Financial Times: The UK plans to host an AI summit in November 2023 with “like-minded” countries, academics, and executives from DeepMind, Microsoft, OpenAI, Anthropic, and more — ‘Like-minded’ states to be asked to Bletchley Park along with tech executives and academics Lees verder op Tech Meme
Bloomberg: Documents: Amazon plans to impose a new 2% fee per sale on merchants who ship products themselves, on top of the ~15% fee they already pay, starting in October — – The new levy comes even with an FTC antitrust suit looming — Merchant fees generate revenue as online sales growth slows Lees verder op Tech Meme
Leah Nylen / Bloomberg: Filing: Leslie Kilgore and Andrea Wishom stepped down from Nextdoor’s board on August 1 after the US DOJ raised concerns they were also on Pinterest’s board — – DOJ is cracking down on directors serving on rival companies Lees verder op Tech Meme
Chris Vallance / BBC: Sama CEO Wendy Gonzalez says the company no longer plans to take harmful content moderation work from Meta and she regrets the work, after some staff sued Sama — A firm which was contracted to moderate Facebook posts in East Africa has said with hindsight it should not have taken on the job. Lees verder op Tech Meme
Alexandra Alter / New York Times: The Authors Guild, the American Booksellers Association, and the Open Markets Institute urge the DOJ and the FTC to investigate Amazon’s book market “monopoly” — The online retailer’s size and sway affects the free exchange of ideas, the groups argue. Lees verder op Tech Meme
Yuvraj Malik / Reuters: JD.com reports Q2 revenue up 7.6% YoY to ~$39.7B, vs. ~$38.27B est., and retail sales up 2.5% YoY, vs. 4.5% YoY est. and slowing from 3.1% YoY in June 2023 — Chinese e-commerce firm JD.com (9618.HK), beat Wall Street estimates for second-quarter revenue on Wednesday, as its focus … Lees verder op Tech Meme
Ryan Weeks / The Block: Layer 1 blockchain startup ZetaChain raised $27M from Blockchain.com and others and plans to launch its mainnet soon; ZetaChain has 27K+ dApp contracts deployed — – Several crypto and trading heavyweights, including Blockchain.com and Jane Street Capital, participated in the fundraise. Lees verder op Tech Meme
Bloomberg: Sources: as part of the US DOJ’s two-year Visa investigation, officials are looking at the company charging merchants more for not using its “tokenization” tool — – Merchants get charged more if they shun Visa’s tokens — Long-running probe is now scrutinizing those price differences Lees verder op Tech Meme
Bloomberg: Filing: Samsung sold ~3.55M ASML shares from April to June 2023, more than halving its holding from 1.6% to 0.7%, or 2.75M shares, and reportedly raising ~$2.2B — – Firm lowered its holding to 0.7% from 1.6% in the period — Sale raised about $2.2 billion, Korea Economic Daily reported Lees verder op Tech Meme
Caitlin Harrington / Wired: OSHA investigations and 11 interviews: Amazon’s first aid clinics put warehouse staff at risk by keeping them working instead of referring them to medical care — A WIRED investigation and federal citations show how first aid clinics in Amazon warehouses sometimes direct injured employees … Lees verder op Tech Meme