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

Chart by Shane Burke.

OpenAI Is Human After All; ‘Sharing Is Caring,’ Researchers Tell Model Developers

By Stephanie Palazzolo · Oct 18, 2023 7:00am PDT · 1 comment

It seems like Silicon Valley’s golden child isn’t perfect after all. In a rare moment of weakness, large-language model developer OpenAI scrapped a new model, codenamed Arrakis, in mid-2023 that would have helped it run its popular chatbot ChatGPT more cheaply, my colleagues Jon Victor and Aaron Holmes reported on Tuesday.OpenAI researchers... It seems like Silicon Valley’s golden child isn’t perfect after all. In a rare moment of...

Photo by The Washington Post via Getty.

Amazon to TV Ad Newbies: If You Buy Commercials, We’ll Make Them

By Theo Wayt · Oct 18, 2023 6:00am PDT · 1 comment

Amazon is approaching brands that already buy search ads on its e-commerce website with an unusual pitch: if you buy streaming TV ads, we’ll make them for you. The incentive highlights the lengths Amazon is willing to go to in order to try to build a streaming ad business. Smaller brands that sell on Amazon often don’t have the money... Amazon is approaching brands that already buy search ads on its e-commerce website with an...

Midjourney founder David Holz. Photo via Getty.

Why You Want to Watch These Startups

By Scott Thurm · Oct 17, 2023 5:00pm PDT

Earlier Tuesday, we published this year’s edition of The Information 50, our annual list of startups to watch. The list is intended as a guide to companies that haven’t yet broken through, but bear watching as candidates for future public listings or big-ticket acquisitions. Our task was complicated this year by the downturn in startup funding:... Earlier Tuesday, we published this year’s edition of The Information 50, our annual list of...

Prime energy drinks. Photo via Shutterstock

The Most Promising Creator Startups

By Kaya Yurieff · Oct 17, 2023 2:14pm PDT

Prime energy drinks. Photo via Shutterstock

Creator Economy

The Most Promising Creator Startups

By Kaya Yurieff · Oct 17, 2023 2:14pm PDT

On Tuesday, we released The Information’s 50 Most Promising Startups, an annual list where we select companies that have the potential to be the most valuable businesses in their sectors based on our reporting, including their revenue and growth prospects. The 50 companies we selected have raised less than $100 million in funding or started... On Tuesday, we released The Information’s 50 Most Promising Startups, an annual list where we...

The world premiere of Amazon Prime Video's "The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power" in London on August 30. Photo by Tristan Fewings/Getty.

Amazon Pushes Advertisers to Commit Big to Prime Video

By Sahil Patel · Oct 17, 2023 12:19pm PDT

As Amazon gears up to run ads on its Prime Video streaming service early next year, company executives are asking advertisers to commit to spending significant amounts of money on the service in 2024. The requests, which ad executives say are more aggressive than what Netflix asked for when it launched an ad-tier last year, signify... As Amazon gears up to run ads on its Prime Video streaming service early next year, company...

OpenAI CEO Sam Altman. Photo by Getty

OpenAI Dropped Work on New ‘Arrakis’ AI Model in Rare Setback

By Jon Victor and Aaron Holmes · Oct 17, 2023 12:16pm PDT · 10 comments

Late last year, around the time ChatGPT became a global sensation, the engineers at OpenAI began working on a new artificial intelligence model, codenamed Arrakis. Although OpenAI was preparing to boost ChatGPT with a different model, now known as GPT-4, which it had completed earlier in the year, the upcoming Arrakis model would allow the... Late last year, around the time ChatGPT became a global sensation, the engineers at OpenAI began...

Photo by Bloomberg via Getty.

Google’s ‘Wartime’ Urgency to Chase ChatGPT Shakes Up Culture

By Jon Victor · Oct 17, 2023 7:00am PDT · 1 comment

When staff working on Google’s ChatGPT rival, Bard, hear from managers that they need to work at “Bard speed,” they know it means moving much faster than they were accustomed to in other parts of the company. Legal reviews of new features can start and end in a day. A feature that might have taken a quarter to prepare in the past now gets done... When staff working on Google’s ChatGPT rival, Bard, hear from managers that they need to work at...

What to Know About The Information’s 50 Most Promising Startups

By Scott Thurm · Oct 17, 2023 6:00am PDT

The Information 50

What to Know About The Information’s 50 Most Promising Startups

By Scott Thurm · Oct 17, 2023 6:00am PDT

It’s been a particularly tough year for startups. Venture funding is on pace for the lowest annual total since 2019, according to the PitchBook-National Venture Capital Association Venture Monitor. Silicon Valley Bank, an important cog in the startup finance machine, failed in March. One-time high-fliers such as Jasper AI, Hopin and... It’s been a particularly tough year for startups. Venture funding is on pace for the lowest...

Ian Sigalow and Dana Settle. Photos via Getty.

VC Firm Greycroft Cuts Five Investors After Missing Fundraising Target

By Kate Clark · Oct 16, 2023 7:23pm PDT · 4 comments

Greycroft, a New York venture capital firm that has backed Bumble, Venmo and Axios, is laying off five investors, the firm confirmed, after it failed to reach fundraising targets earlier this year. It’s also backing away from healthcare and fintech investing. The firm disclosed in April that it had raised a total of $980 million for... Greycroft, a New York venture capital firm that has backed Bumble, Venmo and Axios, is laying off...

Photo via Shutterstock

What the Latest Tech Job Cuts Indicate

By Martin Peers · Oct 16, 2023 5:00pm PDT

Whatever job security existed in tech appears to have disappeared. On Monday, LinkedIn said it was cutting 668 people, the third round of layoffs at the Microsoft-owned unit this year. Meanwhile, developer forum Stack Overflow said Monday it would cut its staff by 28%—which, according to the Verge, amounts to 100 jobs. And that’s just today:... Whatever job security existed in tech appears to have disappeared. On Monday, LinkedIn said it...

European Commissioner for Internal Market Thierry Breton. Photo by Thierry Monasse via Getty.

Creator Economy

The Questions Breton Should Ask Elon Musk

By Erin Woo · Oct 16, 2023 4:17pm PDT

The Israel-Hamas war that erupted over the past week has been a test of social media companies’ ability to handle content moderation in a crisis. In Europe, it’s also been a chance for the European Commission to flex its muscle under the Digital Services Act for the first time. Over the past week, Thierry Breton, the EU commissioner for the... The Israel-Hamas war that erupted over the past week has been a test of social media companies’...

Paddy Cosgrave, CEO and Founder of Web Summit, at Web Summit 2022 in Lisbon. Photo by SOPA Images via Getty.

Sequoia Capital Partner, Other Investors Boycott Web Summit Following CEO’s Israel Comments

By Natasha Mascarenhas · Oct 16, 2023 2:41pm PDT · 21 comments

Paddy Cosgrave, CEO and Founder of Web Summit, at Web Summit 2022 in Lisbon. Photo by SOPA Images via Getty.

Sequoia Capital Partner, Other Investors Boycott Web Summit Following CEO’s Israel Comments

By Natasha Mascarenhas · Oct 16, 2023 2:41pm PDT · 21 comments

High-profile venture capitalists, including Y Combinator’s Garry Tan and Sequoia Capital partner Ravi Gupta, are withdrawing from a major gathering of tech leaders after conference CEO Paddy Cosgrave made comments that appear to refer to Israel’s retaliatory strikes in Hamas-controlled Gaza as “war crimes.” At least... High-profile venture capitalists, including Y Combinator’s Garry Tan and Sequoia Capital...

Photo via Ideogram.

AI Agenda: Why Investors in GPU Resellers May End Up Disappointed

By Stephanie Palazzolo · Oct 16, 2023 7:00am PDT

In the last year, Nvidia’s AI chips—GPUs in technical parlance—have become the hottest commodity that people are desperate to get a hold of. Lately, we’ve seen the emergence of startups known as GPU resellers or serverless GPU providers. These startups rent GPU servers from cloud providers or other companies that own such servers, including... In the last year, Nvidia’s AI chips—GPUs in technical parlance—have become the hottest commodity...

On the Market: Executives With Experience at Amazon, Disney, Meta, TikTok

By The Information Staff · Oct 16, 2023 6:00am PDT

When times get tough, companies try diversifying into new areas—efforts that can be high risk for those who lead those initiatives. Several of the people on our latest list of Free Agents can testify to that, having departed their companies after new business ventures failed to immediately pay off. Jeremi Gorman spent a year at Netflix,... When times get tough, companies try diversifying into new areas—efforts that can be high...

Xiaomi founder Lei Jun began snapping up EV-related investments in 2014. Photo: Getty

The Electric: Xiaomi Is Likely to Upstage Apple With a Tech-Laden EV

By Steve LeVine · Oct 16, 2023 4:30am PDT

Since 2014, Apple has worked on a quasi-secret project it calls Titan—an effort to create an electric vehicle worthy of the company’s name. The company has cycled through four Titan leaders, changed its vision for the car, changed it back again, spent more than $1 billion in some years on the project—and still produced no EV. Adding insult to... Since 2014, Apple has worked on a quasi-secret project it calls Titan—an effort to create an...

Art by Clark Miller

Found in Translation: AI Lip-Synch Apps Have Arrived

By Amanda Florian · Oct 14, 2023 6:00am PDT

Art by Clark Miller

Found in Translation: AI Lip-Synch Apps Have Arrived

By Amanda Florian · Oct 14, 2023 6:00am PDT

Growing up in New Delhi, Gaurav Misra found himself surrounded by a cacophony of languages. On any given day, the software engineer, who speaks fluent English, Hindi and French, would hear a variety of dialects in Hindi, English, Punjabi and Urdu. Misra spent years learning French, which helped him grow his network of professional connections in... Growing up in New Delhi, Gaurav Misra found himself surrounded by a cacophony of languages. On...

Art by Clark Miller

If You’re Ripping Michael Lewis’ Book on Sam Bankman-Fried, You’re Reading It Wrong

By Adam Lashinsky · Oct 14, 2023 6:00am PDT · 12 comments

My hopes and dreams when I tucked into “Going Infinite,” Michael Lewis’ controversial book about Sam Bankman-Fried, were the same as they always are when reading our foremost chronicler of financial renegades and miscreants. First, I wanted to be entertained by Lewis’ honeyed prose and syrupy storytelling—the snappy... My hopes and dreams when I tucked into “Going Infinite,” Michael Lewis’...

Thierry, Taylor, Rainbolt and Sam

Thierry, Taylor, Rainbolt and Sam

By Jon Steinberg · Oct 14, 2023 6:00am PDT

Hi, welcome to your Weekend.This wasn’t an easy week for anyone. But if you’re on a trust and safety team of a social media company, this was likely the worst week in memory. In just three days after Hamas committed its depraved terrorist attacks in Israel last Saturday, Meta reported removing nearly 800,000 pieces of content labeled as “... Hi, welcome to your Weekend.This wasn’t an easy week for anyone. But if you’re on a trust and...

Photo by Mario Tama via Getty.

Netflix Earnings Next Week Should Be OK But Not Great

By Martin Peers · Oct 13, 2023 3:00pm PDT

Earnings season is back. Banks, always the early birds, began reporting Friday and next week Netflix kicks off tech earnings season with its third quarter report on Wednesday. Big tech—Alphabet, Microsoft, Meta Platforms and the rest—don’t start reporting until the week after. But Netflix’s report will give us plenty to chew over. It will give... Earnings season is back. Banks, always the early birds, began reporting Friday and next week...

Caroline Ellison, (wearing glasses). Photo by Michael M. Santiago via Getty.

How Alameda Helped Bankrupt Crypto Lenders

By Aidan Ryan · Oct 13, 2023 1:24pm PDT

Caroline Ellison, (wearing glasses). Photo by Michael M. Santiago via Getty.

How Alameda Helped Bankrupt Crypto Lenders

By Aidan Ryan · Oct 13, 2023 1:24pm PDT

Sam Bankman-Fried’s former lieutenant, Alameda Research CEO Caroline Ellison, this week detailed how Bankman-Fried oversaw a massive fraud by pushing Alameda to use FTX customer funds for startup investments, political donations and loans to executives. But Ellison’s testimony also pulled back the curtain on the once-secret world of... Sam Bankman-Fried’s former lieutenant, Alameda Research CEO Caroline Ellison, this week...