Techmeme: Meta admits to scraping every Australian adult Facebook and Instagram user's public data to train AI, with no opt-out, which isn't required under privacy law (Jake Evans/ABC)

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September 11, 2024, 6:20 PM

Top News

Bloomberg:

Sources: OpenAI is in talks to raise $6.5B in equity financing at a $150B valuation and raise $5B in debt from banks in the form of a revolving credit facility — - Company set to raise $6.5 billion in equity financing — Banks also in talks to issue startup $5 billion in debt

More: New York Times, Financial Times, The Information, TechCrunch, Reuters, Neowin, Cointelegraph, and MacDailyNews

X: @mikeisaac, @garymarcus, @edzitron, @filippie509, and @edludlow

Ben Schoon / 9to5Google:

Google partners with The Internet Archive to link to the Wayback Machine in Search, letting users view archived versions of webpages under “About this page” — Rolling out starting today, Google Search results will now directly link to The Internet Archive to add historical context for the links in your results.

Maxwell Zeff / TechCrunch:

Adobe says generative AI features powered by its Firefly Video model will be available before the end of 2024 on the Premiere Pro beta app and on a free website — Users will get their first chance to try out Adobe's AI model for video generation in just a couple months.

More: The Adobe Blog, CNET, Adobe Video & Motion on YouTube, The Verge, Reuters, Adobe Press Releases, Engadget, Pocket-lint, Lifewire, How-To Geek, Seeking Alpha, Benzinga, The Decoder, Tom's Guide, Creative Bloq, Axios, LifeHacker, Techopedia, Maginative, PetaPixel, and Digital Trends

X: @adobevideo, @kyl33t, @btibor91, @adobevideo, @icreatelife, @aseemaa, @acostin, @icreatelife, @rufusd, @icreatelife, @kyl33t, and @kyl33t

LinkedIn: Sven Doelle, Saigin Govender, Alexandru Costin, Lior Shapira, Kylee Peña, and Jingwan

Aisha Malik / TechCrunch:

Google adds Audio Overview to NotebookLM, letting users turn documents into audio discussions with two AI hosts that summarize and explain the source material — Google announced on Wednesday that its AI note-taking and research app, NotebookLM, is adding a new “audio conversations” feature.

More: The Keyword, The Verge, PCMag, Android Police, Techopedia, Android Central, ZDNET, and 9to5Google

Threads: @rstephens. X: @kristileilani, @labsdotgoogle, and @kristileilani. LinkedIn: Raiza Martin

Sarah Perez / TechCrunch:

Bluesky rolls out the ability to post videos of up to 60 seconds with optional attached subtitles; each post can contain one video, and adult content is allowed — Bluesky, the social networking startup now nearing 10 million users thanks to X's ban in Brazil, will now allow users to share videos …

More: Bluesky, Engadget, Neowin, The Verge, MediaPost, and Mashable

Threads: @eiaraief, @crumbler, @sarahprz, and @grantmcconnaughey

Bluesky: @bsky.app, @mmasnick.bsky.social, @pfrazee.com, and @emilyliu.me

Forums: r/technology and r/BlueskySocial

Kevin Breuninger / CNBC:

Shares of Truth Social owner Trump Media closed down over 10% after Trump's debate with Harris, ending at their lowest level since they began publicly trading — The share price of Trump Media plunged more than 10% on Wednesday, a day after majority shareholder Donald Trump gave …

More: CNN, Bloomberg, Associated Press, New York Times, New York Magazine, ABC News, Wall Street Journal, The Daily Dot, CBS News, UPI, Inc.com, TipRanks Financial, Mediaite, NPR, Fortune, New York Post, Investor's Business Daily, The Daily Beast, Fast Company, Futurism, Forbes, Gizmodo, CryptoGlobe, Boing Boing, Quartz, and Raw Story

Threads: @crumbler. X: @levie, @timsteno, @ariehkovler, @rloewe65, and @kellyscaletta

Forums: r/technology and r/inthenews

See also Mediagazer

Jake Evans / ABC:

Meta admits to scraping every Australian adult Facebook and Instagram user's public data to train AI, with no opt-out, which isn't required under privacy law — In short: — Facebook is scraping the public data of all Australian adults on the platform, it has acknowledged in an inquiry.

More: 9to5Mac, SiliconANGLE, Engadget, The Guardian, Cyber Daily, The Tech Basic, Thurrott, Anadolu Ajansı …, PetaPixel, WinBuzzer, Android Headlines, Information Age, NewsBytes, RNZ, The North West Star, The Australian, The Age, The Canberra Times, The West Australian, and Federal Court of Appeal Canada

Threads: @crumbler. Mastodon: @Old_IT_geek@techhub.social, @analogfusion@mastodon.art, @marilyn@mathstodon.xyz, and @abcfeeds@rssfeed.media

Bluesky: @techviews.bsky.social and @mattknight.bsky.social

X: @davidshoebridge, @kbackholer, @quinnypig, and @jendudley

LinkedIn: Adam Barty and Anna Johnston

Forums: Hacker News, r/technology, r/worldnews, r/privacy, r/australian, and r/australia

CRN:

Altera CEO denies a report that Intel plans to outright sell Altera, saying the plan is to sell a stake in the business and push for an IPO of the unit by 2026 — Altera CEO Sandra Rivera denies a report that Intel is planning to outright sell its programmable chip business.

X: @dylanonchips and @dylanonchips. Forums: r/hardware

Kyle Wiggers / TechCrunch:

Mistral releases its first multimodal model, Pixtral 12B, available on GitHub and Hugging Face, and via API-serving platforms Le Chat and Le Platforme “soon” — French AI startup Mistral has released its first model that can process images as well as text.

More: VentureBeat, SiliconANGLE, Mashable, and Maginative

X: @mistralai, @sophiamyang, @danielhanchen, @maziyarpanahi, @4evabehindsota, @reach_vb, @maartengr, and @iscienceluvr. Forums: Hacker News

Taylor Swift / Taylor Swift on Instagram:

Taylor Swift says she's voting for Kamala Harris, noting that Donald Trump sharing an AI-generated image of her “endorsing” him prompted her to reveal her plans — Like many of you, I watched the debate tonight. If you haven't already, now is a great time to do your research …

More: Bloomberg, The Information, PCMag, The Guardian, NPR, Ars Technica, Business Insider, Forbes, The Verge, Inc.com, Rolling Stone, ComingSoon.net, TIME, USA Today, NBC New York, TechCrunch, Cryptopolitan, The Drum, Perez Hilton, them., The Hollywood Reporter, Washington Post, The Bulwark, Vox, Alternet.org, NME, New York Times, 404 Media, CyberScoop, Chicago Sun Times, Billboard, Quartz, Decrypt, PetaPixel, Fortune, CNN, GreenBot, Silicon Republic, Business Insider, Wall Street Journal, Hollywood Life, NBC News, ComingSoon.net, INTO, People, Entrepreneur, Bloomberg, Cosmopolitan, Page Six, New York Daily News, Music Ally, New York Post, Variety, The Decoder, Mediaite, VentureBeat, PR Daily, Daily Mail, HELLO!, The Daily Dot, Futurism, Entertainment Weekly, Crypto Adventure, The Present Age, STAT, ABC7, CNET, WGN-TV, Gizmodo, The Sun, Financial Times, Reuters, CoinDesk, MSNBC, PoliticusUSA, KHOU-TV, Vanity Fair, HuffPost, Advocate, Rolling Stone, The Hollywood Reporter, and Deadline

Threads: @renee.diresta, @willoremus, @mossbergwalt, @katieharbath, @geoffreyfowler, @naominixwrites, @katieharbath, @joannastern, @daveleebbg, @naominixwrites, @mac_ryan_, @film_girl, @crumbler, @brianstelter, @gaberivera, @mossbergwalt, @davepell, @brianstelter, and @drewharwell

Mastodon: @patrickhadfield@mastodon.scot, @jwisser@wandering.shop, @chris@mstdn.games, and @frankejames@mastodon.online

Bluesky: @albertsonb2.bsky.social and @atherton.bsky.social

Alex Riehl / BetaKit:

Vancouver-based Spare, whose software helps transit agencies offer transport services based on riders' own needs, raised a CA$42M Series B led by Inovia Capital — Funding to help Vancouver-based startup expand its paratransit solution into more transit agencies.

More: Spare, Inovia, and Private Capital Journal. X: @inovia

Aisha S Gani / Bloomberg:

A surge in alleged scams poses a serious image problem for Revolut, which faces more complaints than all its UK rivals facing authorized push payment scams — The $45 billion challenger bank says it's committed to tackling online fraud as it seeks ‘exponential’ growth.

More: PYMNTS.com and This Week in Fintech

X: @aishagani, @aishagani, @aishagani, and @aishagani

LinkedIn: Laura Hampson and Aisha S Gani

Marie Dealessandri / GamesIndustry.biz:

Seoul-based Spoon Labs, which operates an audio streamer called Spoon and a short video app called Vigloo, raised ~$89.3M from PUBG publisher Krafton — It's the firm's largest investment in a non-gaming area to date — PUBG firm Krafton has invested KRW 120 billion ($89.3 million) in streaming company Spoon Labs.

More: Game Developer, Spoon Labs, PocketGamer.biz, Insider Gaming, Forbes, and KED Global

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About This Page

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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.

From Mediagazer

Associated Press:

President Trump signed an EO on May 1 instructing CPB and other agencies to cut federal funding for NPR and PBS, alleging “bias” in the broadcasters' reporting

Minho Kim / New York Times:

An appeals court allows the Trump admin to continue withholding funds from federally funded newsrooms, temporarily reversing parts of two lower-court rulings

Bron Maher / Press Gazette:

RSF's 2025 Press Freedom Index classifies media freedom globally as “difficult”, a first; economic score hits a record low due to ownership concentration, more

More News

Ingrid Lunden / TechCrunch:

Qualifyze, which makes audit management and compliance software for pharmaceutical companies, raised a $54M Series B, bringing its total funding to $84M

More: Qualifyze. LinkedIn: Philipp Becker and Martin Lehmann

Lauren Feiner / The Verge:

On Day 2 of the US DOJ's antitrust trial focused on ads, a former News Corp executive testifying as a government witness said Google held publishers “hostage”

Suvashree Ghosh / Bloomberg:

Chainalysis: payments in Singapore using stablecoins reached a record high of almost $1B in Q2, led by transactions at merchant outlets, vs. ~$161M in H2 2023

More: PYMNTS.com and CoinGape

Joel Khalili / Wired:

Riot Platforms plans the world's largest bitcoin mine in Corsicana, a former Texas oil boom town, using a liquid immersion system, despite residents' protests

More: The Tech Report. LinkedIn: Joel Khalili. Forums: r/texas and r/TrueReddit

Brianna Sacks / Washington Post:

An analysis finds 40+ examples of Facebook removing emergency-related posts during 20+ US wildfires since June 2024; Meta says it is “investigating this issue”

More: Mashable. Threads: @mac_ryan_, @bostonjoan, @mac_ryan_, and @bird_bath1

Mastodon: @ai6yr@m.ai6yr.org, @bkahn@beige.party, @andreamm@mastodon.social, @KathleenC@sanjuans.life, @KathleenC@sanjuans.life, and @rickf@indieweb.social

Bluesky: @faineg.bsky.social, @jandrese.bsky.social, @clancyny.bsky.social, @clancyny.bsky.social, @lisamims.bsky.social, and @clancyny.bsky.social

X: @weather_west, @bri_sacks, and @molly_engelberg. LinkedIn: John Clarke Mills. Forums: r/technology

Hans Peter Brondmo / Wired:

The former CEO of Everyday Robots, Alphabet's AI robotics moonshot that was shut down in January 2023, reflects on its start and efforts to give AI a robot body

X: @wired, @wired, @ieeefuturedir, @seankirmani, @seankinneyrcr, and @wired. LinkedIn: Hans Peter Brøndmo

Forums: r/robotics and r/Futurology

Kyle Wiggers / TechCrunch:

Sergey Brin says he's working at Google “pretty much every day” and that AI algorithmic improvements are “even outpacing the increased compute” put into models

More: All-In Podcast on YouTube, Entrepreneur, Business Insider, WinBuzzer, and Beyond Search

X: @theallinpod, @edzitron, @tsarnick, @tsarnick, @ageofalgo, @borrowed_ideas, and @tsarnick

Forums: r/singularity, r/singularity, and r/singularity

David Shepardson / Reuters:

CTIA: Americans used 100M+ TB of wireless data in 2023, up 36% YoY, the largest single-year increase; the number of wireless connections rose 6% YoY to 558M

More: CTIA, RCR Wireless News, Telecompetitor, TechSpot, PhoneArena, and Engadget. Forums: r/technology

Earlier Picks

Jiahui Huang / Wall Street Journal:

Memo to commemorate Alibaba's 25th anniversary: Jack Ma says competition will make the company stronger and to trust “the power of market forces and innovation”

More: Benzinga, Rest of World, Barron's Online, TechNode, YourStory, and South China Morning Post

Wendy Davis / MediaPost:

A US district judge blocks Utah from enforcing the Minor Protection in Social Media Act, set to take effect on October 1, saying the law likely violates the 1A

More: Associated Press, Bloomberg Law, Techdirt, USDC for the District of Utah, Technology & …, The Verge, Reuters, Engadget, Utah Political Watch, and KSL-TV

X: @keir_lamont and @tonyajoriley

Carl Franzen / VentureBeat:

Matt Shumer, who was accused of fraud over HyperWrite's 70B-parameter AI model, says he “got ahead” of himself but doesn't explain why his model underperformed

More: Artificial Ignorance, DevX, and Unite.AI

X: @mattshumer_, @junrushao, @yuchenj_uw, @csahil28, and @shinboson

Joe Mayes / Bloomberg:

Amazon plans to spend £8B in the UK to grow its AWS business, expecting to support up to 14K jobs and contribute £14B to the UK's GDP between 2024 and 2028

More: GOV.UK, UK About Amazon, The Guardian, CRN, Silicon Republic, The Information, Chain Store Age, The Stack, The Register, Benzinga, Tech Monitor, Proactive, Agence France-Presse, TechRadar, and City A.M.. X: @oliviasolon

Maria Deutscher / SiliconANGLE:

Maryland-based Forterra, which develops autonomous driving tech for military and commercial vehicles, raised a $75M Series B

More: FinSMEs and Forterra. X: @groundautonomy

Paul Sawers / TechCrunch:

MariaDB, which went public via SPAC in December 2022, says it's been acquired by PE firm K1 and names a new CEO, after filing to delist its shares from the NYSE

More: K1 Investment Management and Cautious Optimism

Mastodon: @webology@mastodon.social. X: @xeraa and @mariadb

Forums: Hacker News and r/opensource

John Timmer / Ars Technica:

Microsoft says it has demonstrated, with Quantinuum, logical operations with the largest number of error-corrected qubits yet, and partners with Atom Computing

More: The Official Microsoft Blog, MIT Technology Review, Semiconductor Engineering, Interesting Engineering, BetaNews, The Quantum Insider, IEEE Spectrum, Phys.org, WinBuzzer, Neowin, CIO.com, arXiv.org, Nextgov/FCW, TNW, and The Quantum Insider

Mastodon: @rschu@arvr.social. X: @konstanthacker, @quantinuumqc, @william_blake, and @microsoft

LinkedIn: Kevin Peesker, Mark Russinovich, Travis H., Nicholas McQuire, Aseem Datar, and Krysta Svore

Forums: Slashdot and Ars OpenForum

Arjun Kharpal / CNBC:

The European Court of Justice rules against Apple over a record €13B Irish tax bill, confirming a 2016 decision; filing: Apple will incur a ~$10B charge in Q4

More: Court of Justice of the European Union, mjtsai.com, itprotoday, TechRepublic, JURIST, TechSpot, WinBuzzer, Stratechery, Finbold, The Tech Report, MediaPost, Politico, Daring Fireball, Irish Independent, Wall Street Journal, Associated Press, Financial Times, AppleInsider, CNN, and Reuters

Threads: @crumbler. Mastodon: @Miro_Collas@masto.ai. Bluesky: @techviews.bsky.social and @radiobeartime.com

LinkedIn: Emil Protalinski, Massimo Motta, and Thomas Mygind

Forums: Hacker News, r/worldnews, r/anime_titties, r/law, r/apple, r/stocks, r/ireland, r/europe, r/Economics, r/neoliberal, r/worldnews, r/news, r/technology, Slashdot, and MacRumors Forums