Thu. 06/13 – The Excel World Championships

History is rhyming today as AI music startups get the Napster treatment and Microsoft gets dinged for product bundling. Google wants you to build your own AI celebrity. Amazon wants to go at ChatGPT directly. And two hella-interesting and hella-big AI raises.Sponsors:Miro.comLinks:Major record labels sue AI company behind ‘BBL Drizzy’ (The Verge)EU charges Microsoft with antitrust violations over Teams (FT)Apple Spurned Idea of iPhone AI Partnership With Meta Months Ago (Bloomberg)Uber Is Locking Out NYC Drivers Mid-Shift to Lower Minimum Pay (Bloomberg)Google Develops Challenger to Meta’s Chatbots and Character.AI (The Information)Amazon is secretly working on a ChatGPT killer (Business Insider)Etched is building an AI chip that only runs one type of model (TechCrunch)EvolutionaryScale lands $142 mln to advance AI in biology (Reuters)See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Could Apple soon owe Europe a ton of money as they are the first to run afoul of the DMA? Could Meta soon join OpenAI as part of Apple Intelligence. Why food delivery apps are seeing plunging usage in NYC and Seattle. And a big new AI focused bill in California that AI startups are worried about.Sponsors:1password.com/rideWashingtonPost.com/rideLinks:Brussels accuses Apple of breaking EU ‘gatekeeper’ rules (FT)Apple is first company charged with violating EU’s DMA rules (The Verge)Apple Won’t Roll Out AI Tech In EU Market Over Regulatory Concerns (Bloomberg)Apple, Meta Have Discussed an AI Partnership (WSJ)Delivery Drivers Got Higher Wages. Now They’re Getting Fewer Orders. (WSJ)AI Doesn’t Kill Jobs? Tell That to Freelancers (WSJ)‘Little Tech’ brings a big flex to Sacramento (Politico)See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

The government has banned Kaspersky antivirus sales in the US. People are losing their minds over Claude 3.5 Sonnet from Anthropic. Soon all devices can pair to your iPhone as easily as AirPods do. And, of course, the Weekend Longreads Suggestions.Links:US bans sale of Kaspersky software citing security risk from Russia (TechCrunch)Anthropic claims its latest model is best-in-class (TechCrunch)Anthropic’s Claude 3.5 Sonnet wows AI power users: ‘this is wild’ (VentureBeat)New iOS 18 API brings AirPods setup experience to third-party accessories (9to5Mac)SpaceX unveils backpack-sized ‘Starlink Mini’ satellite internet antenna for $599 (CNBC)Weekend Longreads Suggestions:Why are mobile game ads so weird and bad? (Sherwood)From Infocom to 80 Days: An oral history of text games and interactive fiction (ArsTechnica)The song Stevie Nicks wrote to “haunt” Lindsey Buckingham (Far Out)See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Ilya Sutskever wants to go straight to Safe Superintelligence, do not pass go, but do probably collect hundreds of millions of dollars. Is Perplexity ignoring robots.txt files? Xreal’s hybrid AR glasses play. And how many apps did Apple sherlock at WWDC last week?Sponsors:GreenLight.com/rideLinks:Ilya Sutskever Has a New Plan for Safe Superintelligence (Bloomberg)Perplexity Is a Bullshit Machine (Wired)For Apple’s AI Push, China Is a Missing Piece (WSJ)Xreal’s new gadget is a phone-sized Android tablet just for your AR glasses (The Verge)iOS 18 could ‘sherlock’ $400M in app revenue (TechCrunch)See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Does Apple pumping the breaks on the Vision Pro indicate problems for the category, or was this always the plan? What if AI means bots do the social media-ing for you? Actual RISC-V PCs coming to market. And a review of the new slate of CoPilot+ PCs that are available now.Links:Apple Suspends Work on Next Vision Pro, Focused on Releasing Cheaper Model in Late 2025 (The Information)Former Snap engineer launches Butterflies, a social network where AIs and humans coexist (TechCrunch)The Framework Laptop 13 is about to become one of the world’s first RISC-V laptops (The Verge)Here are all of the Copilot+ PCs with Snapdragon X chips that were released today (Engadget)ASUS VivoBook S 15 Copilot+ PC Review: Is the Snapdragon X Elite hype real? (Windows Central)See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

The regulators have come for adobe and their alleged subscription shenanigans. Apple might settle with the EU. But it’s also shutting down its BNPL service. The Threads API is here. Tether is making bank. Uber might be having a breakthrough moment. And back to using Reddit for search.Sponsors:A Better Paradise PodcastLinks:US sues Adobe for ‘deceiving’ subscriptions that are too hard to cancel (The Verge)Apple to settle ‘tap-and-go’ payments probe with EU (FT)Apple discontinuing Apple Pay Later, ahead of new features launching this fall (9to5Mac)Threads finally launches its API for developers (TechCrunch)Tether Announces a New Synthetic Dollar That Is Backed by Gold (Bloomberg)A Robotaxi Business Is A Dream For Elon Musk–But Already A Reality For Waymo (Forbes)Can You Replace Google Search With Reddit? I Tried It for a Week (WSJ)See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Mark Gurman says Apple is going to go all in on making the thinnest and lightest devices in the industry. Though the Apple Watch is probably going to get a bigger screen. McDonalds pumps the breaks on AI in the drive through. And two contradictory anecdotal stories about what happens when AI comes for your job.Sponsors:ArcticWolf.com/techmemeMiro.comLinks:Apple’s Slow Rollout of Intelligence Features Will Stretch Into 2025 (Bloomberg)Kuo: Apple Watch Series 10 to Get Larger Screen and Thinner Design (MacRumors)Privacy app maker Proton transitions to non-profit foundation structure (TechCrunch)McDonald's is ending its drive-thru AI test (Restaurant Business Online)AI took their jobs. Now they get paid to make it sound human (BBC)AI in finance is like ‘moving from typewriters to word processors’ (Financial Times)See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

The recall of some Microsoft AI products continues as literally Recall gets delayed. Another deep dive into how Apple’s AI actually works. Dream Machine is an open source AI video generator you can use this weekend. And in the Weekend Longreads Suggestions, the people who have found everyday use cases for the Apple Vision Pro.Links:Microsoft’s all-knowing Recall AI feature is being delayed (The Verge)Here’s how Apple’s AI model tries to keep your data private (The Verge)Luma AI debuts ‘Dream Machine’ for realistic video generation, heating up AI media race (VentureBeat)As streaming becomes more expensive, Tubi cashes in on the value of free (Los Angeles Times)Weekend Longreads Suggestions:I Know What the Apple Vision Pro Is For (Intelligencer)See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Apple isn’t paying OpenAI anything for their partnership. Guess they’ll make it up on volume. More details on how much money OpenAI IS making. The surprise Galaxy Watch FE. And do you think you’d have the skills to compete in the Excel World Championships?Links:Apple to ‘Pay’ OpenAI for ChatGPT Through Distribution, Not Cash (Bloomberg)OpenAI’s Annualized Revenue Doubles to $3.4 Billion Since Late 2023 (The Information)Perplexity was planning revenue-sharing deals with publishers when it came under media fire (Semafor)You’ll soon be able to join Discord calls directly from your PS5 (The Verge)Nintendo Switch Update 18.1.0 Pulls X/Twitter Support, Bringing It In-Line With PlayStation and Xbox (IGN)Samsung’s Galaxy Watch FE is its new entry-level smartwatch (The Verge)Spreadsheet Superstars (The Verge)See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Elon Musk has withdrawn his lawsuit against Sam Altman and OpenAI. I guess Wall Street likes Apple’s AI strategy. But why is Microsoft already putting the brakes on some of its AI features? BeReal gets acquired. What does the word “slop” mean when it comes to AI? And what happens when you add modern technology to the humble walkie talkie?Links:Elon Musk drops suit against OpenAI and Sam Altman (CNBC)X is officially making likes (mostly) private for everyone (Engadget)Apple quietly improves Mac virtualization in macOS 15 Sequoia (ArsTechnica)Microsoft is killing off GPT Builder in Copilot Pro for consumers, just three months after broad availability (XDA Developers)OpenAI ex-employees worry about company’s control over their millions of dollars in shares (CNBC)Photo-sharing app BeReal acquired by Voodoo for €500mn (FT)First Came ‘Spam.’ Now, With A.I., We’ve Got ‘Slop’ (NYTimes)Raleigh smart walkie-talkie startup Relay raises $35M from investors (Axios)See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.