Reuters:
AWS plans to invest €15.7B in data centers in Spain’s Aragon region, replacing a 2021 plan to spend €2.5B; the Aragon government says the deal is over 10 years — Tech giant Amazon’s (AMZN.O) cloud computing unit AWS will invest 15.7 billion euros ($17.02 billion) …
Chinese automotive cybersecurity firm GoGoByte demonstrates a cheap and simple relay attack to unlock a Tesla Model 3 despite an ultra-wideband keyless system (Andy Greenberg/Wired)
Andy Greenberg / Wired:
Chinese automotive cybersecurity firm GoGoByte demonstrates a cheap and simple relay attack to unlock a Tesla Model 3 despite an ultra-wideband keyless system — Ultra-wideband radio has been heralded as the solution for “relay attacks” that are used to steal cars in seconds.
Link-in-bio startup Linktree passes 50M users, up from 41M in December 2023 and 47M+ in March 2024, and launches a beta of its social commerce product (Lauren Forristal/TechCrunch)
Lauren Forristal / TechCrunch:
Link-in-bio startup Linktree passes 50M users, up from 41M in December 2023 and 47M+ in March 2024, and launches a beta of its social commerce product — Link-in-bio startup Linktree said on Wednesday that it has surpassed 50 million users. — The figure represents a significant uptick …
Sources: Amazon plans to make Alexa more conversational later in 2024, adding generative AI features, and will charge a fee to offset the cost of the tech (Kate Rooney/CNBC)
Kate Rooney / CNBC:
Sources: Amazon plans to make Alexa more conversational later in 2024, adding generative AI features, and will charge a fee to offset the cost of the tech — WATCH NOW — Amazon is upgrading its decade-old Alexa voice assistant with generative artificial intelligence and plans to charge …
Cologne-based AI translation startup DeepL, which develops its own models, raised $300M led by Index Ventures at a $2B valuation and reports 100K+ customers (Isabelle Bousquette/Wall Street Journal)
Isabelle Bousquette / Wall Street Journal:
Cologne-based AI translation startup DeepL, which develops its own models, raised $300M led by Index Ventures at a $2B valuation and reports 100K+ customers — The round, led by Index Ventures, reflects businesses’ increasing interest in function-specific AI models
Google starts rolling out its Magic Editor and other AI tools to all Android and iOS users for free via Photos, offering 10 Magic Editor library saves per month (Abner Li/9to5Google)
Abner Li / 9to5Google:
Google starts rolling out its Magic Editor and other AI tools to all Android and iOS users for free via Photos, offering 10 Magic Editor library saves per month — Last month, Google Photos announced that it would be making Magic Editor and other AI-powered tools free for all Android and iOS users.
Chinese smartphone maker Honor plans to include Google’s Gemini and Imagen 2, powered by Google Cloud, in upcoming devices, one of the first companies to do so (Arjun Kharpal/CNBC)
Arjun Kharpal / CNBC:
Chinese smartphone maker Honor plans to include Google’s Gemini and Imagen 2, powered by Google Cloud, in upcoming devices, one of the first companies to do so — Chinese smartphone maker Honor on Wednesday became one of the first device makers to say it will bring Google’s artificial intelligence features to its upcoming devices.
China releases an AI model trained on “Xi Jinping Thought” and other official literature, initially in research testing, a source says before a wider launch (Financial Times)
Financial Times:
China releases an AI model trained on “Xi Jinping Thought” and other official literature, initially in research testing, a source says before a wider launch — Internet regulator uses Chinese leader’s political philosophy to help answer questions posed to latest large language model
Microsoft and UAE-based G42 plan to build a $1B geothermal-powered data center in Kenya, opening in about two years, to boost computing capacity in East Africa (Bloomberg)
Bloomberg:
Microsoft and UAE-based G42 plan to build a $1B geothermal-powered data center in Kenya, opening in about two years, to boost computing capacity in East Africa — Project will create a Microsoft cloud region in East Africa and provide competition for Chinese companies like Huawei.
A review of privacy-focused /e/OS, a fully “deGoogled” OS based on the Android Open Source Project, that combines Micro G, to handle Google APIs, and LineageOS (Scott Gilbertson/Wired)
Scott Gilbertson / Wired:
A review of privacy-focused /e/OS, a fully “deGoogled” OS based on the Android Open Source Project, that combines Micro G, to handle Google APIs, and LineageOS — Even if you aren’t technically inclined, this privacy-first mobile operating system helps you escape surveillance capitalism.
