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January 11, 2024, 11:15 AM
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| Louise Matsakis / Semafor: |
Google lays off hundreds of staff working on Assistant and says the restructuring would help improve Assistant as the company explores integrating newer AI tech — Google is laying off hundreds of people working on its voice-activated Google Assistant software and eliminating a similar number …
More: TechCrunch, The Verge, Reuters, Search Engine Land, PCMag, Bloomberg, The Register, Axios, Computerworld, PYMNTS.com, New York Post, KNSD-TV, Google Help Center, Neowin, MacDailyNews, TechStartups, Silicon Republic, Gizchina, Tech in Asia, and MSPoweruser
Mastodon: @carnage4life@mas.to. X: @alphabetworkers, @izzyz, @byjulialove, and @lmatsakis. LinkedIn: Emil Protalinski. Forums: Hacker News
| Abner Li / 9to5Google: |
Google reorganizes its Devices & Services teams responsible for Pixel, Fitbit, and Nest; Fitbit co-founders James Park and Eric Friedman are leaving Google — Google is reorganizing the Devices & Services teams responsible for Pixel, Nest, and Fitbit hardware.
More: The Verge, Thurrott, TechCrunch, Road to VR, Android Police, Tech.co, Phandroid, Neowin, MIXED Reality News, Beyond Search, Android Authority, Proactive, MSPoweruser, Gadgets & Wearables, and Business Insider
Threads: @ztlaidlaw. Bluesky: @mhwilliams.bsky.social. X: @jrichlive. LinkedIn: Henry Kirk. Forums: Hacker News and Beehaw
| Nico Grant / New York Times: |
Sources: several hundred Google engineering employees received notices that their roles were eliminated and lost corporate access; most hardware cuts were in AR — The company, which has been working to trim expenses, laid off employees who worked on core engineering, the Google Assistant product and hardware such as the Pixel phone.| Reuters: |
The US SEC approves spot bitcoin ETFs from BlackRock, Grayscale, ARK 21Shares, Bitwise, WisdomTree, Fidelity, VanEck, Invesco, Valkyrie, Hashdex, and Franklin — The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission has approved 11 spot bitcoin exchange-traded funds, including those of Grayscale …
More: Coinbase, Grayscale Investments, CoinDesk, PYMNTS.com, New York Times, Decrypt, Crypto Daily, Fortune, CryptoSlate, CoinDesk, BBC, Wall Street Journal, CoinDesk, Reuters, Cointelegraph, The Block, Bloomberg, Cointelegraph, Bitcoin Insider, The Block, Bitcoin News, Reuters, Bitwise Investments, Cointelegraph, CoinDesk, Blockworks, Unchained, Engadget, CyberScoop, Blockworks, Gizmodo, The Daily Hodl, Decrypt, The Defiant, Forkast, Ticker, Nasdaq, BNN Bloomberg, Business Insider, CoinGape, Fortune, Decrypt, The Block, and The Block
X: @hesterpeirce, @gopmajoritywhip, @bitwiseinvest, @grayscale, @fti_us, @stevennerayoff, @saylor, @senlummis, @gaborgurbacs, @defisquared, @bitcoinpierre, @fintechfrank, @snowden, @campbelljaustin, @janvaneck3, @repjohnrose, @sherlock_hodles, @tradermercury, @johnedeaton1, @dougielarge, @adamscochran, @ryansadams, @barrysilbert, @iampaulgrewal, @hhorsley, @fintechfrank, @demirelo, @econoar, @grayscale, @propelforward, @collins_belton, @aubreystrobel, @jbrukh, @fintechfrank, @jbsdc, @mattomattik, @pythianism, @tusharjain_, @neerajka, @daveweisberger1, @balajis, @davidsacks, @laurashin, @nategeraci, @3orovik, @shaunmmaguire, @s_alderoty, @twobitidiot, @punk6529, @daancrypto, @tradermayne, @pentosh1, @lsdinmycoffee, @cburniske, @teeznutz11, @tree_of_alpha, @jseyff, @tree_of_alpha, @neuralinkdb, @nitwitty, @ericbalchunas, @cgasparino, @jseyff, @nategeraci, and @fintechfrank
Forums: Hacker News and Slashdot
| Jesse Hamilton / CoinDesk: |
US SEC Chair Gary Gensler concedes that losing in court after rejecting Grayscale's spot bitcoin ETF left the agency with little choice but to approve such ETFs — The SEC chair said a court forced his hand and that the agency's decision to greenlight a spot bitcoin ETF doesn't signal support of that or any other digital asset.| Abner Li / 9to5Google: |
Google plans to remove 17 “underutilized” Assistant features in February, including controlling audiobooks, media alarms, recipes, messages, events, and more — Bard is the future of Assistant. Ahead of that happening, Google announced today that Assistant features with low usage will be removed in February.| Reuters: |
USDC stablecoin issuer Circle confidentially files for a US IPO, without saying the number of shares for sale or a price range; Circle was valued at $9B in 2022 — Circle Internet Financial, the company behind stablecoin USDC, said on Thursday that it had confidentially filed … | Krystal Hu / Reuters: |
Ripple Labs, the creator of the XRP cryptocurrency, plans to buy back $285M in shares from early investors and employees, sources say at an $11.3B valuation — Cryptocurrency company Ripple Labs, known for its XRP coins, is buying back $285 million worth of shares in the company … | Matt Burgess / Wired: |
A researcher finds 800GB of data online tied to school software maker Raptor, used by 5,300+ US districts, including evacuation plans and student medical files — More than 4 million school records, including safety procedures, student medical files, and court documents, were also publicly accessible online.| Bloomberg: |
Sources describe how AI replaced the metaverse as Mark Zuckerberg's top priority, leading Meta to ruthlessly cut jobs and focus on quickly releasing AI products — Meta's founder has become deeply engaged in his company's AI efforts ahead of its 20th anniversary, but his close attention hasn't always proved to be a recipe for success.| Emma Roth / The Verge: |
After announcing the $199 R1 “Large Action Model” AI handheld at CES, Rabbit sold 10K units in one day; second batch orders are set to ship in April to May 2024 — The R1, the pocket-size gadget from Rabbit that's supposed to use your apps for you, has already sold out of its first batch.
More: Gizmodo, MobileSyrup, SamMobile, TweakTown, BGR, Analytics India Magazine, and Business Today
| Dina Bass / Bloomberg: |
Google Cloud eliminates fees for customers who leave for a rival service, effective immediately, which may put pressure on Amazon and Microsoft to do the same — Antirust officials have been looking at cloud data-transfer policies — The cost of switching between cloud-computing providers … | Charisma Madarang / Rolling Stone: |
Dudesy, an AI-driven podcast curated by humans, releases an hour-long comedy special featuring an AI-generated recreation of George Carlin, who died in 2008 — The hour-long special arrived from Dudesy, a podcast run by artificial intelligence … Following the special's release …
More: Variety, MovieWeb, The Messenger, Forbes, Cryptopolitan, The Hollywood Reporter, and USA Today
Bluesky: @harbourfordyce.bsky.social and @remeneramasi.bsky.social
| Kat Tenbarge / NBC News: |
Analysis: Google and Bing show deepfake porn images of female celebrities atop search results for their names plus “deepfakes”, “fake nudes”, and other terms — Google and other search engines include nonconsensual deepfake porn in top image search results alongside tools …
X: @cecianasta, @cecianasta, and @benjamingoggin
| Dominic-Madori Davis / TechCrunch: |
PitchBook: female-founded US companies raised $44.4B out of $170.59B in VC funding in 2023; companies with all-female founding teams raised ~$3.1B, down 39% YoY — Female-founded companies in the U.S. raised $44.4 billion out of the $170.59 billion in venture capital allocated last year.| Moneycontrol: |
ByteDance plans to shut down music streaming service Resso in India on January 31, after removing the App Store and Google Play apps in mid-December 2023 — ByteDance said all existing users of Resso in India will be offered a full refund for the remainder of their subscription fees| Todd Spangler / Variety: |
Netflix says its ad tier has 23M+ MAUs globally, up from 15M+ in November 2023, and 85% of customers on the ad tier are streaming for over 2 hours per day — Netflix is seeing strong growth of its advertising-based plan, having recently eclipsed 23 million global monthly active users, president of advertising Amy Reinhard said.| Bloomberg: |
After spending $13M+ on US lobbying in the past decade, Huawei quietly shutters its in-house lobbying operation, ending an effort to overturn the US bans — - Chinese firm lost its last Washington fixers in recent months — Hired hands and Huawei itself have told Congress they're done
More: Huawei Central
| Chris Kerr / gamedeveloper: |
Filing: ironSource founders, including CEO and Unity Grow president Tomer Bar-Zeev, are exiting Unity amid mass layoffs; Unity merged with ironSource in 2022 — IronSource CEO Tomer Bar-Zeev and his fellow co-founders are stepping down effective immediately.
More: Globes Online, Game World Observer, and Pocket Gamer.biz
| Kyle Wiggers / TechCrunch: |
OpenAI launches ChatGPT Team, a new subscription plan for teams of up to 149 people, for $30 per user per month, or $25 per user per month billed annually — OpenAI is launching a new subscription plan for ChatGPT, its viral AI-powered chatbot, aimed at smaller, self-service-oriented teams.
More: OpenAI, Engadget, SlashGear, ITPro, Music Ally, TechRadar, Coinspeaker, Pocket-lint, Cryptopolitan, MSPoweruser, Analytics India Magazine, Search Engine Journal, TechRepublic, Proactive, TestingCatalog, ZDNet, and SiliconANGLE
X: @gdb, @davidsacks, @ideafaktory, @parkerortolani, @openai, @officiallogank, @jordannovet, and @dlevine815. Forums: Hacker News
| Rachel Metz / Bloomberg: |
More: OpenAI, PCMag, The Information, The Verge, InfoWorld, TechCrunch, TechStartups, Analytics Insight, VentureBeat, WinBuzzer, Mashable, Silicon Republic, MediaNama, The Hill, Axios, Business Insider, Tech.co, TestingCatalog, The Guardian, The Messenger, TechRadar, Gizmodo, Reuters, and Wired
X: @sama, @sama, @gdb, @sundeep, @frantzfries, @officiallogank, @openai, @haydenfield, @kraftful, @inafried, and @rowancheung
LinkedIn: Emil Protalinski and Jorge Alcantara Barroso
Forums: Hacker News and Slashdot
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