor / CoinDesk:
Binance says its euro banking partner Paysafe plans to stop supporting the exchange on September 26, after a retreat from the UK, the Netherlands, and Cyprus  —  The exchange recently announced retreats from the U.K., Netherlands and Cyprus.  —  Binance's euros banking partner …
Bloomberg:
Filing: Fidelity refiles for a spot bitcoin ETF with the US SEC, following similar applications from BlackRock, Invesco, WisdomTree, Valkyrie, and others  —  Fidelity Investments is the latest financial services heavyweight to throw its name into the race to offer the first US exchange-traded fund investing in Bitcoin.
Matt Burgess / Wired:
Activists and researchers file a GDPR complaint against Pornhub in Italy, claiming the company is “illegally” handling users' data; the process could take years  —  Complaints filed in the European Union claim the porn site fails to follow basic data-collection policies under GDPR.
Nikkei Asia:
Sources: TSMC and its suppliers plan to send several hundred more workers from Taiwan to Arizona to speed up building its US plant, which is behind schedule  —  World's largest contract chipmaker faces delays in Arizona project as market slows  —  Construction of TSMC's chip plant in Arizona …
Ina Fried / Axios:
ADL survey of 2,139 US people: 33% of adults and 51% of teens aged 13 to 17 reported being harassed online in 2023, up from 23% and 36%, respectively, in 2022  —  More than half of Americans say they have experienced hate or harassment online, according to a new survey from the Anti-Defamation League …
Brandy Betz / CoinDesk:
Vienna-based One Trading, formerly called Bitpanda Pro, raised a €30M Series A led by Valar Ventures, as the digital asset exchange separates from Bitpanda  —  The crypto exchange has split from Bitpanda and now operates as One Trading.  —  Austria-based One Trading …
Rachel Metz / Bloomberg:
NYC-based Runway AI, which lets customers generate videos from text prompts, raised $141M from Google, Nvidia, and others, taking its total funding to ~$237M  —  Runway AI Inc., whose artificial intelligence software can create a short video from just a few typed words …
Washington Post:
Meta's Oversight Board calls for Meta to suspend Cambodian PM Hun Sen on Facebook and Instagram, the first time the Board has asked Meta to ban a head of state  —  MANILA — The social media giant Meta's Oversight Board called Thursday for the immediate suspension of Cambodian Prime Minister …

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Earlier Picks

Stephen Nellis / Reuters:
Gerrit De Vynck / Washington Post:
Kim Zetter / Zero Day:
Ian King / Bloomberg: