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May 22, 2024, 3:30 PM
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Top News

Kate Rooney / CNBC:
Sources: Amazon plans to launch a more conversational Alexa with generative AI features later in 2024, and charge a monthly subscription to offset the cost  —  WATCH NOW  —  Amazon is upgrading its decade-old Alexa voice assistant with generative artificial intelligence and plans to charge …
Bloomberg:
Sources: Humane is seeking a buyer for its business, after the rocky launch of its Ai Pin; a source says the startup, founded in 2018, is seeking $750M to $1B  —  - Humane's AI pin was billed as an alternative to smartphones  — AI hardware product received poor reviews after its launch
Imran Rahman-Jones / BBC:
The UK ICO is “making enquiries with Microsoft” over the company's Recall feature, which some privacy campaigners have called a potential “privacy nightmare”  —  The UK data watchdog says it is “making enquiries with Microsoft” over a new feature that can take screenshots of your laptop every few seconds.
Abner Li / 9to5Google:
Google starts rolling out its Magic Editor and other AI tools to all Android and iOS users for free via Photos, offering 10 Magic Editor library saves per month  —  Last month, Google Photos announced that it would be making Magic Editor and other AI-powered tools free for all Android and iOS users.
Charlie Warzel / The Atlantic:
OpenAI's Scarlett Johansson debacle is merely a reminder of AI's manifest-destiny philosophy: “This is happening, whether you like it or not”, consent be damned  —  If you're looking to understand the philosophy that underpins Silicon Valley's latest gold rush, look no further than OpenAI's Scarlett Johansson debacle.
Dominic-Madori Davis / TechCrunch:
Techstars CEO Maëlle Gavet says she is leaving at the end of May for health reasons; Techstars co-founder and board chairman David Cohen will become the new CEO  —  Techstars CEO Maëlle Gavet announced on LinkedIn that she is leaving the company at the end of the month for health reasons.
Aisha Malik / TechCrunch:
TikTok launches its Symphony AI suite for brands, using generative AI to let marketers write scripts, produce videos, and enhance current assets  —  TikTok is the latest tech company to incorporate generative AI into its ads business, as the company announced on Tuesday that it's launching a new “TikTok Symphony” AI suite for brands.
Lauren Forristal / TechCrunch:
Link-in-bio startup Linktree passes 50M users, up from 41M in December 2023 and 47M+ in March 2024, and launches a beta of its social commerce product  —  Link-in-bio startup Linktree said on Wednesday that it has surpassed 50 million users.  —  The figure represents a significant uptick …
Austin Weinstein / Bloomberg:
Intercontinental Exchange, which owns the NYSE, agreed to pay $10M to settle SEC allegations that it failed to immediately tell the agency about a hack in 2021  —  The SEC said that in April 2021 ICE learned that its virtual private network had been hacked by a “threat actor.”
Scott Gilbertson / Wired:
A review of privacy-focused /e/OS, a fully “deGoogled” OS based on the Android Open Source Project, that combines Micro G, to handle Google APIs, and LineageOS  —  Even if you aren't technically inclined, this privacy-first mobile operating system helps you escape surveillance capitalism.
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Isabelle Bousquette / Wall Street Journal:
Cologne-based AI translation startup DeepL, which develops its own models, raised $300M led by Index Ventures at a $2B valuation and reports 100K+ customers  —  The round, led by Index Ventures, reflects businesses' increasing interest in function-specific AI models
Sam Biddle / The Intercept:
Doc: WhatsApp staff warned of traffic analysis flaws where attackers may reveal who is in a conversation; Meta calls them theoretical and not unique to WhatsApp  —  In March, WhatsApp's security team issued an internal warning to their colleagues: Despite the software's powerful encryption …
Wired:
An investigation into ticketing service Eventbrite found 7,400+ illicit listings, such as for escort services and drugs, some of which its algorithm recommended  —  A WIRED investigation found thousands of Eventbrite posts selling escort services and drugs like Xanax and oxycodone …
Tom Warren / The Verge:
Microsoft will soon let businesses build custom Copilot AI agents for automating tasks, and unveils Team Copilot to help with tasks in Teams, Loop, and Planner  —  Microsoft will soon allow businesses and developers to build AI-powered Copilots that can work like virtual employees and perform tasks automatically.

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This is a Techmeme archive page. It shows how the site appeared at 3:30 PM ET, May 22, 2024.

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From Mediagazer

Scott Jennings / @scottjenningsky:
Conservative CNN commentator Scott Jennings says he is joining the LA Times editorial board, as owner Patrick Soon-Shiong works to add “balance” to the board

Amy Hawkins / The Guardian:
China sentences journalist Dong Yuyu, an ex-Nieman Fellow whose work has appeared in Chinese editions of the NYT and FT, to seven years in prison for espionage

Ashleigh Fields / The Hill:
California Gov. Gavin Newsom pardons Earlonne Woods, who co-founded the podcast Ear Hustle from inside San Quentin Prison and became a Pulitzer Prize finalist

More News

Manish Singh / TechCrunch:
Paytm parent One 97 Communications reports a ~$66.1M net loss in Q4, up from ~$20.11M in Q4 2023, on ~$272.4M in revenue, as it faces a regulatory clampdown
Stephen Nellis / Reuters:
AWS says the transition from Nvidia's Grace Hopper to Blackwell chips applies only to Project Ceiba, a supercomputer that AWS and Nvidia are building together
Mimi Billing / Sifted:
London-based LabGenius, which uses ML to find and design antibody therapies to treat cancer, raised a £35M Series B led by Merck's VC arm, M Ventures

Earlier Picks

Glenn Rifkin / New York Times:
Gordon Bell, who helped design several influential minicomputers at Digital Equipment Corporation, including the 12-bit PDP-8, died on May 17 at age 89
Michael Nuñez / VentureBeat:
Generative AI music startup Suno raised $125M from Lightspeed Venture Partners, Nat Friedman, Daniel Gross, Matrix, Founder Collective, and others
Louise Matsakis / Wired:
Google is rolling out a new ad format that uses AI-generated images to show shoppers how items of clothing would look on different skin tones and body types
Steven Levy / Wired:
Anthropic researchers detail attempts to peer inside the “black box” of LLMs, learning which combinations of neurons evoke specific concepts
Bradley Keoun / CoinDesk:
Farcaster, an Ethereum-based social media project, raised $150M led by Paradigm, with participation from a16z and others, and reports “350,000 paid sign-ups”
Jeff John Roberts / Fortune:
Tech Against Scams, a coalition to fight “pig butchering” ploys with better industry coordination, launches with Meta, Coinbase, Match, Kraken, others on board
Jess Weatherbed / The Verge:
Adobe adds generative AI tools to Lightroom, including Firefly-powered Generative Remove to let users “paint” over unwanted objects, available in early access
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