News

Sean Hollister / The Verge: A look at Nvidia and Convai’s AI-powered video game NPCs, which are effectively generative AI chatbots that interact with the players  —  What if you could just… speak… to video game characters?  Ask your own… Read More »A look at Nvidia and Convai’s AI-powered video game NPCs, which are effectively generative AI chatbots that interact with the players (Sean Hollister/The Verge)

Sam Potter / Bloomberg: An interview with crypto skeptic James Block, whose damning critique of Signature Bank on his blog, Dirty Bubble Media, became the best short call of 2023  —  – Doctor whose hobby is debunking crypto made top… Read More »An interview with crypto skeptic James Block, whose damning critique of Signature Bank on his blog, Dirty Bubble Media, became the best short call of 2023 (Sam Potter/Bloomberg)

Steven Levy / Wired: A look at the Mac’s evolution as it turns 40, and interviews with Alan Dye and other Apple executives about Mac’s future, its influence on Vision Pro, and more  —  The pioneering PC revolutionized how people… Read More »A look at the Mac’s evolution as it turns 40, and interviews with Alan Dye and other Apple executives about Mac’s future, its influence on Vision Pro, and more (Steven Levy/Wired)

Kia Kokalitcheva / Axios: After two failed attempts, a bipartisan effort is being made to remedy the issues caused by US tax law Section 174, which forces amortization of software labor  —  The Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017… Read More »After two failed attempts, a bipartisan effort is being made to remedy the issues caused by US tax law Section 174, which forces amortization of software labor (Kia Kokalitcheva/Axios)

Lawrence Abrams / BleepingComputer: BreachForums admin Conor Brian Fitzpatrick, aka “Pompompurin”, is sentenced to 20 years of supervised release for his role in running the cybercrime forum  —  Conor Brian Fitzpatrick was sentenced to 20 years of supervised release today… Read More »BreachForums admin Conor Brian Fitzpatrick, aka “Pompompurin”, is sentenced to 20 years of supervised release for his role in running the cybercrime forum (Lawrence Abrams/BleepingComputer)

Eric Benjamin Seufert / Mobile Dev Memo: Apple and Google reducing their app store fees by just 3-4% for external payment methods simply make alternative options non-viable for app developers  —  The Supreme Court this week declined to hear Apple’s… Read More »Apple and Google reducing their app store fees by just 3-4% for external payment methods simply make alternative options non-viable for app developers (Eric Benjamin Seufert/Mobile Dev Memo)

Siddharth Venkataramakrishnan / Financial Times: How AI has been helping criminals who use deepfakes and voice cloning for financial scams, forcing banks and fintechs to invest in AI to counter fraud  —  Voice cloning is just one of the new… Read More »How AI has been helping criminals who use deepfakes and voice cloning for financial scams, forcing banks and fintechs to invest in AI to counter fraud (Siddharth Venkataramakrishnan/Financial …)

Amy Or / Bloomberg: Kazakhstan-based mobile app provider Kaspi.kz raised $1B+ in its US IPO, with the stock rising 4.3% on its debut, giving the company a market cap of ~$18B  —  The American depositary shares, which were trading below… Read More »Kazakhstan-based mobile app provider Kaspi.kz raised $1B+ in its US IPO, with the stock rising 4.3% on its debut, giving the company a market cap of ~$18B (Amy Or/Bloomberg)

Sean Michael Kerner / VentureBeat: Stability AI releases Stable LM 2 1.6B, which the company says outperforms other small AI language models on most benchmarks, including Microsoft’s Phi-2  —  Size certainly matters when it comes to large language models (LLMs)… Read More »Stability AI releases Stable LM 2 1.6B, which the company says outperforms other small AI language models on most benchmarks, including Microsoft’s Phi-2 (Sean Michael Kerner/VentureBeat)

Canalys: Indian smartphone shipments in Q4 2023 grew 20% YoY to 38.9M units, after five quarters of declines; total shipments for 2023 declined 2% YoY to 148.6M units  —  The latest Canalys research shows Indian smartphone vendors capitalized on robust… Read More »Indian smartphone shipments in Q4 2023 grew 20% YoY to 38.9M units, after five quarters of declines; total shipments for 2023 declined 2% YoY to 148.6M units (Canalys)