Techmeme
December 20, 2024, 8:35 PM

Top News

Maxwell Zeff / TechCrunch:
OpenAI unveils o3 and o3-mini, trained to “think” before responding via what OpenAI calls a “private chain of thought”, and plans to launch them in early 2025  —  OpenAI announced its new o3 models on Friday.  —  In a tweet ahead of its final livestream for its …
More: The Information, OpenAI on YouTube, OpenAI, Ars Technica, Gizmodo, Fortune, NBC News, The Verge, ZDNET, Axios, Quartz, Engadget, Digital Trends, and Tom's Guide
ARC Prize:
o3, trained on the ARC-AGI-1 Public Training set, scored 87.5% on ARC Prize's Semi-Private Evaluation in a high-compute configuration; GPT-4o scored 5% in 2024  —  OpenAI's new o3 system - trained on the ARC-AGI-1 Public Training set - has scored a breakthrough 75.7% on the Semi-Private Evaluation set …
Bloomberg:
Bloomberg:
Qualcomm prevails at trial against Arm's claim that it breached a chip tech license acquired in the $1.4B Nuvia purchase in 2021; Arm plans to seek a retrial  —  - US jury finds Qualcomm didn't violate terms of agreement  — Delaware jurors were unable to agree on Nuvia's alleged breach
Joseph Menn / Washington Post:
A US judge finds NSO Group liable for exploiting a bug in WhatsApp to spy on 1,400 users and that WhatsApp is entitled to sanctions against NSO  —  Israel-based maker of Pegasus program loses five-year-old landmark case.  —  Messaging giant WhatsApp won a landmark ruling Friday …
Hugh Son / CNBC:
The US CFPB sues Zelle operator EWS, JPMorgan Chase, Bank of America, and Wells Fargo, alleging that customers lost $870M+ to fraud since Zelle's launch in 2017  —  The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau on Friday sued the operator of the Zelle payments network and the three U.S. banks …
Jamie Tarabay / Bloomberg:
The US charges dual Russian and Israeli national Rostislav Panev for allegedly working with the LockBit ransomware group and seeks his extradition from Israel  —  - Extortion group targeted Boeing, Royal Mail and thousands more  — Israeli-Russian national allegedly hired via Telegram chat app
Kali Hays / Fortune:
Sources: David Sacks' role as WH AI and crypto czar will be limited to an adviser role, overseen by Michael Kratsios, partly because he won't divest from Craft  —  David Sacks may already be getting a taste of how difficult it can be to get things done in Washington D.C.
Liz Pelly / Harper's:
How Spotify used its Perfect Fit Content program to rig its system against musicians, filling popular playlists with “ghost artists” to cut its royalty payouts  —  I first heard about ghost artists in the summer of 2017.  At the time, I was new to the music-streaming beat.
Andrew J. Hawkins / The Verge:
A study by Waymo and insurer Swiss Re finds Waymo's vehicles were safer than those driven by humans, with a 92% reduction in bodily injury claims and more  —  Waymo's autonomous vehicles cause less property damage and fewer bodily injuries when they crash than human-driven vehicles …
Sylvia Varnham O'Regan / The Information:
Google hired 100+ staffers of Magic Leap as contractors to assist with Google's work on its new Android XR OS, raising questions about the future of Magic Leap  —  Google has hired more than 100 staffers at augmented reality firm Magic Leap as contractors to assist with Google's work …
More: SamMobile
Sergiu Gatlan / BleepingComputer:
US DOJ says a Romanian involved in Netwalker ransomware attacks has been sentenced to 20 years in prison after pleading guilty to computer fraud and wire fraud  —  Daniel Christian Hulea, a Romanian man charged for his involvement in NetWalker ransomware attacks, was sentenced to 20 years …
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) …

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More News

Stephen Alpher / CoinDesk:
Lorenzo Franceschi-Bicchierai / TechCrunch:
Sergiu Gatlan / BleepingComputer:

Earlier Picks

Robert Booth / The Guardian:
Bobby Allyn / NPR:
Emily Nicolle / Bloomberg: