Los Angeles Times:
A look at challenges LA faces as it tries to remain a major tech hub; CB Insights: VC funding of startups in LA totaled $6.9B in 2023, down 73% from 2021 — High atop a Century City tower with floor-to-ceiling views of the Westside, a group of venture capitalists, other investors …
Volvo partners with Aurora Innovation to unveil Volvo VNL Autonomous, a self-driving truck which Aurora plans to use for freight hauling in the next few months (Rebecca Bellan/TechCrunch)
Rebecca Bellan / TechCrunch:
Volvo partners with Aurora Innovation to unveil Volvo VNL Autonomous, a self-driving truck which Aurora plans to use for freight hauling in the next few months — A new self-driving truck — manufactured by Volvo and loaded with autonomous vehicle tech developed by Aurora Innovation …
A profile of Alphabet’s moonshot X lab, as it carves out a path in which projects spin off as independent startups, after years of debate and experimentation (Julia Love/Bloomberg)
Julia Love / Bloomberg:
A profile of Alphabet’s moonshot X lab, as it carves out a path in which projects spin off as independent startups, after years of debate and experimentation — Alphabet is ending an era of unrestrained invention, spinning off many projects into independent startups.
US v. Google: Google has preemptively paid damages to the US government, an unusual move aimed at avoiding a jury trial in the DOJ’s antitrust lawsuit (Mike Scarcella/Reuters)
Mike Scarcella / Reuters:
US v. Google: Google has preemptively paid damages to the US government, an unusual move aimed at avoiding a jury trial in the DOJ’s antitrust lawsuit — Alphabet’s (GOOGL.O) Google has preemptively paid damages to the U.S. government, an unusual move aimed at avoiding a jury trial …
Samsung Electronics names Young-Hyun Jun as the head of its semiconductor arm, replacing co-CEO Kye-Hyun Kyung, who will oversee its business planning team (Yoolim Lee/Bloomberg)
Yoolim Lee / Bloomberg:
Samsung Electronics names Young-Hyun Jun as the head of its semiconductor arm, replacing co-CEO Kye-Hyun Kyung, who will oversee its business planning team — Korea’s largest company named Jun YoungHyun the new leader of its most important business line. Jun replaced Kyung Kye-hyun …
Sources: Anduril has had early discussions to raise ~$1.5B at a $12.5B+ valuation, and told investors it roughly doubled revenue to about $500M last year (Cory Weinberg/The Information)
Cory Weinberg / The Information:
Sources: Anduril has had early discussions to raise ~$1.5B at a $12.5B+ valuation, and told investors it roughly doubled revenue to about $500M last year — Military defense startup Anduril has had early discussions to raise what would be one of the largest venture capital rounds of the year so far …
The FBI has arrested a man on criminal charges for allegedly producing and distributing AI-generated images of minors engaged in sexually explicit conduct (Samantha Cole/404 Media)
Samantha Cole / 404 Media:
The FBI has arrested a man on criminal charges for allegedly producing and distributing AI-generated images of minors engaged in sexually explicit conduct — He allegedly used Stable Diffusion, a text-to-image generative AI model, to create “thousands of realistic images of prepubescent minors,” prosecutors said.
Scarlett Johansson says she declined to voice ChatGPT, and when she heard Sky she was “shocked” that Sam Altman would pursue a voice so “eerily similar” to hers (Kat Tenbarge/NBC News)
Kat Tenbarge / NBC News:
Scarlett Johansson says she declined to voice ChatGPT, and when she heard Sky she was “shocked” that Sam Altman would pursue a voice so “eerily similar” to hers — The “Her” actor released a statement following OpenAI pulling its “Sky” voice from ChatGPT, which many people said sounded like her.
LG denies reports it canceled its partnership with Meta, three months after the companies agreed to develop XR devices, says it’s “controlling its pace” (David Heaney/UploadVR)
David Heaney / UploadVR:
LG denies reports it canceled its partnership with Meta, three months after the companies agreed to develop XR devices, says it’s “controlling its pace” — LG denied reports from Korean news outlets claiming it canceled its partnership with Meta, but said it is “controlling its pace”.
Meta approved AI-manipulated Facebook ads during India’s election that spread disinfo and incited religious violence; civil groups submitted them as a test (Hannah Ellis-Petersen/The Guardian)
Hannah Ellis-Petersen / The Guardian:
Meta approved AI-manipulated Facebook ads during India’s election that spread disinfo and incited religious violence; civil groups submitted them as a test — Exclusive: Ads containing AI-manipulated images were submitted to Facebook by civil and corporate accountability groups
