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October 3, 2024, 1:20 PM

Top News

Hayden Field / CNBC:

Source: on top of the $6.6B in funding, OpenAI got a $4B revolving line of credit from JPMorgan Chase, Citi, and others, bringing its total liquidity to $10B+ — OpenAI has a $4 billion revolving line of credit, bringing its total liquidity to more than $10 billion, CNBC has learned.

More: TechCrunch, Business Standard, Engadget, Bloomberg, CoinGape, Taipei Times, Quartz, and Axios

X: @haydenfield and @togelius. Forums: Slashdot

Ina Fried / Axios:

OpenAI raised $6.6B led by Thrive Capital, the largest VC deal of all time, valuing it at $157B, with participation from Microsoft, Nvidia, SoftBank, and others — - Not taking part, a source confirms, is Apple, which reportedly had been in talks to invest.

More: Reuters, Reuters, Wall Street Journal, OpenAI, Investor's Business Daily, DatacenterDynamics, Ed Zitron's Where's Your Ed At, The Guardian, CNBC, Windows Central, Tech Monitor, Quartz, Sector 6, Axios, Inc.com, The Ankler, Financial Times, The Verge, The Information, Business Insider, Interesting Engineering, Light Reading, Forbes, Barron's Online, Silicon Republic, PhoneArena, CCN.com, Tech Funding News, The Express Tribune, The Mirror, Livemint, AIM, Coinpedia Fintech News, Business Standard, Al Bawaba, Computerworld, The Decoder, Proactive, ITPro, Business Insider, Hindustan Times, Bloomberg, Silicon Canals, Los Angeles Times, Business Today, SmartCompany, Benzinga, SFist, YourStory.com, The Information, Shacknews, iPhone in Canada Blog, SiliconANGLE, The Daily Upside, Gizmodo, Tech Startups, Originally Reported …, Washington Post, Advanced Television, Neowin, The Times, San Francisco Business Times, Deadline, Futurism, Quartz, and TechCrunch

Threads: @alexkantrowitz. Bluesky: @glinden.bsky.social. X: @danprimack, @garymarcus, @edzitron, @garymarcus, @jason, @edzitron, @modestproposal1, @elonmusk, @danprimack, @kateclarktweets, @alice_comfy, @coryweinberg, @stephenfleming, @azeem, @peter_atwater, @scobleizer, @andrewcurran_, @amitisinvesting, and @jason

LinkedIn: Emil Protalinski and Matt Kroll

Forums: r/OpenAI, r/mlscaling, and r/singularity

Richard Waters / Financial Times:

As Satya Nadella says AI models are becoming “more of a commodity”, OpenAI faces formidable challenges, including burning $5B+ in 2024 and intense competition

More: Business Insider. X: @tonytassell

Rachel Metz / Bloomberg:

How Sam Altman concentrated his power at OpenAI since he was fired and rehired 11 months ago; sources: burnout has become a key issue for some employees

More: Business Insider. X: @rachelmetz

Rosie Bradbury / PitchBook:

Analysis: OpenAI, the third-most valuable VC-backed company after ByteDance and SpaceX, is now worth far more than any VC-backed startup at the time of its IPO

More: Axios, Bloomberg, and Financial Times. Forums: Hacker News

Kyle Wiggers / TechCrunch:

Google rolls out AI-organized Search results in the US on mobile, showing users AI-aggregated pages of content from forums, articles, YouTube videos, and more — Google will begin to show ads in AI Overviews, the AI-generated summaries it supplies for certain Google Search queries …

More: Search Engine Land, The Information, Bloomberg, SE Ranking Blog, The Drum, Associated Press, and Search Engine Journal

See also Mediagazer

Emma Roth / The Verge:

Google updates Lens to let users take a video or use their voice to search, showing an AI Overview and search results, rolling out to Search Labs on mobile — If you can't capture what you want to search for with just a picture, Google Lens will now let you take a video — and even use your voice to ask about what you're seeing.

Emma Roth / The Verge:

Google rolls out ads in AI Overviews when a user's question has a “commercial angle”, and identifies the ads with a “sponsored” header, on mobile in the US — Google is rolling out ads in AI Overviews, which means you'll now start seeing products in some of the search engine's AI-generated summaries.

More: 9to5Google, Adweek, and Search Engine Land

Bill Toulas / BleepingComputer:

Researchers: hackers are actively exploiting an RCE vulnerability in Zimbra email servers, disclosed on September 27, triggered by emailing the SMTP server — Hackers are actively exploiting a recently disclosed RCE vulnerability in Zimbra email servers that can be triggered simply …

More: Ars Technica, Zimbra, ProjectDiscovery Blog, SC Media, The Cyber Express, and Schneier on Security

Mastodon: @wdormann@infosec.exchange, @wdormann@infosec.exchange, @dangoodin@infosec.exchange, and @GossiTheDog@cyberplace.social

X: @threatinsight, @justicerage, and @binitamshah

Sarah Perez / TechCrunch:

YouTube unveils Shorts updates, including letting creators upload three-minute videos, updating the Shorts player, introducing templates, and a new trends page — YouTube on Thursday announced a series of updates for its short-form video product, YouTube Shorts.

More: The Verge, YouTube Official Blog, 9to5Google, Engadget, and Mashable. X: @reneritchie

Ivan Mehta / TechCrunch:

WP Engine files a lawsuit in California against Automattic and WordPress co-founder Matt Mullenweg, accusing them of “abuse of power, extortion, and greed” — Web hosting provider WP Engine has filed a lawsuit against Automattic, and WordPress co-founder Matt Mullenweg, accusing them of extortion and abuse of power.

Ivan Mehta / TechCrunch:

Spotify launches Offline Backup, which automatically makes recently streamed and now playing queued songs available as an offline playlist for Premium users — Spotify introduced a new feature today called Offline Backup. This feature for premium users is essentially a list of songs …

More: Spotify, Gizmodo, Android Authority, How-To Geek, Tech Advisor, Thurrott, The Verge, MobileSyrup, Engadget, T3, GSMArena.com, MakeUseOf, PhoneArena, TechRadar, MSPoweruser, iPhone in Canada Blog, and Mashable

Nicola M. White / Bloomberg:

Gurbir Grewal, the US SEC's top enforcement official since 2021, who oversaw 2,400+ enforcement actions and the crypto crackdown, plans to leave on October 11 — - Grewal helped lead WhatsApp probes, crypto industry crackdown — SEC official was previously New Jersey's attorney general

More: US Securities …, CCN.com, Cryptopolitan, CryptoGlobe, Cryptonews, Wall Street Journal, crypto.news, Reuters, and Decrypt. X: @secgov

Joseph Cox / 404 Media:

Two Harvard students demo using Ray-Ban Meta Smart Glasses, PimEyes, and other tools to instantly identify strangers' names, phone numbers, addresses, and more — The technology, which marries Meta's smart Ray Ban glasses with the facial recognition service Pimeyes and some other tools …

More: The Verge, The Sun, Ars Technica, CNET, TechCrunch, Lowpass, Forbes, KnowTechie, Engadget, Futurism, Redmond Pie, Cybernews.com, CryptoGlobe, Daily Mail, TechSpot, WinBuzzer, Malwarebytes, The Indian Express, Spyglass, Benzinga, Android Headlines, Android Police, Kotaku, Android Authority, How-To Geek, Six Colors, MacRumors, Gizmodo, TechCrunch, and I-XRAY

Threads: @alexheath, @matthewraifman, @jendiagammon, and @jank0

Mastodon: @Theeo123@mastodon.social, @benschwarz@front-end.social, @Jessicascott09@infosec …, @mvsde@mastodon.social, @ErikJonker@mastodon.social, @sawaba@infosec.exchange, @sawaba@infosec.exchange, @codepo8@toot.cafe, and @josephcox@infosec.exchange

Bluesky: @polotek.bsky.social, @ishigh.lol, @jameskelleher.pilcrow.ie, @wolvendamien.bsky.social, @golikehellmachine.com, @vmcntosh.bsky.social, and @napsandsarcasm.bsky.social

X: @anhphunguyen1, @jsrailton, @jsrailton, @autismcapital, @josephfcox, @iterintellectus, @burhanplays, @anhphunguyen1, @daniellefong, @iterintellectus, @kentbye, @adamcohenhillel, and @comicsbyvien. LinkedIn: Caine Ardayfio

Forums: Hacker News, r/gadgets, r/LinusTechTips, r/technology, r/gadgets, r/technews, r/ABoringDystopia, r/Futurology, r/singularity, Ars OpenForum, and MacRumors Forums

Allison Johnson / The Verge:

Google expands conversational AI voice chat Gemini Live's language support to French, German, Portuguese, Hindi, and Spanish, after launching in English — Google initially rolled out Gemini Live, its conversational AI voice chat, in just one language: English.

Thomas Claburn / The Register:

Co-founders Tim Berners-Lee and Rosemary Leith plan to close the World Wide Web Foundation after 15 years of fighting to make the web safer and more accessible — Who wants to join his so Solid crew? — After fifteen years of fighting to make the web safer and more accessible, the World Wide Web Foundation is shutting down.

More: World Wide Web Foundation, PCWorld, WinBuzzer, Fortune, TechSpot, Computerworld, and TechRadar

Mastodon: @glynmoody@mastodon.social and @timbl@w3c.social. X: @dj. Forums: Slashdot

Victoria Song / The Verge:

Oura unveils the $349+ Oura Ring 4, featuring a slimmer design, improved accuracy, and more sizes, shipping October 15, and completely redesigns the Oura app — Oura is giving its popular smart ring and app a substantial makeover. The company just announced the $349 Oura Ring 4 …

More: 9to5Google, HotHardware, The Shortcut, Cult of Mac, Quartz, iClarified, Engadget, 9to5Mac, Cybernews.com, Neowin, ZDNET, Wareable, Android Headlines, MacRumors, Gadgets & Wearables, TechCrunch, Gizmodo, CNET, WWD, CNBC, Android Police, Tom's Guide, and Notebookcheck

Forums: r/ouraring and r/ouraring

Kyle Wiggers / TechCrunch:

Black Forest Labs, whose Flux.1 model powers Grok's image generator, launches an API in beta and its latest image generation model Flux1.1 Pro — Black Forest Labs, the Andreessen Horowitz-backed startup behind the image generation model in xAI's Grok assistant, has launched an API in beta — and released a new model.

More: Black Forest Labs, VentureBeat, and Maginative

Paige Smith / Bloomberg:

PayPal completes its first business payment using its proprietary PYUSD stablecoin, paying an E&Y invoice on September 23 via SAP's digital currency hub — SAP's platform, known as the digital currency hub, allows enterprises to send and receive digital payments instantly, around the clock.

More: Cryptopolitan, Finextra, and The Crypto Basic. Forums: Slashdot

Daniel Thomas / Financial Times:

Amazon plans to increase the number of ads on Prime Video in 2025 after not seeing a sharp drop in subscribers since adding advertisements in January 2024 — Ecommerce group attempting to win over more brands as it steps up push into ad-funded streaming services in 2025

Nikhilesh De / CoinDesk:

The US SEC files a notice of appeal in its Ripple case, seeking to reverse a July 2023 ruling that XRP sales on retail exchanges didn't violate securities rules — A federal judge ruled last year that the SEC had not made its case that Ripple violated securities law by selling XRP to retail customers through exchanges.

Sarah McBride / Bloomberg:

PitchBook: Q3 US VC investments rose ~8% YoY to $37.9B across 3,777 deals; AI startups got 36% of the deal value and 27% of the deal count from Q1 to Q3 2024 — Artificial intelligence firms received more than one-third of the funds in the third quarter.

More: Cautious Optimism, SiliconANGLE, PitchBook, and PitchBook

Dean Takahashi / VentureBeat:

PitchBook and the NVCA: global VC activity declined in Q3; VC investments in Asia hit $14.9B, the lowest figure since Q1 2017, impacted by China's deep decline

More: PitchBook, San Francisco Examiner, and PitchBook. X: @pitchbook

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From Mediagazer

Anna Betts / The Guardian:

A judge orders an evidentiary hearing for next week to determine whether the Infowars auction was conducted fairly

Michael Gold / New York Times:

President-elect Donald Trump announces he has chosen Karoline Leavitt, who served as his campaign's press secretary, to be his White House press secretary

Matthew Keys / The Desk:

Prime Video users will be able to watch local PBS stations and PBS Kids for free in coming months, and two new free PBS channels with ads starting November 26

More News

Aisha S Gani / Bloomberg:

Zepz, the money transfer service formerly called WorldRemit and valued at $5B in 2021, raised $267M to fund an expansion in its core African markets and beyond

Andrew J. Hawkins / The Verge:

Uber partners to use Avride's sidewalk robots for Eats in Austin now and in Dallas and Jersey City later in 2024, and Avride's autonomous cars in Dallas in 2025

More: Investor's Business Daily, TechCrunch, and Reuters

Bloomberg:

Analysis: Nvidia execs and directors have sold nearly 11M shares, worth $1.8B+, in 2024 so far, the most since at least 2020; there are 24.5B outstanding shares

More: The Motley Fool

Ingrid Lunden / TechCrunch:

Barcelona-based Submer, which submerges data center server racks in a proprietary coolant, raised a $55.5M Series C led by M&G at a ~$500M post-money valuation

More: SiliconANGLE, FinSMEs, Forbes, The Register, Silicon Canals, EU-Startups, HPCwire, Tech Funding News, and Tech.eu

Yasemin Craggs Mersinoglu / Financial Times:

Analysis: London police used facial recognition 117 times in 2024 to August, up from 32 times total from 2020 to 2023; ~770,966 people were scanned since 2020

More: The Stack. X: @bigbrotherwatch, @libertyhq, and @1br0wn

Bloomberg:

How chips made by US companies like Analog Devices, Germany's Infineon, and others power Russian missiles used to attack Ukraine, despite US export controls

Mastodon: @hanse_mina@mastodon.social. X: @rfriedman305 and @stephanibaker

Hyung-Jin Kim / Associated Press:

A look at the prevalence of deepfake porn in South Korea, where its parliament has revised a law to make watching or possessing deepfake porn content illegal

More: Protos. X: @hyungjin1972, @kimtonghyung, and @hyungjin1972

Chris Tapsell / Eurogamer.net:

An in-depth account of how CD Projekt Red recovered from the disastrous launch of Cyberpunk 2077, using a fully parallelized engine to test and resolve issues

X: @paultassi, @christapsell, and @riotrmd. Forums: r/xbox

Earlier Picks

Teresa Xie / Bloomberg:

Dogecoin has become surprisingly popular among businesses looking to accept crypto for real-world purchases, largely due to the memecoin's low transaction costs

Jordan Novet / CNBC:

Analysis: Microsoft's finance leases, mainly for data centers and set to start between FY 2025 and FY 2030, have risen by nearly $100B in two years to $108.4B

X: @jessefelder, @spirosmargaris, @sarbjeetjohal, and @jordannovet

LinkedIn: Kenneth Chan, Dan Rabinovitz, Chris Ward-Jones, and CNBC. Forums: r/artificial

James Hale / Tubefilter:

Twitch now includes raids, which lets streamers who are going offline send viewers to others, in its average viewer count, easing the path to becoming a Partner

More: Game Rant. X: @itswoori