The Briefing by Martin Peers, Jessica Lessin and the team at The Information

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The Briefing

By Martin Peers, Jessica Lessin and the team at The Information

Get smarter about the day’s news in tech, media and finance by following Silicon Valley’s most-read executive newsletter.

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Recent Editions

Art by Clark Miller.

For TikTok, Universal Standoff Shows Music No Longer Matters Like It Once Did

By Erin Woo · Feb 28, 2024 1:05pm PST · 1 comment

TikTok once depended on the music industry to provide the soundtrack for its viral lip-syncing and dancing videos. But TikTok’s leaders have decided the app just doesn’t need those relationships the way it once did. Multiple times over the past two years, TikTok executives told employees handling music on the platform that one of the... TikTok once depended on the music industry to provide the soundtrack for its viral lip-syncing...

Art by Midjourney/Mike Sullivan.

Startups Are Using Questionable Metrics in an Effort to Raise Capital

By Stephanie Palazzolo · Feb 28, 2024 7:45am PST · 1 comment

Venture capitalists’ wallets are still open for artificial intelligence startups. But as the field has gotten more crowded, some startups that are raising new capital have leaned on metrics that don’t exactly scream confidence in their business prospects. They include the number of AI PhDs on staff, how many Nvidia AI chips the company has, and... Venture capitalists’ wallets are still open for artificial intelligence startups. But as the...

Art by Mike Sullivan

Meta Wants Llama 3 to Handle Contentious Questions as Google Grapples With Gemini Backlash

By Sylvia Varnham O'Regan and Kalley Huang · Feb 28, 2024 6:30am PST · 8 comments

As Google grapples with the backlash over the historically inaccurate responses on its Gemini chatbot, Meta Platforms is dealing with a related issue. As part of its work on the forthcoming version of its large language model, Llama 3, Meta is trying to overcome a problem perceived in Llama 2: Its answers to anything at all contentious... As Google grapples with the backlash over the historically inaccurate responses on its Gemini...

Art by Mike Sullivan

Apple, Now Carless, Faces Renewed Questions About Growth

By Martin Peers · Feb 27, 2024 5:00pm PST · 1 comment

Art by Mike Sullivan

Apple, Now Carless, Faces Renewed Questions About Growth

By Martin Peers · Feb 27, 2024 5:00pm PST · 1 comment

Maybe Apple should cancel multibillion-dollar projects more often! Shares of the iPhone maker, which have fallen since the start of the year, rose nearly 1% Tuesday after Bloomberg scooped the news that Apple had canned Project Titan, its decade-old autonomous car project. As a Morgan Stanley analyst said in a research note, the Bloomberg... Maybe Apple should cancel multibillion-dollar projects more often! Shares of the iPhone maker,...

Visa chief marketing officer Frank Cooper III. Photo: Visa

Creator Economy

Visa’s Marketing Chief on the Creator Economy ‘Gold Rush’

By Kaya Yurieff · Feb 27, 2024 2:18pm PST

Visa is stepping up its efforts to become more synonymous with the creator economy, from utilizing creators heavily in marketing to servicing their payments needs.“It’s been the gold rush for creators. Everyone’s like, ‘Hey, up in those hills are a bunch of creators who have a lot of reach and big audiences,’” said Frank Cooper III, chief... Visa is stepping up its efforts to become more synonymous with the creator economy, from...

Photo by Getty

EU Antitrust Cops Investigate Microsoft’s Security Software Practices

By Aaron Holmes · Feb 27, 2024 12:25pm PST

European Union regulators are probing whether Microsoft is preventing its customers from buying security software that competes with Microsoft’s, according to a document the EU sent to at least one rival in January. It’s the latest sign of growing scrutiny from policymakers, especially in the EU, of Microsoft’s fast-growing... European Union regulators are probing whether Microsoft is preventing its customers from buying...

Art by Clark Miller

The Media Revolution Will Be Prompted

By Andrew A. Rosen · Feb 27, 2024 9:00am PST · 3 comments

In a letter to YouTube creators earlier this month, YouTube CEO Neal Mohan shed light on the emerging challenges artificial intelligence poses to creators. “AI should empower human creativity, not replace it,” he wrote. “Everyone should have access to AI tools that will push the boundaries of creative expression.” ... In a letter to YouTube creators earlier this month, YouTube CEO Neal Mohan shed light on the...

TikTok CEO Shou Zi Chew. Photo by Getty

TikTok Shakes Up Executive Ranks, Giving CEO More Oversight of Content Moderation

By Erin Woo and Kaya Yurieff · Feb 27, 2024 8:20am PST

TikTok CEO Shou Zi Chew. Photo by Getty

TikTok Shakes Up Executive Ranks, Giving CEO More Oversight of Content Moderation

By Erin Woo and Kaya Yurieff · Feb 27, 2024 8:20am PST

TikTok has shaken up its senior ranks, replacing several senior executives including the person running its trust & safety unit, which handles content moderation, and appointing a protege of CEO Shou Zi Chew to oversee that part of the business, according to people at the company and a memo distributed to staff. The shakeup comes weeks after... TikTok has shaken up its senior ranks, replacing several senior executives including the person...

Parspec CEO Forest Flager. Photo courtesy of Parspec.

The Real Risk of Google’s Race Riot; Why Microsoft Took a Stake in Mistral; Your Next House Could Be Built With LLMs

By Stephanie Palazzolo and Jon Victor · Feb 27, 2024 7:00am PST

First, some news. As generative AI has seeped into a number of industries, from law to healthcare, industry-specific large language model startups have proliferated, as we showed in this analysis. But I was still surprised to come across a startup working to apply AI in a traditionally unsexy field: construction.Parspec, a startup that uses AI... First, some news. As generative AI has seeped into a number of industries, from law to healthcare...

Kyle Leahy. Screenshot via YouTube

The Big Interview

Glossier’s CEO Charts Next Chapter of Growth

By Ann Gehan · Feb 27, 2024 6:00am PST

Beauty company Glossier was an Instagram-fueled breakout star of the mid-2010s, winning over shoppers and investors alike with its promise to reinvent the stodgy, slow-moving beauty industry. But today, as a host of younger makeup brands made famous on TikTok nips at its heels and the trends it helped start now dominate the industry,... Beauty company Glossier was an Instagram-fueled breakout star of the mid-2010s, winning over...

Photo by Getty

What Supreme Court Hearing Signals for Big Tech

By Martin Peers · Feb 26, 2024 5:00pm PST

Today just may have been the most important day for the future of tech. We’re talking about the Supreme Court arguments regarding Florida and Texas state laws that curb the freedom of tech companies such as Meta Platforms and Google to moderate content on their own platforms. Judging from the coverage by the news outlets present at the hearing—... Today just may have been the most important day for the future of tech. We’re talking about the...

Generated by Genmo.

A Sora Rival Raises Millions from NEA

By Stephanie Palazzolo · Feb 26, 2024 7:10am PST

Generated by Genmo.

A Sora Rival Raises Millions from NEA

By Stephanie Palazzolo · Feb 26, 2024 7:10am PST

An up-and-coming video-generation startup—and its new investors—may get more than they bargained for when it comes to competition.AI-powered video startup Genmo is set to raise at least $30 million in funding from NEA, according to 3 people familiar with the situation. Word of the fundraising follows OpenAI’s preview of a new video generation... An up-and-coming video-generation startup—and its new investors—may get more than they bargained...

Photo by Getty.

Venture Debt Was Supposed to Dry Up After SVB. Instead, Competition Increased

By Michael Roddan · Feb 26, 2024 6:00am PST · 1 comment

When BedRock Systems co-founder Bob Tinker was recently searching for a venture loan to provide extra cash for his cybersecurity startup after it raised a Series A round funding round, he approached a gaggle of lenders specializing in that type of financing: Comerica, HSBC and Stifel as well as Silicon Valley Bank, now operating as a division of... When BedRock Systems co-founder Bob Tinker was recently searching for a venture loan to provide...

Our Next Energy CTO Mujeeb Ijaz. Photo: Courtesy ONE

The Electric: Why ONE’s Pitch for a Cheap 600-Mile Battery Remains Compelling

By Steve LeVine · Feb 26, 2024 4:30am PST · 1 comment

For four years, Mujeeb Ijaz has argued that the world needs a mainstream-priced electric vehicle with 600 miles of driving range. While that seemed excessive to rivals—much greater than the 300 or so miles that most motorists consider sufficient—Ijaz argued that few were considering how people really drive and how EVs really perform. Real people... For four years, Mujeeb Ijaz has argued that the world needs a mainstream-priced electric vehicle...

What Google Gemini’s Race Controversy Really Means

What Google Gemini’s Race Controversy Really Means

By Abram Brown · Feb 24, 2024 7:00am PST · 1 comment

Welcome to your Weekend!The internet kicked up a fuss this week when it discovered a surprising thing about Google Gemini, the company’s generative artificial intelligence tool. While you couldn’t prompt it to, say, provide an image of a white pope, it did respond to a request asking for a Black pope. It also seemed to have a habit of placing... Welcome to your Weekend!The internet kicked up a fuss this week when it discovered a surprising...

Art by Clark Miller

Tech Veterans Will Wish Kara Swisher’s New Book Brought Greater Heat

By Adam Lashinsky · Feb 24, 2024 5:00am PST · 11 comments

Art by Clark Miller

Tech Veterans Will Wish Kara Swisher’s New Book Brought Greater Heat

By Adam Lashinsky · Feb 24, 2024 5:00am PST · 11 comments

Anyone uninitiated in the glories and ignominies of Silicon Valley will delight in “Burn Book: A Tech Love Story,” Kara Swisher’s memoir-cum-history of Silicon Valley’s internet era. It presents a thorough accounting of the people, companies and trends within technology from the 1990s onward, told through the bombastic,... Anyone uninitiated in the glories and ignominies of Silicon Valley will delight in “Burn...

Art by Clark Miller

Rupert Murdoch’s Grande Scandale Sparks Back to Life

By Abram Brown · Feb 24, 2024 5:00am PST

During the past week, J.T. Rogers, Tony-winning playwright, was intently trying to straighten out the remaining kinks in “Corruption,” his new production about the News Corp phone-hacking scandal of a decade ago, through daytime rehearsals and nightly preview performances at New York’s Lincoln Center. He still wanted to perfect... During the past week, J.T. Rogers, Tony-winning playwright, was intently trying to straighten out...

Photo: Frank Molter/dpa/Getty

Exclusive From The Electric: Northvolt Fires the Top Leadership of Battery Subsidiary Cuberg

By Steve LeVine · Feb 23, 2024 8:38pm PST

Swedish battery manufacturer Northvolt fired the senior leaders of its California-based lithium metal battery subsidiary, Cuberg. Those let go included Cuberg’s founder and CEO, Richard Wang, who sold the startup to Northvolt in 2021 as a spinout from Stanford University, chief operating officer Reza Nikfar and chief strategy officer... Swedish battery manufacturer Northvolt fired the senior leaders of its California-based...

I-Hwa Cheng/Bloomberg via Getty Images

Nvidia’s Good Fortune Isn’t Good for Everyone Else

By Martin Peers · Feb 23, 2024 3:15pm PST

Question: Is what’s good for Nvidia also good for America? That old line, originally referring to General Motors, came to mind after the stock market rallied to new records on Thursday—attributed by pundits to investor enthusiasm about Nvidia’s robust earnings. Stock of the AI chipmaker rocketed 17% on Thursday and Friday, lifting its market... Question: Is what’s good for Nvidia also good for America? That old line, originally referring to...

Photo by Shutterstock.

U.S. Lawmakers Demand Temu Shipment Ban Over Forced Labor Concerns

By Ann Gehan and Jing Yang · Feb 23, 2024 11:01am PST · 7 comments

Photo by Shutterstock.

U.S. Lawmakers Demand Temu Shipment Ban Over Forced Labor Concerns

By Ann Gehan and Jing Yang · Feb 23, 2024 11:01am PST · 7 comments

A number of U.S. lawmakers are pushing for a ban on imports of goods sold on Temu, the fast-growing shopping site known for selling bargain products shipped from China, saying it hasn’t done enough to prevent its suppliers from using forced labor, two people with knowledge of the conversations said. In recent weeks, China critics including... A number of U.S. lawmakers are pushing for a ban on imports of goods sold on Temu, the...