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

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Recent Editions

The People in Charge as Adobe Moves Into Generative AI

By Kalley Huang · Aug 9, 2023 6:00am PDT · 1 comment

Adobe jumped into the generative artificial intelligence race in March by releasing a beta version of Firefly, which generates images based on text prompts. As it competes with smaller startups such as OpenAI and Runway, the 41-year-old software giant—which has more than 28,000 employees—is leaning on its practice of having teams... Adobe jumped into the generative artificial intelligence race in March by releasing a beta...

Sandie Hawkins, former TikTok U.S. E-Commerce General Manager (right), with The Information's Kaya Yurieff at our Creator Economy Summit in April. Photo by Erin Beach.

TikTok Is Amid an Overhaul

By Jessica E. Lessin · Aug 8, 2023 5:00pm PDT

Part of the fun of business reporting is reading between the lines. When you follow a company or industry closely, eventually you pick up on very subtle shifts. And often those lead to even bigger ones. That’s happening at TikTok right now. The company has swung hard from being a little languid and consumed by political pressures to... Part of the fun of business reporting is reading between the lines. When you follow a company or...

Tara Walpert Levy, YouTube vice president of Americas. Photo: YouTube

Creator Economy

YouTube’s Walpert Levy on the AI ‘Tsunami’

By Kaya Yurieff · Aug 8, 2023 2:28pm PDT

YouTube is getting ready to release generative AI tools for creators. But unlike rivals such as Facebook-parent Meta Platforms, it’s less interested in chatbots—the conversational software that can take on a persona such as Tony Soprano. Instead, it’s focusing on tools that will power video editing or help creators generate ideas, said Tara... YouTube is getting ready to release generative AI tools for creators. But unlike rivals such as ...

Sandie Hawkins. Photo by Erin Beach.

TikTok Replaces Top Shopping Executive With Retail Veterans

By Erin Woo · Aug 8, 2023 11:30am PDT

Sandie Hawkins. Photo by Erin Beach.

TikTok Replaces Top Shopping Executive With Retail Veterans

By Erin Woo · Aug 8, 2023 11:30am PDT

TikTok has hired two retail veterans who worked at Amazon and Meta Platforms to help oversee its ambitious push to build a giant U.S. ecommerce business. At the same time, TikTok’s U.S. ecommerce general manager, Sandie Hawkins, is leaving the company, according to a person with direct knowledge of the situation. The shakeup comes as... TikTok has hired two retail veterans who worked at Amazon and Meta Platforms to help oversee its...

Chart by Shane Burke.

OpenAI Quietly Releases Web Crawler; ChatGPT Flounders, Bard Flourishes in Latest Usage Data

By Stephanie Palazzolo · Aug 8, 2023 7:30am PDT · 5 comments

One of the biggest complaints that ChatGPT users have is the lack of up-to-date information from the web in its models and chatbot. OpenAI’s announcement on Monday night of GPTBot, a web crawler that scrapes sites for data that may be used to improve its future models, could be the company’s answer.It might not be a coincidence that the... One of the biggest complaints that ChatGPT users have is the lack of up-to-date information from...

Art by Mike Sullivan

Microsoft vs. Google: The 10 Execs at the Center of Lobbying Battle

By Aaron Holmes · Aug 8, 2023 6:00am PDT

A nearly decadelong truce between Microsoft and Google is over—and the rivalry could reshape tech regulation for decades to come. The tech behemoths are at an escalating stand-off in Washington, with both companies deploying large lobbying teams to chip away at each other’s competitive advantages in software licensing, search and... A nearly decadelong truce between Microsoft and Google is over—and the rivalry could...

Bob Bakish, CEO and President of Paramount Global. Photo by Getty.

Paramount Global’s Q2 Results Show It’s Going Nowhere Fast

By Martin Peers · Aug 7, 2023 5:00pm PDT

Talk about a missed opportunity. Paramount Global said today it would sell its Simon & Schuster book business, which publishes author Stephen King, among others, to private equity firm KKR for $1.6 billion. Paramount CEO Bob Bakish should have thrown a few other assets into the deal, like some of its once-valuable cable channels (MTV, VH1,... Talk about a missed opportunity. Paramount Global said today it would sell its Simon &...

Alix Earle at her graduation from the University of Miami on May 11. Photo by Getty.

TikTokers Are Becoming Philanthropists

By Alex Perry · Aug 7, 2023 3:22pm PDT · 1 comment

Alix Earle at her graduation from the University of Miami on May 11. Photo by Getty.

Creator Economy

TikTokers Are Becoming Philanthropists

By Alex Perry · Aug 7, 2023 3:22pm PDT · 1 comment

Creators are lending their online influence to social causes. Alix Earle, a creator with 5.6 million followers on TikTok, is one of the most recent. This June she started a scholarship at the University of Miami for juniors and seniors pursuing a business degree at the University of Miami’s Herbert Business School. The 22-year-old, who recently... Creators are lending their online influence to social causes. Alix Earle, a creator with 5.6...

TSMC CEO C.C. Wei, left, and Apple CEO Tim Cook in Arizona in December. Photo by AP

How Apple Will Save Billions of Dollars on Chips for New iPhone

By Wayne Ma · Aug 7, 2023 8:00am PDT · 9 comments

When Apple’s next iPhone goes on sale in September, its upgraded core processor will be more powerful than that of any rival smartphone. That’s possible because of Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co., which makes all of Apple’s custom chips. TSMC is using a new process to make smaller, faster and more power-efficient chips,... When Apple’s next iPhone goes on sale in September, its upgraded core processor will be...

Photo via Midjourney.

Hype About AI ‘Agents’ Rises Again; Why GPUs Are So Hard to Find

By Stephanie Palazzolo · Aug 7, 2023 7:00am PDT · 2 comments

Like many others, I dream of having my own personal artificial intelligence-powered assistant to answer texts I’ve been avoiding or land that impossible-to-get reservation at a restaurant blowing up on TikTok. So like seemingly everyone else in AI-land, I was excited when a young startup, HyperWrite, publicly launched an AI-powered assistant... Like many others, I dream of having my own personal artificial intelligence-powered assistant to...

Navin Chaddha and Jenny Lefcourt. Photos via Getty

Venture Firms Still Writing Small Checks Despite $271 Billion in ‘Dry Powder’

By Natasha Mascarenhas · Aug 7, 2023 6:00am PDT · 4 comments

In 2019, Sean Park—a co-founder of Anthemis Group—was on the road 200 nights a year, traveling to Boston, London and other tech hot spots to meet with startups. Even after Covid-19 curtailed travel, Park, who is also the firm’s chief investment officer, was swamped with Zoom meetings with entrepreneurs he was thinking about... In 2019, Sean Park—a co-founder of Anthemis Group—was on the road 200 nights a year,...

German electric air taxi maker Lilium hopes to begin commercial operations in 2025. Photo: Paul Hanna/Bloomberg via Getty

The Electric: A University Leaps Into Electric Aviation

By Steve LeVine · Aug 7, 2023 4:30am PDT

German electric air taxi maker Lilium hopes to begin commercial operations in 2025. Photo: Paul Hanna/Bloomberg via Getty

The Electric: A University Leaps Into Electric Aviation

By Steve LeVine · Aug 7, 2023 4:30am PDT

In 2000, Toyota introduced the hybrid Prius in the U.S. Sales started slowly—Americans bought just 5,600 of the novel cars that first year and 15,600 the next, a tiny fraction of the Japanese company’s sales. Yet-Ming Chiang, a professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology who at the time was just about to set up his own battery... In 2000, Toyota introduced the hybrid Prius in the U.S. Sales started slowly—Americans bought...

Art by Clark Miller

‘Fix It—or Go Surfing’: Jessica Lessin on What She’d Tell Her Younger Self

By Jessica E. Lessin · Aug 5, 2023 6:00am PDT · 84 comments

Ten years ago, almost to the day, my husband Sam took a video of me curled up in bed, convinced I had food poisoning. I was so nauseous, I felt like I couldn’t move. It turned out it was just nerves. I had just told my parents I was going to leave a plum reporting job at The Wall Street Journal to start something new. It was the moment my... Ten years ago, almost to the day, my husband Sam took a video of me curled up in bed, convinced I...

The Superconductor of the Summer

The Superconductor of the Summer

By Jon Steinberg · Aug 5, 2023 6:00am PDT

Hi, welcome to your Weekend.Culturally, it’s been a very Barbie-Taylor-Tom (Cruise) summer. A season of mega-popular, mega-lucrative, four-quadrant entertainments that have returned us, however briefly, to the pre-internet days of the monoculture. So imagine my surprise when the online discourse shifted abruptly this week to the very niche... Hi, welcome to your Weekend.Culturally, it’s been a very Barbie-Taylor-Tom (Cruise) summer. A...

Photo via Clutter

A Week of Trouble in the Valley

By Jessica E. Lessin · Aug 4, 2023 2:00pm PDT

M&A has finally picked up—only it’s not the kind of dealmaking investors want. The Information was the first to report on two deals this week—the fire sale of storage company Clutter and the impending sale of troubled internet underwear company Parade. You know who gets screwed the most on these kinds of deals? It’s not the... M&A has finally picked up—only it’s not the kind of dealmaking investors want. The...

Where’s the Barbie Business Pop? Taylor Swift and Why Brands Beat Marketplaces

By Jessica E. Lessin · Aug 4, 2023 11:56am PDT

Where’s the Barbie Business Pop? Taylor Swift and Why Brands Beat Marketplaces

By Jessica E. Lessin · Aug 4, 2023 11:56am PDT

I was recently talking to a potential leadership coach and asked a few—I guess pointed—questions. “That’s why you are a journalist,” she remarked. “You are so skeptical.” I suppose I am. But this week, after taping More or Less, I momentarily wanted to join the optimistic camp. Sometimes... I was recently talking to a potential leadership coach and asked a few—I guess...

SoftBank CEO Masayoshi Son, IRL co-founder Abraham Shafi. Photos by Getty and IRL

SoftBank Sues Former IRL CEO For Fraud

By Amir Efrati and Mark Matousek · Aug 4, 2023 11:11am PDT · 6 comments

SoftBank sued former IRL CEO Abraham Shafi and five siblings and cousins for allegedly misleading the investor about the messaging app’s growth, prompting the Japanese conglomerate to buy $150 million worth of shares in the company in 2021 at the height of a pandemic-fueled consumer internet boom. SoftBank said Shafi and his family members... SoftBank sued former IRL CEO Abraham Shafi and five siblings and cousins for allegedly misleading...

The poetry-minded Runway founder Cristóbal Valenzuela. Art by Clark Miller.

‘Not Everyone Is Trying to Build God’: Runway CEO Cristóbal Valenzuela Tries to Dampen the Doomerism

By Julia Black · Aug 4, 2023 10:36am PDT · 1 comment

It might have been a moment lost in translation, or perhaps a willful reinterpretation, but when I asked Cristóbal Valenzuela who in the tech world inspires him most, he named a Chilean poet. “Nicanor Parra came up with this idea of ‘anti-poetry,’” explained Valenzuela, co-founder and CEO of Runway, a generative AI... It might have been a moment lost in translation, or perhaps a willful reinterpretation, but when...

Federal Trade Commission chair Lina Khan has recently turned regulators' attention to the deceptive use of "dark patterns" by tech companies. Art by Clark Miller

Lina vs. the Dark Arts: The FTC Wants Big Tech to Know It’s Watching

By Nancy Scola · Aug 4, 2023 9:00am PDT · 7 comments

Lina Khan was hauled before the House Judiciary Committee one morning in mid-July to discuss a favorite Republican topic of the moment: the 34-year-old chair’s supposed mishandling of the Federal Trade Commission and its $430 million budget. Seated at the sprawling witness table next to a bevy of Deer Park water bottles—a sign of the... Lina Khan was hauled before the House Judiciary Committee one morning in mid-July to discuss a...

Elad Gil, Sam Altman and Mamoon Hamid. Photos by Getty.

Pro Weekly: Our Top Enterprise Investors Flock Together

By Kalley Huang · Aug 4, 2023 8:00am PDT

Elad Gil, Sam Altman and Mamoon Hamid. Photos by Getty.

Pro Weekly: Our Top Enterprise Investors Flock Together

By Kalley Huang · Aug 4, 2023 8:00am PDT

Welcome back!This week, to help readers follow the shifting playing field of enterprise software, we published The Information’s Enterprise Tech Power List. For this second edition of the list, we identified 10 of the most powerful executives, 10 emerging executives and 13 investors who exert the most influence over the enterprise software... Welcome back!This week, to help readers follow the shifting playing field of enterprise software,...