Igor Bonifacic / Engadget:
Rabbit releases its teach mode in beta for all R1 users, letting them create and ask their own AI agents to automate tasks on websites — It’s a major milestone for the AI startup. — When the Rabbit R1 arrived earlier this year, it was an unfinished product.
Sources: two congressional Republicans prepare an age verification bill that puts the onus for age verification on app store operators, boosting Meta’s campaign (Washington Post)
Washington Post:
Sources: two congressional Republicans prepare an age verification bill that puts the onus for age verification on app store operators, boosting Meta’s campaign — The Washington Post’s essential guide to tech policy news — Happy Thursday! Today’s edition comes to you from newsletter anchors past and present.
Adam Mosseri says Threads is rebalancing ranking to prioritize content from people that users follow, warns that creators’ “unconnected” reach may go down (Jay Peters/The Verge)
Jay Peters / The Verge:
Adam Mosseri says Threads is rebalancing ranking to prioritize content from people that users follow, warns that creators’ “unconnected” reach may go down — As Bluesky’s user numbers continue to rise, Instagram boss Adam Mosseri says Threads will change its For You page to show fewer posts from accounts you don’t follow.
SpyCloud researchers say Chinese black market operators are openly recruiting insiders working for government surveillance agencies to sell their access online (Andy Greenberg/Wired)
Andy Greenberg / Wired:
SpyCloud researchers say Chinese black market operators are openly recruiting insiders working for government surveillance agencies to sell their access online — Chinese black market operators are openly recruiting government agency insiders, paying them for access to surveillance data …
Ad software company Mediaocean acquires Innovid, an ad tech company focused on CTV, for $500M; Innovid had a market cap of ~$240M at market close on November 20 (Megan Graham/Wall Street Journal)
Megan Graham / Wall Street Journal:
Ad software company Mediaocean acquires Innovid, an ad tech company focused on CTV, for $500M; Innovid had a market cap of ~$240M at market close on November 20 — The privately held company will merge Innovid with Flashtalking, which it bought in 2021 — Advertising software …
Las Vegas-based Monkey Tilt, which combines online gambling with a chat function and content made by influencers, raised a $30M Series A led by Pantera (Catherine McGrath/Fortune)
Catherine McGrath / Fortune:
Las Vegas-based Monkey Tilt, which combines online gambling with a chat function and content made by influencers, raised a $30M Series A led by Pantera — Monkey Tilt launched just eight months ago and has amassed $200 million of monthly betting volume. — Online gambling used …
Hawaii’s The Garden Island stops using AI-generated newscasters on YouTube, Facebook, and Instagram after two months, likely due to the negative public response (Guthrie Scrimgeour/Wired)
Guthrie Scrimgeour / Wired:
Hawaii’s The Garden Island stops using AI-generated newscasters on YouTube, Facebook, and Instagram after two months, likely due to the negative public response — A local newspaper in Hawaii experimented with AI-generated presenters to engage and boost its readership. After two months, the bots have been shelved.
Wordware, which lets customers like Instacart and Runway create AI agents using natural language instead of code, raised a $30M seed led by Spark Capital (Michael Nuñez/VentureBeat)
Michael Nuñez / VentureBeat:
Wordware, which lets customers like Instacart and Runway create AI agents using natural language instead of code, raised a $30M seed led by Spark Capital — A San Francisco startup wants to make artificial intelligence development as easy as writing in a word processor.
Colorado-based Enveda, which uses AI to find drug candidates, raised $130M, after raising $55M in June, and launches a clinical trial for an oral eczema drug (Sarah McBride/Bloomberg)
Sarah McBride / Bloomberg:
Colorado-based Enveda, which uses AI to find drug candidates, raised $130M, after raising $55M in June, and launches a clinical trial for an oral eczema drug — AI has so far failed to transform health care, but investors are betting on its potential. — Enveda Therapeutics Inc. …
Nick Pickles, who left X as VP of Global Affairs in September, joins Sam Altman’s Tools for Humanity, which is building World Network, as chief policy officer (Michelle Conlin/Reuters)
Michelle Conlin / Reuters:
Nick Pickles, who left X as VP of Global Affairs in September, joins Sam Altman’s Tools for Humanity, which is building World Network, as chief policy officer — Nick Pickles, the former head of global affairs at Elon Musk’s social media platform X, is joining forces with one of Musk’s rivals, his fellow OpenAI co-founder Sam Altman.
