Techmeme
January 6, 2023, 1:50 AM

Top News

Wall Street Journal:
Sources: OpenAI is in talks to raise $300M+ from Thrive and Founders Fund in a tender offer, valuing the company at ~$29B, up from $14B in its 2021 tender offer  —  Tender offer at that valuation would make OpenAI one of the most valuable U.S. startups  —  Cheating With ChatGPT: Can an AI Chatbot Pass AP Lit?
Kate Clark / The Information:
Memo: Genesis parent company DCG shut its wealth management division HQ on January 2; filing: HQ had more than $3.5B under management as of December 2022  —  Digital Currency Group, the parent company of crypto broker Genesis and the publication CoinDesk, has shut down its wealth management …
Wall Street Journal:
Sources: Genesis Global laid off 30% of its staff, after a 20% cut in 2022, leaving the crypto lender with 145 workers, and is considering filing for bankruptcy  —  Firm suffered steep losses from loans it supplied to Alameda, Three Arrows  —  Massive crypto lender Genesis Global Trading Inc. laid off 30% …
Ana Paula Pereira / Cointelegraph:
3AC liquidators subpoena founders Zhu Su and Kyle Davies, who have resisted cooperation, via Twitter to provide all documents tied to the hedge fund's collapse  —  3AC founders Zhu Su and Kyle Davies have been ordered to provide all documents in their possession or control …
Geoffrey A. Fowler / Washington Post:
Twitter verified a Washington Post columnist's fake US Senator Ed Markey account, after Elon Musk said “all verified accounts will be manually authenticated”  —  Elon Musk said Twitter would begin authenticating users who pay $8 for Blue.  Our tech columnist was still able to get a checkmark for an impostor Sen. Ed Markey.
Mitchell Clark / The Verge:
Qualcomm unveils Snapdragon Satellite, which lets phones with a Gen 2 SoC and an X70 modem text off the grid via Iridium's satellite network, coming in H2 2023  —  Android phones will soon be getting a feature similar to — and perhaps even more powerful than — Apple's Emergency SOS via satellite.
Erin Woo / The Information:
Source: Twitter laid off ~40 ad optimization data scientists and engineers, as the company targets areas that leadership considers to be failing or unimportant  —  Twitter laid off about 40 data scientists and engineers working on advertising late Wednesday night in what amounted to at least …
Wall Street Journal:
New York AG Letitia James files a civil lawsuit against Celsius co-founder Alex Mashinsky, alleging he defrauded investors out of billions via false statements  —  Alex Mashinsky made false statements to investors about the crypto lender, lawsuit alleges  —  New York Attorney General Letitia …
CNBC:
Samsung estimates that its Q4 operating profit fell by 69% YoY to ~$3.37B, an eight-year low, citing a greater-than-expected decline in memory chip demand  —  - Samsung Electronics flagged on Friday its quarterly profit tumbled to an eight-year low as a weakening global economy hammered memory chip prices …
Matt Burgess / Wired:
WhatsApp launches proxy support globally, letting users with blocked or disrupted connections use the app via servers set up by volunteers and organizations  —  Amid internet shutdowns in Iran, the encrypted messaging app is introducing proxy connections that can help people get online.
Antonio G. Di Benedetto / The Verge:
Lenovo unveils the Yoga Book 9i, a laptop with two 13.3" OLED displays, available in June 2023 for $2,100+ with a 13th Gen Intel Core i7-U15 and 16GB of RAM  —  Dual monitor setups are great and all, but how about dual screens in a strangely tall laptop?  Lenovo is here to answer that …
Jules Roscoe / VICE:
The FTC proposes a rule banning non-compete clauses, saying the contracts harm healthy competition in the labor and product markets and block entrepreneurship  —  The agency stated that noncompete clauses are bad for both the labor market and innovation.  The proposed rule would make them illegal.
Stephen Totilo / Axios:
Microsoft files a revised rebuttal to the FTC's lawsuit to block its Activision Blizzard deal, removing its claim that the FTC's structure is unconstitutional  —  Microsoft says it made a mistake last month when it claimed that the very structure of Federal Trade Commission …
Angus Berwick / Reuters:
Source: FTX's former top lawyer Daniel Friedberg cooperated with US prosecutors, telling them on November 22 what he knew about SBF misusing customer funds  —  FTX's former top lawyer Daniel Friedberg has cooperated with U.S. prosecutors as they investigate the crypto firm's collapse …

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:
The crossroads of AI and SaaS  —  Enabling businesses of all sizes to build products in-house and disqualifying SaaS tools that are not AI-powered.  In a span of just two years, AI has made a name for itself as the key driver for innovation.
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:
Fri. 12/20 - Gemini Flash Thinking
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 1:50 AM ET, January 6, 2023.

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

Kif Leswing / CNBC:
Scott Stein / CNET:

Earlier Picks

Wall Street Journal:
Levi Winslow / Kotaku:
David Benoit / Wall Street Journal:
Jessica Conditt / Engadget: