Journals

Bloomberg: Blizzard names Johanna Faries, former general manager for Call of Duty at Activision, as its president, succeeding Mike Ybarra, who left last week amid layoffs  —  Replaces Mike Ybarra who left the video-game company last week as part of… Read More »Blizzard names Johanna Faries, former general manager for Call of Duty at Activision, as its president, succeeding Mike Ybarra, who left last week amid layoffs (Bloomberg)

Zoe Kleinman / BBC: Apple says proposed UK legislation could let the country try “to secretly veto new user protections globally”, preventing Apple from shipping them to customers  —  Apple has attacked proposals for the UK government to pre-approve new… Read More »Apple says proposed UK legislation could let the country try “to secretly veto new user protections globally”, preventing Apple from shipping them to customers (Zoe Kleinman/BBC)

Alex Barinka / Bloomberg: TikTok is testing a feature that could make all posts shoppable, by identifying objects in videos and prompting users to “find similar items on TikTok Shop”  —  – Feature links products to any posts, not just… Read More »TikTok is testing a feature that could make all posts shoppable, by identifying objects in videos and prompting users to “find similar items on TikTok Shop” (Alex Barinka/Bloomberg)

Washington Post: X blocking “Taylor Swift” searches as explicit AI images spread is a blunt measure to accomplish a basic moderation task, after gutting “trust and safety” staff  —  The superstar’s fans were spurred into action last week after the… Read More »X blocking “Taylor Swift” searches as explicit AI images spread is a blunt measure to accomplish a basic moderation task, after gutting “trust and safety” staff (Washington Post)

Chance Miller / 9to5Mac: Zoom announces an app for the Apple Vision Pro, featuring digital personas, 3D file sharing, “real-world pinning” of meeting participants, and more  —  As promised, Zoom will be available on Apple Vision Pro from day one. … Read More »Zoom announces an app for the Apple Vision Pro, featuring digital personas, 3D file sharing, “real-world pinning” of meeting participants, and more (Chance Miller/9to5Mac)

Priya Anand / Bloomberg: Sema4.ai, a three-month-old startup led by ex-Cloudera CEO Rob Bearden aiming to automate business tasks with AI, raised $30.5M and acquires AI startup Robocorp  —  Investors in Sema4.ai’s funding round included Benchmark and Mayfield.  —  Sema4.ai,… Read More »Sema4.ai, a three-month-old startup led by ex-Cloudera CEO Rob Bearden aiming to automate business tasks with AI, raised $30.5M and acquires AI startup Robocorp (Priya Anand/Bloomberg)

Amanda Silberling / TechCrunch: Meta partners with the Center for Open Science to share data for researching online well-being, before Wednesday’s Congressional hearing on kids’ online safety  —  Ahead of a major Congressional hearing about children’s online safety, Meta has… Read More »Meta partners with the Center for Open Science to share data for researching online well-being, before Wednesday’s Congressional hearing on kids’ online safety (Amanda Silberling/TechCrunch)

Allison Johnson / The Verge: Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra review: bright screen, anti-glare, Circle to Search, great camera, and seven years of updates, but pricey, heavy, and AI is a mixed bag  —  The Galaxy S24 Ultra is packed with… Read More »Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra review: bright screen, anti-glare, Circle to Search, great camera, and seven years of updates, but pricey, heavy, and AI is a mixed bag (Allison Johnson/The Verge)

Dawn Lim / Bloomberg: How Blackstone is building a $25B US data center empire via its QTS acquisition, using an estimated 6 GW of electricity when complete, equal to ~5M homes’ needs  —  The private equity giant says landlord QTS… Read More »How Blackstone is building a $25B US data center empire via its QTS acquisition, using an estimated 6 GW of electricity when complete, equal to ~5M homes’ needs (Dawn Lim/Bloomberg)

Emanuel Maiberg / 404 Media: After fake AI images of Taylor Swift went viral, Microsoft adds safeguards to its AI text-to-image tool Designer; Microsoft couldn’t verify if Designer was used  —  Following 404 Media’s reporting, Microsoft has made changes to… Read More »After fake AI images of Taylor Swift went viral, Microsoft adds safeguards to its AI text-to-image tool Designer; Microsoft couldn’t verify if Designer was used (Emanuel Maiberg/404 Media)