Tech Brew Ride Home

Anthropic raises the second largest financing round of all time. Other AI players are beginning to show hockey stick revenue growth. Meta wants to add facial recognition to its glasses. Ring pulls back from some recognition partnerships for its camera. And, of course, your Weekend Longreads Suggestions.


Anthropic closes $30 billion funding round as cash keeps flowing into top AI startups (CNBC)


Enterprise AI startup Cohere tops revenue target as momentum builds to IPO: Investor memo (CNBC)


Meta Plans to Add Facial Recognition Technology to Its Smart Glasses (NYTimes)


Ring cancels its partnership with Flock Safety after surveillance backlash (The Verge)

Weekend Longreads Suggestions:


The AI Gold Rush Is Breaking a Silicon Valley Taboo: Cashing Out Before the IPO (WSJ)


The New Fabio Is Claude (NYTimes)

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Aaannddd…. Right on time here come the Chinese AI models. Elon Musk kicks off a major reorg of xAI. Google is warning of AI distillation attacks. New Waymo cars hit the road. And another interesting AI essay to read to you.


Chinese AI startup Zhipu releases new flagship model GLM-5 (Reuters)


Musk announces xAI re-org following co-founder departures, SpaceX merger (CNBC)


Elon Musk Wants to Build an A.I. Satellite Factory on the Moon (NYTimes)


Google says attackers used 100,000+ prompts to try to clone AI chatbot Gemini (NBCNews)


Waymo begins deploying next-gen Ojai robotaxis to extend its U.S. lead (CNBC)


The AI Vampire (Steve Yegge)

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Forget the ChatGPT moment, is this the “Covid Moment” for AI, the moment when everything has changed its just that not everyone knows it yet? More weird musical chairs at the AI companies. TikTok but for around the block. And do we finally have a universal translator but for phone calls?


⁠Something Big Is Happening⁠ (Matt Shumer)


⁠OpenAI Executive Who Opposed ‘Adult Mode’ Fired for Sexual Discrimination⁠ (WSJ)


⁠TikTok launches an opt-in Local Feed in the US leveraging users’ precise location⁠ (TechCrunch)


⁠T-Mobile will live translate regular phone calls without an app⁠ (The Verge)

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Forget the ChatGPT moment, is this the “Covid Moment” for AI, the moment when everything has changed its just that not everyone knows it yet? More weird musical chairs at the AI companies. TikTok but for around the block. And do we finally have a universal translator but for phone calls?


Something Big Is Happening (Matt Shumer)


OpenAI Executive Who Opposed ‘Adult Mode’ Fired for Sexual Discrimination (WSJ)


TikTok launches an opt-in Local Feed in the US leveraging users’ precise location (TechCrunch)


T-Mobile will live translate regular phone calls without an app (The Verge)

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So, have you hit the ads in ChatGPT yet, cause they’re there. Spotify comes out of nowhere with killer good earnings. The coming tidal wave of Chinese AI launches. The coming deluge of social media trials. And does AI usage reduce the amount of work you do, or actually compound it?


OpenAI begins testing ads in ChatGPT (Mashable)


Spotify Shares Surge After Adding Record Number of New Users (Bloomberg)


Alibaba, Tencent, and ByteDance Offer AI Red Packets to Lure Users (Bloomberg)


New Mexico lawsuit accuses Meta of failing to protect children from sexual exploitation online (AP)


AI Doesn't Reduce Work, It Intensifies It (HBR)

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