Techmeme
July 15, 2024, 9:25 PM

Top News

Wall Street Journal:
Nullbulge, a hacktivist group critical of AI art, leaks Slack messages allegedly from Disney due to “how it handles artist contracts” and “its approach to AI”  —  ‘Hacktivist’ group critical of AI-generated art says it has obtained swaths of data from Disney's Slack channels …
Wes Davis / The Verge:
Apple launches the public betas for iOS 18, iPadOS 18, macOS Sequoia, tvOS 18, and watchOS 11, but without any Apple Intelligence features  —  You can now download the public betas for iOS 18, iPadOS 18, macOS Sequoia, and watchOS 11.  Apple's updated operating systems will eventually include …
Chance Miller / 9to5Mac:
iOS 18, iPadOS 18, and macOS Sequoia add a “Recovered” album to the Photos app that shows previously lost or damaged photos and videos  —  There's a new feature in iOS 18 that you probably haven't heard about.  With the all-new Photos app, Apple has added a new “Recovered” …
Brian Krebs / Krebs on Security:
Researchers: hackers have exploited a Squarespace flaw to hijack domains, apparently mostly from crypto businesses, that were migrated from Google Domains  —  At least a dozen organizations with domain names at domain registrar Squarespace saw their websites hijacked last week.
Kim Zetter / ZERO DAY:
Kaspersky plans to close its US business and eliminate US-based positions, following the country's ban on the sale of its antivirus tool starting July 20  —  Russian cybersecurity firm, Kaspersky Lab, has told workers in its U.S.-based division that they are being laid off this week …
Jon Brodkin / Ars Technica:
Record labels, including UMG and Sony, sue Verizon for $2.6B+, alleging it violated copyright law by continuing to serve customers accused of pirating music  —  Lawsuit: One user's IP address was identified in 4,450 infringement notices.  —  Major record labels sued Verizon on Friday …
Gavin Bonshor / AnandTech:
A look at the AMD Ryzen AI 300 series, its AI PC chip family for laptops, and the Ryzen 9000 series for desktops, both built on the new Zen 5 CPU architecture  —  Back at Computex 2024, AMD unveiled their highly anticipated Zen 5 CPU microarchitecture during AMD CEO Dr. Lisa Su's opening keynote.
Sean Endicott / Windows Central:
Michael Nuñez / VentureBeat:
Microsoft researchers unveil SpreadsheetLLM, an encoding method designed to enable LLMs to efficiently understand and analyze complex spreadsheet data  —  Microsoft researchers have unveiled “SpreadsheetLLM,” a new AI model designed to understand and work with spreadsheets, in a significant development for the world of enterprise AI.
The Information:
Sources: Index is Wiz's largest outside shareholder, with an 11%+ stake; Sequoia owns 10%+, Insight owns ~9%, Greenoaks owns ~5%, and Cyberstarts owns ~4%  —  Google's proposed $23 billion acquisition of cloud security startup Wiz would help it compete with Microsoft, the top seller of security software.
Wall Street Journal:
Vittoria Elliott / Wired:
A look at Trump VP pick JD Vance's tech ties, including working at Peter Thiel's Mithril Capital and investing in Rumble; Vance advocated repealing Section 230  —  Vance has long had connections to Silicon Valley through his former life as a venture capitalist, including to long-time Donald Trump supporter and investor Peter Thiel.
Wall Street Journal:
Sources: Elon Musk plans to commit ~$45M/month to America PAC, a new pro-Trump super PAC; other backers include Palantir's Joe Lonsdale and the Winklevoss twins  —  Other backers of America PAC include Palantir Technologies co-founder Joe Lonsdale and the Winklevoss twins
Dan Primack / Axios:
Source: Sequoia emailed LPs in funds raised between 2009 and 2011, offering to buy up to $861M of Stripe shares at $27.51 per share, valuing Stripe at $70B  —  - The purchasers would be other, more recent Sequoia Capital funds — a process partially enabled by the firm's 2021 restructuring.

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 9:25 PM ET, July 15, 2024.

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

Earlier Picks

Sankalp Phartiyal / Bloomberg:
Bloomberg: