News

Devin Coldewey / TechCrunch: Amazon researchers detail BASE TTS, the largest text-to-speech model yet, which they claim exhibits “emergent” qualities improving its natural speaking ability  —  Researchers at Amazon have trained the largest ever text-to-speech model yet, which they claim… Read More »Amazon researchers detail BASE TTS, the largest text-to-speech model yet, which they claim exhibits “emergent” qualities improving its natural speaking ability (Devin Coldewey/TechCrunch)

Ashley Gold / Axios: NYC sues ByteDance, Meta, Snap, and Google to hold the companies accountable “for fueling the nationwide youth mental health crisis” by manipulating young users  —  New York City filed a lawsuit against TikTok, Meta, Snap and… Read More »NYC sues ByteDance, Meta, Snap, and Google to hold the companies accountable “for fueling the nationwide youth mental health crisis” by manipulating young users (Ashley Gold/Axios)

The Information: Sources: Together AI, which helps developers access Nvidia server chips to train AI models, is raising $100M+ led by Salesforce Ventures at a $1B+ valuation  —  Nvidia’s hot streak with artificial intelligence chips, which have been in high… Read More »Sources: Together AI, which helps developers access Nvidia server chips to train AI models, is raising $100M+ led by Salesforce Ventures at a $1B+ valuation (The Information)

Jon Brodkin / Ars Technica: X removes paid checkmarks from some accounts after a watchdog group found 28 verified accounts allegedly tied to Hezbollah and other US-sanctioned entities  —  X (aka Twitter) accused of violating sanctions by taking payment from… Read More »X removes paid checkmarks from some accounts after a watchdog group found 28 verified accounts allegedly tied to Hezbollah and other US-sanctioned entities (Jon Brodkin/Ars Technica)

Leander Kahney / Cult of Mac: Many Vision Pro users are returning their devices, saying it’s too expensive, heavy, or isolating, as the 14-day return window nears its end for first buyers  —  Many early adopters seem set on returning… Read More »Many Vision Pro users are returning their devices, saying it’s too expensive, heavy, or isolating, as the 14-day return window nears its end for first buyers (Leander Kahney/Cult of Mac)

Harry Brumpton / Bloomberg: Japanese chipmaker Renesas agrees to acquire PCB design software company Altium for ~$5.9B in cash, a 33.6% premium on Altium’s February 14 closing price  —  Renesas will acquire shares of Altium for a cash price of… Read More »Japanese chipmaker Renesas agrees to acquire PCB design software company Altium for ~$5.9B in cash, a 33.6% premium on Altium’s February 14 closing price (Harry Brumpton/Bloomberg)

Subrat Patnaik / Bloomberg: Nvidia passed Alphabet on February 14 as the third most valuable US company and the world’s fourth with a market cap of ~$1.83T, one day after overtaking Amazon  —  – Chip giant is up 49% in… Read More »Nvidia passed Alphabet on February 14 as the third most valuable US company and the world’s fourth with a market cap of ~$1.83T, one day after overtaking Amazon (Subrat Patnaik/Bloomberg)

Amrita Khalid / The Verge: Microsoft schedules Build 2024 for May 21 to May 23 in Seattle and online, with updates on AI, Copilot, and more expected  —  Microsoft tweeted that its annual Build conference for developers will take place… Read More »Microsoft schedules Build 2024 for May 21 to May 23 in Seattle and online, with updates on AI, Copilot, and more expected (Amrita Khalid/The Verge)

Kurt Wagner / Bloomberg: Meta appoints Hock E. Tan, president and CEO of Broadcom, and philanthropist John Arnold, co-founder of Arnold Ventures, to its board, effective immediately  —  – Broadcom’s Hock Tan, philanthropist John Arnold join board  — Sandberg to… Read More »Meta appoints Hock E. Tan, president and CEO of Broadcom, and philanthropist John Arnold, co-founder of Arnold Ventures, to its board, effective immediately (Kurt Wagner/Bloomberg)

Aaron Holmes / The Information: Source: OpenAI has been developing a web search product partly powered by Bing  —  OpenAI has been developing a web search product that would bring the Microsoft-backed startup into more direct competition with Google, according… Read More »Source: OpenAI has been developing a web search product partly powered by Bing (Aaron Holmes/The Information)