Tech Meme

Bloomberg: Sources describe how AI replaced the metaverse as Mark Zuckerberg’s top priority, leading Meta to ruthlessly cut jobs and focus on quickly releasing AI products  —  Meta’s founder has become deeply engaged in his company’s AI efforts ahead of its 20th anniversary, but his close attention hasn’t always proved to be a recipe for success. Lees verder op Tech Meme

Matt Burgess / Wired: A researcher finds 800GB of data online tied to school software maker Raptor, used by 5,300+ US districts, including evacuation plans and student medical files  —  More than 4 million school records, including safety procedures, student medical files, and court documents, were also publicly accessible online. Lees verder op Tech Meme

Charisma Madarang / Rolling Stone: Dudesy, a podcast generated by AI and curated by humans, releases an hour-long comedy special featuring an AI recreation of George Carlin, who died in 2008  —  The hour-long special arrived from Dudesy, a podcast run by artificial intelligence … Following the special’s release … Lees verder op Tech Meme

Ingrid Lunden / TechCrunch: Munich-based car subscription startup Finn, which manages 25K subscriptions in Germany and the US, raised a €100M Series C at a €600M post-money valuation  —  Finn, a startup based out of Munich that operates a platform for new car subscriptions — an alternative to buying or leasing … Lees verder op Tech Meme

Ingrid Lunden / TechCrunch: Munich-based car subscription startup Finn, which manages 25K subscriptions in Germany and the US, raised a €100M Series C at a €600M post-money valuation  —  Finn, a startup based out of Munich that operates a platform for new car subscriptions — an alternative to buying or leasing … Lees verder op Tech Meme

Reuters: USDC stablecoin issuer Circle confidentially files for a US IPO, without saying the number of shares for sale or price range; Circle had a $9B valuation in 2022  —  Circle Internet Financial, the company behind stablecoin USDC, said on Thursday that it had confidentially filed … Lees verder op Tech Meme

Bloomberg: After spending $13M+ on US lobbying in the past decade, Huawei quietly shutters its in-house lobbying operation, ending an effort to overturn the US bans  —  – Chinese firm lost its last Washington fixers in recent months  — Hired hands and Huawei itself have told Congress they’re done Lees verder op Tech Meme

Moneycontrol: ByteDance plans to shut down music streaming service Resso in India on January 31, after removing the App Store and Google Play apps in mid-December 2023  —  ByteDance said all existing users of Resso in India will be offered a full refund for the remainder of their subscription fees Lees verder op Tech Meme

Abner Li / 9to5Google: Google plans to remove 17 “underutilized” Assistant features in February, including voice-controlled Play Books audiobooks, media alarms, and Calm meditation  —  Bard is the future of Assistant.  Ahead of that happening, Google announced today that Assistant features with low usage will be removed in February. Lees verder op Tech Meme

Emma Roth / The Verge: After announcing the $199 R1 “Large Action Model” AI handheld at CES, Rabbit sold 10,000 units in one day; second batch orders should ship in April to May 2024  —  The R1, the pocket-size gadget from Rabbit that’s supposed to use your apps for you, has already sold out of its first batch. Lees verder op Tech Meme