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Swedish game developer Embracer Group plans to split itself into three publicly traded companies, focused on tabletop, indie, and AAA; EMBRAC-B.ST jumps 10%+ (Christopher Jungstedt/Bloomberg)

Tinder announces Share My Date, allowing users to share their date plans with friends, including their match's name, meeting location, date, and time (Lauren Forristal/TechCrunch)

Memo to its US staff: TikTok vows legal battle if US' divestment bill becomes a law, saying the bill is "a clear violation" of its users' First Amendment rights (Zheping Huang/Bloomberg)

Source: Salesforce has backed away from its talks to acquire cloud data management company Informatica, after the two companies could not agree on terms (Anirban Sen/Reuters)

Analysis: the 25 most-cited US news organizations lost 75% of their Facebook engagement and 58% of their Instagram interactions between Q1 2022 and Q1 2024 (Washington Post)

A look at Home Assistant, an open-source smart home platform with an estimated 1M users, as its creators announce a foundation to help it reach the mainstream (Jennifer Pattison Tuohy/The Verge)

Tesla cuts the price of its Full Self-Driving software to $8K from $12K in the US, following a price cut from $15K to $12K in September 2023 (Jameson Dow/Electrek)

Antenna: 29M+ people, or ~25% of US streaming subscribers, canceled 3+ services over the last two years as Americans increasingly jump between services (John Koblin/New York Times)

How some parents, seeking the ability to reach their kids at all times, have become unexpected but forceful opponents of schools' attempts to ban phones (Julie Jargon/Wall Street Journal)

How TikTok has influenced US culture and shaped Hollywood, privacy, fashion, shopping, news, music, trends, cooking, mental health, national security, and more (New York Times)

A look at Block-funded Gridless, which operates bitcoin mines in Kenya, Malawi, and Zambia, powered through solar power and wasted energy from a geothermal site (MacKenzie Sigalos/CNBC)

Researchers: when given 15 CVE descriptions, GPT-4 autonomously exploited 87% of the vulnerabilities, compared to 0% for every other model tested (Thomas Claburn/The Register)

Nvidia will provide the software for Japan's ABCI-Q, a hybrid supercomputer that offers quantum computing capability for drug research and other uses (Riho Nagao/Nikkei Asia)

Open-source GameCube and Wii emulator Dolphin is not coming to App Store as Apple doesn't allow JIT recompilers on iOS, possibly due to security considerations (oatmealdome.me)

The House passes a TikTok divestiture bill with a longer sale deadline as part of a package of Ukraine/Israel aid bills, pressuring the Senate to vote on TikTok (Lauren Feiner/The Verge)

Sources: Biden administration is encouraging US tech groups to seek AI deals in the UAE and brokered Microsoft's deal with G42, as it seeks an edge over China (Financial Times)

PCs that can run large AI models may drive an enterprise PC replacement cycle, but some CIOs say they'll wait for the category to mature and prices to come down (Isabelle Bousquette/Wall Street Journal)

A look at Los Angeles' Homelessness Prevention pilot program, which uses AI to identify those at risk of becoming homeless, offering aid to keep them housed (Kate Rogers/CNBC)

An interview with Linus Torvalds at the Open Source Summit North America on the XZ Utils exploit, open source development, RISC-V, AI, and more (David Cassel/The New Stack)

The US Senate reauthorizes FISA's Section 702; some communication service providers had threatened to stop cooperating with the US government in case of a lapse (Gaby Del Valle/The Verge)

Court filing: OpenAI says Elon Musk's claim that the company has abandoned its altruistic principles is "revisionist history" and a bid to boost his AI company (Robert Burnson/Bloomberg)

Google scraps a 2019 policy requiring US suppliers and staffing firms to pay their employees $15 an hour and provide health insurance and other benefits (Daniel Wiessner/Reuters)

National Bureau of Statistics: China's integrated circuit output rose 40% YoY to 98.1B units in Q1, a sign that the country is expanding legacy chip production (Coco Feng/South China Morning Post)

SK Hynix partners with TSMC to develop next-gen HBM4 chips, which are critical for AI and slated for mass production in 2026, and advanced chip packaging tech (Nikkei Asia)

Filing: a group of FTX investors and customers agree to drop their claims against SBF if he cooperates in cases against celebrities and others who pushed FTX (Bloomberg)

China publishes measures to boost foreign investment in its domestic technology sector, including encouraging tech companies to raise money via bond issuance (Reuters)

Bitcoin's fourth halving is now complete, lowering miners' block subsidy rewards from 6.25 BTC to 3.125 BTC; the third halving was in May 2020 (James Hunt/The Block)

Pornhub, Stripchat, and XVideos will have to comply with additional obligations, such as submitting risk assessment reports, under the EU DSA starting next week (Foo Yun Chee/Reuters)

Nvidia closed down 10% on Friday, falling the most since March 2020 and losing more than $200B of its market value, as investors pull back from AI bets (George Steer/Financial Times)

Nothing rolls out ChatGPT integration for Nothing Phone (2) and Nothing earbuds, including voice and text widgets for the phone (Ben Schoon/9to5Google)

Telegram partners with Tether to let the messaging app's ~900M users send USDT to each other through The Open Network blockchain (Ryan Browne/CNBC)

Post.News, the news-focused social platform launched in 2022 that offered micropayments to publishers, is shutting down after failing to grow "fast enough" (Emma Roth/The Verge)

Midas, which lets users in Turkey invest in US and Turkish equities, raised a $45M Series A, after a $11M seed in 2022, and plans crypto trading and more (Mike Butcher/TechCrunch)

Sources: EU may accept Apple's proposal to open its NFC payments tech to rivals, and may close its antitrust probe in May, letting Apple avoid hefty fines (Foo Yun Chee/Reuters)

Hacking group GhostR claims it stole 5.3M records from World-Check screening database used for KYC checks for sanctions and financial crime links (Zack Whittaker/TechCrunch)

Sources describe the detention of Binance officials, including compliance officer Tigran Gambaryan, by Nigeria on charges of tax evasion and money laundering (New York Times)

Web design and hosting platform Webflow acquires Intellimize, which raised $50M and offers AI-powered webpage personalization, a source says for "eight-figures" (Kyle Wiggers/TechCrunch)

Meta is restricting certain election-related keywords for Meta AI in India due to ongoing elections; Meta started testing its AI chatbot in India last week (Ivan Mehta/TechCrunch)

Sources: Mistral plans to raise 500M at an over 5B valuation from multiple VCs and wealth funds, after raising ~400M at a 2B valuation in December 2023 (Financial Times)

A look at Salad, which pays gamers in Fortnite skins and Roblox gift cards to rent their GPUs remotely to AI companies, including those making AI-generated porn (Emanuel Maiberg/404 Media)

Sophos researchers find "crude", cheap ransomware tools being sold on the dark web, enabling inexperienced freelancers to easily launch attacks (James Reddick/The Record)

Internal draft: UK's ICO says Google's Privacy Sandbox falls short and leaves gaps that can be exploited to undermine privacy of users who should be anonymous (Wall Street Journal)

Apple removes WhatsApp and Threads from its App Store in China, saying it was ordered to do so by China's cyberspace officials citing national security concerns (Raffaele Huang/Wall Street Journal)

Washington, DC-based Cape, which is developing a mobile service that doesn't ask for customers' personal data, raised a $40M Series B co-led by A-Star and a16z (Ingrid Lunden/TechCrunch)

Microsoft researchers introduce VASA-1, an AI model that creates a realistic talking face video from a portrait photo and an audio file, in research preview (Ryan Morrison/Tom's Guide)

Q&A with Mark Zuckerberg on Llama 3, buying H100 GPUs for Reels, AGI, energy constraints, dangers of open source, the metaverse, Meta's custom silicon, and more (Dwarkesh Patel/Dwarkesh Podcast)

Digital marketing software company Ibotta closes up 17% at $103.25 per share in its trading debut, after raising ~$577.3M in an IPO priced above marketed range (Bloomberg)

Google says it will consolidate teams that focus on building AI models across Research and DeepMind, and move its Responsible AI teams in Research to DeepMind (Zaheer Kachwala/Reuters)

Meta cuts the price of the base 128GB Quest 2 from $249 to $199, its second permanent price cut in four months, after a drop from $299 to $249 in January (Kris Holt/Engadget)

Netflix won't report subscriber numbers or Average Revenue per Membership starting in Q1 2025, saying time spent is its "best proxy for customer satisfaction" (Todd Spangler/Variety)

Netflix reports Q1 revenue up 15% YoY to $9.37B, vs. $9.28B est., paid users up 16% YoY to 269.6M, vs. 264.2M est., and net income $2.3B, up from $1.3B YoY (Sarah Whitten/CNBC)

Meta claims both Llama 3 models beat similarly sized models like Gemini, Mistral, and Claude 3 on certain benchmarks; humans marked Llama 3 higher than GPT-3.5 (Emilia David/The Verge)

A US jury finds Avraham Eisenberg, a crypto trader who stole $110M on the Mango Markets exchange in 2022, guilty of fraud despite his "code is law" claim (Crystal Kim/Axios)

Short-form video app Triller is merging with Hong Kong financial services company AGBA; Triller shareholders will own 80% of the combined company valued at $4B (Daniel Tencer/Music Business Worldwide)

DARPA reveals that an AI-controlled X-62A jet successfully faced a human pilot in an F-16 during an in-air dogfight test carried out in 2023 (Emma Roth/The Verge)

Meta rolls out real-time AI image generation, which changes the image as the user types a prompt, in beta on WhatsApp and Meta AI on the web in the US (Emma Roth/The Verge)

Sources: cloud security startup Wiz is in advanced talks to acquire competitor Lacework for $150M-$200M; Lacework raised $1.8B and was valued at $8.3B in 2021 (The Information)

Meta details Llama 3: 8B and 70B parameters models and a focus on reducing false refusals; an upcoming large model trained on 15T tokens and has 400B parameters (Alex Heath/The Verge)

Meta plans to add its Meta AI chatbot to Instagram, WhatsApp, Messenger, and Facebook in 12+ countries, expanding on the US, powered by its new Llama 3 models (New York Times)

TSMC says the April 3 Taiwan earthquake caused an estimated losses of $92.44M to the company in Q2; there were no power outages or structural damage to its fabs (Reuters)

Google unveils internal reorganizations, including an AI-focused Platforms and Devices group overseeing Pixel, Android, Chrome, and more, led by Rick Osterloh (David Pierce/The Verge)

US House Speaker plans to bundle the TikTok divestiture bill, with a revised proposal, in a Ukraine and Israel aid bill expected to clear the Senate on April 20 (Bloomberg)

Brave Search introduces Answer with AI, which shows answers synthesized from multiple sources for informational queries, appearing above organic search results (Ivan Mehta/TechCrunch)

Intel Foundry completes the assembly of the first commercial High-NA EUV chipmaking tool, a day after ASML set an EUV system record by printing 10nm dense lines (Paul Alcorn/Tom's Hardware)

Spend management startup Ramp raised a $150M Series D extension at a $7.65B valuation, up from $5.8B after raising $300M in 2023 but down from $8.1B in 2022 (Mary Ann Azevedo/TechCrunch)

US court documents, mistakenly made public, reveal ByteDance and TikTok's complex origin story, spawning from GOP donor Jeff Yass' failed real estate venture (New York Times)

Europol, law enforcement in 19 countries, Microsoft, and others disrupt phishing-as-a-service platform LabHost in a year-long operation and make 37 arrests (Bill Toulas/BleepingComputer)

Nothing unveils the $149 Nothing Ear and $99 Nothing Ear (a), offering improved sound, personalization, and battery life; Nothing plans to integrate ChatGPT (Chris Welch/The Verge)

TSMC CEO CC Wei says the company plans to charge customers more for making chips outside of Taiwan, citing a "fragmented globalization environment" (Kathrin Hille/Financial Times)

A look at Apple's iPhone recycling, including shredding robots, and contractor GEEP, which Apple sued in 2020 for $22.6M in a case that has since been inactive (Austin Carr/Bloomberg)

Investigation: Amazon sells ~$1M per year in goods on eBay, Shopify, Walmart, and Amazon via its "Big River" arm, to get data on pricing, logistics, and more (Wall Street Journal)

Twitch plans to roll out its TikTok-style discovery feed later in April, letting users scroll clips and livestreams, after testing the feature for a year (Emma Roth/The Verge)

An interview with Reddit Chief Product Officer Pali Bhat on the company's roadmap: faster load times, new moderator and developer tools, and AI translation (Amanda Silberling/TechCrunch)

French B2B software company Planisware raised 278M in a Paris IPO; its shares jumped up to 33% to ~21 on its debut, giving Planisware a 1.1B valuation (Thyagaraju Adinarayan/Bloomberg)

Apple plans to spend $250M+ on its regional hub in Singapore, including expanding its campus later in 2024, as Tim Cook visits Vietnam and other Asian countries (Amanda Lee/Wall Street Journal)

Huawei releases its Pura 70 series, available for ~$760 to ~$1,380; reviewers show high-end models have a Kirin 9010 chip, an update to the Mate 60 Pro's 9000s (Bloomberg)

Document: Microsoft added 500+ megawatts of data center capacity since July 2023 and topped five gigawatts of total capacity in the H1 of its latest fiscal year (Eugene Kim/Business Insider)

How one author gained a limited copyright for the "selection, coordination, and arrangement of text" from AI, as the US Copyright Office wrestles with AI law (Kate Knibbs/Wired)

Crypto miners are stockpiling bitcoins ahead of April 20 halving; TheMinerMag: Marathon Digital, CleanSpark, and Bitfarms hoarded ~$2B worth of bitcoins (Scott Chipolina/Financial Times)

TSMC reports Q1 revenue up 16.5% YoY to NT$592.64B ($18.87B) vs. NT$582.94B est., profit up 8.9% YoY to NT$225.49B vs. NT$213.59B est., on strong AI chip demand (Sheila Chiang/CNBC)

Politics Headlines Today
[Fri-26-Apr-2024]

$1trn Economy: NIPSS, Ex-Minister's Group Chart Course For Mining Sector Reform - Leadership

11 Months After Subsidy Removal: Nigerians Still Face Fuel Scarcity, Long Queues - Leadership

12 Arrested For Illegal Mining In Niger - Leadership

16-year-old Kano Boy Gets Hajj Seat For Quran Recitation - Leadership

2023 polls reflected will of Nigerians, says U.S. in report - The Nation

2024 Capital Releases to commence in May, says AGF - The Nation

2024 Hajj: FCT Board To Resume Orientation For Intending Pilgrims - Leadership

4 Months After, FG Yet To Disburse Funds For 2024 Capital Projects - Leadership

A DisCo can be run profitably, efficiently - The Nation

A hard day' - Ashley Judd on quashed Weinstein conviction - BBC

AAC Warns Makinde Against Violence During Saturday's LG Elections - Daily Independent

ACTDA Rescues Awka Residents From Perennial Flooding - Daily Independent

Additional State: How Far Can South East Go - New Telegraph

Addressing Epidemics In Nigeria Through Improved Water, Hygiene - Daily Independent

Adebutu Responsible For Our Loss In 2023 Ogun PDP Chairman - New Telegraph

Adebutu responsible for PDPs defeat in 2023 Ogun Chairman - Daily Trust

Adeleke to grace final Of National TTennis Championships - The Nation

Agbeyewa Farms Launches Community Development Foundation - Thisday

Agboola wins Ondo PDP primary - The Nation

AI Orchestration Market Expected To Reach $35.2bn By 2031 - Daily Independent

AI Tupac track vanishes from Drake's Instagram - BBC

Aide leads campaign to eradicate malaria - The Nation

Akeredolu ex-deputy gov, Agboola emerges winner of Ondo PDP primaries - Tribune

Alake markets Mining sector to foreign investors - Nigerian Pilot

Alake woos foreign investors with mining incentives, policies - The Nation

Alleged 80.2b fraud: CHRICED asks FG to declare State of emergency on Kogi state - Peoples Daily

Alleged fraud: Judges absence stalls Fayoses trial - Nigerian Pilot

Alleged N3bn Fraud: How ex-HoS Oyo-Ita, allies diverted public funds to private companies - Tribune

Alleged N80.2bn fraud: Senator Natasha reacts to Yahaya Bello's probe - Tribune

Alleged procurement fraud: Court adjourns Emefieles case till June 24 - The Nation

Anambra community flags off 2024 farming season to cushion hunger - Nigerian Pilot

Anyone convicted by court remains an ex-convict ' Police PRO - Tribune

APC has dashed expectations of Nigerians ' Ex-NWC member, Lukman - Tribune

APC is the answer to Nigeria's problems' ' Ganduje - Peoples Daily

APC on track to cure Nigeria of its ills ' Ganduje - Peoples Daily

APC woos aggrieved Ondo aspirants with all-inclusive govt slots - The Nation

Appeal Court holds valedictory for late Justice Orji-Abadua - Blueprint

Armed Forces, Police and Paramilitar Bball Tourney - The Nation

Army trains 90 personnel on inspection, compliance - Blueprint

ATCIS, FCCPC wade into Multichoice tariff hike - The Nation

Atiku's Leadership In PDP's Season Of Anomie - Daily Independent

Australian ex-PM Morrison reveals anxiety struggle - BBC

Aviation Experts Identify Barriers to Intra-African Trade, AfCFTA Implementation - Thisday

Aviation Minister Inaugurates National Executive Safety Committee - Thisday

AXA Mansard backs MSMEs owners with grants - The Nation

Baby saved from dead mother's womb in Gaza dies - BBC

Badminton: Eniola Bolaji rises to World number 7 - The Nation

Bago gifted key to Kaaba, says itll spur Niger development - Blueprint

Bala directs upward review of allowances of Bauchi traditional rulers - Blueprint

Ballet dancers and yawning lions: Africa's top shots - BBC

Bauchi police kill eight kidnap suspects, rescue three hostages - The Nation

Bauchi Police Kill Eight Kidnappers, Rescue Three Victims - New Telegraph

Bauchi: Police kill 8 bandits, rescue 3 abductees - Blueprint

Be firm in fight against oil theft, Fubara charges Naval Chief - Tribune

Be security conscious, DG warns Corps members - The Authority

Benue insecurity and attempted vilification of Jonathan Agbidyeh - The Nation

Benue: Over 200 Child Births Recorded In Ortese IDP Camp In One Month ' Wende - Daily Independent

Bilateral partnerships must be mutually beneficial, Tinubu tells Dutch investors - Nigerian Pilot

Biotech Society Seeks Better Funding Of Research - Leadership