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How Ukraine found US startups' drones glitchy and pricey, turning instead to cheaper Chinese drones; PitchBook: ~300 US drone startups raised $2.5B since 2022 (Wall Street Journal)

Q&A with Getty Images CEO Craig Peters on the deal with Nvidia to create AI tools trained on Getty's stock images, the need for AI industry standards, and more (Scott Roxborough/The Hollywood Reporter)

Guesty, a platform for accommodation managers to manage Airbnbs and more, raised $130M, sources say at a $900M valuation, after raising a $170M Series E in 2022 (Ingrid Lunden/TechCrunch)

The FCC says all but the smallest ISPs must now publish broadband "nutrition labels" on all of their plans, ending an eight year battle between ISPs and the FCC (Amrita Khalid/The Verge)

The FCC plans to cut its broadband subsidy payout to $14 per month, under half of the current rate; AT&T, Charter, and others are yet to detail their response (Tony Romm/Washington Post)

A US official says SpaceX's Pentagon contract to deploy terminals in Ukraine between June 2023 and May 2024 is worth $23M; the deal may not be renewed (Anthony Capaccio/Bloomberg)

Adobe updates Frame.io, adding new workflow and tagging capabilities for project management, in beta for Free and Pro customers on the web, iOS, and iPadOS (Jess Weatherbed/The Verge)

Sources: ByteDance's EBITDA rose 60% YoY in 2023 to $40B and its sales rose from $80B to $120B, the first time ByteDance surpassed Tencent in revenue and profit (Bloomberg)

How TSMC is transforming the Japanese farm town of Kikuyo into a key node in Asia's chip supply chain, backed by billions of dollars from Japan's government (New York Times)

The US is right to target TikTok and prevent a foreign adversary from controlling a platform to deploy "persuasive AI" that can manipulate US citizens and more (Vinod Khosla/Financial Times)

TSMC reports Q1 revenue up 16.5% YoY to $18.5B and expects revenue to grow at least 20% in 2024, reversing 2023's slight decline, and budgets capex of $28B-$32B (Jane Lanhee Lee/Bloomberg)

Aloha Browser says the number of users in the EU jumped 250% in March after DMA came into effect; Vivaldi, Ecosia, Brave, DuckDuckGo, and Opera also see growth (Reuters)

Rakuten Kobo announces its first color e-readers, the $220 Kobo Libra Colour and the $150 Kobo Clara Colour, available for preorder now and shipping on April 30 (Sheena Vasani/The Verge)

Sources: Apple assembled $14B of iPhones in India last fiscal year, doubling production YoY, with the company now making as much as 14% of its iPhones in India (Sankalp Phartiyal/Bloomberg)

Atos, the main cybersecurity provider to the 2024 Olympics, secures 450M in interim financing to stay afloat, including a 50M loan from the French Government (Politico)

Platform Science, which provides connected vehicle tools for enterprise fleets, raised $125M from 8VC, Prologis, and others, taking its total funding to $309M (Grace Sharkey/FreightWaves)

Investment platform Linqto plans to go public via a SPAC merger with Blockchain Coinvestors Acquisition at a ~$700M valuation in a deal expected to close in H2 (Arasu Kannagi Basil/Reuters)

In a lengthy memo on Alibaba's internal forum, Jack Ma voiced his support for a company undergoing a turbulent restructuring, saying it is now on the right path (Bloomberg)

WPP announces a collaboration with Google, integrating Gemini AI tools with WPP data to create scripts, product images, and more for ad clients like Coca-Cola (Nicola Agius/Search Engine Land)

Mumbai-based Neysa, which offers a suite of generative AI tools to help clients manage their AI projects, raised a $20M seed led by Matrix, Nexus, and NTTVC (Jessica Rajan/The Economic Times)

Google introduces two Gemma variants, CodeGemma to help with code completion and RecurrentGemma to provide researchers faster inference at higher batch sizes (Tris Warkentin/Google for Developers Blog)

Copenhagen-based Reshape, whose AI-powered robotic imaging system helps track visual changes in lab experiments, raised a $20M Series A led by Astanor Ventures (Paul Sawers/TechCrunch)

NetEase says it is working with Microsoft to bring World of Warcraft and other Blizzard games back to China after a feud ended the partnership in January 2023 (Josh Ye/Reuters)

Piper Sandler survey of 6,020 US teens: 33% now own a VR device, up from 31% in fall 2023, and weekly usage of VR devices increased to ~13% from ~10% (Filipe Espsito/9to5Mac)

Google partners with Bayer on an AI product that can flag anomalies within images for radiologists and summarize information from a patient's medical history (Ashley Capoot/CNBC)

Alethea, whose ML service monitors online chatter to help companies detect disinformation, raised a $20M Series B led by GV, bringing its total raised to $34M (Sam Sabin/Axios)

OpenAI makes GPT-4 Turbo with Vision generally available in the API, and lets Vision requests use JSON mode and function calling (Carl Franzen/VentureBeat)

Quora-owned AI chatbot platform Poe now allows bot creators to set a per-message price for their bots and rolls out enhanced analytics dashboard for creators (Sarah Perez/TechCrunch)

Intel says its next-gen Lunar Lake laptop chips will have 100+ TOPS of performance in AI tasks and elements of Microsoft's Copilot will soon run locally on PCs (Paul Alcorn/Tom's Hardware)

YouTube adds shopping features, including creator-curated product lists for users to browse called Shopping Collections and a hub with info on commission rates (Aisha Malik/TechCrunch)

Apple researchers publish a paper on Ferret-UI, a multimodal LLM tailored for enhanced understanding of mobile UI screens (Malcolm Owen/AppleInsider)

Researchers found an exposed Azure server with credentials used by Microsoft staff to access internal systems; Microsoft was told Feb. 6 and secured it March 5 (Zack Whittaker/TechCrunch)

In London, Meta execs downplayed the negative impact of AI on elections, touted open-source AI, and confirmed Llama's next version will arrive by next month (Mark Bergen/Bloomberg)

Cruise resumes manually driving its vehicles without autonomous systems engaged to create maps and gather road information in select cities, starting in Phoenix (Rebecca Bellan/TechCrunch)

eBay adds an AI-powered "shop the look" feature to its iOS app, with personalized recommendations for users that have viewed 10+ fashion items in six months (Sarah Perez/TechCrunch)

Intel debuts its Gaudi 3 AI chips, set for Q3 mass production, saying they offer up to 1.7x the training performance and 40% better efficiency than Nvidia H100s (Paul Alcorn/Tom's Hardware)

Automattic is buying Beeper, a source says for $125M; Beeper co-founder Eric Migicovsky will become Automattic's head of messaging (Mark Gurman/Bloomberg)

How OpenAI is preparing to fight lawsuits, investigations, and legislation: expanding its staff to 1,000 from 200 in 2022, hiring in-house lawyers, and more (Washington Post)

Symbolica, which develops foundation models offering an alternative to the transformer AI architecture, raised a $31M Series A led by Khosla Ventures (Anna Tong/Reuters)

Monad Labs, which is building a Layer 1 blockchain to rival Ethereum and Solana, raised $225M led by Paradigm and plans to launch its mainnet by the end of 2024 (Leo Schwartz/Fortune)

Google makes its Imagen 2 image generator generally available in Vertex AI, and adds inpainting and outpainting to remove or add elements and expand borders (Kyle Wiggers/TechCrunch)

Google details Workspace updates: Gmail "Help me write" voice input and "instant polish", Docs tabs, Sheets tables, Gemini in Chat, Meet translation, and more (Abner Li/9to5Google)

Google releases Gemini 1.5 Pro in public preview on Vertex AI, with support for up to 1M tokens, and says the model will power new features in Code Assist (Kyle Wiggers/TechCrunch)

Google announces Vids, an app to help companies and consumers make collaborative, shareable video, powered by Gemini, launching in public beta in summer 2024 (David Pierce/The Verge)

Microsoft plans to invest $2.9B in data centers in Japan by 2025, its biggest investment in the country, and will add advanced AI chips at two existing sites (Naoki Watanabe/Nikkei Asia)

Google Cloud CEO Thomas Kurian unveils AI updates: corporate Gemini users can "ground" responses in reliable sources, Search as a Gemini answer source, and more (Bloomberg)

Enterprise data security startup Cyera raised a $300M Series C led by Coatue at a $1.4B valuation, taking its funding to $460M, after a $100M Series B in 2023 (Ingrid Lunden/TechCrunch)

Google announces its new Arm-based Axion chips for AI, with up to 30% better performance over Arm-based rivals, set to launch to cloud customers later in 2024 (Wall Street Journal)

An investigation finds a shadowy supply chain for Starlink terminals to US foes in Russia and Sudan via Africa, Asia, and the UAE; SpaceX has not shut them off (Wall Street Journal)

Sources: the US plans to award Samsung $6B+ next week to build four chip facilities in Taylor, Texas, including a $17B plant, as part of the $52B CHIPS Act (Alexandra Alper/Reuters)

Trump Media & Technology Group's stock slumped 36% since March 26, wiping out $2.8B in market value as retail traders sell; Trump's stake is now worth ~$2.9B (Bailey Lipschultz/Bloomberg)

In some US schools, boys have used AI "nudification" apps to create and share deepfakes of clothed female classmates, leading districts to scramble to respond (Natasha Singer/New York Times)

South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol says the country plans to invest ~$7B in AI by 2027, and will create a separate ~$1B fund to foster AI chip companies (Reuters)

Q&A with Cloudflare CEO Matthew Prince on the company's role in protecting free speech online, operating in war zones, moderation, never doing layoffs, and more (Nilay Patel/The Verge)

Sources: Cruise plans to resume its robotaxi service with safety drivers in Phoenix as early as April 9; Cruise says it "had not set a timeline for deployment" (Bloomberg)

Interviews with 12+ former and current employees: ByteDance faces backlash from its US TikTok staff over large tax bills on stock shares they are unable to sell (Financial Times)

A look at Android 15's Private Space feature, similar to Samsung's Secure Folder, which creates a separate profile for hiding apps and data (Mishaal Rahman/Android Authority)

Grow Therapy, which provides services like patient-provider matching and EHR to help therapists run their own practices, raised an $88M Series C led by Sequoia (Heather Landi/Fierce Healthcare)

Sources: Applied Materials may scale back or cancel plans to open a $4B R&D facility in Silicon Valley due to a lack of government funding (Shira Stein/San Francisco Chronicle)

The Internet Archive is hosting the new Aruba Collection, which contains 100K+ items from Aruba's National Library, National Archives, and other institutions (Kate Knibbs/Wired)

Source: Meta plans to launch two small non-multimodal versions of Llama 3 next week; the biggest Llama 3 model will be multimodal and is expected this summer (Sylvia Varnham O'Regan/The Information)

Filing: Tesla settles a lawsuit over Apple engineer Walter Huang's 2018 fatal Autopilot crash a day before the trial was set to begin; details are not disclosed (Trisha Thadani/Washington Post)

Google rebrands Studio Bot, its AI-powered app development chatbot for Android Studio, to "Gemini in Android Studio", and upgrades its model to Gemini 1.0 Pro (Kyle Bradshaw/9to5Google)

Model N, a public company focusing on helping health companies automate pricing and compliance decisions, is being acquired by Vista Equity Partners for $1.25B (Paul Sawers/TechCrunch)

TikTok expands TikTok Lite, which gives people financial incentives to watch its videos, to Spain and France, amid growth struggles in Europe (Kaya Yurieff/The Information)

IDC: the PC market grew 1.5% YoY in Q1 with 59.8M shipments, despite weaker demand in China, following two years of decline (Jaspreet Singh/Reuters)

A look at the Amazon Labor Union, two years after its victory at an NYC facility, as the group is divided, running out of funds, and faces a leadership election (Haleluya Hadero/Associated Press)

Docs: after months of staffers sniping about the war in Gaza, Google is tweaking its internal message board Memegen, removing "thumbs down", post metrics, more (Nico Grant/New York Times)

Google debuts its Find My Device network in the US and Canada, initially to find Android phones and tablets; support for 3rd-party tracker tags is coming in May (Abner Li/9to5Google)

Sources: Microsoft is confident upcoming Windows laptops using Qualcomm's Snapdragon X Elite chips will beat an M3-powered MacBook Air in CPU and AI performance (Tom Warren/The Verge)

Nielsen data from 2021 to 2023: nine of the ten most-watched streaming programs are reruns, but a majority of the 100 most popular titles are original series (Bloomberg)

Solana grapples with congestion issues, leading to delays in transaction processing and transactions being dropped, due to spam transactions and memecoins (Vishal Chawla/The Block)

Avraham Eisenberg, a crypto trader the US says stole $110M on the Mango Markets exchange in 2022, begins his trial this week, testing "code is law" claims (Bloomberg)

Tesla faces a trial in San Jose this week over Apple engineer Walter Huang's fatal Autopilot crash in 2018; Tesla prevailed in two previous California trials (Dana Hull/Bloomberg)

Sources and filings: Sam Altman's net worth reaches $1B, driven by startup investments in Reddit, Stripe, YC companies, and others, despite no equity in OpenAI (Forbes)

Montenegro's Supreme Court overturns Terraform Labs co-founder Do Kwon's extradition to South Korea; Kwon's lawyers had pushed for South Korea over the US (Vincent Lee/Bloomberg)

Filing: Denver-based digital marketing company Ibotta prices its 2.5M IPO shares at $76-$84 each, seeking to raise $472.5M; Ibotta had a $1B valuation in 2019 (Bloomberg)

PitchBook: VC investment in crypto startups rose 32% QoQ to $2.5B in Q1 2024, down from $2.6B in Q1 2023, after a brutal year for crypto and blockchain startups (Hannah Miller/Bloomberg)

Internal Kremlin documents from May 2022 to August 2023 show an ongoing campaign to promote American isolationism via fabricated news articles and social media (Washington Post)

Sources: Pegatron is in advanced talks to hand over its only iPhone plant in India to the Tata Group, which will hold a 65%+ stake; Apple supports the move (Reuters)

Features Headlines Today
[Sun-05-May-2024]

2023 Award: Osoba, Zenith Bank, Others Hail Independent Newspapers - New Telegraph

2027: Minister Seeks Adoption Of Akpabio As Sole Candidate Of All Parties For Senatorial Poll - New Telegraph

3 hospitalized after multi-vehicle crash in Buffalo - Yahoo

6 simple tips on how to start egg business - Tribune

7 Things To Know If You Withdraw More Than $10,000 From Your Checking Account - Yahoo

78-Year-Old Receptionist Was an Employee of the Year Before Getting Fired. Now Ex-Employer Is Paying Her $78K - Yahoo

8 arrested in multi-million dollar retail theft bust in Southern California - Yahoo

A Chinese driver is praised for helping reduce casualties in a highway collapse that killed 48 - Yahoo

A driver dies after crashing into a security barrier around the White House complex, authorities say - Yahoo

A personal trainer shared the 2 popular fitness supplements that she would never take - Yahoo

Adrian College spring commencement continuing with anti-trans activist as keynote speaker - Yahoo

Afenifere: A new beginning - The Nation

After Roe, the network of people who help others get abortions see themselves as 'the underground - Yahoo

Age is just a number:' Socorro man arrested for online solicitation of a minor - Yahoo

Aiyedatiwa Orders Rehabilitation Of Water Facilities In Ondo - New Telegraph

Akinfeleye Remembers Wife One Year After - New Telegraph

Akpabio Indicts Emefiele, Urges Nigerians To Be Patient With Tinubu - New Telegraph

Akpojotor: Ankara Princess exploring femininity, empowerment - Tribune

Antarctic ice hole the size of Switzerland keeps cracking open. Now scientists finally know why. - Yahoo

Apple bulls raise price targets after buyback announcement - Yahoo

Are youths the panacea for Nigerias problems - The Nation

Arizona Sen. Kelly says he supports getting rid of filibuster to codify abortion rights - Yahoo

Arkansas State Police seize almost 900 pounds of illegal marijuana from I-40 traffic stops in the last 10 days - Yahoo

Arnold Schwarzenegger reveals how he made millions before becoming a movie star ' and it wasn't from bodybuilding - Yahoo

Article of Faith: Living the present in the future (1), By Femi Aribisala - Premium Times

As Putin begins another 6-year term, he is entering a new era of extraordinary power in Russia - Yahoo

Attack On Female Nurse: Masquerades Suspended Indefinitely In Nsukka - New Telegraph

Australian MP drugged and sexually assaulted on night out - Yahoo

Bandits Slain Three Zamfara Security Operatives - New Telegraph

Basketball Africa League: Rivers Hoopers stun AS Douanes - Premium Times

Berkshire shareholders reject climate, diversity, China proposals - Yahoo

Berkshire's profit plunges 64% on portfolio holdings as Buffett sells Apple - Yahoo

Bible Society of Nigeria declares today National Bible Day - Tribune

Biden administration says 100,000 new migrants are expected to enroll in 'Obamacare' next year - Yahoo

Biden vetoes bid to repeal US labor board rule on contract, franchise workers - Yahoo

Big Oil finds more to love in deepwater exploration fields - Yahoo

Boeing locks out its private firefighters around Seattle over pay dispute - Yahoo

Bola Tinubu becomes Tatalos mistress, By Festus Adedayo - Premium Times

Brookfield doctors charged with child abuse, causing mental harm - Yahoo

Buffett says Berkshire in good hands, lauds Apple despite lowering stake - Yahoo

Buni, Abiodun, Iwuanyanwu, others honoured at Independent Awards - Premium Times

Bystander livestreams during Charlotte standoff show an ever-growing appetite for social media video - Yahoo

Car thief evades police in wild Manhattan pursuit, later tracked down by cops and K9 - Yahoo

Cathedral Church Marina Marks 157 Anniversary, Honours Bode George - New Telegraph

Chelsea Offer 90m, Lukaku, One Player To Sign Osimhen From Napoli - New Telegraph

Chiamaka Nnadozie: Her stocks keep rising - New Telegraph

Chicago police seek man who dragged woman into alley, attempted to sexually abuse her - Yahoo

China's 'lobster eye' Einstein telescope releases 1st batch of trippy space images - Yahoo

Chinese President Xi on diplomatic trip to Europe - Premium Times

Civil servants don't get enough training from govt 'Nwan, ex-perm sec - Tribune

Class Formation (IV) - The Nation

Complaints, objections swept aside as 15-year-old girl claims record for 101-pound catfish - Yahoo

Congress voted against funding a cure for cancer just to block a win for Biden - Yahoo

Covenant-Keeping God (IV) - Tribune

Dangers of unchecked intrusion into BRT lanes by wheelbarrow pushers, others - Guardian

Dangote Distributes 6,000 Bags Of Rice To Vulnerable People In Osun - New Telegraph

Danjuma wants Nigerians to build national cohesion with culture - New Telegraph

Deadly news helicopter crash likely caused by shaky inspections, leading to loose parts, feds say - Yahoo

Death by installments! Community where residents drink milk, palm oil as remedies for dust, air pollution - Tribune