Hi - it's Ann. I write about e-commerce and retail for The Information. Before we get into today's column, some breaking news: YouTube is laying off around 100 employees focused on supporting content creators and other partners. The layoffs come amid a reorganization of many of YouTube’s business teams and broader cuts this month at YouTube’s parent company Google. The cuts follow layoffs at Patreon, Linktree and other smaller startups... Read more ›
0
Databricks, one of the most valuable of the private tech companies, told employees last week it is planning to allow early staffers to cash out some of their shares in the coming months by lining up investors to buy their stock, people familiar with the matter said. In arranging the share sale, Databricks is following in the footsteps of other private tech companies that have run large tender offerings in... Read more ›
0
It’s been nearly two months since OpenAI’s pared-down board started looking for new directors, and so far, it doesn’t have much to show for it. We have yet to see any actual board appointments, though we’ve gotten plenty of news around candidates being approached. The latest one—the CEO of an OpenAI quasi rival—is an interesting example. As Natasha and I reported yesterday, OpenAI board director Adam D’Angelo called Databricks CEO... Read more ›
3
For Amazon, providing customer checkout and delivery services to merchants that don’t sell on its site offers a tantalizing growth opportunity. But to take full advantage of it, Amazon has to figure out how to work with archrival Shopify, which is a key gatekeeper because it sells e-commerce software to millions of mostly small online merchants. Now Amazon has agreed to let Shopify handle payments Amazon has traditionally arranged itself.... Read more ›
8
Minutes after OpenAI’s board of directors announced it had fired CEO Sam Altman on Nov. 17, venture capitalist Reid Hoffman received a call from Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella. The board’s decision shocked executives at Microsoft, which had agreed to invest more than $13 billion in the fast-growing artificial intelligence startup. Nadella wanted to know if Hoffman, a Microsoft director who had previously served on OpenAI’s board, had any explanation beyond... Read more ›
67
Today marks a significant milestone for us at The Information. I am thrilled to unveil a redesign of our site and a new logo. Overall, we redesigned more than 200 pages—a massive undertaking from our incredibly talented team. When we launched 10 years ago, we offered subscribers one type of article: exclusive news about the most important tech companies. Today, a team of dozens of journalists around the world produce... Read more ›
0
You have to hand it to Elon Musk. While most CEOs would scheme behind closed doors to get awarded billions more in stock from their boards, Musk lays it all out there. In a post extraordinary for its bluntness, Musk on Monday said on X he was “uncomfortable growing Tesla to be a leader in AI & robotics without having [about] 25% voting control.” Right now, Musk has about 13%... Read more ›
0
Today I want to start with the words of Jordyn Gilbert, an 18-year-old in Agoura Hills, Calif.: “For teenage girls, it is one of the most helpful things—but also, honestly, like, really toxic.” Gilbert was talking about Snapchat+, Snap’s subscription product, which recently crossed 7 million subscribers. For $3.99 a month, Snapchat+ offers subscribers a cornucopia of features, including the ability to customize the app, access additional AI tools—and find... Read more ›
9
Last month, OpenAI board director Adam D’Angelo called Databricks CEO Ali Ghodsi to see if he might consider joining OpenAI’s board, according to a person familiar with the situation. That kind of request might not seem unusual—except that Ghodsi has positioned Databricks as a kind of anti-OpenAI through its business of helping companies develop AI applications instead of relying on OpenAI’s technology. Ordinarily, companies don’t invite representatives of quasi rivals... Read more ›
3
Last week, OpenAI quietly tweaked the wording in its usage policies. That seemingly simple action could have massive consequences.Most notably, OpenAI removed a previous ban on using its large language models for any military or warfare-related applications. Instead of the ban, the policies now say that OpenAI products can’t be used to “harm yourself or others,” including through weapons development. (This change mostly went unnoticed until The Intercept uncovered it... Read more ›
12
Even as Google makes a major round of staff cuts, it is tapping a special pool of stock compensation to retain its top artificial intelligence researchers as rival OpenAI lures them with multimillion-dollar pay packages. Select researchers at Google’s DeepMind unit, which is at the center of its most important initiatives, have received large grants of restricted stock worth up to millions of dollars per person, according to people with... Read more ›
0
In recent weeks, two Chinese automakers have released sodium-ion–powered electric vehicles that eliminate lithium, the metal that has powered the EV revolution, a head-spinning signal of a new age in the industry. Read more ›
8
Hi, welcome to your Weekend.When it comes to the way people under the age of 25 use their phones, I try to have what Zen Buddhists and certain tech CEOs call a beginner’s mindset. For example, not too long ago I learned that my daughter shares her location through her phone with two dozen college friends and that they all do the same with her. It’s a little hard to... Read more ›
2
Dean Phillips thinks too much government tech policy dwells on the negative. In an interview, the Minnesota congressman—who is mounting a long-shot bid to challenge Joe Biden for the Democratic presidential nomination—said regulations need to prevent “nefarious use” of artificial intelligence, but he’s equally interested in encouraging ways to use AI to improve healthcare outcomes and other positive applications. Ditto for crypto, which he believes can help reduce costs for... Read more ›
0
If you want to get under Bill Ackman’s skin right now—without mentioning Harvard University or Business Insider—ask him about his Netflix bet of 2022. The hedge fund manager’s decision in late January of that year to jump into Netflix’s stock, just as it was getting pummeled by investors unhappy with its growth slowdown, would prove to be a multilevel disaster. Not only did Ackman fund the roughly $1.1 billion purchase... Read more ›
0
Carta co-founder Henry Ward for years heard venture capitalists tell him the market for software that manages startups’ stock issuances was too small. But Ward proved the skeptics wrong. Sales of Carta’s subscription software tripled in two years to $150 million in 2021, emboldening Ward to launch his long-held vision that year: a stock exchange for startups, or what Ward called the “Nasdaq for private markets.” Enthused by the exchange’s... Read more ›
0
To some companies, renting storage space or other services from a cloud provider can feel like they’ve entered a roach motel: It’s easy to get in but hard to leave. Google on Thursday took a baby step toward changing that perception by eliminating fees it charges cloud customers that want to switch entirely to a rival cloud service or to their own data centers. Google will still charge customers who... Read more ›
38
There are few topics as polarizing in tech and media today as the question of whether AI companies should compensate media professionals for training their models on copyrighted work. On this fight, the gang of More or Less mostly agree—but with some interesting nuances. That and which startups will and won't make it in 2024 on this week's podcast. Hope you enjoy. Apple Spotify YouTube Read more ›
0
We published our latest quarterly and annual funding data from our Creator Economy Database this week. The upshot: Funding for creator startups is down, unless of course, the business has an artificial intelligence angle. In total, the 525 creator-centric startups in our database have raised more than $13.8 billion since 2021. As you would expect, the money is not evenly divided: The database includes 32 companies that have raised $100... Read more ›
0
As a home-schooled teenager in Agoura Hills, Calif., Jordyn Gilbert’s social life revolves around Snapchat. The app—known for the disappearing photos and videos called Snaps that its users share with others—is the default mode of communication for Gilbert and her friends. She estimates she has 70 Snapchat “streaks” at the moment—which means she sends Snaps to and receives Snaps from at least 70 other people a day. Snap, the company... Read more ›
2
Most popular sources
Tech Wire Asia
|
28% 21 |
Business Insider
|
24% 2 |
CNET
|
8% 3 |
Eurogamer.net
|
5% 1 |
Android Authority
|
4% 1 |
| View sources » | |
LIKE us on Facebook so you won't miss the most important news of the day!
28.11.2024 13:45
Last update: 13:40 EDT.
News rating updated: 20:40.
What is Times42?
Times42 brings you the most popular news from tech news portals in real-time chart.
Read about us in FAQ section.