Tech Meme

Wall Street Journal: Sources: Sequoia Capital China, which raised $8.5B last year, has started screening some investments for US national security concerns, a first for the firm  —  Venture-capital firm starts screening its China arm’s investments as Washington prepares to limit U.S. capital going to some Chinese tech companies Lees verder op Tech Meme

Ax Sharma / BleepingComputer: Canada’s second-largest telecom TELUS is investigating a potential data breach after a hacker put up private GitHub repositories and payroll records for sale  —  Canada’s second-largest telecom, TELUS is investigating a potential data breach after a threat actor shared samples online of what appears to be employee data. Lees verder op Tech Meme

Bloomberg: Financial firms like Bank of America, Citigroup, Deutsche Bank, Goldman Sachs, Wells Fargo, and JPMorgan Chase are restricting staff use of tools like ChatGPT  —  Wall Street is clamping down on ChatGPT as a slew of global investment banks impose restrictions on the fast-growing technology … Lees verder op Tech Meme

Meta AI: Meta releases Large Language Model Meta AI, or LLaMA, a foundational LLM designed to help AI researchers, available in sizes ranging from 7B to 65B parameters  —  As part of Meta’s commitment to open science, today we are publicly releasing LLaMA (Large Language Model Meta AI) … Lees verder op Tech Meme

Tim Hardwick / MacRumors: Kuo: Apple plans a cheaper second-gen AR/MR headset with two high-end and low-end models built by Luxcaseict and Foxconn, respectively, likely launching in 2025  —  Apple’s cheaper second-generation AR/VR headset will come in two high-end and low-end models, according to Apple industry analyst Ming-Chi Kuo. Lees verder op Tech Meme

Chris Metinko / Crunchbase News: Lincoln, Nebraska-based Spreetail, which offers logistics, customer support, and content services to e-commerce companies, raised $208M led by McCarthy Capital  —  Nebraska is not known for large funding announcements, but that did not hinder Spreetail from securing some serious funding. Lees verder op Tech Meme

Joseph Cox / VICE: A reporter says he used an AI-generated voice replica to bypass the voice verification system of the UK’s Lloyds Bank and then accessed an account’s information  —  Banks in the U.S. and Europe tout voice ID as a secure way to log into your account.  I proved it’s possible to trick such systems with free or cheap AI-generated voices. Lees verder op Tech Meme

Bloomberg: Source: the US DOJ is preparing to file an antitrust lawsuit to block Adobe’s $20B Figma acquisition as soon as March; Adobe expects to close the deal in 2023  —  The Justice Department is preparing an antitrust lawsuit seeking to block Adobe Inc.’s $20 billion acquisition of startup Figma Inc., people familiar with the matter said. Lees verder op Tech Meme

MacKenzie Sigalos / CNBC: Block reports Q4 revenue up 14% YoY to $4.65B, vs. $4.61B est., Square gross profit up 22% YoY to $801M, and Cash App gross profit up 64% YoY to $848M  —  – Block stock rose slightly in extended trading after the payments company reported fourth-quarter revenue and gross profit that beat Wall Street’s expectations. Lees verder op Tech Meme

RT Watson / The Block: Document: Vancouver-based NFT startup Dapper Labs, which raised $600M+, cuts 20% of its staff, after laying off ~134, or ~22% of its workforce, in November 2022  —  – Dapper Labs lays off another 20% of staff.  — CEO says company is restructuring and has a “strong cash position.” Lees verder op Tech Meme