Techmeme: Mark Zuckerberg wins his bid to avoid personal liability in about two dozen lawsuits accusing Meta and other companies of addicting children to their products (Rachel Graf/Bloomberg)

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April 16, 2024, 9:25 AM

Top News

Financial Times:

Microsoft invests $1.5B in Abu Dhabi-based AI group G42 for a minority stake, after G42 severed ties with Chinese suppliers; Brad Smith will join G42's board — Agreement is latest move by US tech group to extend its reach into fast-growing sector — Microsoft has agreed to invest $1.5bn …

Bloomberg:

Sources: in 2023, Abu Dhabi's G42 and the US Commerce Department held talks that led to G42 agreeing to pare back its China presence to avoid punitive measures

More: Reuters, New York Times, CCN.com, Maginative, Silicon Republic, Cryptopolitan, Wall Street Journal, GeekWire, and Tech Xplore

X: @dinabass and @stuartlwallace

Raphael Satter / Reuters:

The Open Source Security Foundation and the OpenJS Foundation say the attempt to insert a secret backdoor into XZ Utils “may not be an isolated incident” — The recent attempt by an unknown actor to sabotage a widely used software program may have been one of several attempts …

More: Open Source Security …, Security Affairs, TechRadar, Infosecurity, ComputerWeekly.com, The Record, and Cybersecurity Dive

Mastodon: @danimo@chaos.social, @thegibson@hackers.town, and @rechelon@mastodon.social. X: @_msw_

Matthew Connatser / The Register:

Intel's Gaudi 3 white paper details the made-for-China processors HL-328 and HL-388, likely designed to comply with US sanctions by reducing performance — Intel is set to launch two China-exclusive models of its Gaudi 3 AI accelerator, and they'll be substantially crippled to fit in with US sanctions.

More: Intel, Reuters, Benzinga, Pandaily, TechNode, and TrendForce Insights

Abner Li / 9to5Google:

YouTube begins “strengthening our enforcement on third-party apps that violate” its ToS and “specifically ad-blocking apps”, leading to app error messages — Following the ad blocker crackdown, YouTube is explicitly going after third-party — often mobile — apps that let viewers skip advertising.

Benjamin Sandofsky / Sandofsky:

A look at the failure of Humane's Ai Pin, which took six years to ship after raising $230M, including building the device “the Apple way” and raising too much — Why You Can't Build Apple with Venture Capital — An ex-Apple designer who went on to startup success once told me …

More: Platformer, Macworld, BBC, TechSpot, and Business Insider

Mastodon: @akosma@mastodon.online, @jasonpettus@mastodon.cloud, and @sandofsky@mastodon.social

X: @samsheffer, @carnage4life, @gergelyorosz, @wesamo__, and @mkbhd. Forums: r/videos

Foo Yun Chee / Reuters:

EU antitrust regulators are questioning Broadcom about changes to VMware's licensing conditions, following complaints from EU business users and a trade group — U.S. chipmaker Broadcom (AVGO.O) is being asked by EU antitrust regulators about changes to newly acquired cloud computing company …

More: Tech Monitor, Broadcom Inc., TechRadar, The Register, Constellation Research, and Benzinga

Bluesky: @marypcbuk.bsky.social. X: @codykirkpatrick, @broadcom, and @dcasota. Forums: r/vmware

David Pierce / The Verge:

Limitless launches the $99 Limitless Pendant, a wearable AI gadget that transcribes meetings and provides real-time notes and summaries, shipping in August 2024 — The Limitless Pendant doesn't exactly scream “AI.” As Dan Siroker, the CEO of the company behind the new device …

More: Tom's Guide, iMore, and Spyglass

Threads: @martinsfp and @hi.nixson. Mastodon: @peter@thepit.social. Bluesky: @mikalfm.bsky.social

X: @petergyang, @dsiroker, @dsiroker, @linusekenstam, @gartenberg, @erondu, @scobleizer, @quinnypig, @stevendarlow, @stammy, @dsiroker, @stammy, @rauchg, @stammy, @scobleizer, @lan8ach, and @nickadobos. Forums: Hacker News

Jennifer A. Kingson / Axios:

Meta plans to launch a new education product for Quest that will let teachers access education apps for students ages 13+ and manage multiple headsets at once — - In time for the fall semester, it'll make available a suite of visually engrossing education apps that teachers can use with students ages 13+.

Vittoria Elliott / Wired:

Meta's Oversight Board plans to investigate two deepfake porn cases, both involving unnamed celebrities who had their images altered to create explicit content — Social platforms have struggled to quickly remove deepfake porn depicting celebrities. — As AI tools become increasingly sophisticated …

More: Engadget, Oversight Board, PCMag, Reuters, TechCrunch, Business Standard, The Hill, The News International, WHDH-TV, Oversight Board, Agence France-Presse, Bloomberg, and Panda Security Mediacenter

X: @oversightboard, @oversightboard, and @oversightboard. LinkedIn: Simona Sikimic-French

Artificial Intelligence Index:

Stanford's AI Index report: training top AI models is way more expensive, AI still trails humans on complex tasks, people are more nervous about AI, and more — Welcome to the seventh edition of the AI Index report. The 2024 Index is our most comprehensive to date and arrives …

More: Artifical Intelligence Index, Semafor, IEEE Spectrum, Axios, WinBuzzer, New York Times, Stanford HAI, PYMNTS.com, The Decoder, Stanford HAI, San Francisco Chronicle, EnterpriseAI, and SiliconANGLE

X: @stanfordhai, @jamiemetzl, @jordannovet, @benjaminklieger, @stanfordhai, @epochairesearch, @stanfordhai, @jsevillamol, @stanfordnlp, @stanfordnlp, @ankareuel, @russellwald, and @stanfordnlp

LinkedIn: Corey Noles and Heather E.

Forums: r/singularity, r/MachineLearning, r/artificial, and Slashdot

Rachel Graf / Bloomberg:

Mark Zuckerberg wins his bid to avoid personal liability in about two dozen lawsuits accusing Meta and other companies of addicting children to their products — US District Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers, who is overseeing the cases, sided with the Meta chief executive officer in a ruling issued Monday.

More: 9to5Mac, Reuters, TechSpot, International Business Times, Benzinga, and NewsBytes

Natasha Lomas / TechCrunch:

Mozilla and CheckFirst: Apple, Google, Meta, and others' ad transparency efforts are a work in progress, months after the EU's DSA mandated a searchable library — Efforts by tech giants to be more transparent about the ads they run are — at very best — still a work in progress …

More: 9to5Mac, Euractiv, Mozilla Foundation, Cybernews.com, CNBC, CheckFirst, Mozilla Foundation, and Adweek

X: @ecranmobilefr and @checkfirsthq

Julie Creswell / New York Times:

Ghost kitchens and virtual restaurant brands, which boomed during the pandemic after raising billions, are disappearing due to overtaxed kitchens and complaints — Ghost kitchens and virtual brands became a way for idle restaurant kitchens to generate revenue.

Mastodon: @carnage4life@mas.to

Paul Alcorn / Tom's Hardware:

AMD unveils Ryzen Pro 8040 series for commercial laptops and mobile workstations and Ryzen Pro 8000 series for desktops, adding a neural processing unit for AI — AMD is the first with a Pro desktop PC chip with an NPU for AI workloads. — AMD announced its Ryzen Pro portfolio today …

More: PCWorld, PCMag, Windows Central, CNBC, Phoronix, Game Rant, Liliputing, Advanced Micro Devices, Inc., and Wccftech

Olivia Carville / Bloomberg:

How scammers, often from Nigeria, are using sextortion to target teenage boys on social media in the US, leading to at least 20 suicides over an 18-month period — One word from a stranger on social media was all it took. “Hey,” she said. — Jordan DeMay read the Instagram message at 10:19 p.m. on a Thursday night in March 2022.

More: Bloomberg. X: @livcarville, @markmilian, @sonalibasak, @cavandy, and @rfriedman305. Forums: r/Instagram

Sabrina Willmer / Bloomberg:

Filing: MGM sues the FTC to stop an investigation into a 2023 cyberattack and asks for Chair Lina Khan's recusal; Khan stayed at the MGM Grand in September 2023 — - Agency chair Lina Khan was visiting resort during cyber attack — Lawsuit alleges FTC asked company for ‘100 categories’ of data

More: Daring Fireball

Ricardo Brito / Reuters:

Letter: X's lawyers tell Brazil's Supreme Court that the social media platform will comply with every ruling issued by the court or Brazil's top electoral court — Lawyers representing Elon Musk's X told Brazil's Supreme Court that the social media platform will comply with every ruling issued …

More: Social Media Today and CoinGape

Threads: @wolfgangbremer. X: @globalaffairs, @apagliar, and @xdaily. Forums: r/technology

Bloomberg:

Bain Capital agrees to sell UK payroll software company Zellis, acquired in 2017, to Apax Partners; sources say the deal values Zellis at ~£1.25B — - Apax said to fund deal with £450 million private credit loan — Zellis counts Harrods and carmaker Jaguar among its customers

More: PYMNTS.com

Yoolim Lee / Bloomberg:

South Korea-based AI startup Upstage raised a $72M Series B from SK Networks, SBVA, formerly known as SoftBank Ventures Asia, and other investors — Artificial intelligence startup Upstage secured 100 billion won ($72 million) from investors including SK Networks Co. and KT Corp. to bankroll …

More: Pulse 2.0, Upstage, KED Global, Tech in Asia, and The Investor

Kari Paul / The Guardian:

A look at Neopets, a website launched in 1999 to let users care for virtual pets, including how the site survived multiple acquisitions and Flash's phasing out — An icon of millennials' childhoods languished for nearly two decades. Now it's attempting a comeback - banking on the fact that it hasn't changed at all

X: @blakersdozen

Billy Perrigo / TIME:

Google's Jigsaw expands Perspective API, a set of ML tools that help moderators and researchers identify toxicity, with seven attributes, including nuance — In the 1990s and early 2000s, technologists made the world a grand promise: new communications technologies would strengthen democracy …

X: @mer__edith, @prestonjbyrne, @jigsaw, @billyperrigo, @jigsaw, and @jigsaw. LinkedIn: Reza Ghazinouri

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About This Page

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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.

From Mediagazer

New York Times:

Court docs detail a smear campaign against actor Blake Lively via media articles and social media posts after she accused director Justin Baldoni of misconduct

Max Tani / @maxwelltani:

Memo: WaPo's Matt Murray lays out plans for WP Ventures, the “third newsroom”; Krissah Thompson will be editor and Samantha Henig will be general manager

Jack Dunn / Variety:

Trump appoints Mark Burnett, the British TV executive who created and produced the reality show The Apprentice, as a special envoy to the UK

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More News

Jane Lanhee Lee / Bloomberg:

AI chip developer Rivos, which recently settled with Apple over trade secret theft, raised $250M+ led by Matrix to compete with Nvidia using its RISC-V chips

More: Reuters and TechCrunch

Times of India:

India-based B2B e-commerce marketplace ProcMart raised a $30M Series B led by Fundamentum and Edelweiss Discovery Fund, following a $10M Series A in 2022

More: Entrackr, Livemint, VCCircle, The Economic Times, Moneycontrol, and The Hindu BusinessLine. LinkedIn: ProcMart

Anna Heim / TechCrunch:

Berlin-based finmid, which makes embedded fintech tools for SMBs, raised a €23M Series A at a €100M post-money valuation, bringing its total raised to €35M

More: EU-Startups, Tech.eu, FinSMEs, Crowdfund Insider, Tech Funding News, finmid, and Silicon Canals. LinkedIn: finmid

Saritha Rai / Bloomberg:

Tel Aviv-based Bridgewise, which uses AI to provide investment analysis to brokerages, wealth advisors, and exchanges, raised a $21M Series A led by SIX Group

More: Tech.eu, Bridgewise, Asia Blockchain Review, Tech Funding News, and CTech

Josh Ye / Reuters:

Baidu says that eight months after launch its AI chatbot Ernie Bot now has 200M+ users and 85K enterprise clients, after reaching 100M+ users in December 2023

More: South China Morning Post, Wall Street Journal, Reuters, CNBC, Pandaily, and Benzinga

Tim De Chant / TechCrunch:

Kode Labs, which develops tools that integrate data from building management systems and IoT devices, raised a $30M Series B led by Maverix Private Equity

More: PR Newswire, FinSMEs, and Venture Capital Journal

X: @tdechant and @kodelabs

LinkedIn: Etrit Demaj and Nick Viscuso

Ellen Milligan / Bloomberg:

Sources: the UK plans talks this month with Apple, Meta, and others to push a voluntary charter granting parents more control of social media use by young teens

X: @arollingsloane, @jamesrbuk, @alecmuffett, and @webdevlaw

Fred Lambert / Electrek:

Sources: Tesla is focused on building a giant Texas data center for its robotaxi project, now a top priority, after postponing work on a cheaper vehicle

More: Benzinga, W Media Research, Forbes, Brad Ideas, and Notebookcheck

Threads: @sofainatl and @fredlambert94. Bluesky: @cathygellis.bsky.social

Forums: r/teslamotors, r/mlscaling, r/electricvehicles, r/teslainvestorsclub, and r/RealTesla

Earlier Picks

Katie McQue / The Guardian:

As nine US states advance online child safety bills, a look at tech giants' lobbying efforts against the legislation, led by industry group NetChoice

X: @jason_kint, @zamaan_qureshi, @ttp_updates, and @blakersdozen

Peter Kafka / Business Insider:

Impressions of Waymo's robotaxis after several rides: amazing tech that quickly feels “normal”, but the car failed to understand a traffic cop's hand signals

Threads: @theromit, @carnage4life, @emetelka, @joeypadge3, @nick_poitier, @motorcityadam, @pkafka, and @nemeseri

X: @carnage4life, @tomaxwell, @pranay01, @alexia, @noampomsky, and @kazanjy

Forums: r/SelfDrivingCars and r/waymo

Vittoria Elliott / Wired:

ISD: fake footage of Iran's attack on Israel went viral on X, including AI-made videos and photos, with many posts from verified accounts and “OSINT experts”

More: The i Paper, Cointelegraph, and ISD

Threads: @laurengoode. X: @shayan86, @shayan86, @shayan86, @shayan86, @shayan86, @shayan86, @shayan86, @ghonchehazad, @shayan86, @shayan86, @shayan86, @arsenkeklikoglu, @merlynthomas, @eliothiggins, @shayan86, @vabvox, @shayan86, @decodingfoxnews, @shayan86, and @talhagin

Brian Krebs / Krebs on Security:

CISA warns that locks from RealPage's Chirp Systems, reportedly on ~50K US dwellings, can be unlocked via a hack; Chirp was told in 2021 but has remained quiet

More: The Register. Mastodon: @briankrebs@infosec.exchange, @lpar@infosec.exchange, @briankrebs@infosec.exchange, and @kurtseifried@infosec.exchange

LinkedIn: Dirk Anderson, Art Cooper, and Brian Krebs

New York Times:

Sources: Instagram is in the early stages of testing “Creator AI” chatbots for top influencers, which would automate DM responses to fans in a creator's “voice”

More: Fast Company, Benzinga, PYMNTS.com, Social Media Today, Forbes, Crowdfund Insider, and The Korea Herald

Threads: @mr.michaelmiller. Bluesky: @blowdart.me and @mikalfm.bsky.social

X: @sen_stackhouse, @kateconger, @mikeisaac, @mikeisaac, @baxiabhishek, @baekdal, and @mikeisaac. LinkedIn: Emil Protalinski