Techmeme
December 11, 2023, 9:55 AM

Top News

Associated Press:
X lifts the permanent ban on Infowars host Alex Jones, after Elon Musk conducted a 24-hour poll, resulting in 70.1% voting in favor of restoring Jones' account  —  Elon Musk has restored the X account of conspiracy theorist Alex Jones, pointing to a poll on the social media platform formerly known …
More: Engadget, Reuters, Telegraph, Politico, Reuters, The Hill, Fortune, Axios, Washington Post, Silicon Republic, Business Insider, Social Media Today, TechCrunch, Gizmodo, The Messenger, PCMag, Deadline, New.blicio.us, CNN, The Messenger, New York Daily News, CNBC, Reclaim The Net, Rolling Stone, South China Morning Post, Bloomberg, Wall Street Journal, Variety, Forbes, WAVY-TV, and New York Times
Sara Dorn / Forbes:
In a 2+ hour talk on X with Alex Jones, Andrew Tate, Jack Posobiec, and others, Elon Musk said X should avoid outright bans unless users “do something illegal”  —  Elon Musk and conspiracy theorist Alex Jones, newly reinstated to X after a five-year ban, launched a live-streamed chat …
Cade Metz / New York Times:
Paris-based Mistral AI raised €385M from a16z, Lightspeed, and others, sources say at a ~$2B valuation, and releases its open-source La plateforme model  —  The company has publicly released its latest technology so people can build their own chatbots.  Rivals like OpenAI and Google argue that approach can be dangerous.
Ingrid Lunden / TechCrunch:
London-based SumUp, which offers payments and other financial services to ~4M SMBs, raised €285M at a valuation higher than its $8.5B valuation in June 2022  —  SumUp — the fintech that provides payments and related services to some 4 million small businesses in Europe …
Quynh Nguyen / Bloomberg:
Vietnamese media reports Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang sees Vietnam as a potential second home for the Silicon Valley company and plans to open a design center there  —  Huang, speaking at a Hanoi semiconductor and artificial intelligence conference hosted by a Vietnam ministry Monday …
Ana Swanson / New York Times:
The US awards the first CHIPS Act grant to BAE Systems, giving the defense contractor $35M to boost production of chips used in F-15 and F-35 fighter jets  —  The award, which will go to BAE Systems, is part of a new government program aimed at creating a more secure supply of semiconductors.
Kevin Roose / New York Times:
A look at the Effective Accelerationism movement, which argues for open sourcing AI tools, says AI's benefits far outweigh its harms, and opposes AI regulation  —  The eccentric pro-tech movement known as “Effective Accelerationism” wants to unshackle powerful A.I., and party along the way.
Washington Post:
US officials: China's military is ramping up its ability to disrupt key US infrastructure, including targeting a Hawaii utility and a West Coast port in 2023  —  A utility in Hawaii, a West Coast port and a pipeline are among the victims in the past year, officials say
Olivia Poh / Bloomberg:
TikTok plans to invest $1.5B in a joint venture with GoTo, aiming to comply with regulations in Indonesia so that TikTok can restart its shopping service there  —  - Chinese firm will combine its shopping business with GoTo unit  — TikTok has used Indonesia as template for global shopping push

Sponsor Posts

TELUS Digital:
Are you ready for the era of agentic AI?  —  Tech leaders are always talking about what's next, and right now, agentic AI is dominating the discourse.  Equip yourself with the info you need in this recorded webinar.
Tribe AI:
State of AI: Adoption, Challenges and Recommendations  —  Examining the current state of AI, the key challenges organizations face, and practical recommendations for utilizing AI integration alongside other best practices.
Zoho:
Everything new in the Zoho Sign iOS mobile app  —  Ranked highly in the iOS App Store (4.9 stars), Zoho Sign's mobile app for iPhone is a user favorite.  We're thrilled to share that the app has been enhanced …
IDrive:
Protecting your Cloud Applications Data  —  Backing up Office 365, Google Workspace, Dropbox & Box data is critical to preventing data loss or corruption, complying with laws and avoiding critical downtime in case of a disaster.

Featured Podcasts

Grit:
Flexport's Third Act: Winning in a Broken Global Trade System
Grit explores what it takes to create, build and scale world-class organizations.
Subscribe to Grit.
Lenny's Podcast:
Everyone's an engineer now: Inside v0's mission to create a hundred million builders | Guillermo Rauch (founder & CEO of Vercel, creators of v0 and Next.js)
Interviews with world-class product leaders and growth experts to uncover actionable advice to help you build, launch, and grow your own product.
Subscribe to Lenny's Podcast.
Techmeme Ride Home:
Why COULDN'T Apple Make An iPhone In The US?
The day's tech news, every day at 5pm ET. Fifteen minutes and you're up to date.
Subscribe to Techmeme Ride Home.
The Logan Bartlett Show:
Derek Thompson (Writer, The Atlantic) and Zach Weinberg (Co-founder & CEO, Curie.Bio) Discuss the Tariff Withdrawal and America's Future
A podcast hosted by Logan Bartlett, an investor at Redpoint Ventures, covering tech with industry insiders.
Subscribe to The Logan Bartlett Show.
Hard Fork:
Big Tech's Tariff Chaos + A.I. 2027 + Llama Drama
The future is already here. Each week, journalists Kevin Roose and Casey Newton explore and make sense of the latest in the rapidly changing world of tech.
Subscribe to Hard Fork.
Great Chat:
The bull case for domestic manufacturing
A podcast mostly about tech. Brought to you weekly by Angela Du, Sally Shin, Mac Bohannon, Helen Min, and Ashley Mayer.
Subscribe to Great Chat.
 

About This Page

This is a Techmeme archive page. It shows how the site appeared at 9:55 AM ET, December 11, 2023.

The most current version of the site as always is available at our home page. To view an earlier snapshot click here and then modify the date indicated.

More News

Washington Post:

Earlier Picks

Zack Abrams / The Block: