Tech Meme

Wall Street Journal: Sources: IBM is close to a deal to acquire cloud-based IT management startup Apptio from Vista Equity Partners for ~$5B; Vista acquired Apptio for ~$2B in 2019  —  Purchase of Apptio, owned by private-equity firm Vista Equity Partners, could be finalized over the weekend Lees verder op Tech Meme

Rani Molla / Vox: Research: 81% of tech companies with under 5K employees allow remote work or have only remote options, while just 26% with 25K+ employees are fully flexible  —  How small tech companies are using remote work to compete with the big guys.  —  It used to be that Big Tech companies like Google … Lees verder op Tech Meme

Wired: How military-grade AI, developed by US defense contractors for intelligence, has been repurposed to combat labor organizing, find internal leakers, and more  —  Spycraft developed by defense contractors are now being sold to employers to identify labor organizing.  Regulators must step up to protect workers’ privacy. Lees verder op Tech Meme

Nico Grant / New York Times: NetBlocks: at least five Russian telcos block Google News and several other ISPs are reducing access, as Russia’s feud with a mercenary leader intensifies  —  At least five telecommunications companies have blocked the service, which aggregates news from various sources, according to an analysis from NetBlocks, an internet observatory. Lees verder op Tech Meme

The Economic Times: Sundar Pichai says Google plans to invest $10B in India’s digitization fund and announces the opening of Google’s fintech operation center in GIFT City, Gujarat  —  Notably, Gujarat International Finance Tec-City is a central business district under construction in Gandhinagar district in Gujarat, India. Lees verder op Tech Meme

Manish Singh / TechCrunch: Andy Jassy says Amazon plans to invest another $15B in India by 2030, mostly for AWS expansion; in May, AWS announced plans to invest $12.7B in the country  —  Amazon plans to more than double its investment in India in the next seven years, the e-commerce group said, joining a roster … Lees verder op Tech Meme

Jillian Deutsch / Bloomberg: EU Commissioner Thierry Breton says he and Mark Zuckerberg are “aligned” on the EU’s regulation of AI; Sam Altman says he also agrees with the EU’s approach  —  Technology company executives Mark Zuckerberg and Sam Altman expressed support for government oversight of artificial intelligence … Lees verder op Tech Meme

Miles Kruppa / Wall Street Journal: Internal email: Google invited employees to test a product called Playables, which lets users play games like Stack Bounce instantly via the YouTube site or app  —  The new service, called ‘Playables,’ is part of CEO’s push into new areas amid advertising slowdown Lees verder op Tech Meme

Jay Peters / The Verge: YouTube is testing Aloud, an AI-powered dubbing tool developed at Google’s Area 120, with “hundreds” of creators, starting with English, Spanish, and Portuguese  —  YouTube wants to make it easier to dub your videos in other languages by giving you some help with AI. Lees verder op Tech Meme

Alex Heath / The Verge: Sources: Meta is planning to release its Twitter competitor in mid-July and is pitching big-name celebrities to join a platform that will be “sanely” run  —  Mark Zuckerberg is the overwhelming favorite to beat Elon Musk in a cage match.  Will it actually happen? Lees verder op Tech Meme