Tech Meme

Dean Takahashi / VentureBeat: Linden Lab says it has spent $1.3B building Second Life, which debuted in 2003, paid out $1.1B to creators, and the virtual world has a ~$650M-pear-year economy  —  Linden Lab has spent $1.3 billion building the Second Life virtual world, which debuted back in 2003 in the first era of the metaverse. Lees verder op Tech Meme

Reuters: The UK CMA says its Phase 1 probe found chip design software maker Synopsys’ $35B acquisition of 3D software maker Ansys could lower innovation and raise prices  —  UK’s competition watchdog said on Friday it could approve chip design software maker Synopsys’ $35 billion acquisition of Ansys if the regulator’s concerns are resolved. Lees verder op Tech Meme

Sergiu Gatlan / BleepingComputer: US hospital operator Ascension notifies nearly 5.6M patients and employees that their personal and health data was stolen in a May 2024 Black Basta cyberattack  —  Ascension, one of the largest private U.S. healthcare systems, is notifying over 5.6 million patients and employees that their personal … Lees verder op Tech Meme

Reuters: Italy’s data regulator fines OpenAI €15M after its investigation found OpenAI processed users’ personal data to train ChatGPT without an adequate legal basis  —  Italy’s data protection agency said on Friday it fined ChatGPT maker OpenAI 15 million euros ($15.58 million) … Lees verder op Tech Meme

Liz Pelly / Harper’s: How Spotify used its Perfect Fit Content program to rig its system against musicians, filling popular playlists with “ghost artists” to cut its royalty payouts  —  I first heard about ghost artists in the summer of 2017.  At the time, I was new to the music-streaming beat. Lees verder op Tech Meme

The Information: Shivakumar Venkataraman, a longtime Google executive who joined OpenAI earlier in 2024 to help lead the development of search and AI for enterprise, has left  —  Shivakumar Venkataraman, OpenAI’s search chief, has departed, seven months after joining the company to help lead the development … Lees verder op Tech Meme

Kelsey Butler / Bloomberg: Grindr will cover 80% in fertility, surrogacy, and adoption costs, up to $300K, for employees who have been at the company for 18+ months, starting in 2025  —  – Few companies cover all costs associated with family building  — Dating app will grow headcount ‘moderately’ in 2025, CEO says Lees verder op Tech Meme

Reuters: Italy’s data regulator fines OpenAI €15M after its investigation found OpenAI processed users’ personal data to train ChatGPT without an adequate legal basis  —  Italy’s data protection agency said on Friday it fined ChatGPT maker OpenAI 15 million euros ($15.58 million) … Lees verder op Tech Meme

Maxwell Zeff / TechCrunch: OpenAI unveils o3 and o3-mini, trained to “think” before responding via what OpenAI calls a “private chain of thought”, and plans to launch them in early 2025  —  OpenAI announced its new o3 models on Friday.  —  In a tweet ahead of its final livestream for its … Lees verder op Tech Meme

Hugh Son / CNBC: The US CFPB sues Zelle operator EWS, JPMorgan Chase, Bank of America, and Wells Fargo, alleging that customers lost $870M+ to fraud since Zelle’s launch in 2017  —  The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau on Friday sued the operator of the Zelle payments network and the three U.S. banks … Lees verder op Tech Meme