Techmeme
June 26, 2023, 2:10 PM

Top News

Jay Peters / The Verge:
Meta announces Quest+, a VR subscription service that gives Quest 2, Quest 3, and Quest Pro users access to two games every month for $7.99/month or $59.99/year  —  Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg just announced Quest Plus, the company's new “virtual reality subscription” that gives users access to “the best titles on the platform,” he said.
Will Knight / Wired:
DeepMind co-founder and CEO Demis Hassabis shares details on Gemini, a ChatGPT rival DeepMind is making that blends strengths of LLMs with AlphaGo-type systems  —  Demis Hassabis says the company is working on a system called Gemini that will tap techniques that helped AlphaGo defeat a Go champion in 2016.
Wall Street Journal:
Databricks agrees to acquire generative AI startup MosaicML in a ~$1.3B deal closing in Q2; MosaicML launched in 2021, raised $64M, and has 62 employees  —  The deal aims at connecting businesses' data with services to help them build their own, cheaper language models, Databricks CEO says
The Verge:
A survey of 2,000+ US adults finds 57% know of ChatGPT, 46% for Bing Chat, 45% for My AI, and 38% for Bard; only ~33% have used the tools, with Gen Z dominating  —  We polled 2,000 people about how they're using AI, what they want it to do, and what scares them about it the most.
More: OnMSFT.comLinkedIn: Edwin WongMastodon: @botwiki@mastodon.social and @rjcc@mastodon.xyz
Twitter: @om, @rjcc, @ppmerino, and @teedubya
Brian Fung / CNN:
A breakdown of how much each US state will get in the $42.5B broadband infrastructure plan; Texas leads with $3.3B+, followed by California with $1.8B+  —  The Biden administration on Monday outlined how states across the country will be receiving billions of dollars in federal funding …
Yuval Mann / Ynetnews:
An interview with early Waze investors Yahal Zilka and Ehud Levy on why they invested, the impact of Google's acquisition on Israel's tech industry, and more  —  The disregard for map companies, the dilemma between BlackBerry and iPhone, the indifference on the part of Tim Cook …
Allison Johnson / The Verge:
Google Pixel Fold review: nice landscape mode for videos and usable outer display, but it's heavy, may not be durable, has limited multitasking, and is pricey  —  If you buy something from a Verge link, Vox Media may earn a commission.  See our ethics statement.  —  The Google Pixel Fold is a lot of phone.
Financial Times:
A profile of Korean chip engineer Choi Jin-seok, who embarked on a quixotic mission to lead China's industry after his career stalled and faces IP theft charges  —  In 2006, a Korean engineer called Choi Jin-seok achieved a feat that earned him the nickname “master of semiconductor yield”.

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