Techmeme
May 15, 2024, 9:50 AM

Top News

Casey Newton / Platformer:
The arrival of AI search bodes ill for everyone who relies on web search to have their business discovered, their blog post read, or their journalism funded  —  With AI search results coming to the masses, the human-powered web recedes further into the background
Barry Schwartz / Search Engine Land:
Google plans to roll out AI Overviews in Search to all US users by next week, and to more countries soon; they will be available to 1B+ users by the end of 2024  —  AI Overviews is rolling out to all US based searchers in Google Search, making AI Overviews available to hundreds of millions …
Barry Schwartz / Search Engine Land:
Google rolls out a search filter, named “Web”, to show only text-based links in results, available globally alongside other filters, like for images and videos  —  Google is rolling out a new search filter to show only text-based links in the search results.  The filter is named “Web”.
CNBC:
The Verge:
Nelson Renteria / Reuters:
El Salvador has mined 473.5 bitcoin, worth ~$29M, since 2021 thanks to a volcano-fueled geothermal power plant, bringing its total bitcoin portfolio to ~$354M  —  El Salvador has mined nearly 474 bitcoins since 2021 thanks to a volcano-fueled geothermal power plant, official data showed on Tuesday …
Ty Pendlebury / CNET:
Google unveils Music AI Sandbox, a suite of music tools that include the ability to create loops via text, without disclosing a public launch date  —  Producers say the AI-generated loops can make music sound ‘more human.’  —  Google has unveiled a new music-making tool it calls Music AI Sandbox …
Devindra Hardawar / Engadget:
Kyle Wiggers / TechCrunch:
Google announces a private preview of a new Gemini 1.5 Pro version that can take in up to 2M tokens, twice its predecessor and rivals like Anthropic's Claude 3  —  Gemini, Google's family of generative AI models, can now analyze longer documents, codebases, videos and audio recordings than before.
Pranav Dixit / Engadget:
Washington Post:
Eight TikTok creators sue the US government over the law forcing a sale or ban of TikTok, arguing the move violates their First Amendment rights  —  The lawsuit is the second legal challenge to the new law, which creators say violates their First Amendment rights.
University of Oxford:
A study of 2,414,294 people in 168 countries between 2006 and 2021 finds 84.9% of associations between internet connectivity and wellbeing were positive  —  Links between internet adoption and wellbeing are likely to be positive, despite popular concerns to the contrary …
More: Cybernews.com and TechSpot
Mastodon: @stefan@stefanbohacek.onlineX: @0xkarasy and @emollickForums: Slashdot
Steven Sinofsky / @stevesi:
Apple letting the new iPad Pro run macOS would require major tradeoffs and adding touch to Mac would lead to “a lot of flakey software that doesn't really work”  —  It is not unusual for customers to want the best of all worlds. It is why Detroit invented convertibles and el caminos. But the idea of a “dual boot” device is just nuts. It is guaranteed the only reality is it is running the wrong OS all the time for whatever you want to do....
Cherlynn Low / Engadget:
Google teases Project Astra, a camera-based AI app to process visual data in real time, and showed a person wearing a pair of smart glasses using the feature  —  It'll even remember things it saw that are no longer in the frame.  —  Deputy Editor, Reviews
Srishti Jaswal / Rest of World:
As India's elections run from April 19 to June 1, a look at the BJP's vast WhatsApp operations, including using the app to campaign free from public scrutiny  —  An analysis of thousands of messages reveals how India's ruling party uses the app to campaign free from public scrutiny.  —  • MANDI, INDIA
Reuters:
A US federal court orders Elon Musk to testify again in an SEC investigation into his $44B Twitter takeover; the SEC sued Musk in October 2023 to testify  —  A federal court ordered on Tuesday that Elon Musk must testify again in the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission's investigation into his $44 billion takeover of Twitter.
More: Axios
Hannah Miller / Bloomberg:
Humanity Protocol, a blockchain-based identity system that uses scans of people's palms, raised a $30M seed led by Kingsway Capital at a $1B valuation  —  The startup raised $30 million at a $1 billion valuation as it looks to challenge projects like Worldcoin.

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Callum Booth / The Verge:
Natasha Lomas / TechCrunch:
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