Good morning! This is your daily ☕️ Techpresso.
In today's Techpresso:
🎥 Meta unveils an AI video generator
🖥 OpenAI rolls out Canvas, its newest ChatGPT interface
🔎 Google launches one of its ‘most significant updates ever’
🕵️♂️ TikTok's owner is scraping the web 25 times faster than OpenAI
🤷♂️ WordPress cofounder is paying employees to leave if they disagree with him
📈 Ubisoft could be acquired by Tencent
🎁 + 8 other news you might like
🔮 + 2 handpicked research papers and tools
🎥 Meta unveils an AI video generatorLINK
Meta has introduced Movie Gen, an AI-powered model for video creation and editing, allowing users to generate high-definition video with audio and make precise edits using simple text commands, catering to filmmakers, content creators, and creative individuals.
Movie Gen offers personalization by combining uploaded images with descriptive text prompts to create customized videos, enhancing creative possibilities, and enabling scenarios ranging from fantasy realms to everyday adventures, while maintaining realistic human motion and identity.
The suite also includes advanced audio generation, with the 13-billion parameter model adding ambient sounds and music to video scenes.
🖥 OpenAI rolls out Canvas, its newest ChatGPT interfaceLINK
OpenAI introduced a feature called Canvas for ChatGPT, which acts as a collaborative tool where users can highlight specific text or code segments for edits, feedback, or adjustments similar to a human partner.
Canvas operates separately from the traditional ChatGPT interface, allowing for targeted changes such as adjusting tone or complexity in writing, debugging code, or translating programs into different languages with the help of the GPT-4o model.
This new functionality is currently available to ChatGPT Plus and Team subscribers, with plans to extend access to Enterprise, Education clients, and eventually those using the free service tier after its beta phase concludes.
🔎 Google launches one of its ‘most significant updates ever’LINK
Google has integrated more AI features into its search functionalities, unveiling a range of updates such as AI-organized web results, enhanced Google Lens capabilities, and the incorporation of links and advertisements within AI Overviews.
This AI-driven search initiative kicks off with food-related content, where Google's AI creates a comprehensive experience by aggregating diverse perspectives from across the web, including videos and forums, tailored to user queries.
🕵️♂️ TikTok's owner is scraping the web 25 times faster than OpenAILINK
ByteDance, the parent company of TikTok, has launched a web scraper called Bytespider which is significantly outpacing similar tools by other companies in collecting online data for AI model training, operating at 25 times the speed of OpenAI's GPTbot.
Unlike other web crawlers, Bytespider ignores the robots.txt file that web publishers use to regulate scraping activity.
With the U.S. government pressuring ByteDance over national security issues, the rapid data collection by Bytespider seems to indicate ByteDance’s urgency in enhancing TikTok's search functionality and possibly developing a new large language model to rival existing competitors.
🤷♂️ WordPress cofounder is paying employees to leave if they disagree with himLINK
Automattic CEO Matt Mullenweg offered $30,000 or six months of salary to employees who disagreed with his stance against WP Engine, resulting in 159 employees leaving. The conflict stems from Mullenweg accusing WP Engine of violating the WordPress trademark and banning them from WordPress.org, which led WP Engine to file a lawsuit for extortion. The departures significantly impacted Automattic’s WordPress ecosystem division, with 79.2% of those who left working in that area, while Mullenweg expressed relief and optimism about the future.
📈 Ubisoft could be acquired by TencentLINK
Tencent Holdings and Ubisoft's founding Guillemot family are considering options like a potential buyout of the French game developer, aiming to stabilize and enhance its value after a significant loss in market value this year.
Ubisoft's market capitalization stands at approximately €1.4 billion, following a 54% drop in share value in Paris trading; Tencent holds 9.2% of its net voting rights while the Guillemot family possesses around 20.5%.
Discussions about taking Ubisoft private are in early stages, with no certainty of a transaction, as several minority shareholders and private equity firms have expressed interest amid decreasing stock prices and a challenging business environment.
Other news you might like
Google DeepMind hires key OpenAI Sora researcher for 'world simulator' project.LINK
OpenAI also secured a massive credit line.LINK
Google is testing verified checkmarks in search.LINK
Tesla reportedly plans to build its own batteries to power Cybertruck, robotaxi.LINK
Google's AI can detect tuberculosis just by analyzing cough sound.LINK
Samsung update bricks phones, giving harsh reminder of data backup importance.LINK
Cloudflare mitigated a 3.8 Tbps DDoS attack, the largest ever recorded.LINK
Discord is launching its second ad product as it aims to bring advertising revenue 'on par' with subscriptions.LINK
Latest research and tools
HTTrack Website Copier: an offline browser utility that downloads an entire website to a local directory, maintaining its structure for offline browsing, with features for updating mirrored sites and resuming interrupted downloads.LINK
Screensavers for your terminal: transforms your terminal into an animated display that activates immediately or after a set period of inactivity, currently optimized for Zsh.LINK
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