Techmeme
December 21, 2023, 4:15 AM

Top News

Mark Gurman / Bloomberg:
Sources: Apple is ramping up Vision Pro production, aiming for customer-bound units to be ready by the end of January and a retail debut planned for February  —  - Overseas manufacturing of the headset is running at full speed  — Vision Pro debut will vault Apple into new product category
The Verge:
Memo: Activision Blizzard CEO Bobby Kotick is leaving Microsoft on December 29; Activision's leadership remains and is being integrated into Microsoft Gaming  —  Activision Blizzard CEO Bobby Kotick is stepping down officially December 29th.  Microsoft has not appointed a direct replacement …
Emma Roth / The Verge:
Filing: the US ITC denies Apple's motion to stay the Watch Series 9 and Watch Ultra 2 import and sales ban while awaiting an appeal; Biden can veto the ban  —  Apple has lost its bid to delay an import and sales ban on the Watch Series 9 and Watch Ultra 2.  In a filing on Wednesday …
Bloomberg:
Stanford researchers: LAION-5B, a dataset of 5B+ images used by Stability AI and others, contains 1,008+ instances of CSAM, possibly helping AI to generate CSAM  —  The dataset has been used to build popular AI image generators, including Stable Diffusion.  —  A massive public dataset used …
Greg S. Fink / Car and Driver:
Aston Martin and Porsche preview bespoke interfaces for the next generation of Apple CarPlay, which integrates into all the displays of upcoming vehicle models  —  Apple is working with automakers to make a brand-distinct CarPlay experience.  — Apple's next-generation CarPlay environment arrives in 2024.
Kamya Pandey / MediaNama:
India's lower house of parliament passes the 2023 Telecommunication Bill, despite a lack of clarity on whether online services will fall under the bill's scope  —  Despite questions from several Members of the Parliament, Union Communications Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw did not provide …
Moneycontrol:
Email: Meta's India policy head Shivnath Thukral says the government could choose to apply its proposed telecom law to Meta's OTT services at a “future date”  —  Meta's India policy head Shivnath Thukral writes in an internal email, 'Govt could have sufficient discretion …
Cristiano Lima / Washington Post:
Michael Nuñez / VentureBeat:
Apple's AI researchers publish papers on using human gaussian splats to generate animated 3D avatars and deploying LLMs on devices with limited memory  —  Apple, a company practically synonymous with technological innovation, has once again positioned itself at the forefront of the AI revolution.
The Information:
Sources: Anthropic is in talks to raise $750M led by Menlo Ventures at a $15B valuation, tripling from spring 2023; its final valuation may top $18B  —  Anthropic is in talks to raise $750 million in a venture round led by Menlo Ventures that values the two-year-old artificial intelligence startup …
Morgan Sung / TechCrunch:
A look at the first annual VTuber Awards, a five-hour, live awards show for virtual YouTubers, hosted from an enclosed green box in WePlay's LA studio  —  Anime cat girls are at the forefront of tech innovation  —  On stream, Filian took the stage at the center of a colossal arena …
Patrick Coffee / Wall Street Journal:
Most big brands haven't yet created AI-specific roles despite many marketers fearing AI will change their jobs; Coca-Cola promoted two execs to new AI roles  —  Many marketers believe artificial intelligence will change their jobs forever.  But most big brands haven't created roles to oversee that process …
Lawrence Abrams / BleepingComputer:
Scammers are impersonating Binance, zkSync, and other crypto accounts on X by creating fake URLs to promote scams, giveaways, and more to steal crypto and NFTs  —  Cryptocurrency scammers are abusing a legitimate X “feature” to promote scams, fake giveaways, and fraudulent Telegram channels used to steal your crypto and NFTs.
More: The Verge
Leah Nylen / Bloomberg:
Pharmacy chain Rite Aid must stop using facial recognition for five years as part of a settlement with the US FTC, which says the tech falsely flagged customers  —  - FTC says chain's surveillance system falsely flagged customers  — Bankrupt pharmacy chain will stop using system, delete images

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More News

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Reed Albergotti / Semafor:
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Earlier Picks

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Bloomberg:
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David Shepardson / Reuters:
Sergiu Gatlan / BleepingComputer: