Techmeme
May 8, 2024, 3:05 PM

Top News

Michael Peel / Financial Times:
Google DeepMind and Isomorphic Labs detail AlphaFold 3, an AI model to predict interactions and structures of proteins, DNA, RNA, more, beating many top methods  —  AlphaFold 3 aims to reveal biological secrets and boost drug search efforts  —  Google DeepMind has unveiled …
Demetri Sevastopulo / Financial Times:
The US Commerce Department revokes some export licenses that let companies ship chips and other goods to Huawei, affecting Intel and, sources say, also Qualcomm  —  Move marks latest effort by Biden administration to target the country's tech sector  —  The Biden administration …
Lynn Doan / Bloomberg:
Intel expects its Q2 revenue to be “below the midpoint” of the company's previously guided $12.5B to $13.5B range because of a new US ban on Huawei chip exports  —  US Revokes Intel and Qualcomm Licenses to Sell Chips to Huawei  —  Intel Corp. expects second-quarter revenue …
William Gallagher / AppleInsider:
Apple's iPad Pro ad “Crush”, which shows paints, toys, guitars, sculptures, and more being crushed to reveal the thin device, draws criticism on social media  —  The minute-long Apple ad showing art equipment and materials being crushed down into the new iPad Pro is being called heartbreaking, wanton, and creepy.
Tom Dotan / Wall Street Journal:
Microsoft plans to invest $3.3B to build a data center in Mount Pleasant, Wisconsin, and train locals, alongside investing in a University of Wisconsin AI lab  —  Company has been on a global spending spree, trying to build infrastructure and goodwill for artificial intelligence
Reuters:
Sources: US prosecutors are examining if Tesla committed securities or wire fraud by misleading investors and consumers about Autopilot and Full Self-Driving  —  U.S. prosecutors are examining whether Tesla (TSLA.O) committed securities or wire fraud by misleading investors and consumers …
Jennifer Pattison Tuohy / The Verge:
The Connectivity Standards Alliance releases Matter 1.3, adding support for more appliances, energy and water management, and new casting protocol features  —  The latest Matter spec brings a number of improvements to the smart home standard founded by Apple, Google, Amazon, and Samsung.
Spencer Soper / Bloomberg:
Shopify reports Q1 revenue up 23% YoY to $1.9B, GMV up 23% YoY to $60.9B, and expects gross margins to drop by ~50 basis points YoY in Q2; SHOP plummets 18%+  —  - Gross margins in current quarter are expected to narrow  — President: ‘This is how you achieve long-term durable growth’
Natalie Lung / Bloomberg:
Uber reports Q1 revenue up 15% YoY to $10.1B, Gross Bookings up 20% YoY to $37.7B, below $38B est., and adjusted EBITDA up 82% YoY to $1.4B; UBER falls 5%+  —  - Bookings growth still tops 20% on rides, order frequency gains  — Operating profit falls on anticipated legal fees, settlements
Kylie Robison / The Verge:
Sources: OpenAI has been aggressively trying to poach Google employees for a team working on a ChatGPT feature to search the web and show results with citations  —  OpenAI is developing a search engine for ChatGPT, giving users the ability to crawl the web for answers to their questions, Bloomberg reports.
Rachel Metz / Bloomberg:
Wesley Yin-Poole / IGN:
Memo: Microsoft's Xbox plans to shut down multiple Bethesda studios and consolidate teams to prioritize high-impact titles and invest in Bethesda's portfolio  —  Staff told via email.  —  Microsoft has closed a number of Bethesda studios, including Redfall maker Arkane Austin …
André Beganski / Decrypt:
Robinhood CEO Vlad Tenev decries a “regulatory onslaught” and calls US SEC actions “another improper attempt by the administrative state to stifle innovation”  —  Though Robinhood Crypto thought its “safety-first” approach was distinct, the SEC said that enforcement action is on its way.
Georgia Butler / DatacenterDynamics:
BBC:
Ofcom proposes new rules requiring tech companies to change their algorithms to hide “toxic” material from children, have more robust age checks, and more  —  Ofcom has warned social media sites they could be named and shamed - and banned for under-18s - if they fail to comply with new online safety rules.
Steven Church / Bloomberg:
FTX says it will have as much as $16.3B to distribute after selling all of its assets; FTX owes ~$11B to 2M+ customers and other non-governmental creditors  —  - Crypto customers to get interest on what FTX owes them  — Bankrupt firm updates plan to divide cash among creditors
Maggie Harrison / Futurism:
An investigation into AdVon, the company behind Sports Illustrated's fake writers, finds its AI content and fake authors at the LA Times, Miami Herald, and more  —  Remember that AI company behind Sports Illustrated's fake writers?  We did some digging — and it's got tendrils into other surprisingly prominent publications.
Simon Willison / Simon Willison's Weblog:
OpenAI built the gpt2-chatbot, renamed to “im-also-a-good-gpt-chatbot”, per the gpt2-chatbot's 429 rate limit error message, which appeared in the LMSYS arena  —  gpt2-chatbot confirmed as OpenAI (via) The mysterious gpt2-chatbot model that showed up in the LMSYS arena a few days ago …
Aamir Siddiqui / Android Authority:
Google launches Google Wallet for Android in India and partners with 20+ brands to let users store boarding passes, loyalty cards, event tickets, and more  —  - Google Wallet is now available in India, where it can be used as a digital wallet for storing passes, tickets, and more, but not for payments.
Brian Heater / TechCrunch:
Researchers say they have unlocked a kind of sperm whale “alphabet” with the aid of machine learning, a breakthrough in understanding cetacean communication  —  Researchers at MIT CSAIL and Project CETI believe that they have unlocked a kind of sperm whale alphabet with the aid of machine learning technologies.
Stephanie Palazzolo / The Information:
DatologyAI, which aims to help researchers better curate AI training datasets, raised a $46M Series A led by Felicis, after a $11.65M seed in February 2024  —  For all that's leaked about the sizes and architectures of the advanced large language models developed by OpenAI and its ilk …
Bloomberg:
Microsoft closes the engineering section of its Africa Development Center in Nigeria, two years after its opening, reportedly impacting 100+ engineers  —  The Lagos center, one of two on the continent - the other being in Kenya - was opened in 2022 to deliver high-end engineering solutions for Microsoft.

Sponsor Posts

Tribe AI:
Build AI products that matter  —  Tribe AI helps organizations rapidly deploy AI solutions that have real business impact.  We bring together world class AI talent and tooling to drive differentiated results.
Zoho:
Planned US Data Center Maintenance on 23rd and 30th November 2024, between 08.30PM to 00.30AM PST  —  Dear Customers, Our annual infrastructure maintenance for our US Data Center is scheduled for 23rd November 2024 …
Hamming:
Make AI Voice Agents trustworthy  —  Hamming AI automatically tests AI voice agents and continuously monitors them in production.
Techmeme Leaderboards:
Discover the top reporters on AI, VR, policy, and much more  —  We've analyzed Techmeme's news crawl to identify the most influential and prolific writers on 48 news topics.  Download reports immediately for just $100.
Techmeme Ride Home:
Tue. 11/12 - Apple Into The Smarthome
The day's tech news, every day at 5pm ET. Fifteen minutes and you're up to date.
Subscribe via Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or RSS.
 

About This Page

This is a Techmeme archive page. It shows how the site appeared at 3:05 PM ET, May 8, 2024.

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.

More News

Earlier Picks

Lorenzo Franceschi-Bicchierai / TechCrunch: