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Sony might be developing a sort of PS Vita mark 2. Sad news of the death of a well-known silicon valley luminary. Meta says its not going to be left behind in the AI race. What happens if the kids aren’t keen on the Metaverse. And I sketch out an example of our grand theory of AI varietals. Sponsors: Bloomberg.com/careers Links: EXCLUSIVE – SONY’S NEXT PLAYSTATION HANDHELD (Insider Gaming) Bob Lee, creator of Cash App and former CTO of Square, stabbed to death (TechCrunch) Google says its AI supercomputer is faster, greener than Nvidia A100 chip (Reuters) Meta to debut ad-creating generative AI this year, CTO says (NikkeiAsia) American teens aren’t excited about virtual reality, with only 4% using it daily (CNBC) What if ChatGPT was trained on decades of financial news and data? BloombergGPT aims to be a domain-specific AI for business news (NeimanLab) Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

We’ve said before that Elon owns Twitter, so if he decides to change the logo to a Shiba Inu, you know, why not? Apple kinda sorta bites the bullet on layoffs. What’s going on with the Apple Weather app? Do we want universities to call the use of ChatGPT plagiarism? And data on the corporate takeover of AI development. Sponsors: OregonState.edu ZocDoc.com/techmeme Links: Twitter’s new dog icon is sending dogecoin — sigh — to the moon (TechCrunch) Spotify shuts down its Clubhouse-style audio app Spotify Live (Musically) Google to cut down on employee laptops, services and staplers for ‘multi-year’ savings (CNBC) Apple to Cut Jobs in Some Corporate Retail Teams in First Known Layoffs (Bloomberg) Apple Weather forecasts suffer rare outage (AppleInsider) Universities express doubt over tool to detect AI-powered plagiarism (Financial Times) AI is entering an era of corporate control (The Verge) Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The blue checks went away on Twitter over the weekend. Or did they? More interesting details on those Pinduoduo app allegations. In a headline from 2019, Paris says no to e-scooters. And what does the recent move by GM say about the relationship between the car companies and the tech platforms? Sponsors: Ramp.com/techmeme This episode is brought to you by BetterHelp. Give online therapy a try at betterhelp.com/techmeme and get on your way to being your best self.” Links: Twitter had a very messy weekend (The Verge) Twitter’s blue check mark was loved and loathed. Now it’s pay for play. (Washington Post) ‘I’ve never seen anything like this:’ One of China’s most popular apps has the ability to spy on its users, say experts (CNN Business) Paris votes overwhelmingly to ban shared e-scooters (TechCrunch) GM is cutting off access to Apple CarPlay and Android Auto for its future EVs (The Verge) The rest of the auto industry still loves CarPlay and Android Auto (The Verge) Learn more about

I can tell you E3 is officially cancelled this year, but I’m kinda thinking it might be dead for good. Bunch of stuff about Twitter and checkmarks. Italy has temporarily banned ChatGPT. Some of the signatories of that AI letter are having second thoughts. And, of course, the weekend longreads suggestions. Sponsors: Miro.com/podcast LInks: E3 Has Been Canceled (IGN) Elon Musk Tried to Meet With F.T.C. Chair About Twitter but Was Rebuffed (NYTimes) Japan restricts chipmaking equipment exports as it aligns with US China curbs (Reuters) Italian privacy regulator bans ChatGPT (Politico) The Open Letter to Stop 'Dangerous' AI Race Is a Huge Mess (Motherboard) Weekend Longreads Suggestions: Fitbit’s attempt to disappear the button proved why they matter (The Verge) The influencers getting rich by teaching you how to get rich (Vox) “I’LL WALK AWAY FROM ANYTHING”: KARA SWISHER CALLS THE SHOTS (Vanity Fair) Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Wait, are we NOT going to see the new Apple headset at WWDC? Twitter’s new API tiers? Ads are coming to Bing Chat. Is Elon Musk guilty of laundering his grudge against OpenAI through AI concern trolling? And is TikTok creating more one hit wonders? Sponsors: Shopify.com/ride Miro.com/podcast Links: Kuo: Apple Mixed-Reality Headset May Not Appear at WWDC as Mass Production Pushed Back Yet Again (MacRumors) Twitter announces new API pricing, including a limited free tier for bots (Engadget) Microsoft’s Bing chatbot is getting more ads (The Verge) Alphabet’s Google and DeepMind Pause Grudges, Join Forces to Chase OpenAI (The Information) Elon Musk's AI History May Be Behind His Call To Pause Development (Forbes) Is TikTok Actually Creating More One-Hit Wonders? (Billboard) Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Over 1,000 big names sign a petition urging a pause on AI development. What analysts think AI could to for or to the economy. North Korean hackers allegedly have a new trick. And did you know ByteDance has an Instagram rival? Well, it looks like they’re putting the pedal to the metal on that. Sponsors: Miro.com/podcast go.tech/tm Links: Elon Musk and top AI researchers call for pause on ‘giant AI experiments’ (The Verge) Generative AI set to affect 300mn jobs across major economies (Financial Times) North Korea Is Now Mining Crypto to Launder Its Stolen Loot (Wired) Google Search is adding new ‘Perspectives’ and ‘About this author’ features to help users verify info (TechCrunch) TikTok ban backup plan? ByteDance-owned Instagram rival Lemon8 hits the US App Store’s Top 10 (TechCrunch) Cerebras releases seven large language models for generative AI, trained on its specialized hardware (SiliconAngle) Google Partners with AI Startup Replit to Take on Microsoft’s GitHub (Bloomberg) Microsoft Se

I titled an episode last week “Twilight Of The Blue Checks.” Well, today is the sequel, “Rise Of The Blue Checks” cause starting April 15, you’ll have to be a blue check to appear on Twitter’s For You tab. Also: the feds go after Binance. Disney cuts its entire metaverse unit. And the UK cancels its NFT. Sponsors: Miro.com/podcast Notion.com/ride Links: Elon Musk says Twitter’s For You page will only recommend verified accounts (The Verge) The secret list of Twitter VIPs getting boosted over everyone else (Platformer) Binance and founder Changpeng Zhao violated compliance rules to attract U.S. users, CFTC alleges (CNBC) Disney Eliminates Its Metaverse Division as Part of Company’s Layoffs Plan (WSJ) NFT: Plans for Royal Mint produced token dropped (BBC News) Lyft CEO and president to step down, former Amazon exec David Risher named as replacement (CNBC) Amazon just opened up its Sidewalk network for anyone to build connected gadgets on (The Verge) Learn more about your ad choices. V

Looks like the short, sharp, SVB saga has reached the beginning of a conclusion. Twitter source code has been leaked. The doubts inside Apple about the upcoming mixed reality headset. Why has no one presented any evidence for why TikTok might need to be banned? And, again, will generative AI lead to a physical robot revolution? Sponsors: Miro.com/podcast GetSunday.com/ride for 20% off Links: First Citizens to Buy SVB After Biggest Failure Since 2008 (Bloomberg) Twitter Says Parts of Its Source Code Were Leaked Online (NYTimes) Apple’s Best Hope for New Headset: a Smartwatch-Like Trajectory (Bloomberg) France bans all recreational apps – including TikTok – from government devices (The Register) Pinduoduo App Malware Detailed by Cybersecurity Researchers (Bloomberg) Tech’s AI Armies Are Huge, Yet Struggling to Innovate (Bloomberg) For Smarter Robots, Just Add Humans (Wired) Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Robert from Rownd shares his most recent investor update live and in real time, so you can hear how these things go. Also, want to learn more about Rownd? From Robert: Demo site: https://demo.rownd.com. Try out Rownd! We put Rownd into a webflow site to show how easy it works! Sign in with google or email, add biometrics (if you choose), create a wallet, and get an NFT!   Do you have a mobile app or eCommerce company? Reach out at robert@rownd.io or sign up at https://app.rownd.io. We offer all podcast listeners 2 months free + 50% off for a year! Just email me! Have some feedback? Grab some time with Rob:  https://calendly.com/rob-rownd/mutant-podcast-army. Try a few Rownd customer sites to see the experience!  https://stardust.app (mobile experience) https://masrefund.com (web + mobile) https://nextbigideaclub.com (e-commerce + web + mobile) https://spouse-ly.com (e-commerce) SMS Fraud link: https://interactive.twilio.com/sms-traffic-pumping-calculator Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaph

Twitter is finally sunsetting its legacy verified program. OpenAI rolls out ChatGPT plugins. Do Kwan has been detained and is facing formal charges here in the US. The FTC’s “click to cancel” proposal. And, of course, the weekend longreads suggestions. Sponsors: Headspace.com/RIDE30DAY Links: Twitter to Revoke ‘Legacy’ Verified Badges in April, Leaving Only Paying Subscribers With Blue Check-Marks (Variety) OpenAI is massively expanding ChatGPT’s capabilities to let it browse the web and more (The Verge) Do Kwon Charged With Fraud by US Prosecutors in New York (Bloomberg) The FTC wants to ban those tough-to-cancel gym and cable subscriptions (The Verge) Weekend Longreads Suggestions: Cheating is All You Need (Sourcegraph Blog) The Age of AI has begun (GatesNotes/Bill Gates) The secret history of Elon Musk, Sam Altman, and OpenAI (Semafor) The case for slowing down AI (Vox) Epic’s new motion-capture animation tech has to be seen to be believed (ArsTechnica) Learn more about your a

Coinbase got a Wells Notice, which is not good. Hindenburg research has a new note out and is making short run on Block, which is not good. Apple might expand its sports streaming and release more things in actual theaters. And the space startup that 3d prints its own rockets. Sponsors: Thuma.co/techmeme for a $25 credit Links: Coinbase warned by SEC of potential securities charges (CNBC) SEC charges Tron founder Justin Sun, celebrities Lindsay Lohan, Jake Paul with crypto violations (CNBC) Jack Dorsey’s Block Falls After Hindenburg Says It’s Short the Stock (Bloomberg) Hindenburg takes aim at Dorsey's payments firm Block; shares plunge (Reuters) Apple Considers Bidding for English Football Streaming Rights (Bloomberg) Apple to Spend $1 Billion a Year on Films to Break Into Cinemas (Bloomberg) Canva Launches ‘Magic’ AI Tools For Its Design Software’s 125 Million Users (Forbes) Chatbot Start-Up Character.AI Valued at $1 Billion in New Funding Round (NYTimes) Relativity Space’s first launch

Well, we’ve got Google Bard. We’ve got a new Copilot from GitHub. Bing Image Creator is rolling out. Mozilla AI launches. The low hanging fruit that is plugging AI into NPCs to make games more realistic. And at the very end, some actual non AI news! Links: Google opens early access to its ChatGPT rival Bard — here are our first impressions (The Verge) Microsoft’s GitHub to Add OpenAI Chat Functions to Coding Tool (Bloomberg) Microsoft brings OpenAI’s DALL-E image creator to the new Bing (TechCrunch) Mozilla launches a new startup focused on ‘trustworthy’ AI (TechCrunch) Ubisoft’s new AI tool automatically generates dialogue for non-playable game characters (TechCrunch) GPT-4 and professional benchmarks: the wrong answer to the wrong question (AI Snake Oil) Amazon is flooding the zone with new TVs as it crosses 200 million Fire TV devices sold (The Verge) Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Ahead of a major showdown in Congress this week, TikTok wants the US to know exactly how popular it is. Why ChatGPT was shut down for a while yesterday. Why Google is suspending PinDuoDuo from the play store. The AI powered doctor’s office of the future. And is Andy Jassy the David Moyes of Amazon? If you get that reference, congratulations. Down Round Podcast (Listener Ad!) Links: TikTok says it now has 150m monthly active users in the US (MusicAlly) TikTok bans deepfakes of nonpublic figures and fake endorsements in rule refresh (The Verge) Google flags apps made by popular Chinese e-commerce giant as malware (TechCrunch) OpenAI Shut Down ChatGPT to Fix Bug Exposing User Chat Titles (Bloomberg) Amazon’s post-Bezos experiment hasn’t gone exactly as planned (CNBC) OpenAI-powered app from Microsoft will instantly transcribe patient notes during doctor visits (CNBC) Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

New bots to make video from text prompts. Fending off the bots from biting your style. Falling in love with the bots. In the streaming wars, the ad supported experiments are working, and pricing power is a thing. And the startup that says it’s about to introduce humanoid bots. Real, definitional robots. Sponsors: Dot Tech Domains: Go.tech/tm Links: Generative AI’s Next Frontier Is Video (Bloomberg) Glaze protects art from prying AIs (TechCrunch) AI love: What happens when your chatbot stops loving you back (Reuters) Netflix’s Ad Tier Hits 1 Million Users. Is That Good or Bad? (Bloomberg) Disney+ Users Paid Up When the Price Rose (WSJ) Humanoid robots are coming (Axios) Figure Promises First General-Purpose Humanoid Robot (IEEE Spectrum) Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Amazon Kindle gets out of the magazine business. An ironically named PE firm is buying Porn Hub. Midjourney v5 is really mind blowing. And, of course, the Weekend Longreads Suggestions. Sponsors: RelationshipHero.com/techmeme Links: Amazon will discontinue newspaper and magazine subscriptions in September (GoodEReader) SVB Financial files for Ch. 11 bankruptcy protection, says it has $2.2B in liquidity (TechCrunch) Pornhub owner sold to Canadian private equity firm Ethical Capital (Financial Times) AI-imager Midjourney v5 stuns with photorealistic images—and 5-fingered hands (ArsTechnica) Weekend Longreads Suggestions: The Guardians (Meteor) The Future Smartphone: More Folds, Less Phone, a Whole Lot of AI (Wired) LinkedIn turns 20: An oral history of an unlikely champion (Fast Company) ‘It changed the world’: 50 years on, the story of Pong's Bay Area origins (SFGate) Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

For the first time ever, I had to delay producing this show so I could watch and cover and AI product announcement. Let me tell you about how Microsoft is bringing GPT-4, to basically all their most famous apps with Copilot. Looks like the potential for a TikTok ban is getting really real. And why folks are suddenly turning on OpenAI. Sponsors: Overtired Podcast Links: Introducing Microsoft 365 Copilot — your copilot for work (Microsoft) Microsoft 365 gets a host of new AI-powered features (TechCrunch) U.S. Threatens Ban if TikTok’s Chinese Owners Don’t Sell Stakes (WSJ) OpenAI co-founder on company’s past approach to openly sharing research: ‘We were wrong’ (TheVerge) Payments giant Stripe raises $6.5 billion at a $50 billion valuation (Axios) Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

GPT-4 is unveiled and it’s multimodal, and man, is everybody rushing to make use of this stuff. Alleged renders of Google's Pixel 8 Pro appear to show a mysterious new sensor. The state of the music industry in the streaming era. And Deadpool sells his phone company to another phone company. Links: OpenAI unveils GPT-4 with multimodal input and more creative and complex capabilities (Windows Central) 10 Ways GPT-4 Is Impressive but Still Flawed (NYTimes) With Evals, OpenAI hopes to crowdsource AI model testing (TechCrunch) Duolingo launches new subscription tier with access to AI tutor powered by GPT-4 (TechCrunch) GPT-4’s new capabilities power a ‘virtual volunteer’ for the visually impaired (TechCrunch) TikTok Considers Splitting From ByteDance If Deal With US Fails (Bloomberg) Google Pixel 8 Pro adds a mysterious new sensor, flat display in first leaked renders (9to5Google) Apple Music boosts streaming music revenue to record $13.3 billion in 2022; vinyl outpaces CDs for first since 1987 (9

Those expected layoffs have come to Meta. AI tools come to Google Workspace and an API for Google’s PaLM language model. Seems like things have generally worked out with this Silicon Valley Bank aftermath. Microsoft laid off its AI risk team. Layoffs at Y Combinator. And a look at the standard that’s trying to keep over the air broadcast television relevant. Sponsors: Notion.com/ride Links: Meta to cut another 10,000 jobs and cancel ‘low priority projects’ (TechCrunch) Google announces AI features in Gmail, Docs, and more to rival Microsoft (The Verge) Google opens up its AI language model PaLM to challenge OpenAI and GPT-3 (The Verge) FDIC Planning Another Silicon Valley Bank Auction (WSJ) Venture capitalists weigh Silicon Valley Bank salvage operation (FT) Microsoft just laid off one of its responsible AI teams (Platformer) Y Combinator to End Late-Stage Startup Fund, Lays Off Staff (The Information) The future of TV is up in the air (The Verge) Learn more about your ad choices. Vi

Unless it affected you, you might have missed a huge tech story this weekend. But now that depositors to Silicon Valley Bank are being made whole, is the whole crisis averted? Tim Cook is pressing ahead with the Apple headset over the objections of Apple’s design team. And the varied and complex dilemmas of this new AI reality in two, somewhat oppositional segments. Sponsors: RelationshipHero.com/techmeme ZocDoc.com/techmeme Links: SVB’s tech failings were a problem long before the bank run that led to its demise, critics say (CNBC) SVB provided for tech when everyone else ignored us (FT) Regulators close crypto-focused Signature Bank, citing systemic risk (CNBC) Tim Cook bets on Apple’s mixed-reality headset to secure his legacy (FT) Microsoft Strung Together Tens of Thousands of Chips in a Pricey Supercomputer for OpenAI (Bloomberg) Large language models are having their Stable Diffusion moment (Simon Willison's Blog) Self Radicalization with open sourced AI-Systems (Good Internet)

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