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- Apple Intelligence is now available in public betas
Apple Intelligence is now available in public betas
Plus: Lionsgate is giving RunwayML access to its catalogue
Cash Nut
September 20, 2024
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In Today’s Edition
OpenAI to Decide Which Backers to Let Into $6.5 Billion Funding
23&Me’s full board resigned over CEO Anne Wojcicki’s ambiguous plan
FTC sues drug middlemen for allegedly inflating insulin prices
YouTube plans more GenAI features for creators
Patents for software and genetic code could be revived by two bills in Congress
🚀Startups Nuts
OpenAI's latest fundraising round is nearing completion. Prospective investors will find out on Friday whether they'll be part of the deal. The $6.5 billion funding round is oversubscribed, with an excess of demand in the billions of dollars. It is set to value OpenAI at $150 billion. Thrive Capital is rumored to be leading the round with a check for $1.25 billion.
Other News
Physics Wallah, an Indian ed tech company, raised $210m in Series B funding at a $2.8b valuation.
Twelve, a Berkeley, Calif., sustainable aviation fuel startup, raised $200m in Series C funding
Alan, a French health insurer, raised €173m in Series F funding at a $4.5b valuation
Virtuous, a Phoenix provider of fundraising CRM for nonprofits, raised $100m
GC Therapeutics, a Cambridge, Mass., cell therapy startup, raised $65m in Series A funding
Picus Security, an SF-based cybersecurity startup, raised $45m in Series C
funding
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🏭Business Nuts
The Federal Trade Commission on Friday sued three large U.S. health companies that negotiate insulin prices, arguing the drug middlemen boost their profits while “artificially” inflating costs for patients. The suit targets the three biggest so-called pharmacy benefit managers, UnitedHealth Group’s Optum Rx, CVS Health’s Caremark and Cigna’s Express Scripts, and their affiliated group purchasing organizations. The FTC may also recommend suing insulin manufacturers Eli Lilly, Sanofi and Novo Nordisk in the future.
Other News
23&Me’s full board resigned over CEO Anne Wojcicki’s ambiguous plans to take the DNA startup private. Wojcicki wrote she was “surprised and disappointed,” but would build a new board.
JetBlue is opening its own airport lounges, beginning with an 8k-square-foot lounge in New York’s John F. Kennedy International Airport next year and followed by an 11k-square-foot club in Boston Logan International Airport.
Beauty subscription brand Ipsy named Galen Smith, former CEO of Redbox Entertainment, as its new CEO. Last year, Ipsy folded BoxyCharm into its Ipsy brand to streamline operations.
DCM Ventures is seeking to sell its remaining 92m shares in Chinese short video platform Kuaishou Technology, which could fetch nearly $480m, per Reuters.
Nike CEO John Donahoe to step down Oct. 13, will be replaced by longtime Nike veteran Elliott Hill, who retired from the brand in 2020.
Intel said it doesn't plan to sell its 88% stake in self-driving tech company Mobiley.
📱Tech Nuts
The recently released public betas of iOS 18.1, iPadOS 18.1, and macOS Sequoia 15.1 include Apple Intelligence features. Users looking to access the betas will need to register on Apple's beta software program site. Only iPhone 15 Pro phones and iPads and Macs with M1 chips or newer will be able to use Apple Intelligence. Apple plans to release final versions of the operating systems in October.
Other News
YouTube plans more GenAI features for creators. It’ll soon integrate Google’s video model Veo with Shorts. In Creator Studio, an AI-powered Inspiration tab and reply suggestions for comments are set to roll out.
Snap is also launching a new AI video-generation tool for creators. Currently in beta for select creators on the web, the tool allows video creation from text prompts, with image prompts coming soon. Snap says it’s using its own AI models to generate the videos. ps: Snap also launched its AR glasses called Spectacles. I have the OG spectacles when you could get them from a vending machine - used them once, while skiing.
Lionsgate is giving RunwayML access to its catalogue to create a customized model for them. This catalogue includes “The Hunger Games”, “Twilight” and even the “John Wick” series. The studio says AI can be used to make solutions that help in the creative process, potentially saving “millions and millions of dollars”.
Amazon’s Project Amelia is now available in beta for US sellers. The AI assistant offers tools to help track sales data, customer information, and metrics.
News for humans, by humans.
Today's news.
Edited to be unbiased as humanly possible.
Every morning, we triple-check headlines, stories, and sources for bias.
All by hand with no algorithms.
🎁Miscellaneous
The Senate Judiciary Committee is scheduled to consider a pair of bills that would effectively nullify the Supreme Court's rulings against patents on broad software processes and human genes. Software and Internet advocates have taken notice and are taking steps to defend open source software against patent trolls. Regulators say the bills are necessary for a number of emerging sectors to prevent the stifling of innovation. Detractors say that the bills will be a huge gift to patent trolls, tech firms that aggressively license patents, and patent lawyers, but will be a loss for everyone else.
💡What else are we reading and seeing?
Seeing Like A Network
China's venture capital collapse
Paying down tech debt: further learnings
How to make the Fed rate cut work for you
Tech Jobs Have Dried Up — and Aren't Coming Back Soon
Forbes Marketplace: The Parasite SEO Company Trying to Devour Its Host
😎Fun Fact
On this day: Hurricane Maria makes landfall in Puerto Rico, resulting in 3,000 deaths and $90B in damage (2017)
🔥 Few tools many people are finding useful
Marblism - Generate full-stack web apps from a prompt
SuperFlex - Your front-end development assistant
Bolna - 24x7 AI receptionists to answer all inbound calls
Zivy - Automatically prioritize and organize Slack messages
Otto - Use AI agents within tables to automate hours of manual research in a few minutes
Magic Inspector - Build reliable, automated tests without any technical knowledge
🐦Joke of the Day
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