Techmeme
November 16, 2023, 7:50 AM

Top News

Will Knight / Wired:
YouTube lets some Shorts creators test Dream Track, a new DeepMind-powered AI tool to generate and remix music in the styles of nine artists, including Sia  —  YouTube creators will get to test a new AI tool that generates and remixes music in the style of several famous musicians, including Sia, Demi Lovato, and T-Pain.
Sarah Perez / TechCrunch:
Threads tests tags, a way of categorizing posts similar to hashtags without the # symbol being visible, initially in Australia and other countries “soon”  —  Instagram's Threads app has been duping Twitter/X in a number of ways and today it's adding one more feature that's been core …
Chris Welch / The Verge:
Meta rolls out new Instagram filters, and tests letting users create custom stickers from their photos and videos, improvements to Reels, and more  —  Instagram is changing a lot these days, especially when it comes to the ways in which we can share our content with others and segment different audiences.
Bloomberg:
Jane Zhang / Bloomberg:
Alibaba reports Q2 revenue up 9% YoY to ~$31B, beating ~$30.9B est., a ~$3.8B net income, up from a ~$3B loss in Q2 2022, and calls off its cloud spinoff  —  - The decision marks a dramatic reversal on a signature move  — Alibaba's historic six-way restructuring is now in doubt
Nathan Edwards / The Verge:
The Wireless Power Consortium says the first Qi v2.0 devices are arriving in time for the holidays and over 100 are in certification testing or waiting in line  —  Qi2 — the next version of the wireless charging standard, now with more magnets! — is more almost-here than ever.
K.J. Yossman / Variety:
Embracer reports Q2 net sales up 13% YoY to ~$1B, layoffs impacted 900 employees, or 5% of its workforce, and 36 fewer games are in development than Q2 2022  —  “Lord of the Rings” owner Embracer Group has reported a 13% increase in net sales year-on-year in Q2, in part thanks to its intensive restructuring program.
Charisma Madarang / Rolling Stone:
Elon Musk replied “You have said the actual truth” to an X user who, replying to a “Hitler was right” inquiry, accused Jewish groups of “hatred against whites”  —  The billionaire amplified a post Wednesday accusing the Jewish community of promoting “dialectical hatred against whites”
Sarah Scire / Nieman Lab:
Pew: 30% of US adults regularly get their news from Facebook, 26% from YouTube, 16% from Instagram, 14% TikTok, 12% X, 8% Reddit, and 5% Nextdoor and LinkedIn  —  Facebook may be ready to divorce the news business, but it's still the No. 1 source of news on social media for Americans.
Music Business Worldwide:
Dan Goodin / Ars Technica:
Tom Warren / The Verge:
Microsoft unveils Copilot Studio, a no-code tool that lets companies customize Microsoft 365 Copilot or integrate custom ChatGPT chatbots made with OpenAI's GPT  —  Last week OpenAI announced its new GPT platform to let anyone create their own version of ChatGPT, and now Microsoft is following …
Tom Warren / The Verge:
Supantha Mukherjee / Reuters:
TikTok joins Meta in challenging its EU DMA “gatekeeper” status, saying the service is “arguably the most capable challenger to more entrenched” rivals  —  TikTok on Thursday joined Meta (META.O) in appealing against the “gatekeeper” status under the Digital Markets Act …
Dean Takahashi / VentureBeat:
At its conference, Unity says the company plans to launch Unity 6 in 2024, details Unity Muse, an AI suite for content creation, and announces Unity Cloud  —  Unity, the global game engine and monetizationplatform, said that its Unity 6 platform will launch in 2024 with AI innovations and platform updates.
Connor Jones / The Register:
Security researchers detail the largest cyberattack against Danish critical infrastructure, which involved Zyxel zero-days and affected 22 companies in May 2023  —  Zyxel zero days and nation-state actors (maybe) had a hand in the sector's worst cybersecurity event on record
Leo Schwartz / Fortune:
Proton Mail CEO Andy Yen announces Key Transparency, a blockchain-based tool build on Proton's private chain to verify email addresses, in beta  —  Proton Mail, the leading privacy-focused email service, is making its first foray into blockchain technology with Key Transparency, which will allow users to verify email addresses.
Abner Li / 9to5Google:
Google launches two Titan Security Keys with FIDO2 that can store up to 250 unique passkeys, and commits to giving 100K security keys to high-risk users in 2024  —  Google has been selling its own line of Titan Security Keys for several years now, and new USB-C and USB-A models with NFC today let you store passkeys.

Sponsor Posts

Google:
Gemini 2.5 Pro: Our most intelligent AI model  —  Gemini 2.5 Pro (experimental) is now available, with thinking capabilities, enhanced performance, and improved accuracy.  Try it at no cost in the Gemini app.
UiPath:
UiPath Unveils 10 Innovations that Will Shape the Agentic Future  —  Orchestration engine, API workflows and agentic testing among key features of new UiPath Platform™ for agentic automation, launched at UiPath DevCon 2025
Zoho:
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IDrive:
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More News

Suvashree Ghosh / Bloomberg:
Julia Love / Bloomberg:

Earlier Picks

The Indian Express:
Thomas Wilde / GeekWire:
Ryan Tracy / Wall Street Journal:
Jay Peters / The Verge: