Tech Meme

Kana Inagaki / Financial Times: Masayoshi Son says SoftBank will go on the “counteroffensive” soon by resuming AI investments; the group has $35B+ after it halted investments in recent years  —  Billionaire chief talks up AI and reveals he had breakdown in October where he questioned his achievements as an entrepreneur Lees verder op Tech Meme

Julie Steinberg / Wall Street Journal: KoBold Metals, which uses AI and ML to identify deposits of cobalt, copper, nickel, and lithium, raised ~$200M led by T. Rowe Price at a $1B+ valuation  —  KoBold Metals raises $200 million to dig for copper, lithium using AI  —  Some of the tech industry’s most prominent investors … Lees verder op Tech Meme

Yonhap News Agency: Sources say YouTube plans to launch its first official shopping channel for live commerce in South Korea on June 30 with content from about 30 brands  —  Kim Na-young  —  YouTube will launch its official shopping channel in South Korea for live commerce later this month for the first time in the world … Lees verder op Tech Meme

Lulu Yilun Chen / Bloomberg: Ant is developing an LLM for ChatGPT-style services under a project called “Zhen Yi”, which is being created by a dedicated unit using in-house research  —  Jack Ma-backed Ant Group Co. is developing large-language model technology that will power ChatGPT-style services … Lees verder op Tech Meme

Kat Bailey / IGN: In a reorganization, EA is splitting EA Games and EA Sports, with the former being renamed as EA Entertainment, hinting at EA’s possible expansion beyond games  —  EA is undergoing a major internal reorganization, with EA Games being renamed “EA Entertainment.” Lees verder op Tech Meme

Joel Rosenblatt / Bloomberg: In a proposed class-action lawsuit, current and former Twitter staff allege the company refused to pay 2022 bonuses despite promising to pay 50% of the amount  —  Twitter Inc. employees sued the social media company claiming it refuses to pay 2022 bonuses, despite promises that they would be paid out at 50% of their target amounts. Lees verder op Tech Meme

Kevin Purdy / Ars Technica: A look at the vagueness and implications of the EU’s plan to require portable batteries, including those in smartphones, be “readily removable and replaceable”  —  Should you have to melt glue?  Which tools do you need?  What about pricing?  —  Whenever regulation passes … Lees verder op Tech Meme

Sam Biddle / The Intercept: Document: LexisNexis’ $16.8M contract with ICE includes software that purports to detect suspicious activity of migrants by using license plate reader data  —  ICE uses LexisNexis to track cars, gather information on people, and make arrests for its deportation machine, according to a contract. Lees verder op Tech Meme

Aisha Malik / TechCrunch: Spotify updates its desktop app with redesigned “Your Library” and “Now Playing” user interfaces, meant to align the experience with the company’s mobile app  —  Spotify is updating its desktop experience with redesigned “Your Library” and “Now Playing” interfaces, the company announced on Tuesday. Lees verder op Tech Meme

Kyle Wiggers / TechCrunch: ElevenLabs, whose AI tech can turn text into speech using synthetic or cloned voices, raised a $19M Series A, a source says at a $99M post-money valuation  —  ElevenLabs, the viral AI-powered platform for creating synthetic voices, has raised a new round of cash. Lees verder op Tech Meme