Techmeme
August 4, 2024, 12:20 PM

Top News

Ivan Mehta / TechCrunch:
Character.AI co-founders Noam Shazeer and Daniel De Freitas, and some employees, are joining Google; Google has signed a non-exclusive agreement to use its tech  —  In a big move, Character.AI co-founder and CEO CEO Noam Shazeer is returning to Google after leaving the company in October 2021 to found the a16z-backed startup.
The Information:
Character.AI told staff that investors will be bought out at a valuation of ~2.5x its $1B 2023 valuation, and it plans to adopt open-source models for products  —  Google has agreed to pay a licensing fee to chatbot maker Character.AI for its models and will hire its cofounders and many of its researchers, the companies said.
The Information:
Sources: Nvidia told Microsoft, and another large cloud provider, that its new Blackwell AI chips will be delayed by three months or more due to design flaws  —  Nvidia's upcoming artificial intelligence chips will be delayed by three months or more due to design flaws …
Mark Gurman / Bloomberg:
Thoughts on first Apple Intelligence beta, which may arrive after the new iPhones launch, Apple's industrial design team leadership reshuffle, and Q3 earnings  —  The first preview of Apple Intelligence for developers shows just how far the company has to go to live up to the hype.
Lucas Shaw / Bloomberg:
Sources: Meta is offering Hollywood celebrities like Judi Dench millions of dollars for the right to use their voices for AI projects; SAG-AFTRA agreed to terms  —  - Judi Dench, Awkwafina are among the celebrities holding talks  — Some terms sought by Meta trigger actors' fears of AI
Financial Times:
Microsoft, Alphabet, Amazon, and Meta boosted capex by 50% to a total of $106B in H1 2024, as they build AI infrastructure and pledge more investment hikes  —  Technology stocks have been volatile as Microsoft, Meta, Amazon and Google report huge increases in their investments in artificial intelligence
New York Times:
The US DOJ sues TikTok, saying it collected children's data without parents' permission, knowingly let users under the age of 13 create accounts, and more  —  The Justice Department said that TikTok illegally collected children's data and knowingly allowed users under the age of 13 to create accounts.
Sergiu Gatlan / BleepingComputer:
Google Chrome warns uBlock Origin may soon be disabled and tells users to switch to other ad blockers before deprecation of Manifest V2 extensions  —  Google Chrome is now encouraging uBlock Origin users who have updated to the latest version to switch to other ad blockers before Manifest v2 extensions are disabled.
Eleanor Olcott / Financial Times:
Sources: JD.com founder and chair Richard Liu has been quietly leading the company from overseas, primarily in London, despite stepping down as the CEO in 2022  —  Despite stepping down as chief in 2022, Richard Liu has continued to quietly steer the business from London
Eric Platt / Financial Times:
Filings: Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway slashed its stake in Apple by ~50% in Q2, following a 13% cut in Q1, leaving it with a position worth $84.2B  —  Cash holdings hit a record high as billionaire investor dumps $76bn of stocks  —  Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway has slashed …

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More News

Jason Snell / Six Colors:
Jason Schreier / Bloomberg:
Riley Griffin / Bloomberg:
Wall Street Journal:
Michael McWhertor / Polygon:

Earlier Picks

Andy Greenberg / Wired:
Zack Whittaker / TechCrunch:
Gaby Del Valle / The Verge:
Josh Sisco / Politico: