Sources: Sequoia COO Sumaiya Balbale resigned after the firm refused to discipline partner Shaun Maguire over his comments calling Zohran Mamdani “an Islamist”
Sumaiya Balbale left the venture firm after it decided not to discipline outspoken investor for posts about New York mayoral candidate
Some US school districts are adopting Sonny, an AI “wellbeing companion,” to provide mental health support to students when there aren't enough counselors
Is a human-AI texting service the future of mental-health care for students? — Teens around the country are confiding … Bluesky: @daniloc.xyz , @kiwired , and @radiobeartime.com ...
Apple removes Advanced Data Protection for iCloud in the UK after the government ordered it to build a backdoor, something the company says it will never do
Better no security than a false sense of one. Ari Cohn / @aricohn.com : Apple's UK user data is now more vulnerable. It's not Apple's fault; they're PROTECTING users by not giving...
Apple removes Advanced Data Protection in the UK for new users, pulling the optional E2EE feature rather than complying with the UK's order to build a backdoor
- Company removes Advanced Data Protection feature for UK users — “We never will” build backdoor to user data, iPhone maker says
The UK National Audit Office says the government was operating at least 228 “legacy” computer systems as of March 2024, increasing the risk of a disruptive hack
Depends what you mean by ‘legacy’, though - Windows 2000 was, well, 25 years ago. [embedded post] Mark O'Neill / @radiobeartime.com : The words “at least” are doing a hell of a lo...
Ramp launches Ramp Treasury, letting businesses store cash in a business account and earn 2.5% or in a money market fund for potentially higher yields
Mary Ann Azevedo / TechCrunch :
Nikita Bier, creator of apps like tbh and anonymous compliments app Gas, launches Explode, a freemium app to send disappearing texts and photos via iMessage
Nikita Bier, creator of popular apps like the anonymous polling app tbh (acquired by Facebook) and the anonymous compliments app Gas …
Meta plans to cut about 5% of its lowest performers with the intent of backfilling their roles this year, according to an internal memo sent to employees
Meta Platforms Inc. is planning to cut about 5% of its lowest performers with the intent of backfilling their roles this year, according to an internal memo sent to employees.
PitchBook: the number of VCs investing in US startups fell from a peak of 8,315 in 2021 to 6,175 in 2024; 9 firms raised 50%+ of the $71B raised by VCs in 2024
Risk-averse financial institutions concentrate money on biggest Silicon Valley VCs in trend that threatens smaller groups Bluesky: @radiobeartime.com Bluesky: Mark O'Neill / @radio...
The Commonwealth Bank of Australia says generative AI tools have helped it lower frauds by 30% and reduce call center customer wait times by 40% in 2024
“The technology helped lower frauds by 30% and its AI messaging app trimmed call center customer wait times by 40% this year.” — AI Cuts Scam Losses, Speeds Up Home Loans at Top ...
The Commonwealth Bank of Australia says generative AI tools have helped it lower frauds by 30% and reduce call center customer wait times by 40% in 2024
- Customer scam losses at Commonwealth Bank cut in half — CEO Matt Comyn says many more AI use cases in development Bluesky: @msbrumfield.bsky.social , @radiobeartime.com , @mfulk...
Mark Parsons, who led the axed £800M UK supercomputer project, warns that the UK, which no longer has a machine ranked in the top 50, risks falling behind
Anna Gross / Financial Times :
Google confirms it is “running a small experiment” showing blue verified checkmarks beside official site links for companies like Microsoft, Meta, and Apple
Google is experimenting with a new verification feature in search that should make it easier for users to avoid clicking on fake or fraudulent website links.
Robinhood plans to debut margin trading in the UK in the coming weeks; it's exploring offering retirement products and letting British users invest in UK stocks
Bloomberg :
The European Court of Justice rules against Apple over a record €13B Irish tax bill, confirming a 2016 decision; filing: Apple will incur a ~$10B charge in Q4
https://www.bbc.com/... “The EU Commission accused Ireland of giving Apple illegal tax advantages eight years ago but the Irish government has consistently argued against the need...
The European Court of Justice rules against Apple over a record €13B Irish tax bill, confirming a 2016 decision; filing: Apple will incur a ~$10B charge in Q4
Europe's top court on Tuesday ruled against Apple in the tech giant's 10-year court battle over its tax affairs in Ireland.
Telegram's 2023 financials: $342.5M revenue, 40% of which came from crypto-related line items, and $108M operating loss; it had holdings of ~$400M in Toncoin
Pavel Durov's company has been coining it in — Pavel Durov's arrest in France for allegedly failing to control criminal content on Telegram …
Sources: Nvidia, Apple, and Microsoft, the three most valuable tech companies, are in talks to participate in a funding round that would value OpenAI at $100B+
- Apple, Microsoft also have been in talks about participating — Financing would value OpenAI at more than $100 billion
After rivals' criticism, CrowdStrike President Michael Sentonas says no vendor can “technically” guarantee their software won't cause an incident akin to July's
Botched update that hit millions of computers leads to claims of ‘ambulance chasing’ by competitors