Note: Techmeme is hiring part-time editors. Go here to apply, or tell a friend!
Open Links In New Tab
Mobile Archives Advertise
Techmeme
December 11, 2024, 12:01 PM
Mediagazer memeorandum WeSmirch
Home River Leaderboards About Events Get our daily newsletter and never miss a story!   ⓧ Newsletter

Top News

Bloomberg:
Google releases its new flagship model Gemini 2.0 and plans to test it in search and AI overviews, saying 2.0 makes “it possible to build agents that can think”  —  Company expects AI assistants will follow its users around the web  —  Google debuted a new version …
Kyle Wiggers / TechCrunch:
Google releases Gemini 2.0 Flash to generate images, audio, and text, and use third-party apps and services, available via Gemini API and developer platforms  —  Google's next major AI model has arrived to combat a slew of new offerings from OpenAI.  —  On Wednesday, Google announced Gemini 2.0 Flash …
Ina Fried / Axios:
Google unveils an updated Project Astra, which can record and summarize videos recorded using an Android app or prototype glasses and answer questions  —  Astra can then summarize what it sees and answer a wide range of questions, drawing on an array of Google services including Search, Maps, Lens and Gemini.
Emma Roth / The Verge:
Google unveils Deep Research, an AI tool to let its Gemini chatbot scour the web and write a detailed report, available in English for Gemini Advanced users  —  Google has just revealed a new AI tool called Deep Research that lets you call upon its Gemini bot to scour the web for you and write a detailed report based on its findings.
Igor Bonifacic / Engadget:
Apple rolls out iOS 18.2 and iPadOS 18.2, adding major AI updates, including Image Playground on iPhone 15 Pro, 16, and 16 Pro, Genmoji, and ChatGPT integration  —  ChatGPT integration is also included with this update.  —  Apple has begun rolling iOS 18.2 and iPadOS 18.2 to iPhones and iPads.
The Information:
Sources: Apple is working with Broadcom to develop its first AI server chip, codenamed Baltra and set for 2026 mass production, a milestone for its silicon team  —  Apple is developing its first server chip specially designed for artificial intelligence, according to three people …
Emma Roth / The Verge:
A California District Court judge orders Automattic to stop blocking WP Engine's access to WordPress.org resources and interfering with WP Engine's plugins  —  WP Engine just won a preliminary injunction against WordPress.com parent company Automattic.  On Tuesday, a California District …
David Welch / Bloomberg:
GM says Cruise will exit the robotaxi business, combining Cruise's and GM's technical teams to focus on autonomous and driver safety tech for upcoming GM cars  —  Cruise and GM's technical teams will be combined into a single effort focused on developing autonomous technology to offer …
TechCrunch:
Sources: several Cruise employees say they were “surprised” and “blindsided” by GM's decision to end Cruise's robotaxi program and that they expect job cuts  —  The news came by Slack message.  —  Cruise CEO Marc Whitten, who took the top post in June …
Emilia David / VentureBeat:
OpenAI expands Canvas, its side-by-side digital editing space, to all ChatGPT users and adds support for Python, more text pasting, and launching in custom GPTs  —  OpenAI is extending access to its side-by-side digital editing space, Canvas, to all ChatGPT users and added new features …
Scharon Harding / Ars Technica:
Embodied, which made Moxie, an $800 companion robot for kids aged 5 to 10, says it is shutting down after a failed funding round and Moxie will soon be bricked  —  Startup Embodied is closing down, and its product, an $800 robot for kids ages 5 to 10, will soon be bricked.
Aaron Holmes / The Information:
Source: Google asked the US to break up Microsoft's exclusive agreement to host OpenAI's tech on Azure, after the FTC asked Google about Microsoft's practices  —  Google recently asked the U.S. government to break up Microsoft's exclusive agreement to host OpenAI's technology on its cloud servers …
Lauren Forristal / TechCrunch:
YouTube rolls out its auto-dubbing feature, which generates translated audio tracks, to hundreds of thousands of channels focused on knowledge and information  —  YouTube announced on Tuesday that its auto-dubbing feature, which allows creators to generate translated audio tracks for their videos …
Mark Gurman / Bloomberg:
Sources: 2025's Apple Watch Ultra is slated to get satellite connectivity for off-the-grid text messages via Globalstar, and may get blood pressure monitoring  —  - Company also working on blood-pressure tool for future model  — Apple is using MediaTek modems for first time in new watches

Sponsor Posts

Google:
Generate videos with Veo 3 in Google Gemini  —  Create high-quality, 8-second videos with Veo 3, our state-of-the-art AI video generator.  Try it with a Google AI Pro plan or get the highest access with the Ultra plan.
UiPath:
UiPath Unveils 10 Innovations that Will Shape the Agentic Future  —  Orchestration engine, API workflows and agentic testing among key features of new UiPath Platform™ for agentic automation, launched at UiPath DevCon 2025
Zoho:
6 Tips to Unlock Revenue with Transactional Emails  —  This is a guest post by Tabular.You might think of transactional emails as boring necessities, but the truth is, they're far more powerful than you realize.
IDrive:
Protecting your Cloud Applications Data  —  Backing up Office 365, Google Workspace, Dropbox & Box data is critical to preventing data loss or corruption, complying with laws and avoiding critical downtime in case of a disaster.
Sponsor Techmeme

Featured Podcasts

Techmeme Ride Home:
 Big Meta/Anduril Deal Is A Big Deal
The day's tech news, every day at 5pm ET. Fifteen minutes and you're up to date.
Subscribe to Techmeme Ride Home.
Sponsor this podcast
The Social Radars:
 Ron Conway, Founder, SV Angel Part 4 (Bonus)
Come be a fly on the wall as Y Combinator's Jessica Livingston and Carolynn Levy talk to some of the most successful founders in Silicon Valley about how they did it.
Subscribe to The Social Radars.
Hard Fork:
 The A.I. Jobpocalypse + Building at Anthropic with Mike Krieger + Hard Fork Crimes Division
The future is already here. Each week, journalists Kevin Roose and Casey Newton explore and make sense of the latest in the rapidly changing world of tech.
Subscribe to Hard Fork.
The Logan Bartlett Show:
 Rick Smith (CEO, Axon): The Wild Ride From Near-Bankruptcy to $50B+
A podcast hosted by Logan Bartlett, an investor at Redpoint Ventures, covering tech with industry insiders.
Subscribe to The Logan Bartlett Show.
The Talk Show With John Gruber:
 'Sewing Machine Repair Shop', With Patrick McGee
The director's commentary track for Daring Fireball. Long digressions on Apple, technology, design, movies, and more.
Subscribe to The Talk Show With John Gruber.
Decoder with Nilay Patel:
 How private equity kills companies and communities
A show from the Verge about big ideas - and other problems.
Subscribe to Decoder with Nilay Patel.
Add your postcast here
 

About This Page

This is a Techmeme archive page. It shows how the site appeared at 12:01 PM ET, December 11, 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.

From Mediagazer

Sara Fischer / Axios:
PBS and a public TV affiliate in Minnesota sue the Trump administration, saying his executive order to cut federal funding violated PBS' First Amendment rights

Max Tani / Semafor:
The California State Senate opens an inquiry into whether Paramount's reported $15M proposed settlement with Trump violated bribery and unfair competition laws

Chris Willman / Variety:
Taylor Swift acquires the rights to her first six albums from Shamrock Capital; sources say the deal was in the mid-$300M range

More News

Earlier Picks

Canadian Press:
TikTok files a legal challenge against Canada's order to stop operations in the country, claiming the “unreasonable” decision was “driven by improper purposes”
Bobby Allyn / NPR:
A lawsuit against Character.AI alleges its chatbots harmed two young Texas users, including telling a user that it sympathized with kids who kill their parents
Mediagazer memeorandum WeSmirch
Home River Leaderboards About Events Newsletter