Top News:
New York Times:
Sources: OpenAI transcribed 1M+ hours of YouTube videos through Whisper and used the text to train GPT-4; Google also transcribed YouTube videos to harvest text — OpenAI, Google and Meta ignored corporate policies, altered their own rules and discussed skirting copyright law …
Discussion:
Interesting Engineering, Nikunj Mehta on LinkedIn, @florian4gamers, @markandrejevic, @dangillmor@mastodon.social, Siri Agrell on LinkedIn, @_leobriceno, Rob Eleveld on LinkedIn, @dm_cooper, @mikeisaac, @jcpxdesigns, @mikeisaac, Colin Crowell on LinkedIn, @rosenzweigjane, Timo Kämäräinen on LinkedIn, The Verge, @gavatron, @dschatsky, @glenngabe@threads.net, @Dhmspector@mastodon.social, @clive@saturation.social, Milton Pedraza on LinkedIn, Ali Manning on LinkedIn, Nigel Caplan on LinkedIn, @edsu@social.coop and The Information, more at Techmeme »
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New York Times:
Sources: Meta debated buying a publisher like Simon & Schuster for AI training data and weighed using copyrighted online data even if that meant facing lawsuits — To make artificial intelligence systems more powerful, tech companies need online data to feed the technology. Here's what to know.
Bloomberg:
FTC lawsuit filings: Instagram had ad revenues of $22B in 2020, or 26% of Meta's total revenue, and $16.5B in H1 2022 — - Sales figures for the app released in FTC's antitrust lawsuit — Meta Platforms Inc. brought in almost 30% of its revenue from Instagram in the first half of 2022 …
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Peter Kafka / Business Insider:
Filings from FTC lawsuit against Meta: Instagram had $32.4B in ad revenue in 2021, 27% of Meta's revenue and more than YouTube's $28.8B ad revenue in 2021 — - Instagram generated $32.4 billion in ad revenue in 2021, making up 27% of Meta's total revenue. — Instagram's ad revenue …
Alex Sherman / CNBC:
Sources: Skydance's bid for Paramount, backed by RedBird and KKR, would keep Paramount publicly traded; David Ellison and Jeff Shell would have leadership roles — WATCH NOW — Skydance's offer for Paramount would give it a significant stake while keeping the company public
Discussion:
The Information, Wall Street Journal, @jtoonkel, @rogoswami, Variety, The Wrap, Alex Sherman on LinkedIn, Fast Company, Awful Announcing and The Desk
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Cameron Joseph / Columbia Journalism Review:
A look at States Newsroom, a nonprofit network in all 50 US states focused on state politics and policy, with 220 full-time staff and a $22M+ annual budget — In late January, after wrapping up his annual State of the State speech, North Dakota governor Doug Burgum (R) headed out to meet the press.
Discussion:
Adam Kealoha Causey on LinkedIn and @thestalwart
Matt Binder / Mashable:
X promoted a fake headline about Iran attacking Israel on its Explore page, after Elon Musk promised “real-time customized news for you created by Grok AI” — The AI-generated false headline was promoted by X in its official trending news section.
Discussion:
The Present Age, The Information, TechCrunch, @zaleskiluke, @edzitron, @hasanthehun, @mattbinder, @brettredacted, @elonmusk, @renee.diresta@threads.net, @ampersine@mastodon.online, @infosec_jcp@infosec.exchange, @hankgreen@threads.net, Wall Street Journal and r/Twitter, more at Techmeme »
Mike Masnick / Techdirt:
Rep. Jim Jordan, who heads the House Judiciary Committee, sent letters to major advertisers including GroupM to explain why they won't advertise on Truth Social — from the not-wanting-to-funnel-money-to- trump? -that's-a-crime! dept — Jim Jordan, who heads the House Judiciary Committee …
Reuters:
X says it has been “forced by court decisions to block certain popular accounts in Brazil” and is barred from giving details of the order — X Corp, formerly Twitter, has been “forced by court decisions” to block certain popular accounts in Brazil and is prohibited from giving details …
Discussion:
Bloomberg, @shellenberger, @globalaffairs, Reclaim The Net, @shellenberger, @elonmusk, @lindayax, The Information, @elonmusk, @arthurvneto and @elonmusk, more at Techmeme »
Amanda Christovich / Front Office Sports:
Nielsen: the UConn-Iowa women's Final Four match drew 14.2M viewers, a record for women's college basketball and ESPN's most-watched basketball game ever — Even with the men's Final Four about to tip off Saturday, the focus of the national college basketball world turned, again, to the women's tournament.
Connie Loizos / TechCrunch:
Mahbod Moghadam, the controversial co-founder of Genius and Everipedia, passed away in March at age 41, according to a post on Genius attributed to his family — Mahbod Moghadam, the controversial, never-boring co-founder of Genius and Everipedia, as well as an angel investor …
Discussion:
Moghadam Family on Genius, @joshconstine, @cherrrywood, @sameoldshawn, @typesfast, @markjeffrey, @mattturck, @turnernovak, @dgt10011, @dmitricherniak, @johncoogan, @darbyw, @geoffreywoo, @maiyegun, @bradflora, @schlaf, @amlewis4, @thesamparr, @eriktorenberg, @defidave22, @thedataroom, @iankar_, @joshconstine, @austen, @robaeprice, @azeemk_, @shanazakhan14, @longlivetheduke, @aseidman, @semil and @lutherlowe, more at Techmeme »
Sherman Smith / Kansas Reflector:
A day after apologizing for blocking Kansas Reflector posts, Meta temporarily blocked links to two sites reposting a Reflector item; Meta cites a security error — Social media posts reflect Facebook's actions to block news sites that published Dave Kendall's column, which was critical of Facebook.
Discussion:
The Handbasket, The Handbasket, Little Green Footballs, Mashable, Media Nation, @mark_ohe@mastodon.energy, @kansasreflector, @sherman_news, @chrisgeidner, @andymstone, @andymstone, @andymstone, @kseconomist, @joelmmathis, @sherman_news, @sherman_news, PCMag, @mrhunterwalker@threads.net, @simondowens@threads.net, @dkiesow@threads.net, @deanbetz@threads.net, @sherman.smith.journalist …, SiliconValley.com, @michaeljstern1@threads.net, @naughtfollowers@threads.net, @marisakabas@threads.net, @mosseri@threads.net, @marisakabas@threads.net, @nycsouthpaw@threads.net, @nycsouthpaw@threads.net, @moskov@threads.net, @barzinlotfabadi@threads.net, @moskov@threads.net, @marisakabas@threads.net, @darby.lyons@threads.net, @nycsouthpaw@threads.net, Wichita Eagle, The Wrap, @kenpopehat@threads.net, @kenpopehat@threads.net, @kenpopehat@threads.net, @marisakabas@threads.net, @clancyny.bsky.social, Kansas City Star, Kansas Reflector, @kalihays1@threads.net and @robpegoraro@threads.net