Good morning! This is your daily ☕️ Techpresso.
In today's Techpresso:
💥 Microsoft declares OpenAI as competitor
📈 Meta is proving there's still big AI hype on Wall Street
💰 Reddit CEO says Microsoft needs to pay to search the site
🔍 Google launches three 'open' AI models prioritizing safety and transparency
⚖️ Founder behind social media app IRL charged with fraud
🎁 + 6 other news you might like
🔮 + 4 handpicked research papers and tools
💥 Microsoft declares OpenAI as competitorLINK
Microsoft has officially listed OpenAI as a competitor in AI, search, and news advertising in its latest annual report, signalling a shift in their relationship.
Despite Microsoft being the largest investor and exclusive cloud provider for OpenAI, both companies are now encroaching on each other’s market territories.
An OpenAI spokesperson indicated that their competitive dynamic was always expected as part of their partnership, and Microsoft still remains a strong partner for OpenAI.
📈 Meta is proving there's still big AI hype on Wall StreetLINK
Meta's shares surged by about 7% in extended trading after surpassing Wall Street's revenue and profit expectations and providing an optimistic forecast for the current period. The company reported a 22% increase in second-quarter revenue to $39.07 billion and a 73% rise in net income, attributing the growth to gains in the digital ad market and cost-cutting measures. Meta continues to invest heavily in AI and VR technologies, with plans for significant capital expenditure growth in 2025 to support AI research and development, despite a broader downsizing effort.
💰 Reddit CEO says Microsoft needs to pay to search the siteLINK
Reddit CEO Steve Huffman announced that companies like Microsoft need to pay to access Reddit’s data, similar to deals already made with Google and OpenAI.
Reddit has tightened restrictions on web crawlers, blocking those without agreements, which led to Reddit results being excluded from Bing searches but remaining in Google.
Huffman criticized Microsoft for using Reddit's data to train AI without consent, pointing out that the traditional value exchange between search engines and content providers has evolved.
🔍 Google launches three 'open' AI models prioritizing safety and transparencyLINK
Google has unveiled three new models to the Gemma 2 lineup, building on the original models released in June 2024, focusing on performance and safety enhancements.
The first addition, Gemma 2 2B, provides improved capabilities and is adaptable for various devices, while ShieldGemma and Gemma Scope focus on content safety and model interpretability, respectively.
These new tools and models are available on platforms like Kaggle and Hugging Face, promoting broader use and development within the AI community with a focus on responsible innovation.
⚖️ Founder behind social media app IRL charged with fraudLINK
The SEC charged Abraham Shafi, founder of IRL, with fraud for allegedly deceiving investors about the app's growth and misusing company funds for personal expenses.
IRL shut down in June 2023 after an internal investigation revealed that 95% of the app's users were fake, despite Shafi raising $200 million in venture capital.
The SEC's complaint claims Shafi misrepresented IRL's user acquisition and hid substantial advertising costs, while also accusing him of spending company money on personal items.
Other news you might like
A first look at Apple Intelligence and its (slightly) smarter Siri.LINK
Zuckerberg says Meta will need 10x more computing power to train Llama 4 than Llama 3.LINK
OpenAI vows to provide the US government early access to its next AI model.LINK
Taco Bell’s drive-thru AI might take your next order.LINK
China’s gig workers stress over their incomes as Baidu ‘silly radish’ robotaxis flood the streets.LINK
Intel faces possible class action lawsuit over crashing CPUs.LINK
Latest research and tools
PyTorch – Torchchat: enables seamless interaction with large language models (LLMs) across various platforms including desktop, server, and mobile devices, without the need for Python, by using C/C++ and command line interfaces.LINK
NotShazam: a tool that mimics Shazam's song recognition capability, using Go to identify songs and integrate with Spotify and YouTube for downloading them.LINK
Cardie: an open source platform for designing, sharing, and managing digital business cards, allowing unlimited creation, analytics on card visits, privacy options, and the ability to save others' cards in a virtual wallet.LINK
Baidu's Improving Retrieval Augmented Language Model with Self-Reasoning: the paper presents advancements in language models that enhance retrieval capabilities through self-reasoning.LINK
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