Good morning! This is your daily ☕️ Techpresso.
In today's Techpresso:
💥 Microsoft and Apple abandon OpenAI board roles amid scrutiny
🕵️♂️ US shuts down Russian AI bot farm
📱 Everything announced at Samsung's big launch event
🤖 The $1.5B AI startup building a ‘general purpose brain’ for robots
🚫 NGL becomes the first app banned from hosting minors by the FTC
🎁 + 7 other news you might like
🔮 + 4 handpicked research papers and tools
💥 Microsoft and Apple abandon OpenAI board roles amid scrutinyLINK
Microsoft relinquished its observer seat on OpenAI's board less than eight months after obtaining the non-voting position, and Apple will no longer join the board as initially planned.
Changes come amid increasing scrutiny from regulators, with UK and EU authorities investigating antitrust concerns over Microsoft's partnership with OpenAI, alongside other major tech AI deals.
Despite leaving the board, Microsoft continues its partnership with OpenAI, backed by more than $10 billion in investment, with its cloud services powering OpenAI's projects and integrations into Microsoft's products.
🕵️♂️ US shuts down Russian AI bot farmLINK
The Department of Justice announced the seizure of two domain names and over 900 social media accounts that were part of an AI-enhanced Russian bot farm aiming to spread disinformation about the Russia-Ukraine war.
The bot farm, allegedly orchestrated by an RT employee, created numerous profiles to appear as American citizens, with the goal of amplifying Russian President Vladimir Putin's narrative surrounding the invasion of Ukraine.
The operation involved the use of Meliorator software to generate and manage fake identities on X, which circumvented verification processes, and violated the Emergency Economic Powers Act according to the ongoing DOJ investigation.
📱 Everything announced at Samsung's big launch eventLINK
Samsung unveiled its new Galaxy Ring at the July 2024 Galaxy Unpacked event, marking its first significant smart ring release by a major phone and smartwatch manufacturer.
Additional introductions included AirPods-like Galaxy Buds, a powerful Galaxy Watch Ultra, and a redesigned Galaxy Z Fold 6 with upgraded displays and squared corners.
The event also showcased the Galaxy Z Flip 6 and Galaxy Watch 7, along with discussions on AI features, pricing, and preorder details for all the new products.
🤖 The $1.5B AI startup building a ‘general purpose brain’ for robotsLINK
Skild AI has raised $300 million in a Series A funding round to develop a general-purpose AI brain designed to equip various types of robots, reaching a valuation of $1.5 billion.
This significant funding round saw participation from top venture capital firms such as Lightspeed Venture Partners, Coatue, and Softbank Group Corp., alongside individual investors like Jeff Bezos through Bezos Expeditions.
Skild AI aims to revolutionize the robotics industry with its versatile AI brain that can be integrated into any robot, enhancing its capabilities to perform multiple tasks in diverse environments, addressing the significant labor shortages in industries like healthcare and manufacturing.
🚫 NGL becomes the first app banned from hosting minors by the FTCLINK
The FTC has banned the anonymous messaging app NGL from serving users under 18 due to rampant cyberbullying and threats against minors on the platform. This ban marks an aggressive move in the FTC’s crackdown on companies that mishandle consumer data or make misleading claims about artificial intelligence, with the app also required to implement age restrictions and pay a $5 million settlement. NGL, which deceptively marketed itself as a safe space for teens, manipulated young users with fake messages designed to exploit their anxieties, ultimately charging them subscription fees for information about the anonymous senders.
Other news you might like
Oracle and Musk-owned xAI close talks on reported $10bn server deal.LINK
Google will give users free dark web monitoring.LINK
Baidu robotaxis draw complaints from human drivers as service gains popularity.LINK
Amazon Says It Reached a Climate Goal Seven Years Early.LINK
Generative AI? Never Mind, Says Goldman Sachs.LINK
As OpenAI blocks China, developers scramble to keep GPT access through VPNs.LINK
The UK politician accused of being AI is actually a real person.LINK
Latest research and tools
RouteLLM: a framework enabling the dynamic routing of queries between different machine learning models to save costs while retaining high performance, designed as an alternative to using a single, more expensive model for all tasks.LINK
Maelstrom: a tool for running Python and Rust tests inside lightweight, hermetic containers either locally or across scalable clusters, offering rootless, fast, and reliable test execution with minimal setup.LINK
Grokking the Sequent Calculus (Functional Pearl): the paper explains how to intuitively understand sequent calculus through functional programming principles.LINK
Training of Physical Neural Networks: physical neural networks can be trained to perform computational tasks through a variety of methods.LINK
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