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Techmeme
January 3, 2025, 6:50 PM
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Top News

Jason Koebler / 404 Media:
After backlash, Meta says newly viral AI profiles on Facebook and Instagram were created in 2023 in “an early experiment”, and it is deleting the profiles  —  Earlier this week, Meta executive Connor Hayes told the Financial Times that the company is going to roll out AI character profiles …
Carly Page / TechCrunch:
The US sanctions Beijing-based cybersecurity company Integrity Technology over its alleged links to China-backed hacking group Flax Typhoon  —  The U.S. government has sanctioned a Beijing-based cybersecurity company over its alleged links to a China government-backed hacking group, tracked as Flax Typhoon.
Mike Allen / Axios:
Sources: Tim Cook will personally donate $1M to President-elect Trump's inaugural committee in the spirit of unity; Apple is not expected to donate  —  The company is not expected to give.  — Cook, with a consistent presence in Washington, has made it clear over the years that he believes …
Jordan Novet / CNBC:
Microsoft says it expects to spend $80B in FY 2025 on the construction of data centers that can handle AI workloads, with 50%+ of the spending in the US  —  Microsoft expects to spend $80 billion in fiscal 2025 on the construction of data centers that can handle artificial intelligence workloads, the company said in a Friday blog post.
Alexandra S. Levine / Bloomberg:
An unredacted lawsuit from Utah's AG claims TikTok has long known that TikTok Live promoted sexual content streams to minors and facilitated money laundering  —  - Unredacted lawsuit claims TikTok knew about teen safety issues  — Lawsuit also alleges company facilitated money laundering
Victoria Song / The Verge:
Apple and Strava partner to feature Strava athletes in Apple Fitness+ programming, add more detailed Fitness+ workout summaries in the Strava app, and more  —  Apple Fitness Plus is getting a fresh makeover in the Strava app.  The two companies just announced they're collaborating to revamp …
Max Woolf / Max Woolf's Blog:
In a test, asking Claude 3.5 Sonnet to “write better code” iteratively improved the code's features and speed, but more aggressive prompt engineering added bugs  —  In November 2023, after OpenAI added the ability for ChatGPT to generate images from DALL-E 3 within the ChatGPT web interface …
Katie Deighton / Wall Street Journal:
Influencer marketing company Later acquires Mavely, which pays commissions to social-media creators for the sales they generate, for $250M in cash and stock  —  Later, an influencer and social-media marketing company, acquired social commerce app Mavely for $250 million
Jess Weatherbed / The Verge:
Elon Musk fanboy Adrian Dittmann's X activity and alleged 4chan posts suggest he might be Musk's fake online persona; source: the viral 4chan screenshot is fake  —  Rumors that viral Elon Musk fanboy Adrian Dittmann is actually a fake online persona used by Musk himself have been reignited following fresh evidence linking the pair.

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From Mediagazer

Benjamin Mullin / New York Times:
Sources: WaPo is working on an initiative to publish opinion articles from other US papers, writers on Substack, and eventually nonprofessional writers

Joe Flint / Wall Street Journal:
Over 59% of WBD shareholders reject David Zaslav's pay package in a symbolic vote; Netflix and Disney shareholders did the same in 2023 and 2018, respectively

NPR:
Trump formally asks Congress to take back the $1.1B set aside for public broadcasters for the next two years; Congress has 45 days to approve the request

More News

Molly White / Citation Needed:
An in-depth look at Elon Musk's criticisms of Wikipedia, as he joins a growing chorus of right-wing voices attacking information sources outside their control
Dave Lee / Bloomberg:
Meta required a public statesman like Nick Clegg after the Cambridge Analytica scandal, but now turns to the in-house Republican Joel Kaplan to appease Trump
Reuters:
China says shipments of foreign smartphones, including iPhones, fell 47.4% YoY in November, after a 44.25% YoY drop in October, marking four months of decline

Earlier Picks

Rita El Khoury / Android Authority:
Google fixes a days-old issue wherein Nest Hub and Nest Audio devices stopped responding to basic commands, like about the weather and the time, for many users
Bloomberg:
Car rental app Turo, which uses a risk algorithm to screen drivers, was used to book trucks in both fatal New Year's Day incidents in Las Vegas and New Orleans
Winston Cho / The Hollywood Reporter:
Anthropic agrees with three publishers to stop Claude from providing lyrics to their songs or new lyrics based on copyrighted content, pending a court ruling
Bob Van Voris / Bloomberg:
Terraform Labs co-founder Do Kwon pleads not guilty before a US federal judge in New York to nine counts, including wire fraud, over the $40B TerraUSD collapse
David Shepardson / Reuters:
A US appeals court rules the FCC did not have legal authority to reinstate net neutrality rules; incoming FCC Chair Brendan Carr opposed the 2024 reinstatement
Ivan Mehta / TechCrunch:
Telegram rolls out a new account verification method powered by third-parties, new search filters for private chats, and the ability to turn gifts into NFTs
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