Techmeme
April 18, 2024, 8:00 PM

Top News

Alex Heath / The Verge:
Meta details Llama 3: 8B- and 70B-parameter models, a focus on reducing false refusals, and an upcoming model trained on 15T+ tokens that has 400B+ parameters  —  Meta's AI assistant is being put everywhere across Instagram, WhatsApp, and Facebook.  Meanwhile, the company's next major AI model, Llama 3, has arrived.
New York Times:
Meta to add its Meta AI chatbot to Instagram, WhatsApp, Messenger, and Facebook in 12+ countries, expanding beyond the US, powered by its new Llama 3 models  —  Users of Instagram, Facebook, WhatsApp and Messenger will be able to turn to the new technology, powered by Meta's latest artificial …
Dwarkesh Patel / Dwarkesh Podcast:
Q&A with Mark Zuckerberg on Llama 3, buying H100 GPUs for Reels, AGI, energy constraints, dangers of open source, the metaverse, Meta's custom silicon, and more  —  Caeser Augustus, intelligence explosion, bioweapons, $10b models, & much more  —  Mark Zuckerberg on:  — Llama 3
Emma Roth / The Verge:
Meta rolls out real-time AI image generation, which changes the image as the user types a prompt, in beta on WhatsApp and Meta AI on the web in the US  —  As soon as you start typing a text-to-image prompt in a chat with Meta AI, you'll see how the image changes as you add more detail about what you want to create.
Emilia David / The Verge:
David Pierce / The Verge:
Google announces a new Platforms and Devices team overseeing Pixel, Android, Chrome, Photos, and more, to integrate AI across its products, led by Rick Osterloh  —  AI is taking over at Google, and the company is changing in big ways to try to make it happen even faster.
Zaheer Kachwala / Reuters:
Google says it will consolidate teams that focus on building AI models across Research and DeepMind, and move its Responsible AI teams in Research to DeepMind  —  Alphabet-owned Google (GOOGL.O) said on Thursday it would consolidate teams that focus on building artificial intelligence models across …
Sarah Whitten / CNBC:
Netflix reports Q1 revenue up 15% YoY to $9.37B, vs. $9.28B est., paid users up 16% YoY to 269.6M, vs. 264.2M est., and net income $2.3B, up from $1.3B YoY  —  LOS ANGELES — Netflix reported earnings that beat on the top and bottom line after the bell Thursday.  —  Here are the results:
Todd Spangler / Variety:
Netflix won't report subscriber numbers or Average Revenue per Membership starting in Q1 2025, saying time spent is its “best proxy for customer satisfaction”  —  Netflix will no longer report subscriber numbers — a key metric for streaming services for years — beginning with the first quarter of 2025.
Bill Toulas / BleepingComputer:
Europol and 19 countries make 37 arrests and disrupt phishing-as-a-service platform LabHost in a year-long operation with help from Microsoft, Intel, and others  —  The LabHost phishing-as-a-service (PhaaS) platform has been disrupted in a year-long global law enforcement operation …
Kris Holt / Engadget:
Meta cuts the price of the base 128GB Quest 2 from $249 to $199, its second permanent price cut in four months, after a drop from $299 to $249 in January  —  The base 128GB headset will cost $199 from now on.  —  For the second time this year, Meta has given the Quest 2 a permanent price cut.
The Information:
Sources: cloud security startup Wiz is in advanced talks to acquire competitor Lacework for $150M-$200M; Lacework raised $1.8B and was valued at $8.3B in 2021  —  Cybersecurity startup Wiz is in advanced talks to acquire Lacework, one of its largest private competitors, according to two people with direct knowledge of the talks.
Crystal Kim / Axios:
A US jury finds Avraham Eisenberg, a crypto trader who stole $110M on the Mango Markets exchange in 2022, guilty of fraud despite his “code is law” claim  —  - He used the inflated futures holdings as collateral to borrow other cryptocurrencies on the platform …
Emma Roth / The Verge:
DARPA reveals that an AI-controlled X-62A jet successfully faced a human pilot in an F-16 during an in-air dogfight test carried out in 2023  —  The US Air Force is putting AI in the pilot's seat.  In an update on Thursday, the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) …
Sheila Chiang / CNBC:
Bloomberg:
The US House Speaker plans to bundle the TikTok divestiture bill, with a longer sale deadline, in a Ukraine/Israel aid bill set to clear the House on April 20  —  - Johnson to include measure in aid package for Ukraine, Israel  — Biden has said he would sign bill forcing ByteDance to divest
Bloomberg:
Huawei releases its Pura 70 series, available for ~$760 to ~$1,380; reviewers show high-end models have a Kirin 9010 chip, an update to the Mate 60 Pro's 9000s  —  - Huawei building out portfolio with fresh upgrades and design  — New phones likely to add further pressure on iPhone in China
Thomas Barrabi / New York Post:
Google fires 28 employees over their participation in a 10-hour sit-in at the company's New York and Sunnyvale offices to protest its business ties with Israel  —  Google has fired 28 employees over their participation in a 10-hour sit-in at the search giant's offices in New York and Sunnyvale …
Amanda Lee / Wall Street Journal:
Apple plans to spend $250M+ on its regional hub in Singapore, including expanding its campus later in 2024, as Tim Cook visits Vietnam and other Asian countries  —  Apple seeks to diversify its supply chain amid rising U.S.-China tensions and global concerns of decoupling trade
Bloomberg:
Digital marketing software company Ibotta closes up 17% at $103.25 per share in its trading debut, after raising ~$577.3M in an IPO priced above marketed range  —  - Founder and CEO Leach to have 71% of the voting power  — Digital marketing firm's backers include Koch Industries arm

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