~techmeme | Bookmarks (1054)

New York Times: Crypto investor John Woeltz from Kentucky was charged in NYC for allegedly kidnapping and torturing an Italian tourist for three weeks to gain crypto passwords  —  The investor, 37-year-old John Woeltz, and another man abused their victim for three weeks in a Manhattan townhouse as they tried …

Geoffrey Bunting / The Verge: Accessibility consultants say the video game industry's accessibility advancements, which gained momentum in 2020, have slowed down due to cutbacks  —  Video game consultants like Laura Kate Dale came into 2023 with a lot of hope. … Yet, as the year drew on, she says, “there started to be signs that …

Adam Edelman / NBC News: Texas is set to enact one of the strictest bans on social media for minors, with age verification requirements and letting parents request account deletions  —  It's the latest attempt in a growing effort by states to enact significant limits on the use of social media by young people.

Jason Snell / Six Colors: Sam Altman and Jony Ive's awkward io video feels like empty hype until a compelling device is released, especially given Ive's post-Jobs design missteps  —  Ever since OpenAI announced a couple of days ago that it's integrating Jony Ive's hardware startup, I've been struggling with what to write about it.

Allison Johnson / The Verge: Despite Google's guardrails, Veo 3 users are generating realistic clips of news, disasters, and fictional events, some with dialogue not included in the prompt  —  Cursed AI-generated videos come with very convincing audio now. … Even at first glance, there's something off about the body on the street.

Valentine Baldassari / Bloomberg: Elon Musk says he needs to be “super focused on X/xAI and Tesla”, saying major operational improvements need to be made “as evidenced by the X uptime issues”  —  Billionaire Elon Musk said he needs to be “super focused” on his companies, pointing to issues at X …

Abram Brown / The Information: A look at The Technology Brothers Podcast Network, a daily tech news talk show that has captured the attention of Silicon Valley's investors and founders  —  In recent months, John Coogan and Jordi Hays, co-hosts of “TBPN,” a daily tech news talk show that has captured the attention …

Dan Gallagher / Wall Street Journal: A look at the rise of “sovereign AI”, wherein countries invest directly in chip companies like Nvidia and AMD, making AI chips a highly politicized business  —  As Nvidia and others strike deals with sovereign nations, their business will become politicized as never before

Phoebe Liu / Forbes: Metaverse startup Infinite Reality, which claims a $15B+ valuation, told shareholders it is rebranding as Napster, an “AI-powered digital experiences” provider  —  Florida-based metaverse startup Infinite Reality, which claimed to have raised one of this year's largest funding rounds …

Ryan Barwick / Axios: Utah-based Awardco, which makes HR software that helps AT&T, Adobe, and other clients manage employee rewards, raised a $165M Series B at an over $1B valuation  —  Awardco announced Tuesday it has raised a $165 million Series B, valuing the employee rewards platform at more than $1 billion.

Financial Times: Sources: Builder.ai collapsed after it revised its 2024 revenue estimate from $220M to ~$55M and restated its previously reported 2023 sales from $180M to ~$45M  —  Failed UK start-up revised down revenues to just a quarter of prior estimates  —  Roula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter.

Daniel Kuhn / The Block: Polygon cofounder Mihailo Bjelic steps down from the project's development studio, Polygon Labs, and from the foundation board, marking the third founder exit  —  - Mihailo Bjelic is stepping back from his active role developing Polygon and from the foundation's board, according to an announcement on Friday.

Reuters: Thoma Bravo-backed Nearmap agrees to acquire property and casualty insurance tech provider itel from PE firm GTCR, a source says for over $1.3B, including debt  —  Thoma Bravo-backed Nearmap has agreed to buy insurance technology provider itel from private equity firm GTCR …

Bloomberg: A US judge vacates Avraham Eisenberg's convictions for fraud and manipulation related to a $110M theft on Mango Markets in 2022 due to insufficient evidence  —  A trader charged in the first US case tied to cryptocurrency manipulation won a legal challenge to overturn his convictions …

Sarah Perez / TechCrunch: RevenueCat, which offers tools for devs to add subscriptions to their apps, raised a $50M Series C led by Bain Capital Ventures, valuing the company at $500M  —  RevenueCat, a company so tied to the mobile economy that now one-in-three new subscription apps launch with its software under the hood, is preparing to expand its business.

Katie Roof / Bloomberg: CB Insights: OpenAI's acquisition of Jony Ive's io for $6.5B sets a new record for venture-backed acquisition by a private buyer  —  More venture-backed companies are making significant acquisitions.  —  Venture-backed startups are staying private for longer — and growing so much bigger …

Nilay Patel / The Verge: Q&A with Uber CEO Dara Khosrowshahi on the trade-offs with Route Share, Uber's business structure, autonomous vehicles, working with fleet operators, and more  —  Today, I'm talking with Uber CEO Dara Khosrowshahi.  We recorded this conversation the day Uber announced a big set of product updates …

Joseph Menn / Washington Post: Experts say some Trump officials' plans to amp up cyberattacks against China would risk retaliation the US is increasingly unprepared for amid budget cuts  —  Some Trump administration officials want to hit back at China for its hacks on U.S. infrastructure — a risky strategy, experts say, amid budget reductions.

Bloomberg: Sources: Salesforce is in talks to acquire cloud data management company Informatica, reviving discussions that stalled in 2024; INFA closes up 17.45%  —  If a deal is reached, it could be announced as soon as next week, according to the people, who asked to not be identified because the discussions are private.

Bloomberg: Sources: CommScope is exploring a sale of its broadband connectivity and cable arm CCS for up to $10B, seeking to unload assets to repay debt  —  The company is working with an adviser to gauge buyer interest in the business, known as CCS, said the people, who asked not to be identified discussing confidential information.

New York Times: Q&A with Demis Hassabis about how Google I/O became the Gemini show, Google getting “AGI-pilled”, Project Astra, Sergey Brin's shorter AGI timelines, and more  —  A few years ago, most Google executives didn't talk about A.G.I. — artificial general intelligence, the industry term for a human-level A.I. system.

Bloomberg: President Trump says that the tariffs he has threatened against Apple would also be aimed at “Samsung and anybody that makes that product”  —  “It would be more,” Trump said when asked at the White House whether his tariff threat would only apply to Apple.

Brooks Barnes / New York Times: How animation startup Toonstar uses its AI tools to make animated content up to 90% cheaper than traditional methods; its YouTube series has 30M weekly viewers  —  A.I. has yet to upend Hollywood.  But it is starting to make big inroads in animation.  —  The founders of Toonstar …

Wall Street Journal: An overview of major streamers' revenues, subscriber churn, cancellation rates, shares of US TV viewing time, and shares of US sports TV rights deals since 2023  —  Media companies are seeing financial bright spots in their streaming businesses, but navigating the options is still tough for consumers