Nilay Patel / The Verge:
Q&A with Sundar Pichai about Google I/O announcements, AI Overviews’ high clickthrough rates, competing with OpenAI, future of search, AI advancements, and more — The head of Google sat down with Decoder last week to talk about the biggest advancements in AI, the future of Google Search, and the fate of the web.
Grayscale CEO Michael Sonnenshein resigns, to be replaced by the head of strategy for asset and wealth manager at Goldman Sachs, Peter Mintzberg, on August 15 (Jamie Crawley/CoinDesk)
Jamie Crawley / CoinDesk:
Grayscale CEO Michael Sonnenshein resigns, to be replaced by the head of strategy for asset and wealth manager at Goldman Sachs, Peter Mintzberg, on August 15 — Sonnenshein’s replacement will be Peter Mintzberg, currently head of strategy for asset and wealth manager at Goldman Sachs
Sources: LG has ended its Meta partnership due to a lack of “synergy”, three months after the companies agreed to develop XR devices; LG may partner with Amazon (Chae-Yeon Kim/KED Global)
Chae-Yeon Kim / KED Global:
Sources: LG has ended its Meta partnership due to a lack of “synergy”, three months after the companies agreed to develop XR devices; LG may partner with Amazon — Industry sources say LG, recently cut ties, may have seen little synergy from its collaboration with Meta on XR devices
AltStore developers detail the significant hurdles facing those looking to open third-party iOS app stores in Europe; AltStore has had 100K+ downloads in the EU (Austin Carr/Bloomberg)
Austin Carr / Bloomberg:
AltStore developers detail the significant hurdles facing those looking to open third-party iOS app stores in Europe; AltStore has had 100K+ downloads in the EU — The experience of AltStore shows the significant hurdles facing those looking to open third-party app stores in Europe.
PE firm EQT is in advanced talks to buy video game services company Keywords Studios for £2.2B, or £25.5 per share, a 70%+ premium on Friday’s close (Financial Times)
Financial Times:
PE firm EQT is in advanced talks to buy video game services company Keywords Studios for £2.2B, or £25.5 per share, a 70%+ premium on Friday’s close — Private equity firm has already made four unsolicited proposals for Keywords Studios — European private equity group EQT …
CyberArk acquires machine identity management company Venafi from Thoma Bravo in a deal valued at around $1.54B; Thoma Bravo bought Venafi for $1.15B in 2020 (Sophie Shulman/CTech)
Sophie Shulman / CTech:
CyberArk acquires machine identity management company Venafi from Thoma Bravo in a deal valued at around $1.54B; Thoma Bravo bought Venafi for $1.15B in 2020 — The Israeli company is purchasing the machine identity management company from Thoma Bravo as it looks to combine Venafi’s machine …
Neuralink gets US FDA approval to implant its brain chip in a second person; source: FDA signed off on proposed fixes like embedding wires deeper into the brain (Rolfe Winkler/Wall Street Journal)
Rolfe Winkler / Wall Street Journal:
Neuralink gets US FDA approval to implant its brain chip in a second person; source: FDA signed off on proposed fixes like embedding wires deeper into the brain — Elon Musk-backed startup has proposed solutions for thread pullout problem experienced by first participant, Noland Arbaugh
Apple announces discounts of up to $318 on its Tmall site in China between May 20 and May 28 on select iPhone models amid competition from Huawei and others (Reuters)
Reuters:
Apple announces discounts of up to $318 on its Tmall site in China between May 20 and May 28 on select iPhone models amid competition from Huawei and others — Apple (AAPL.O) has launched an aggressive discounting campaign on its official Tmall site in China, offering discounts of up to 2,300 yuan ($318) on select iPhone models.
OpenAI pauses the use of the Sky voice in ChatGPT after users said it sounded too much like Scarlett Johansson, says voice was not chosen to be an “imitation” (Amy Thomson/Bloomberg)
Amy Thomson / Bloomberg:
OpenAI pauses the use of the Sky voice in ChatGPT after users said it sounded too much like Scarlett Johansson, says voice was not chosen to be an “imitation” — OpenAI is working to pause the use of the Sky voice from an audible version of ChatGPT after users said that it sounded too much like actress Scarlett Johansson.
How Nvidia co-founder Curtis Priem is trying to make New York a quantum computing hub, including putting a quantum computer at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (Jimmy Vielkind/Wall Street Journal)
Jimmy Vielkind / Wall Street Journal:
How Nvidia co-founder Curtis Priem is trying to make New York a quantum computing hub, including putting a quantum computer at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute — Curtis Priem is donating more than $75 million to help Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute become a hub for a cutting-edge technology