Techmeme: Q&A with Laela Sturdy, the head of Alphabet's growth stage venture arm CapitalG, about its decision-making process, AI strategy, Stripe's valuation, and more (Connie Loizos/TechCrunch)

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February 18, 2024, 3:00 PM

Top News

Javier Espinoza / Financial Times:

Sources: the EU plans to fine Apple around €500M for allegedly breaking EU law over access to music streaming services, following a 2019 complaint by Spotify — Move is culmination of long-running European Commission antitrust probe after a complaint by Spotify

More: The Verge, Bloomberg, 9to5Mac, Engadget, The Information, Business Post, Irish Examiner, Neowin, Benzinga, FE Tech Bytes, Amwal Al Ghad, Reuters, Politico, iMore, Supercharged, City A.M., The Irish Times, AppleInsider, Channel NewsAsia, and The Economic Times

X: @geradinlaw, @florian4gamers, @florian4gamers, @laurbjn, @ugambini, @moo9000, @ellisitems, @florian4gamers, and @carnage4life

LinkedIn: Thomas Höppner and Damien Geradin

Forums: Hacker News and r/apple

See also Mediagazer

Mark Gurman / Bloomberg:

Apple Store sources: Vision Pro returns are between average and above average compared to other products; in-store demo conversion rate is as high as 10% to 15% — The Apple Vision Pro has now been available for two weeks — and some of Apple's most dedicated customers are returning the device to get back their $3,500.

More: Supercharged, Spyglass, TweakTown, Digital Trends, and ZDNet

X: @markgurman and @rsgnl

Forums: Hacker News and r/apple

Adi Robertson / The Verge:

Apple's Vision Pro could become a valuable multiuser device, but it undermines that fantasy at every turn through its single-user setup and more

Threads: @jwolman. X: @mahyarm8

Michael Crider / PCWorld:

SPEC invalidates 2,600 benchmark results for some Intel Xeon CPUs, saying their compiler artificially inflated the results of its benchmark by as much as 9% — Benchmarks, while inherently contentious and not always representative of real-world performance, are an important tool in any kind of quantitative evaluation.

More: Tom's Hardware, Phoronix, ServeTheHome, TechSpot, and ServeTheHome

X: @servethehome, @drqz, @never_released, @servethehome, @coreteks, @dragonetti0311, @andrewhaley13, and @suzsu_

Forums: r/technology, r/LinusTechTips, and Slashdot

Matt Barnum / Wall Street Journal:

Hands-on with Khan Academy's ChatGPT-powered AI tutoring bot Khanmigo, which frequently makes basic arithmetic errors, as Khan Academy works to improve accuracy — Khanmigo, a ChatGPT-powered bot, made frequent calculation errors during a Journal reporter's test

More: Cryptopolitan

Zeke Faux / Bloomberg:

A Florida court filing accuses the Bahamas-based Deltec Bank of giving Alameda Research a short-term line of credit worth billions of dollars to buy Tether — - Deltec is alleged to have provided a short-term line of credit — Court documents suggest a tighter web than previously known

More: Cryptopolitan, Bitcoin Insider, and CoinGape

X: @cryptoattys, @zekefaux, @zekefaux, @ben_mckenzie, @patio11, @ben_mckenzie, @occamicrypto, @cduhaime, @professoryadav, @zekefaux, and @business

Steven Levy / Wired:

An interview with Bret Taylor and Clay Bavor, co-founders of conversational AI startup Sierra, on using several AI models at once, building AI agents, and more — Sierra hopes every company will use its empathetic AI chatbots for customer interactions. — I might have inadvertently …

X: @wired, @fractaldoctor, and @artsjournalnews

LinkedIn: Steven Levy and Mark Oehlert

Bloomberg:

Sources: the UK, the US, and other allies are working to provide Ukraine with thousands of new AI-enabled drones that could swarm Russian targets simultaneously — - Technology could help Ukraine overwhelm some Russian targets — Germany's Scholz calls on EU allies to increase Ukraine aid

More: US Department of Justice, The Guardian, The Record, New York Times, and The Hill

Mastodon: @laimis@mstdn.social and @noelreports@mstdn.social. Bluesky: @glynmoody.bsky.social. X: @tunguz

Forums: r/worldnews, r/technews, r/UkraineRussiaReport, r/anime_titties, r/UkrainianConflict, r/europe, and r/ukraine

Richard Nieva / Forbes:

A look at Nvidia's AI startup investments through Nventures and its corporate development team, deals that come with intangibles, like access to research teams — The trillion-dollar chipmaker has done over two dozen deals, through its Nventures investing arm and corporate development team.

X: @alexvoica, @alexrkonrad, @hkanji, and @richardjnieva

Connie Loizos / TechCrunch:

Q&A with Laela Sturdy, the head of Alphabet's growth stage venture arm CapitalG, about its decision-making process, AI strategy, Stripe's valuation, and more — Almost a year ago, Alphabet's growth stage venture arm, CapitalG, named partner Laela Sturdy as its new head, just as the unit's founder, David Lawee, stepped down.

Jessica Traynor / The Guardian:

A look at the data center economy of Ireland, which had 82 data centers in 2023, amid concerns about rolling blackouts due to pressure on the electrical grid — Datacentres are part of Ireland's vision of itself as a tech hub. There are now more than 80, using vast amounts of electricity.

Mastodon: @TeamMidwest@glammr.us, @icing@chaos.social, @jbond@mastodon.social, and @gerrymcgovern@mastodon.green

X: @meadwaj, @biomickwatson, @holtsfamilyhis1, @kenzabryan, and @jessicatraynor6

LinkedIn: Andrew Bochman, Claire Archibald, Mark Bjornsgaard, Elena Schlossberg, Frank Sheppard, and Julie Bolthouse

Amy Or / Bloomberg:

Sources: Reddit signed a deal early in 2024, worth ~$60M on an annualized basis, allowing a large unnamed AI company to train its models on Reddit's content — - Social media firm agrees $60 million deal with AI company — Reddit advised to seek at least $5 billion IPO valuation

More: The Verge, Reuters, Engadget, Mashable, Futurism, PCMag, and The Decoder

Threads: @pkedrosky. Mastodon: @mcc@mastodon.social, @fortyseven@defcon.social, and @ianbetteridge@writing …

X: @billym2k, @smtuffy, @rayredacted, @carnage4life, @robdziobon, @lukebk, @chrisamccoy, @josourcing, @privacymatters, @natarajsindam, @jason, @quinnypig, @jennifercobbe, and @awwstn

Forums: Hacker News, r/singularity, r/DefendingAIArt, r/synthesizers, r/aiwars, r/privacy, r/conspiracy, r/anime_titties, r/de, r/Meovely, r/technology, Beehaw, and Slashdot

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From Mediagazer

Athena Stavrou / The Independent:

More than 230 media industry professionals, including anonymous BBC staff, sign a letter accusing the BBC of bias favoring Israel in coverage of Gaza

Dominick Mastrangelo / The Hill:

Conservative radio host Hugh Hewitt quits as a contributing columnist at WaPo, after abruptly leaving a Post live video event hosted by Jonathan Capehart

CNBC:

Sources: Greek media company Antenna Group is in early talks to acquire Time from Marc Benioff, who bought the magazine in 2018 for $180M

More News

Tim Higgins / Wall Street Journal:

Elon Musk says his companies “have probably done more to undermine Russia than anything” and calls accusations that he is a Vladimir Putin apologist “absurd”

More: The Hindu, The Hill, and New York Post

Threads: @mark_savchuk_ukr. Mastodon: @kfury@mstdn.social. X: @wsjbusiness, @greg_ip, @kasparov63, @erratarob, @kasparov63, @elonmusk, @adamkinzinger, and @elonmusk

Telegraph:

Sources: UK chip designer Graphcore explores a sale to foreign owners in a deal that could be worth $500M+; rumored buyers include OpenAI, SoftBank, and Arm

More: City A.M., The Information, Bloomberg, and CoinGape

X: @mikethebbop and @ozpaniard

Washington Post:

How tech workers, spurred by geopolitical threats, are embracing battlefield tech; PitchBook: VCs invested $108B in defense tech companies between 2021 and 2023

Mastodon: @nitashatiku@mastodon.social. X: @g_delta753, @edwardmehr, @sunofjackson, @landsmanwayne, @aphysicist, @adoricko, and @filarons. LinkedIn: William Schlickenmaier

Maxwell Zeff / Gizmodo:

Despite Google and OpenAI's promises, Gemini and ChatGPT appear to have almost no safeguards against creating AI disinfo for the 2024 US presidential election

More: XDA Developers, The Decoder, Trak.in, and Engadget. X: @quinnypig

Alex Heath / The Verge:

Q&A with Figma CEO Dylan Field on managing the company after the failed sale to Adobe, maintaining culture, using the $1B breakup fee, expansion plans, and more

Mastodon: @marcedwards@mastodon.social. X: @carnage4life, @carnage4life, and @alexeheath. LinkedIn: Nairi Tashjian Hourdajian

Dell Cameron / Wired:

Sources: FISA's Section 702 bill was shelved over a rule that would end the government's ability to pay US firms for information rather than serving a warrant

More: Politico. Mastodon: @SteveThompson@mastodon.social. X: @deruweid, @katieconradks, and @amuchastegui

Forums: Hacker News, r/privacy, and r/politics

Earlier Picks

Menaka Doshi / Bloomberg:

A look at the global outreach of India's UPI, which has expanded to seven other Asian countries and now lets Indian tourists buy tickets at the Eiffel Tower

X: @menakadoshi, @business, and @advait_px. LinkedIn: Menaka Doshi

John Gruber / Daring Fireball:

Apple's reversal on RCS wasn't forced by the EU, but likely by China, whose government began codifying in 2023 a requirement for new 5G devices to support RCS

More: iPhone in Canada Blog, Supercharged, PhoneArena, 9to5Google, iClarified, Forbes, and 9to5Mac

Threads: @gruber. X: @gateklons and @florian4gamers. Forums: r/technology

Andy Robinson / Video Games Chronicle:

Sources: Nintendo told game publishers the Switch 2's launch is delayed from late 2024 to Q1 2025; source: Nintendo needs more time to prepare its own games

Bloomberg:

Sources: the Biden administration is in talks to confer more than $10B in subsidies to Intel, in what would be the largest award yet under the CHIPS Act

More: CGTN, Taipei Times, Wccftech, Runtime, Tom's Hardware, Reuters, Benzinga, and NewsBytes

New York Times:

Sources: OpenAI completed a deal valuing the startup at $80B or more, planning to let employees cash out their shares in a tender offer led by Thrive Capital

More: Tech Xplore, Cryptopolitan, Business Insider, Bloomberg, CryptoSlate, Thurrott, Cointelegraph, The Decoder, CoinGape, Business Post, Benzinga, and The Guardian

X: @beth_kindig. Forums: Hacker News, r/singularity, and r/technology