Techmeme
February 8, 2022, 12:15 AM

Top News

New York Times:
Meta announces that Peter Thiel, one of Facebook's first institutional investors and longest-serving directors, will step down from Meta's board this year  —  The tech billionaire, who has been on the board of the company formerly known as Facebook since 2005, is backing numerous politicians in the midterm elections.
Alan Rappeport / New York Times:
The IRS says it will transition away from using facial recognition for identity verification, after a bipartisan backlash regarding its use of ID.me services  —  The tax collection agency will transition away from using a service from the authentication service ID.me amid bipartisan backlash.
Financial Times:
Sources: SoftBank's sale of Arm to Nvidia collapses; source says SoftBank will receive a breakup fee of up to $1.25B and plans to unload Arm via an IPO in 2022  —  Transaction had faced scrutiny from regulators and was opposed by rivals  —  SoftBank's $66bn sale of UK-based chip business Arm …
Mark Gurman / Bloomberg:
Source: Apple acquires London-based AI Music, which uses AI and royalty-free music to create dynamic soundtracks that change based on user interactions or moods  —  Apple Inc. acquired a startup called AI Music that uses artificial intelligence to generate tailor-made music …
Michiel Willems / City A.M.:
In its annual SEC report, Meta repeats its warning that it may be forced to shut down “significant” services in Europe if the EU adopts new data transfer rules  —  If Meta is not given the option to transfer, store and process data from its European users on US-based servers …
Todd Bishop / GeekWire:
Amazon raises its maximum base pay for corporate and tech employees from $160K to $350K, in line with other tech giants, citing a “competitive labor market”  —  Amazon will boost its maximum base pay to $350,000 for corporate and tech employees, from $160,000 previously …
Karl Freund / Forbes:
Intel announces efforts to accelerate RISC-V development and adoption, including licensing plans, chip manufacturing partners, and a $1B IFS Innovation Fund  —  This announcement will have a long-lasting impact on the entire semiconductor industry:  —  Intel must fabricate chips …
Sam Reynolds / CoinDesk:
The Ethereum Name Service DAO, which manages .eth domains, votes to remove Brantly Millegan as a steward over a 2016 tweet; Millegan has refused to apologize  —  A Tweet from Nick Johnson, founder and lead developer of ENS, confirmed Millegan has been removed from both the DAO and as director of operations of True Names Ltd.
Jay Graber / Bluesky:
Bluesky, the decentralized social media initiative announced by Twitter in 2019, becomes a Public Benefit LLC with Jack Dorsey as one of the board members  —  In 2019, Twitter announced bluesky, a project it would fund to create an open and decentralized standard for social media.
Alex Konrad / Forbes:
A profile of freight logistics startup Flexport, which is raising a $935M+ Series E co-led by a16z and MSD Partners at an $8B valuation  —  Founder Ryan Petersen has positioned himself as shipping's savior, earning Flexport a new $8 billion valuation.  But industry rivals …

Sponsor Posts

TELUS Digital:
What you need to know about fine-tuning LLMs  —  Success with generative AI hinges on honing a pretrained LLM to be a specialist at your intended domain or application.  Learn how to fine-tune for four key characteristics.
Intel:
Intel Delivers powerful CPUs for AI and Networking  —  With the onset of AI, businesses demand powerful and efficient CPUs.  Explore new Intel Xeon 6 processors, for the broadest set of workloads with leadership performance and lower TCO.
Zoho:
What made Zoho “Sign” up for a paper-free future  —  Just a decade ago, when cloud-based software solutions were not commonplace, signing a document meant dealing with a printer, a scanner, and a courier service that never seemed to arrive on time.
IDrive:
Protecting your Cloud Applications Data  —  Backing up Office 365, Google Workspace, Dropbox & Box data is critical to preventing data loss or corruption, complying with laws and avoiding critical downtime in case of a disaster.

Featured Podcasts

Techmeme Ride Home:
The Day Of AI Announces
The day's tech news, every day at 5pm ET. Fifteen minutes and you're up to date.
Subscribe to Techmeme Ride Home.
The Social Radars:
Drew Houston, Founder & CEO, Dropbox
Come be a fly on the wall as Y Combinator's Jessica Livingston and Carolynn Levy talk to some of the most successful founders in Silicon Valley about how they did it.
Subscribe to The Social Radars.
Channels with Peter Kafka:
How long can sports keep TV alive?
Media and tech aren't just intersecting - they're fully intertwined. To understand how those worlds work, Peter Kafka talks to industry leaders, upstarts and observers.
Subscribe to Channels with Peter Kafka.
Spotlight On:
G2's Godard Abel on How the "Yelp for Software" is Adapting to AI Buying and Discovery
A podcast from Accel about how companies are built, from the people doing the building.
Subscribe to Spotlight On.
Invest Like the Best:
Gili Raanan - Cybersecurity Investment Playbook
The leading destination to learn about business and investing. We do this by showcasing exceptional talent and ideas.
Subscribe to Invest Like the Best.
 

About This Page

This is a Techmeme archive page. It shows how the site appeared at 12:15 AM ET, February 8, 2022.

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

Catalin Cimpanu / The Record:

Earlier Picks

Gunjan Banerji / Wall Street Journal:
Manish Singh / TechCrunch:
Charles Daly / Bloomberg:
Natasha Lomas / TechCrunch: