Techmeme
April 18, 2024, 5:35 PM

Top News

Alex Heath / The Verge:
Meta details Llama 3: 8B- and 70B-parameter models, a focus on reducing false refusals, and an upcoming model trained on 15T+ tokens that has 400B+ parameters  —  Meta's AI assistant is being put everywhere across Instagram, WhatsApp, and Facebook.  Meanwhile, the company's next major AI model, Llama 3, has arrived.
New York Times:
Meta to add its Meta AI chatbot to Instagram, WhatsApp, Messenger, and Facebook in 12+ countries, expanding beyond the US, powered by its new Llama 3 models  —  Users of Instagram, Facebook, WhatsApp and Messenger will be able to turn to the new technology, powered by Meta's latest artificial …
Emilia David / The Verge:
Emma Roth / The Verge:
More: Digital TrendsThreads: @zuck and @chriscox
David Pierce / The Verge:
Google announces internal reorganizations, including an AI-focused Platforms and Devices group overseeing Pixel, Android, Chrome, and more, led by Rick Osterloh  —  AI is taking over at Google, and the company is changing in big ways to try to make it happen even faster.
Sarah Whitten / CNBC:
Netflix reports Q1 revenue up 15% YoY to $9.37B, vs. $9.28B est., paid users up 16% YoY to 269.6M, vs. 264.2M est., and net income $2.3B, up from $1.3B YoY  —  LOS ANGELES — Netflix reported earnings that beat on the top and bottom line after the bell Thursday.  —  Here are the results:
Todd Spangler / Variety:
Netflix won't report subscriber numbers or Average Revenue per Membership starting in Q1 2025, saying time spent is its “best proxy for customer satisfaction”  —  Netflix will no longer report subscriber numbers — a key metric for streaming services for years — beginning with the first quarter of 2025.
Bill Toulas / BleepingComputer:
Europol and 19 countries make 37 arrests and disrupt phishing-as-a-service platform LabHost in a year-long operation with help from Microsoft, Intel, and others  —  The LabHost phishing-as-a-service (PhaaS) platform has been disrupted in a year-long global law enforcement operation …
Crystal Kim / Axios:
A US jury finds Avraham Eisenberg, a crypto trader who stole $110M on the Mango Markets exchange in 2022, guilty of fraud despite his “code is law” claim  —  - He used the inflated futures holdings as collateral to borrow other cryptocurrencies on the platform …
Thomas Barrabi / New York Post:
Google fires 28 employees over their participation in a 10-hour sit-in at the company's New York and Sunnyvale offices to protest its business ties with Israel  —  Google has fired 28 employees over their participation in a 10-hour sit-in at the search giant's offices in New York and Sunnyvale …
Sheila Chiang / CNBC:
TSMC reports Q1 revenue up 16.5% YoY to ~$18.87B, vs. ~$18B est., net income up 8.9% YoY to ~$6.97B, vs. ~$6.6B est., and expects strong AI chip demand in Q2  —  Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company on Thursday beat revenue and profit expectations in the first quarter …
Kris Holt / Engadget:
Meta cuts the price of the base 128GB Quest 2 from $249 to $199, its second permanent price cut in four months, after a drop from $299 to $249 in January  —  The base 128GB headset will cost $199 from now on.  —  For the second time this year, Meta has given the Quest 2 a permanent price cut.
Bloomberg:
Huawei releases its Pura 70 series, available for ~$760 to ~$1,380; reviewers show high-end models have a Kirin 9010 chip, an update to the Mate 60 Pro's 9000s  —  - Huawei building out portfolio with fresh upgrades and design  — New phones likely to add further pressure on iPhone in China
Amanda Lee / Wall Street Journal:
Apple plans to spend $250M+ on its regional hub in Singapore, including expanding its campus later in 2024, as Tim Cook visits Vietnam and other Asian countries  —  Apple seeks to diversify its supply chain amid rising U.S.-China tensions and global concerns of decoupling trade
Chris Welch / The Verge:
Nothing unveils the $149 Nothing Ear and $99 Nothing Ear (a), offering improved sound, personalization, and battery life; Nothing plans to integrate ChatGPT  —  Nothing is churning out new earbuds at a faster clip than smartphones.  The company just introduced the Nothing Ear and Nothing Ear (a), priced at $149 and $99, respectively.
Bloomberg:
The US House Speaker plans to bundle the TikTok divestiture bill, with a longer sale deadline, in a Ukraine/Israel aid bill set to clear the House on April 20  —  - Johnson to include measure in aid package for Ukraine, Israel  — Biden has said he would sign bill forcing ByteDance to divest
Austin Carr / Bloomberg:
A look at Apple's device recycling, including shredding robots and contractor GEEP, which Apple sued in 2020 for ~$22.6M in a case that has not seen any updates  —  Apple touts its network of shredding robots and contractors as a greener way to reuse old gadgets.
Molly White / Citation Needed:
An experiment with LLMs: the tools are helpful in mundane ways but users can't build a hundred-billion-dollar industry around a technology that's kind of useful  —  AI can be kind of useful, but I'm not sure that a “kind of useful” tool justifies the harm.  —  /1311.164082  —  1×

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