Techmeme
December 17, 2024, 5:55 PM

Top News

Wall Street Journal:
Databricks is raising $10B from a16z, Thrive, and others at a $62B valuation, among the largest VC raises in history; docs show Databricks has $2.6B in revenue  —  As CEO of Databricks, Ali Ghodsi has performed a series of ‘strategic surgeries’ to make his company one of the fastest-growing startups in Silicon Valley
Natasha Lomas / TechCrunch:
Ireland's Data Protection Commission fines Meta €251M for a Facebook security breach that affected ~29M users globally, ~3M in the EU and EEA, in September 2018  —  Meta has been fined €251 million (around $263 million) in the European Union for a Facebook security breach …
Sean Hollister / The Verge:
Framework releases a $39 modular component that adds two M.2 slots to the Laptop 16, letting users have 26TB+ of storage, and updates the Laptop 16's cooling  —  The most ambitious laptop ever made just got a long-promised modular upgrade. … At launch, you only had two options …
Tony Romm / Washington Post:
The US FTC issues long-awaited rules requiring companies to display the full price of hotels, concert tickets, and more up front, rather than hiding “junk fees”  —  The industries must display the full price of a hotel room, concert ticket or sporting event upfront to customers or face potential federal punishment.
Edith Hancock / Wall Street Journal:
The European Commission opens a formal DSA investigation into TikTok over concerns foreign actors used it to interfere in the Romanian presidential elections  —  The probe comes after judges in the country annulled the outcome of the first round of presidential elections, citing concerns of Russian interference
Financial Times:
The UK opens a consultation on AI and copyright, and aims to offer an “opt out” copyright exception, force companies to open models to scrutiny, and more  —  Consultation could see easier access to copyrighted works but require tech groups to be clearer on what they have used
Todd Spangler / Variety:
CAA partners with YouTube to help CAA clients identify and remove AI-generated content that features their likeness, with a wider rollout planned in early 2025  —  In what's being touted as the first partnership of its kind, CAA is collaborating with YouTube on a program promising to let actors …
Anna Tong / Reuters:
NYC-based AI-powered accounting startup Basis raised a $34M Series A led by Khosla Ventures, with Nat Friedman, Jeff Dean, Adam D'Angelo, and others investing  —  Artificial intelligence startup Basis has raised $34 million in a Series A funding round for its AI-powered accounting automation product, the company said on Tuesday.
New York Times:
Tech consultant Nima Momeni was convicted by a San Francisco jury in the fatal stabbing of Cash App founder Bob Lee that occurred on April 4, 2023  —  Nima Momeni, 40, was convicted by a San Francisco jury in the fatal stabbing of Bob Lee, a well-known tech executive.
Kyle Wiggers / TechCrunch:
OpenAI says it's rolling out o1 to its API for some developers, announces new versions of GPT-4o and GPT-4o mini as part of the Realtime API, and more  —  OpenAI is bringing o1, its “reasoning” AI model, to its API — but only for certain developers, to start.
John Voorhees / MacStories:
Game emulator Delta adds an in-app link to pay via Patreon outside of the App Store, likely the first US app to use Apple's External Purchase Link Entitlement  —  Delta, the MacStories Selects App of the Year, received an important update today that allows users of the game emulator to support …
Jody Godoy / Reuters:
Grubhub settled with the US FTC and IL AG for $25M, for allegedly adding restaurants without consent and misleading users about order fees and drivers about pay  —  Grubhub settled with the U.S. Federal Trade Commission and Illinois Attorney General Kwame Raoul on Tuesday for allegedly misleading customers …
Molly White / Bloomberg:
After Trump's win, a look at what the crypto industry could do next, including weakening financial rules that might protect consumers from the next crypto crash  —  The industry is now in a position to weaken financial rules that might protect consumers from the next crypto crash.

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:
Transform sales efficiency with VoIP-CRM integration  —  This is a guest post by CallHippo.  Sales efficiency is critical for success in today's competitive business landscape.  However, many businesses struggle …
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.
Techmeme Ride Home:
Tue. 12/17 - TikTok CEO Dines With Trump
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.
 

About This Page

This is a Techmeme archive page. It shows how the site appeared at 5:55 PM ET, December 17, 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.

More News

Wired:

Earlier Picks

Sonia Rolley / Reuters:
Rishav Chatterjee / Reuters:
CNBC:
Jay Peters / The Verge:
NBC News:
Kyle Wiggers / TechCrunch: