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December 19, 2024, 11:00 PM
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WeSmirchTop News
| Kyle Wiggers / TechCrunch: |
Google releases Gemini 2.0 Flash Thinking, an experimental “reasoning” model that “explicitly shows its thoughts” and can use them to strengthen its reasoning — Google has released what it's calling a new “reasoning” AI model — but it's in the experimental stages …
More: The Information, Google AI for Developers, The Verge, Ars Technica, MakeUseOf, 9to5Google, Analytics India Magazine, Neowin, Android Headlines, SiliconANGLE, The Decoder, WinBuzzer, Android Police, VentureBeat, and Windows Copilot News
Bluesky: @simonwillison.net. X: @jeffdean, @noamshazeer, @officiallogank, @officiallogank, @lmarena_ai, @sundarpichai, @rakyll, @emollick, @lmarena_ai, @maxwinebach, @erinkwoo, @scaling01, @sullyomarr, @karpathy, @testingcatalog, @osanseviero, @daniel_mac8, @theaiveteran, @_sholtodouglas, @thejacobdean_, @demishassabis, @cedric_chee, @axelgarciak, @rseroter, @_akhaliq, @jeffdean, @lmthang, @dansutera, @deedydas, @koltregaskes, @zoubinghahrama1, @maxwinebach, @jeffdean, @zoubinghahrama1, @zitongyang0, @pallavmac, @koltregaskes, @pallavmac, @keytryer, @thelobbyistguy, @minty_vint, @ai_for_success, @subhash_peshwa, @simonw, @koltregaskes, @ai_for_success, @minty_vint, @test_tm7873, @abacaj, @itspaulai, @drjwrae, @rishdotblog, @dustinvtran, @kimmonismus, @joaoxcruz, @ai_for_success, @_sholtodouglas, @alexanderjiazx, @krishnanrohit, @jeffdean, @gm8xx8, @davegoldblatt, @mrmambwe, @manfreditu, @thomasortk, @melvinjohnsonp, @adityakusupati, @literallydenis, @brij, @tsendeemts, @xinyun_chen_, @altryne, @tokumin, @ankesh_anand, and @alxfazio
Forums: Slashdot and Ars OpenForum
| Jess Weatherbed / The Verge: |
Meta teases an AI editing tool powered by Movie Gen AI in Instagram that can change outfits, backgrounds, and more in videos using a text prompt, coming in 2025 — Instagram is planning to introduce a generative AI editing feature next year that will allow users to “change nearly any aspect of your videos.”
More: Benzinga, SiliconANGLE, The Drum, ZDNET, BGR, Android Headlines, TechCrunch, iPhone in Canada Blog, Gizmodo, Engadget, Digital Trends, and Social Media Today
Bluesky: @oblivionwithbells.com. Threads: @zuck, @supremebagholder, @johnalmighty, and @mattnavarra. Instagram: Adam Mosseri
X: @alexisohanian, @ahmad_al_dahle, and @dtrinh
| Benj Edwards / Ars Technica: |
Researchers unveil Genesis, an open-source generative physics engine that trains robots in simulated reality 430K times faster than in the real world — On Thursday, a large group of university and private industry researchers unveiled Genesis, a new open source computer simulation system …
More: Genesis, Analytics India Magazine, and MarkTechPost
Mastodon: @timokissel@mastodon.world. X: @zhou_xian_, @zhou_xian_, @safespace4space, @yumahey, @tom_doerr, @timokissel, @zhou_xian_, @michael_gaio, @frankzydou, @brianroemmele, @brianroemmele, @ericschmidt, @zhou_xian_, @brianroemmele, and @kelloggzz1
Forums: Hacker News, r/LocalLLaMA, and Ars OpenForum
| Ivan Mehta / TechCrunch: |
YouTube plans to start a crackdown on “egregious clickbait”, or videos where the titles or thumbnails make claims the videos don't back up, beginning in India — A lot of YouTube videos have flashy, misleading titles and thumbnails, such as “BREAKING NEWS” or “The president steps down …
More: Google, Tubefilter, Financial Express, Digit, Cord Cutters News, Mashable India tech, Gadgets 360, Neowin, The Indian Express, and MEDIANAMA
Bluesky: @pcguy8088, @kirbyslastsnack, @bdsams.com, @alexhogan, @ianboudreau.com, @moonlitlycan, and @angelofalls
X: @steved3 and @culturecrave
| New York Times: |
In 150+ X posts, Elon Musk led the charge to kill a bipartisan spending deal, in part by sharing misinfo, which may lead to a government shutdown over Christmas — The world's richest man led the charge to kill a bipartisan spending deal, in part by promoting false and misleading claims about it.
More: Politico, The Hill, Politico, Wall Street Journal, The Daily Beast, Gizmodo, Forbes, Business Insider, Wired, No More Mister Nice Blog, Associated Press, The Atlantic, and Black Wall Street Times
Bluesky: @reckless, @pineapple-king, and @rmac
X: @elonmusk, @maxwellfrostfl, @berniesanders, @sensanders, @elonmusk, @elonmusk, @elonmusk, @elonmusk, @growing_daniel, @elonmusk, @senjeffmerkley, @elonmusk, @repjimmygomez, @emrwilkins, @fred_guttenberg, @edkrassen, @imknottheone, @elonmusk, @fscdems, @ahmedbaba_, @brianstelter, @alifarhat79, @scott_4trump, @theliamnissan, @elonmusk, @doctorhenryct, @armanddoma, @ericldaugh, @sadmonsters, @vivekgramaswamy, @davewiner, @c_s_skeptic, @themaxburns, @mattglassman312, @allenanalysis, @chucktodd, @naval, @paulg, @michaelsteele, @aaronblake, @joncoopertweets, @vivekgramaswamy, @arimelber, @benjamingoggin, @daithaigilbert, @hillaryclinton, @voidofroses, @allenanalysis, @jfberke, @repdonbeyer, @ericldaugh, @jamiedupree, @reploritrahan, @karthikfortexas, @fritschner, @daniellamicaela, @repraskin, @ronfilipkowski, @cwebbonline, @billkristol, @pamelabrowncnn, @maddenifico, @leftcoastbabe, @elonmusk, @anniekarni, @boknowsnews, @acnewsitics, @bigskyisawesome, @davetroy, @farhip, @jeffjarvis, @youwouldntpost, @steven_pifer, @markpocan, @maddenifico, @tvietor08, and @repjayapal. LinkedIn: Brian McLaughlin
Forums: r/AntiTrumpAlliance, r/politics, r/musked, and r/Law_and_Politics
| Kiyoshi Takenaka / Reuters: |
Sony buys ~$320M of shares in Japanese media powerhouse Kadokawa, which owns FromSoftware, taking its stake to ~10% and becoming Kadokawa's top shareholder — Sony Group (6758.T) said on Thursday it will invest about 50 billion yen ($320 million) to acquire new shares of Kadokawa (9468.T) …
More: Sony Group, Reuters, The Verge, GamesIndustry.biz, Wall Street Journal, nippon.com, CNET, Engadget, PC Gamer, The Mainichi, PC Games Insider, MobileSyrup, Push Square, Polygon, TechRadar, The Japan Times, Game Developer, Game Rant, TechRaptor, Newsweek, Pure Xbox, PlayStation LifeStyle, Metro.co.uk, Rock, Paper, Shotgun, TheGamer, GamingBolt, PocketGamer.biz, IGN, Dexerto, Neowin, Game World Observer, Wccftech, Eurogamer.net, and Windows Central
Bluesky: @annlynzee. X: @wario64, @williamraguilar, @colteastwood, @jawmuncher, @hoeglaw, @williamraguilar, @cattheplayed11, @septic_sauce, @gibbogame, @stealth40k, @stealth40k, @serkantoto, @genki_jpn, @hoeglaw, and @genki_jpn
Forums: r/animecirclejerk, r/PHGamers, r/fromsoftware, and r/PS5
| New York Times: |
Sources: the US' proposed AI chip framework would block adversaries entirely, and give others quotas based on their US alignment, threatening Nvidia's expansion — The chipmaker expects more than $10 billion in foreign sales this year, but the Biden administration is advancing rules that could curb that growth.
X: @klonkitchen
| Marina Temkin / TechCrunch: |
Sources: Anysphere, developer of GitHub Copilot rival Cursor, raised a $100M Series B at a $2.6B valuation, up from a $400M valuation in August 2024 — Anysphere, the developer of AI-powered coding assistant Cursor, raised $100 million Series B at a post-money valuation of $2.6 billion, according to sources with knowledge of the deal.
X: @techau, @_anthonyriera, @suhail, and @mattvagni
| Malcolm Owen / AppleInsider: |
Apple researchers say the company's open-source ReDrafter method on Nvidia GPUs led to a 2.7x speed increase in generated tokens per second for greedy encoding — Apple's latest machine learning research could make creating models for Apple Intelligence faster, by coming up with a technique …
More: 9to5Mac, Apple Machine Learning …, Moneycontrol, Gadgets 360, The Motley Fool, and Wccftech
X: @dimillian, @appleinsider, and @lafaiel
| Reuters: |
Sources: Apple is in early-stage talks with Tencent and ByteDance about integrating their AI models into iPhones sold in China; ChatGPT is unavailable in China — Apple (AAPL.O) is in talks with Tencent (0700.HK) and TikTok owner ByteDance about integrating their artificial intelligence models …
More: MacRumors, South China Morning Post, Investing.com, Investing.com, Investor's Business Daily, ReadWrite, GSMArena.com, The Information, Apple Must, Supercharged, iPhone in Canada Blog, PYMNTS.com, 9to5Mac, AppleInsider, Analytics India Magazine, Wccftech, BGR, Tech Advisor, Business Insider, WinBuzzer, news24.com, and TechNode
| Yantoultra Ngui / Reuters: |
Singapore-based bolttech, a B2B2C startup that offers “embedded” insurance products, raised a $100M+ Series C led by Dragon Fund at a $2.1B valuation — Singapore-headquartered insurance technology firm bolttech has raised more than $100 million in its latest funding round … | Stephanie Palazzolo / The Information: |
Anthropic, whose CEO, Dario Amodei, has vocally opposed Donald Trump, and OpenAI look to hire more people with ties to Trump and the GOP for their policy teams — Lately, AI developer Anthropic has been riding high, with its models' impressive performance on tasks like code generation helping … | Charles Rollet / TechCrunch: |
Backflip, which is building AI models that can generate 3D designs using text, sketches, or photos as prompts, raised a $30M Series A co-led by NEA and a16z — What if it were as easy to generate a usable 3D design as prompting ChatGPT? That's the mission of Backflip …
More: Business Wire, SiliconANGLE, Forbes, and Andreessen Horowitz
X: @dbenny12 and @tkexpress11
LinkedIn: David Benhaim and Gregory Mark
| Tim Bradshaw / Financial Times: |
Oura raised a $200M Series D with participation from Fidelity and Dexcom at a $5.2B valuation and says sales grew 100%+ in 2024 to ~$500M with 2.5M+ rings sold — Finnish company's growing popularity has led to its sales more than doubling this year — Ōura, the maker …
More: The Information, Inc, MassDevice, Forbes, SiliconANGLE, Gadgets & Wearables, Pulse 2.0, Axios, FinSMEs, Sifted, Wareable, Oura, HIT Consultant, TechCrunch, and VC News Daily
| Bloomberg: |
A look at Frank McCourt's efforts to acquire TikTok and the obstacles he faces, as he lobbies Congress and Trump's team and recruits former TikTok executives — - TikTok hopes Supreme Court will halt ban at final hour — McCourt is pitching his bid to Congress, Trump's team
X: @ali_lev
| Kyle Wiggers / TechCrunch: |
Charlotte, NC-based Aiwyn, which provides automation software for accounting firms, raised $113M led by KKR and Bessemer, bringing its total funding to $127M — Accounting firms are struggling to adopt high-tech solutions. That's according to a survey earlier this year from Rightsworks …
More: SiliconANGLE and Aiwyn, Inc.
| Robert Booth / The Guardian: |
A coalition of newspapers, writers, movie producers, and others rejects the UK's plans to create a copyright exemption for AI companies to train their models — Exclusive: Coalition of musicians, photographers and newspapers insist existing copyright laws must be respected
More: SiliconANGLE, InPublishing, and New Scientist
Bluesky: @fortrenn, @hetanshah, @ericgordy, @marypcbuk, and @michaelsavage
X: @ednewtonrex, @tomkiehl, @ednewtonrex, @dominicyoung, @profbillmcguire, and @the_ipo. Forums: Slashdot
| Chainalysis: |
In 2024, hackers stole $2.2B in crypto across 303 hacks, up from $1.8B across 282 hacks in 2023; by July 2024, $1.58B had been stolen, but the pace slowed after — The Chainalysis 2025 Crypto Crime Report — Crypto hacking remains a persistent threat, with four years …
More: Bitcoin Insider, CryptoSlate, Cryptopolitan, Blockchain News, CryptoNinjas, The Daily Hodl, PYMNTS.com, Neowin, Cointelegraph, Nairametrics, The Korea Herald, crypto.news, Help Net Security, Cryptonews, The Record, DeCential, Financial Times, Bloomberg, CryptoPotato, TechCrunch, Reuters, and Infosecurity. LinkedIn: Troy Stangarone
| Bloomberg: |
Sources: Insight Partners, which acquired Dotmatics for ~$629M in March 2021, is exploring options for the R&D software maker, including selling it for $5B+ — - Dotmatics expected to draw interest from strategic suitors — Scientists use the company's software in drug research
| Ingrid Lunden / TechCrunch: |
Decart, which helps organizations train and run AI models at scale, raised a $32M Series A, sources say at a $500M+ valuation, after a $21M seed in October 2024 — A young startup that emerged from stealth less than two months ago with big-name backers and bigger ambitions is returning to the spotlight.| Kyle Wiggers / TechCrunch: |
Anthropic demonstrates “alignment faking” in Claude 3 Opus to show how developers could be misled into thinking an LLM is more aligned than it may actually be — AI models can deceive, new research from Anthropic shows. They can pretend to have different views during training …
More: Anthropic, Anthropic, MarTech, Computerworld, ZDNET, Gadgets 360, Sherwood News, Anthropic on YouTube, and Time
Bluesky: @dylanfreedman.nytimes.com, @tobyord, @tedunderwood.me, @eryk, @saxon.me, @moultano, and @sleepinyourhat
X: @anthropicai, @evanhub, @davidsacks, @elonmusk, and @matthewberman. LinkedIn: José Manuel de la Chica
Forums: Hacker News, r/Futurology, and r/worldnews
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