Techmeme
December 17, 2024, 6:45 AM

Top News

Kyle Wiggers / TechCrunch:
Google DeepMind unveils Veo 2, a video generation model that can create clips over two minutes long at resolutions up to 4K, available in VideoFX via a waitlist  —  Google DeepMind, Google's flagship AI research lab, wants to beat OpenAI at the video generation game — and it might just, at least for a little while.
Jay Peters / The Verge:
Google debuts Whisk, an image generator that takes other images as prompts to suggest the subject, scene, and style, and uses the new, “latest” Imagen 3 version  —  Google has announced a new AI tool called Whisk that lets you generate images using other images as prompts instead of requiring a long text prompt.
NBC News:
Source: Trump meets with TikTok CEO Shou Zi Chew at Mar-a-Lago, the same day that the company asks the Supreme Court to block the law that could ban the app  —  President-elect Donald Trump tried to ban TikTok in 2020 but was blocked by the courts.  He has since changed his position on the issue.
Lawrence Hurley / NBC News:
CNBC:
Waymo plans to test its robotaxis in Tokyo in early 2025, its first international expansion, partnering with taxi operator Nihon Kotsu and taxi hailing app GO  —  Alphabet-owned Waymo announced Monday that it will start testing its autonomous vehicles in Tokyo in early 2025, the company's first step toward international expansion.
Jay Peters / The Verge:
Mark Zuckerberg says Threads now has 100M+ DAUs, revealing its DAU figure for the first time, and 300M+ MAUs, up from 275M+ MAUs in November 2024  —  It's a notable milestone not just because it's a big number; it's also the first time Meta has a daily active user figure publicly.
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
Rishav Chatterjee / Reuters:
Australia's privacy watchdog says Meta agreed to a AU$50M settlement over a 2020 Cambridge Analytica lawsuit alleging 300K+ Facebook users' data was exposed  —  The Australian Information Commissioner said on Tuesday it has withdrawn civil penalty proceedings against Meta Platforms (META.O) …
Rachel Metz / Bloomberg:
OpenAI makes ChatGPT Search available to logged-in users, not just subscribers, and says users can set ChatGPT Search as their browser's default search engine  —  The product, called ChatGPT Search, will be available to any user who is logged in with an account for the chatbot across …
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

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More News

Bloomberg:
Sarah Perez / TechCrunch:

Earlier Picks

Sarah Perez / TechCrunch:
Victoria Song / The Verge:
Lorenzo Franceschi-Bicchierai / TechCrunch:
More: Reuters, Haaretz, The Record, and The Times of Israel
Bluesky: @drwhaxX: @lorenzofbForums: r/espionage and r/technology
John Melloy / CNBC:
Joseph Cox / 404 Media:
Noam Scheiber / New York Times:
Mark Bergen / Bloomberg: