Techmeme: Q&A with Trae Stephens, partner at Founders Fund and executive chair of Anduril, on autonomous AI's role in warfare, building a wearable e-reader, and more (Steven Levy/Wired)

Open Links In New Tab

Mobile Archives Site News

September 30, 2024, 4:45 AM

Top News

Wall Street Journal:

California Governor Gavin Newsom vetoes AI safety bill SB 1047, saying it applies only to large AI models and doesn't account for if deployment is high risk — Governor seeks more encompassing rules than the bill opposed by OpenAI, Meta and supported by research scientists

More: The Verge, Governor of California, TechCrunch, Axios, New York Times, Bloomberg, BBC, Cybernews.com, Fox News, Politico, Blockonomi, Senator Scott Wiener, The Crypto Times, Bitcoin Insider, Cryptopolitan, Business Insider, The Guardian, CBS News, InfoRiskToday.com, Yahoo Lifestyle, Digital Music News, Cointelegraph, NPR, Mercury News, The San Francisco Standard, Pluribus News, Advocacy, The Information, The Hill, Barron's Online, San Francisco Chronicle, Reuters, Los Angeles Times, SiliconANGLE, Transformer, PYMNTS.com, Techstrong.ai, Engadget, Benzinga, The Hollywood Reporter, Default, Marginal REVOLUTION, and Vox

Threads: @benedictevans and @karaswisher. Mastodon: @carnage4life@mas.to

X: @speakerpelosi, @scott_wiener, @jeremybwhite, @plinz, @daveshapi, @hamandcheese, @markruffalo, @ednewtonrex, @kelseytuoc, @tszzl, @jeremyphoward, @michaeltrazzi, @adamkovac, @thezvi, @reidhoffman, @garrisonlovely, @drfeifei, @garrytan, @shiringhaffary, @martin_casado, @jackclarksf, @shiringhaffary, @levie, @martin_casado, @lutherlowe, @npew, @timsweeneyepic, @bindureddy, @garrytan, @danhendrycks, @shiringhaffary, @bindureddy, @martin_casado, @jackclarksf, @ylecun, @kyliebytes, @krishnanrohit, @stanfordhai, @binarybits, @garymarcus, @martin_casado, @boazbaraktcs, @mikeknoop, @ronconway, @quanquangu, @aaschapiro, @clementdelangue, @noahpinion, @russellwald, @tunguz, @andrewyng, @andrewyng, @garymarcus, @anjneymidha, @soumithchintala, @binarybits, @pmarca, @bryanrwalsh, @kimmaicutler, @stevesi, @timsweeneyepic, and @andrewyng. LinkedIn: Guido Appenzeller

Forums: Hacker News, r/bayarea, r/politics, r/neoliberal, r/Futurology, r/news, r/LocalLLaMA, r/California_Politics, and r/sanfrancisco

See also Mediagazer

Wall Street Journal:

Source: Apple is no longer in talks to participate in an OpenAI funding round that is expected to raise as much as $6.5B — Company behind ChatGPT is aiming to raise around $6.5 billion in funding set to close next week — Apple is no longer in talks to participate in an OpenAI funding round expected …

More: Spyglass, Washington Post, Yahoo Finance, Daring Fireball, AppleInsider, PYMNTS.com, Philip Elmer‑DeWitt, iLounge, Benzinga, Business Times, 9to5Mac, News.ng, Daily Journal, PhoneArena, Mashable, iClarified, Neowin, iPhone in Canada Blog, Tech in Asia, Business Today, Reuters, Wccftech, NewsBytes, Business Insider, and Deccan Herald

Threads: @carnage4life, @72mena, and @firerock31. Mastodon: @drahardja@sfba.social. X: @edzitron

LinkedIn: Milton Pedraza and Oliver Reichenstein. Forums: Hacker News

New York Times:

Docs: OpenAI had $300M in monthly revenue in August, up 1,700% since early 2023, 350M MAUs in June, and expects ~$3.7B in annual sales but $5B in losses in 2024 — As the company looks for more outside investors, documents reviewed by The New York Times show consumer fascination with ChatGPT and a serious need for more cash.

More: Android Authority, The Verge, Tom's Guide, Australian Financial Review, Phandroid, PYMNTS.com, CNBC, Gizchina.com, 9to5Mac, The Hill, Philip Elmer‑DeWitt, DNyuz, Fortune, TechCrunch, Marcus on AI, TechRadar, The Decoder, Simon Willison's Weblog, Benzinga, Neowin, The Information, Engadget, and NBC News

Threads: @gruber, @paul_rietschka, @kalihays1, and @benedictevans

X: @annmlipton, @grady_booch, @ccm_brett, @garymarcus, @jason_kint, @jason_kint, @modestproposal1, @modestproposal1, @amir, @mikeisaac, @zerohedge, @modestproposal1, @eringriffith, and @mikeisaac

LinkedIn: Brett Pollak, Pramod Gosavi, and Hayden Field

Forums: r/Economics and r/singularity

See also Mediagazer

Matthew Lynley / Supervised:

A look at OpenAI's sprawling product portfolio as the startup matures into a real business and runs into the challenges of avoiding product creep — Plus: OpenAI's portfolio is getting a little big. — ∙ Paid — This issue was finished on a mobile device so I apologize ahead of time for any typos and formatting errors.

More: The New Stack. LinkedIn: Roland Chan and Celestino Güemes Seoane

Reuters:

Sources: OpenAI expects its revenue to grow to $11.6B in 2025; ChatGPT has 10M paying users and could bring in $2.7B in revenue in 2024, up from $700M in 2023

More: CNBC and The Information

X: @cathiedwood and @manan

Wall Street Journal:

A look at challenges to OpenAI becoming a for-profit company, including the complexity of splitting assets with the nonprofit arm, which will continue to exist

More: Vox, Business Insider, Futurism, and TechCrunch

X: @wsjtech and @sigalsamuel. Forums: Beehaw

New York Times:

Sources: TSMC's execs took to calling Sam Altman a “podcasting bro” after he said it would take $7T and many years to build 36 chip plants to fulfill his vision

More: ResetEra, Breitbart, Tom's Hardware, TechSpot, Windows Central, and Digital Trends

Mastodon: @LilahTovMoon@tech.lgbt and @jalefkowit@vmst.io

Bluesky: @indaindica.bsky.social, @marsrover.bsky.social, @mikal-el.com, @fluxandflow.bsky.social, and @lifewinning.com

X: @garymarcus, @stevelohr, and @edzitron

LinkedIn: Amanda Brock, James Teare, and Angela Chapman

Forums: Hacker News, r/sales, r/hardware, r/ArtistHate, and r/singularity

Mark Gurman / Bloomberg:

Sources: Apple considers options for its headsets, including moving compute to iPhone, and is working on homeOS; Masimo's new CEO could enable a deal with Apple — Meta's latest AR glasses and cheaper mixed-reality headset add pressure on Apple to make its Vision push work.

More: Axios, 9to5Mac, Hindustan Times, Wccftech, PhoneArena, The Verge, The Mac Observer, AppleInsider, Birchtree, Philip Elmer‑DeWitt, Neowin, Birchtree, Spyglass, Daring Fireball, Gizmochina, AppleInsider, Android Authority, Phandroid, Forbes, Six Colors, Tom's Guide, Android Headlines, Engadget, and The Tech Basic

Threads: @benedictevans and @aaronabrady

Mastodon: @viticci@mastodon … and @stroughtonsmith …

X: @carnage4life, @cixliv, @markgurman, @markgurman, @markgurman, @cezaryxr, @tina__nigro, @markgurman, @markgurman, @anshelsag, and @markgurman

Forums: r/technology, r/apple, and r/gadgets

Jonathan Moens / New York Times:

CA Governor Newsom signs the California Neurorights Act into law that treats “neural data” as personal sensitive info, aiming to protect brain data from misuse — The state extended its current personal privacy law to include the neural data increasingly coveted by technology companies.

More: The Verge. Mastodon: @mikarv@someone.elses.computer. X: @neuro_rights. LinkedIn: Michael Zink, Stephen Damianos, and Doron Weber

Jem Aswad / Variety:

YouTube blocks songs by Adele, Bob Dylan, Green Day, and others in the US, after its music licensing agreement with performing rights organization SESAC expired — Songs by Adele, Bob Dylan, Green Day, R.E.M., Burna Boy, Rush and many others are currently unplayable on YouTube in the U.S. due …

Stephanie Stacey / Financial Times:

An interview with SolarWinds CISO Tim Brown on the 2020 breach, facing SEC charges that were largely dismissed in July 2024, global cyber regulations, and more — Tim Brown was first cyber executive to face SEC charges after a massive Russian hack — The first cyber chief to fight an effort …

More: PYMNTS.com. LinkedIn: Yuval Ben-Itzhak, Judy Selby, Christopher Hetner, John Barker, Esq. …, and Federico Charosky

Lucas Shaw / Bloomberg:

Antenna: Netflix cancellations spiked for a few days in late July 2024 after Reed Hastings endorsed Kamala Harris and announced a $7M super PAC donation — Rate of cancellations almost tripled after Trump backers called for action against the streaming service. — Say goodbye to another tough week in Hollywood.

More: Benzinga

Alex Perry / Bloomberg:

Mark Zuckerberg's personal wealth has climbed almost sixfold to $200B+ in less than two years, buoyed by Meta's record-high share price, which is up 60%+ YTD — - Meta CEO's wealth has jumped sixfold in the past two years — Shares of Meta are trading near record high, up 60% this year

More: CoinMarketCap Academy, The Express Tribune, Bitcoin Insider, Coinpedia Fintech News, The Week, Hindustan Times, Cointelegraph, and CNN

X: @markets. Forums: r/wallstreetbets

Ricardo Brito / Reuters:

Court documents: Brazil's Supreme Court says X still needs to pay $5M+ in pending fines, including a new one, before being allowed to resume service in Brazil — Brazil's Supreme Court said on Friday that social platform X still needs to pay just over $5 million in pending fines …

More: TechCrunch, Social Media Today, DNyuz, TESLARATI, New York Post, Washington Examiner, Mashable, The Hill, Reclaim The Net, CNBC, Richard Stallman's …, Engadget, Bloomberg, Associated Press, Agence France-Presse, The Indian Express, and Inc.com

X: @globalaffairs and @morningbrew

Aswath Damodaran / Financial Times:

NYU professor Aswath Damodaran on an AI bot that is trained on his equity valuation work that is in the public domain, why AI will empower generalists, and more — Whether the risks to jobs is real or not, it behoves us all to act like it is given how consequential the costs could be

X: @tonytassell and @adsinuk

LinkedIn: Martin Davies and Ankur Gupta

Sponsor Posts

Meta:

Open Source AI: Available to all, not just the few — Meta's open source AI enables small businesses, start-ups, students, researchers and more to download and build with our models at no cost.

Zoho:

Zoho Assist 2024: A quick recap — 2024 was a year of new features and transformative enhancements aimed at making remote support more effective for technicians, ensuring a seamless user experience, and enabling efficient remote support sessions.

Genesys:

Executive Insights: The Era of Contact Center AI Copilots — How AI copilots are transforming customer experience and agent performance.

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.

Sponsor Techmeme

Who's Hiring In Tech?

Google: Bring questions. Build answers.

Adobe: Let’s create experiences that matter.

Codeium: Create code for AI that creates code.

Vanta: The leading trust management platform.

Automattic: 43% down, 57% to go. WordPress.

Grafana Labs: A leader in OSS observability.

Abnormal: AI for Human Behavior Security.

Cribl: The Data Engine for IT and Security.

Glean: The Work AI platform.

Corelight: Disrupt cyberattacks with evidence.

PayPal: Opening opportunities for all.

Mytra: Software-defined robotics solution.

Zip: Come build the future of Fintech.

Stripe: Help us build universal payments.

Add your company here

Techmeme Ride Home:

Fri. 12/27 - A New "Definition" Of AGI

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.

Sponsor this podcast

About This Page

This is a Techmeme archive page. It shows how the site appeared at 4:45 AM ET, September 30, 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.

From Mediagazer

Lillian Rizzo / CNBC:

Industry executives say media companies expect ad spending to stabilize in 2025 and even grow for platforms with sports and live events

Max Tani / Semafor:

News media personalities including Andrew Ross Sorkin, David Remnick, Rachel Maddow, Mehdi Hasan, and Bari Weiss reflect on the things they got wrong in 2024

William Christou / The Guardian:

A look at Syria's state news agency Sana, which had led the Assad regime's propaganda effort for the past 13 years, with its journalists unable to report freely

Upcoming Tech Events

Jan 6

NVIDIA CEO Keynote at CES

Las Vegas

Jan 6

AMD at CES Press Conference

HYBRID: Samsung Galaxy Unpacked media event

Game Developers Conference

IDrive EXPO REGISTER NOW

More News

Steven Levy / Wired:

Q&A with Trae Stephens, partner at Founders Fund and executive chair of Anduril, on autonomous AI's role in warfare, building a wearable e-reader, and more

X: @samuelclay, @matthewboedy, @elkeschwarz, and @knibbs

Stephanie Stacey / Financial Times:

Bumble, Muzz, and Match Group are pushing their friend-finding and community-building products to attract young users hit by so-called dating app fatigue

More: New.blicio.us. Mastodon: @carnage4life@mas.to. X: @ft, @shahzadyounas_, and @shahzadyounas_

Brian Steinberg / Variety:

Sources: Amazon Prime Video is in talks with veteran anchor Brian Williams to host a live Election Night special, its first entry into news-related programming

More: The Ankler, CNN, Wall Street Journal, Los Angeles Times, The Hill, Mediaite, TechCrunch, IJR, The Hollywood Reporter, The Verge, The Daily Beast, Deadline, TVLine, and DNyuz

Threads: @sanjaykmenon1, @hbraun.jackson, @stevemberkowitz, @mcbride.david.j, @daveleebbg, and @crumbler. Bluesky: @jeremydstanley.com

X: @dylanbyers, @bristei, and @brianstelter

LinkedIn: Emil Protalinski, Dan Rayburn, and Brian Steinberg. Forums: r/television

See also Mediagazer

Toby Sterling / Reuters:

SEMI: China is projected to invest $100B+ on chipmaking equipment from 2025 to 2027, followed by South Korea at $81B, Taiwan at $75B, and the Americas at $63B

More: SEMI and SEMI. LinkedIn: Semi

Lizzi C. Lee / Rest of World:

Chinese state media has embraced the success of Black Myth: Wukong, a Chinese AAA game that has sold 20M+ copies globally, hailing it as a soft power export

X: @sluongng, @restofworld, @restofworld, @wstv_lizzi, @danielolimac, @restofworld, @wstv_lizzi, and @wstv_lizzi

Earlier Picks

Rolfe Winkler / Wall Street Journal:

A look at telehealth startup Done Global, whose owner was arrested by the US in June for allegedly running a “pill mill”, as it continues to operate from China

X: @wsj, @laurenbalik, @stephpstrong, @rolfewinkler, @jchengwsj, @jchengwsj, @jchengwsj, @heathernauert, @dseetharaman, @rolfewinkler, and @jchengwsj. LinkedIn: Rolfe Winkler

Kate Knibbs / Wired:

A profile of Internet Archive founder Brewster Kahle, as the service fights existential battles over copyright, including from music labels like UMG

More: Rolling Stone. Threads: @wired. Mastodon: @pete@social.coop, @jawnsy@mastodon.social, and @Jayhoffmann@mastodon.social

X: @neilturkewitz, @lacey9020, @ronanbeckman, @lionblogosphere, @deepakadk, @xerxesqados, @profwoodward, @jomc, @knibbs, and @knibbs

Forums: r/LateStageCapitalism, r/books, r/DataHoarder, and r/technology

See also Mediagazer

Bloomberg:

Sources: China is discouraging local companies from purchasing Nvidia's H20 chips to help expand the country's semiconductor industry and counter US sanctions

More: Tom's Hardware, Benzinga, TrendForce News, Tech in Asia, The Tech Basic, Wccftech, TradingView, TipRanks Financial, Bloomberg, Bloomberg, CNBC Television on YouTube, Seeking Alpha, and TipRanks Financial

X: @mackhawk and @pstasiatech. LinkedIn: Ryan Lemand, PhD

Bill Toulas / BleepingComputer:

The US DOJ charges two Russians for operating $1B+ money laundering services for cybercriminals; one is accused of operating the Joker's Stash marketplace

More: U.S. Department …, US Department of Justice, Krebs on Security, CryptoPotato, U.S. Department of State, The Daily Hodl, Flashpoint, and Cryptopolitan

X: @vxdb, @secretservice, @secretservice, @usattyaber, @stateinl, @darkwebinformer, @edvanews, and @mopeng

LinkedIn: Lance Morginn and Brian Krebs