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Beta Briefing

Briefing sample (beta)

Subject: Your intelligent news today: AI, Business, Politics, Crypto and more

Date: Monday, 10 June 2024 at 22.58.55 Central European Summer Time

From: Marcs Protime inbox

To: Theo Bebine

Hi Theo!

Welcome to your personal Briefing. My goal is to save you 10 hours per week by summarizing the most important news from various sources for your chosen focus topics.

Would you like to improve this Briefing? Click on like or dislike after each summary to get more or less of the selected message. If you prefer send us your feedback to [email protected] or by replying to your Briefing.

Best regards, Marc

Artificial Intelligence

Apple Introduces ‘Apple Intelligence’ at WWDC Event (The Wall Street Journal)

Apple debuted a personalized version of generative AI called Apple Intelligence at its annual World Wide Developers Conference. The new system can retrieve information from across apps (source).

Apple is poised to unveil embedded AI (Wing Briefing)

Apple's annual World Wide Developers Conference today is expected to herald the company’s move into generative AI, marking its late arrival to a technological frontier that’s expected to be as revolutionary as the invention of the iPhone. The widely anticipated display of AI to be embedded in the iPhone and other Apple products will be the marquee moment at an event that traditionally previews the next version of software that powers the company’s hardware lineup. Apple hasn’t provided any advance details about Monday’s event (source).

AI jobs surge 🥇 (Masters of Work)

Job postings related to generative AI have surged dramatically on Indeed reflecting a significant increase in demand for AI-related skills. In the past year, generative AI job openings on Indeed increased 10-fold compared to 2023. AI-related jobs represent only 0.12% of global job postings, but nearly 2% in the US. AI is expected to create new job opportunities, with 40% of CEOs planning to hire more staff due to AI advancements (source).

Kuaishou Technology introduced Kling (Masters of Work)

In the fast-evolving field of AI, Kuaishou Technology has introduced Kling, a groundbreaking AI model set to transform video creation and interaction. Dubbed the 'Sora Killer,' Kling emerges as a strong competitor to OpenAI’s eagerly awaited Sora model (source).

High-Flyer Capital Management pivots to natural language processing (Money Stuff)

High-Flyer Capital Management, a Chinese quantitative hedge fund, has grown into a roughly Rmb60bn ($8bn) asset manager since its launch in 2015, partly using AI and algorithms to identify patterns or variables that could affect stock prices. Now it has parlayed that knowledge and infrastructure into a powerful AI model that has been released and that experts say is on a par with leading western efforts. DeepSeek-V2 can answer questions, write code and reason (source).

Sivi.ai - The AI Designer for your Brand! (Masters of Work)

Sivi.ai, an innovative AI-driven design platform, promises to revolutionize how businesses approach branding and design. By leveraging cutting-edge AI technology, Sivi.ai can create custom brand identities, marketing materials, and more, tailored to the specific needs and preferences of businesses (source).

Insurtech startup Anterior raises $20M Series A at $95M (Wing Briefing)

Anterior, a company that uses AI to expedite health insurance approval for medical procedures, has raised a $20 million Series A round at a $95 million post-money valuation led by NEA, according to two people familiar with the deal. Existing investors Sequoia, which led Anterior’s $3.2 million seed round last September, and Neo, an accelerator that helped the company launch in the summer of 2022, also participated in the Series A financing (source).

Business

Private Equity is On Sale (Money Stuff)

The secondary market for investments in private-equity funds is booming, with buyers often getting their stakes at big discounts to the official values set by the private-equity funds’ managers. The small amount of publicly available data about the market shows buyers often get their stakes at big discounts to the official values set by the private-equity fund managers. In many cases, buyers quickly mark up the stakes they acquire to the official value, no matter how little they paid for them (source).

Tech exec Michael Lynch found not guilty in Silicon Valley fraud trial (Wing Briefing)

Michael Lynch was found not guilty by a San Francisco jury of defrauding Hewlett-Packard during the $11.7B sale of Autonomy, an enterprise software company he co-founded and led. This was Silicon Valley's largest financial fraud case ever, in terms of alleged dollars lost. Lynch had already lost a related U.K. civil case and other Autonomy execs had been found guilty by U.S. courts (source).

Elite employers getting more interested in skills than in degrees (Money Stuff)

The elite employers are getting more interested in skills than in degrees. Companies should stop looking for the right degree and instead focus on who has the right skills, regardless of how they acquired them. McKinsey has developed a video game to assess candidates’ cognitive skills, which it says gives it 'insight beyond the résumé or conventional interview.' (source).

Detroit Riverfront Conservancy CFO arrested (Money Stuff)

The CFO of the Detroit Riverfront Conservancy, William Smith, was arrested last week for allegedly stealing $40 million from the nonprofit. Mr. Smith’s grip on the nonprofit’s finances was so tight that even the nonprofit’s accountant, charged with tracking spending, could not log into one of the group’s bank accounts (source).

Elliott Takes Big Stake in Southwest Airlines (Money Stuff)

Elliott Management has taken a big stake in Southwest Airlines and is pushing for changes at the airline. Elliott is known for its activist investing approach, and it is likely to push for Southwest to improve its operations and financial performance (source).

WeWork's Former NYC Headquarters Taken Over by Coworking Rival (Money Stuff)

WeWork's former New York City headquarters has been taken over by a coworking rival. The building, located in the Chelsea neighborhood of Manhattan, was once a symbol of WeWork's rapid growth and ambition, but the company has since fallen on hard times (source).

Tesla Pay Fight Gives Elon Musk Taste of Karma (Money Stuff)

Tesla is facing a pay fight with its employees, and Elon Musk is getting a taste of karma. The company has been accused of underpaying its workers, and Musk himself has been criticized for his lavish lifestyle. Tesla has been trying to cut costs, and it has been reducing employee benefits (source).

Retail

Amazon, Best Buy, Google may soon sell home smart devices with ‘hacker-safe’ label (Wing Briefing)

Consumers have become accustomed to all sorts of labels and seals of approval on products in the shopping process, from the Energy Star to sustainability standards. Next up, shoppers should prepare for a hacking-safe seal of approval in the works for home gadgets and appliances coming from the federal government (source).

Politics

Former President Trump said he's a 'crypto president' (Axios Crypto)

Former President Trump said he's a 'crypto president' at a San Francisco fundraiser. This statement comes as Trump is facing increasing scrutiny over his financial dealings, including his involvement in the cryptocurrency market (source).

Little Jackson Hole (Money Stuff)

A billionaire is facing backlash for trying to rename Wyoming town. The town of Jackson Hole is a popular tourist destination, and many residents are unhappy with the proposed name change (source).

Crypto

Stablecoin issuers brace for Europe's MiCA (Axios Crypto)

Europe will soon test the application of new crypto rules, and some of the industry’s biggest players are bracing for impact. Dominant U.S.-dollar-pegged stablecoin issuers and a couple of the largest crypto exchanges say they’re still working toward compliance with the new scheme going into effect June 30 (source).

Tokenized U.S. treasuries (Axios Crypto)

There’s a growing set of issuers putting U.S. treasuries on the blockchain, including asset managers like BlackRock and WisdomTree. Fidelity International, meanwhile, reportedly used JPMorgan’s private blockchain to tokenize money-market funds (source).

2X ether ETFs want to double your return (Axios Crypto)

ProShares, the firm behind the largest futures-based bitcoin ETF, launched a pair of ether funds that aim to double daily returns on ether, whether the price goes up, or down. These so-called leveraged ETFs beat the eight spot ether ETFs to market (source).

BNB token surges to a record high (Money Stuff)

The BNB token, a cryptocurrency linked to Binance and its incarcerated co-founder Changpeng Zhao, surged to a record high in the first week of his four-month jail sentence in the U.S. Its rally underscores Zhao’s status as the richest person ever to do time in a U.S federal lock up (source).

Others

Volvo recalls all fully electric EX30 cars on software glitch (Wing Briefing)

Volvo Car AB is recalling all of the almost 72,000 units it’s made of its new flagship model — the fully electric EX30 — due to a software issue. The automaker’s shares slumped as much as 3.5% in early trading in Stockholm on news the vehicles may have an error in their center screen that causes the speedometer to go into test mode when the car starts. To fix the glitch, an over-the-air software update is required, Volvo said in a statement Monday (source).

FDA approves two new Abbott over-the-counter continuous glucose monitors (Wing Briefing)

Abbott Laboratories announced Monday it received approval from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration for two new continuous glucose monitoring systems, including one for people who don’t have diabetes. Both will be available over the counter without a prescription. A continuous glucose monitor, or a CGM, is a small sensor that pokes through the skin and tracks a person’s glucose levels in real time (source).

U.K. and Canada privacy watchdogs investigating 23andMe data breach (Wing Briefing)

Privacy watchdogs in the U.K. and Canada have launched a joint investigation into the data breach at 23andMe last year. On Monday, the U.K.’s Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) and the Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada (OPC) announced their investigation into the genetic testing company, saying the organizations will leverage “the combined resources and expertise of their two offices.” (source).