Techmeme
December 5, 2024, 4:45 AM

Top News

New York Times:
Trump picks former SEC Commissioner Paul Atkins, who is seen as a strong advocate for looser regulation of crypto assets, to succeed Gary Gensler as SEC Chair  —  Mr. Atkins, a pro-business conservative, would likely take a lighter regulatory approach than the current chair of the Securities and Exchange Commission.
Josh Sisco / Bloomberg:
Donald Trump selects Gail Slater, an economic policy adviser to JD Vance and tech policy adviser during Trump's first term, as head of the DOJ's antitrust unit  —  - Slater has been policy adviser for Vice President-elect Vance  — Trump vows to continue to crackdown on giant technology firms
Helen Partz / Cointelegraph:
Bitcoin passes $100K for the first time after rallying 126%+ since January 2024, driven by Bitcoin ETF demand, April's halving, and Donald Trump's election win  —  Bitcoin has rallied 126% since January to reach $100,000, driven by Bitcoin ETF demand, April's halving and Donald Trump's US election win.
Kyle Wiggers / TechCrunch:
Google DeepMind unveils Genie 2, a model that can generate 3D worlds from a single prompt image, playable by humans or AI agents using keyboard and mouse inputs  —  DeepMind, Google's AI research org, has unveiled a model that can generate an “endless” variety of playable 3D worlds.
William J. Broad / New York Times:
Hayden Field / CNBC:
Anduril and OpenAI partner to deploy advanced AI systems for national security missions, focusing on “improving the nation's counter-unmanned aircraft systems”  —  OpenAI and Anduril on Wednesday announced a partnership allowing the defense tech company to deploy advanced artificial …
Simon Willison / Simon Willison's Weblog:
Bill Toulas / BleepingComputer:
Microsoft and Lumen's Black Lotus Labs researchers find Russia-linked Turla hackers are hijacking Pakistan-based hackers' servers to launch their own attacks  —  The notorious Russian cyber-espionage group Turla is hacking other hackers, hijacking the Pakistani threat actor Storm-0156's infrastructure …
Financial Times:
xAI plans to expand its Colossus supercomputer tenfold to incorporate 1M+ GPUs; work has already begun to increase the size of its Memphis, Tennessee facility  —  Facility in Memphis expected to incorporate more than 1mn GPUs as billionaire's xAI aims to catch up with rivals
New York Times:
At the DealBook Summit, Jeff Bezos said he is “very hopeful” about President-elect Donald Trump and praised his deregulatory agenda, and Elon Musk's leadership  —  The Amazon founder said he saw signs of a “calmer” Donald J. Trump on the eve of his return to the White House.
Wes Davis / The Verge:
Threads users can now follow fediverse accounts that have interacted with a Threads post; users won't see fediverse posts in feeds, but will on account profiles  —  Threads rolled out fediverse users' likes and replies in a very limited way at first, and it's the same here …
Greg Otto / CyberScoop:
The White House says the Salt Typhoon hack has impacted eight telecom companies in the US, and also affected dozens of other countries, for as long as two years  —  A senior administration official said Wednesday the Salt Typhoon hack has impacted dozens of countries in a sweeping espionage campaign
Charles Rollet / TechCrunch:
Three members of Google's NotebookLM team, including its lead Raiza Martin, are leaving to launch a startup focused on building “a user-first AI product”  —  Three members of Google's NotebookLM team, including its team lead and designer, have announced they are leaving Google for a new stealth startup.
Financial Times:
The UK NCA uncovers a Russian multibillion-dollar money laundering scheme that let Russian spies, European drug traffickers, and more evade sanctions via crypto  —  Multibillion-dollar ring across London, Moscow and Dubai connected cash-rich criminals with sanctions evaders
Reuters:
Four Chinese state-backed industry groups, representing most of China's chip demand, urge members to drop US chips, calling them “no longer safe or reliable”  —  Chinese companies should be wary of buying U.S. chips as they are “no longer safe” and buy locally instead …
Jordan Novet / CNBC:
Amazon rolls out a “Buy with AWS” button that software companies can add to their websites to help customers with AWS accounts find, try, and buy services  —  In 2022, Amazon introduced the Buy with Prime button, allowing premium subscribers to make purchases using their Amazon account even when shopping on other websites.
The Conversation:
AI language translation was one of the most beneficial uses of AI during major global elections in 2024, and AI misinformation was not as catastrophic as feared  —  It's been the biggest year for elections in human history: 2024 is a “super-cycle” year in which 3.7 billion eligible voters in 72 countries had the chance to go the polls.
Alexandra S. Levine / Bloomberg:
TikTok says US sales on TikTok Shop tripled to $100M+ on Black Friday and it drew a 165% annual increase in shoppers on the two days leading up to Cyber Monday  —  Company is betting big on its US e-commerce arm as ban looms  —  TikTok tripled its US shopping sales to more than $100 million …
The Verge:
Sam Altman says OpenAI will begin 12 days of “shipmas” on December 5, with new features, products, and demos, sources say including text-to-video AI tool Sora  —  Happy holidays from OpenAI.  The AI startup plans to kick off a “shipmas” period of new features and products for 12 days, starting on December 5th.

Sponsor Posts

Meta:
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Zoho:
How remote support can make your Christmas stress-free  —  As Christmas approaches, the air fills with the anticipation of joy, family gatherings, and gift-giving.  While the season brings immense happiness …
Genesys:
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Tribe AI:
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Earlier Picks

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