Snap signs new music licensing deals to expand its Sounds library
Snap has signed a deal with multiple music labels to expand its Sounds library, the social app’s product that lets people use song clips in Snaps and Stories. The company said participating labels include US-based UnitedMasters, Netherlands-based BUMA/STEMRA, and SUISA Digital Licensing AG. This includes a repertoire of IP bodies including SUISA: Switzerland, AKKA/LAA: Latvia, […].
Thynk wants to upgrade hotel stays with a vertical software platform
Meet Thynk, a new company that wants to build the definite enterprise software solution for the hospitality industry. The startup just raised a $13 million Series A round. This round was led by Singular, with a New-York based fund managed by Itai Tsiddon and Belgian investment firm CNP (Groupe Frère) also participating. Fly Ventures, an existing shareholder […].
SoftBank plans to sell SoftBank Ventures Asia, which manages ~$2B in assets, to an entity led by Masayoshi Son’s brother Taizo Son, for an undisclosed sum (Min Jeong Lee/Bloomberg)
Min Jeong Lee / Bloomberg: SoftBank plans to sell SoftBank Ventures Asia, which manages ~$2B in assets, to an entity led by Masayoshi Son’s brother Taizo Son, for an undisclosed sum — SoftBank Group Corp. is selling its early-stage venture capital arm SoftBank Ventures Asia Corp. after suffering billions of dollars in losses from failed […].
A profile of Paul Dochney, the man behind pseudonymous character @dril that emerged from Something Awful to become one of the most influential Twitter accounts (Nate Rogers/The Ringer)
Nate Rogers / The Ringer: A profile of Paul Dochney, the man behind pseudonymous character @dril that emerged from Something Awful to become one of the most influential Twitter accounts — Paul Dochney posted his way into the halls of internet lore. After 15 years of anonymity, can he emerge without compromising his act? from […].
Sources say Apple is in talks with suppliers to make MacBooks in Thailand and the company has been mass producing the Apple Watch in the country for over a year (Nikkei Asia)
Nikkei Asia: Sources say Apple is in talks with suppliers to make MacBooks in Thailand and the company has been mass producing the Apple Watch in the country for over a year — U.S. tech giant turning out Apple Watch in Southeast Asian country — For Apple and other tech companies … from Techmeme https://ift.tt/h2vOEIT.
LMS365, a learning management system built into Microsoft 365 and Teams, raises $20M
Danish company LMS365, an online learning management system (LMS) built for use inside Microsoft products, has raised $20 million in its first institutional round of funding. Used by companies including logistics giant Hellmann and soda bottling franchise G&J Pepsi, LMS365 allows users to create their own courses from scratch or import them from a third-party such […].
Sources: Apple made $7B+ of iPhones in India in the FY ended March 2023, exporting ~$5B worth; India accounted for ~7% of iPhones made, up from ~1% in 2021 (Sankalp Phartiyal/Bloomberg)
Sankalp Phartiyal / Bloomberg: Sources: Apple made $7B+ of iPhones in India in the FY ended March 2023, exporting ~$5B worth; India accounted for ~7% of iPhones made, up from ~1% in 2021 — Apple Inc. assembled more than $7 billion of iPhones in India last fiscal year, tripling production in the world’s fastest-growing smartphone […].
A look at Argentinian crypto company Generación Zoe and its pastor founder Leonardo Cositorto, who is accused of a $120M+ Zoe Cash investment scam (Facundo Iglesia/Rest of World)
Facundo Iglesia / Rest of World: A look at Argentinian crypto company Generación Zoe and its pastor founder Leonardo Cositorto, who is accused of a $120M+ Zoe Cash investment scam — Generación Zoe promised investors massive returns thanks to market-predicting “robots” and a cryptocurrency backed by gold. from Techmeme https://ift.tt/2Vatyb0.
The fight for a Montana bill to ban TikTok, which passed in the Senate and will likely pass in the House, previews the legally perilous road for a federal push (David McCabe/New York Times)
David McCabe / New York Times: The fight for a Montana bill to ban TikTok, which passed in the Senate and will likely pass in the House, previews the legally perilous road for a federal push — The fight has shown the difficult test and legally perilous road facing lawmakers or the White House if […].
A study finds that assigning ChatGPT a persona, like “a bad person” or a certain historical figure, using the API, increases the chatbot’s toxicity sixfold (Kyle Wiggers/TechCrunch)
Kyle Wiggers / TechCrunch: A study finds that assigning ChatGPT a persona, like “a bad person” or a certain historical figure, using the API, increases the chatbot’s toxicity sixfold — It’s no secret that OpenAI’s viral AI-powered chatbot, ChatGPT, can be prompted to say sexist, racist and pretty vile things. from Techmeme https://ift.tt/BCpEGq6.
PBS has not tweeted from its main Twitter handle since April 8, after Twitter labeled it “Government-funded Media”, and says it has no plans to resume tweeting (Sara Fischer/Axios)
Sara Fischer / Axios: PBS has not tweeted from its main Twitter handle since April 8, after Twitter labeled it “Government-funded Media”, and says it has no plans to resume tweeting — PBS has not tweeted from its main Twitter handle since April 8, following Elon Musk’s decision to label the outlet “government-funded news.” from […].
A teenage member of the Discord server where classified Pentagon documents were shared claims the leaker, who went by the name “OG”, worked on a military base (Washington Post)
Washington Post: A teenage member of the Discord server where classified Pentagon documents were shared claims the leaker, who went by the name “OG”, worked on a military base — The man behind a massive leak of U.S. government secrets that has exposed spying on allies, revealed the grim prospects … from Techmeme https://ift.tt/coMC4Rw.
Italy outlines compliance demands for lifting ChatGPT suspension order, requiring OpenAI to publish info about its data processing, adopt age gating, and more (Natasha Lomas/TechCrunch)
Natasha Lomas / TechCrunch: Italy outlines compliance demands for lifting ChatGPT suspension order, requiring OpenAI to publish info about its data processing, adopt age gating, and more — Italy’s data protection watchdog has laid out what OpenAI needs to do for it to lift an order against ChatGPT issued at the end of last month […].
A profile of Alexandr Wang, a co-founder of Scale AI, which outsources ~240K workers via its subsidiary Remotasks to label the data used to train AI systems (Kenrick Cai/Forbes)
Kenrick Cai / Forbes: A profile of Alexandr Wang, a co-founder of Scale AI, which outsources ~240K workers via its subsidiary Remotasks to label the data used to train AI systems — Alexandr Wang briefly became the world’s youngest self-made billionaire at 24 by supplying artificial intelligence companies with the one thing they all need: […].
FTX’s attorneys say the company recovered $7.3B in liquid assets and is considering using creditors’ holdings to reopen the exchange; FTX’s FTT token jumps 70%+ (Cheyenne Ligon/CoinDesk)
Cheyenne Ligon / CoinDesk: FTX’s attorneys say the company recovered $7.3B in liquid assets and is considering using creditors’ holdings to reopen the exchange; FTX’s FTT token jumps 70%+ — FTT jumped 55%. — Featured SpeakerBrett Harrison — Founder and CEOArchitect — Don’t miss “FTX: What Happened” … from Techmeme https://ift.tt/JFCwPYd.
Italy gives OpenAI initial to-do list for lifting ChatGPT suspension order
Italy’s data protection watchdog has laid out what OpenAI needs to do for it to lift an order against ChatGPT issued at the end of last month — when it said it suspected the AI chatbot service was in breach of the EU’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and ordered the US-based company to stop […].
Google releases Android 14 Beta 1 for Pixel devices, with sharesheet custom actions, a more prominent back arrow, per-app language preferences, and more (Frederic Lardinois/TechCrunch)
Frederic Lardinois / TechCrunch: Google releases Android 14 Beta 1 for Pixel devices, with sharesheet custom actions, a more prominent back arrow, per-app language preferences, and more — Google’s Android development cycle runs on a rather predictable cadence these days. Today, after two developer previews … from Techmeme https://ift.tt/1vZ298C.
Sources: IBM explores selling its weather unit in a deal that could be valued at $1B+; IBM reportedly paid $2B+ for The Weather Company’s digital assets in 2015 (Wall Street Journal)
Wall Street Journal: Sources: IBM explores selling its weather unit in a deal that could be valued at $1B+; IBM reportedly paid $2B+ for The Weather Company’s digital assets in 2015 — Weather.com owner could fetch more than $1 billion in a sale — International Business Machines Corp. is exploring a sale … from Techmeme […].
Daily Crunch: Twitter CEO admits he purchased platform for $44B because ‘I kind of had to’
To get a roundup of TechCrunch’s biggest and most important stories delivered to your inbox every day at 3 p.m. PDT, subscribe here. Good morning, you glorious souls. Have you stretched today? As you’re settling in for the newsletter and the top stories from TechCrunch for today, can you grab yourself a glass of water? […].
Filings: SoftBank has sold ~$7.2B worth of Alibaba shares in 2023, reducing its stake in the Chinese company to just 3.8%, after a record $29B selldown in 2022 (Financial Times)
Financial Times: Filings: SoftBank has sold ~$7.2B worth of Alibaba shares in 2023, reducing its stake in the Chinese company to just 3.8%, after a record $29B selldown in 2022 — Japanese investor makes $7.2bn from forward sales of shares in Chinese ecommerce group as lucrative partnership wanes from Techmeme https://ift.tt/bMLaqsu.