Tech Meme

Cat Zakrzewski / Washington Post: A profile of Microsoft President Brad Smith, a DC veteran pushing to shape AI regulation, including by proposing a new agency, testing a well-worn playbook  —  In 2017, Microsoft president Brad Smith made a bold prediction.  Speaking on a panel at the Davos World Economic Forum … Lees verder op Tech Meme

Hannah Miller / Bloomberg: Tools for Humanity, co-founded by Sam Altman to build Worldcoin, raised a $115M Series C led by Blockchain Capital, aiming to scan eyes to create IDs for all  —  A crypto startup co-founded by OpenAI Chief Executive Officer Sam Altman has raised new funding to further its mission of providing a digital ID for everyone on the planet. Lees verder op Tech Meme

Brody Ford / Bloomberg: Interviews with 30+ sources detail issues at billionaire Tom Siebel’s AI startup C3.ai, leading to product delays; the company is on its third name since 2009  —  The AI hype cycle has birthed innumerable boosters.  An unlikely member of this group is Silicon Valley billionaire Tom Siebel. Lees verder op Tech Meme

Access Now: Pegasus was used in the Azerbaijan-Armenia conflict to target a government worker, a UN official, and others in 2021 and 2022, the first known use in a war  —  The Armenia spyware victims include a former Human Rights Defender of the Republic of Armenia (the Ombudsperson) … Lees verder op Tech Meme

Financial Times: Sam Altman says he has “many concerns” about the EU’s proposed AI Act and OpenAI “will try to comply, but if we can’t comply we will cease operating”  —  ChatGPT chief Sam Altman voices ‘many concerns’ over bloc’s planned legislation Lees verder op Tech Meme

Ingrid Lunden / TechCrunch: Starling Bank CEO Anne Boden steps down, replaced by COO John Mountain as interim CEO; Starling, which has raised over $1B, reports £453M in FY2023 revenue  —  Anne Boden nearly lost a grip on Starling Bank years ago when the neobank was in the middle of a coup effort led by its CTO … Lees verder op Tech Meme

Morgan Meaker / Wired: OpenAI CEO Sam Altman recently visited London, part of tour to 17 cities, including Paris, Warsaw, and Lagos, to discuss AI, balanced regulation, and more  —  On a stop in London, the OpenAI CEO called for balanced regulation and warned of the risks of deepfake disinformation. Lees verder op Tech Meme

Jay Peters / The Verge: Google DeepMind shows how its visual language model Flamingo is generating descriptions for YouTube Shorts based on metadata, helping improve discoverability  —  Google just combined DeepMind and Google Brain into one big AI team, and on Wednesday, the new Google DeepMind shared details … Lees verder op Tech Meme

Kate Knibbs / Wired: A look at AI-generated podcasts, like “The Joe Rogan AI Experience” and “Myself, I Am and That”, created using AI voice tools from ElevenLabs and other startups  —  Inside the strange world of podcasts made by artificial intelligence, where even creators aren’t sure who wants to hear robot chit-chat. Lees verder op Tech Meme

Samuel Stolton / Bloomberg: Margrethe Vestager says the EU and the UK disagreeing on Microsoft’s Activision deal raises “important questions” and the EU was swayed by the proposed remedies  —  The European Union’s decision to approve Microsoft Corp.’s $69 billion plan to buy Activision Blizzard Inc … Lees verder op Tech Meme