News

Drew Harwell / Washington Post: The SEC approves Truth Social’s SPAC merger with DWAC; Trump’s stake in the post-merger company would be valued at more than $4B at today’s price  —  The former president’s stake in the post-merger company would… Read More »The SEC approves Truth Social’s SPAC merger with DWAC; Trump’s stake in the post-merger company would be valued at more than $4B at today’s price (Drew Harwell/Washington Post)

Chainalysis: In 2023, crypto money laundering fell 29.5% YoY to $22.2B, 109 addresses each got $10M+ in illicit crypto, and five off-ramp services got 71.7% of illicit funds  —  Coming soon  —  The goal of money laundering is to obscure… Read More »In 2023, crypto money laundering fell 29.5% YoY to $22.2B, 109 addresses each got $10M+ in illicit crypto, and five off-ramp services got 71.7% of illicit funds (Chainalysis)

Aisha Malik / TechCrunch: YouTube adds the ability for users to incorporate, or “remix”, a music video in their Shorts, weeks after UMG pulled its song catalog from TikTok  —  YouTube is introducing the ability for users to incorporate or… Read More »YouTube adds the ability for users to incorporate, or “remix”, a music video in their Shorts, weeks after UMG pulled its song catalog from TikTok (Aisha Malik/TechCrunch)

Stephanie Palazzolo / The Information: Sources: Sam Altman told people that the $7T figure represents the total investments needed for his chip project, including real estate, over some years  —  Contrary to popular belief, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman isn’t raising… Read More »Sources: Sam Altman told people that the $7T figure represents the total investments needed for his chip project, including real estate, over some years (Stephanie Palazzolo/The Information)

David Pierce / The Verge: Google launches Gemini 1.5 to developers and enterprise users, offering support for 1M tokens, and says Gemini 1.5 Pro is on par with its Gemini Ultra model  —  Barely two months after launching Gemini, the… Read More »Google launches Gemini 1.5 to developers and enterprise users, offering support for 1M tokens, and says Gemini 1.5 Pro is on par with its Gemini Ultra model (David Pierce/The Verge)

Frederic Lardinois / TechCrunch: Google makes Gemini 1.0 Pro and Gemini 1.0 Ultra generally available, adds support for adapter-based tuning in Vertex, and rolls out new developer tools  —  Google is expanding the range of Gemini large language models it… Read More »Google makes Gemini 1.0 Pro and Gemini 1.0 Ultra generally available, adds support for adapter-based tuning in Vertex, and rolls out new developer tools (Frederic Lardinois/TechCrunch)

Emma Roth / The Verge: Meta plans to start charging a 30% fee when advertisers pay to boost the visibility of Facebook and Instagram posts on its iOS apps, starting later in February  —  Meta said Thursday that it will… Read More »Meta plans to start charging a 30% fee when advertisers pay to boost the visibility of Facebook and Instagram posts on its iOS apps, starting later in February (Emma Roth/The Verge)

Jon Porter / The Verge: TikTok launches its native Apple Vision Pro app, offering a similar UI to the mobile apps; an executive said TikTok “redesigned the entire TikTok experience”  —  Apple’s Vision Pro headset now has a native TikTok… Read More »TikTok launches its native Apple Vision Pro app, offering a similar UI to the mobile apps; an executive said TikTok “redesigned the entire TikTok experience” (Jon Porter/The Verge)

Cristiano Lima-Strong / Washington Post: Richard Blumenthal and Marsha Blackburn announce an updated Kids Online Safety Act and say 60+ US senators support the bill; KOSA faces uncertainty in the House  —  With more than 60 backers, an updated Kids… Read More »Richard Blumenthal and Marsha Blackburn announce an updated Kids Online Safety Act and say 60+ US senators support the bill; KOSA faces uncertainty in the House (Cristiano Lima-Strong/Washington Post)

Rachel Metz / Bloomberg: Lambda, which offers cloud computing services and computers to train AI, raised $320M led by Thomas Tull’s US Innovative Technology at a $1.5B valuation  —  The startup raised $320 million in a new funding round.  — … Read More »Lambda, which offers cloud computing services and computers to train AI, raised $320M led by Thomas Tull’s US Innovative Technology at a $1.5B valuation (Rachel Metz/Bloomberg)