Facebook Acquires Blogging Site Storylane

Alibaba Cloud and Nvidia have announced they’re collaborating to develop an advanced AI solution for autonomous driving. This merging of two powerhouses in the AI industry marks a significant moment as they’re teaming up to improve upon and bring progress to autonomous driving. It was on September 20 when Alibaba shared further details through a news release which has been translated into English. Alibaba Cloud’s large language model series Qwen will be integrated into Nvidia’s Drive AGX Orin platform.

TikTok has removed accounts associated with certain Russian state media outlets as part of its efforts to protect the video-sharing platform from misinformation during the US elections. On Monday (Sept. 23), TikTok issued a report on the ongoing work to protect the video-based social media platform during the election period, highlighting that it had removed accounts belonging to the Russian state media outlets RT and Sputnik for engaging in what it called “covert influence operations.” The company offered examples such as targeting discourse around the Ukrainian conflict, political situations in Mexico, and promoting Russian policy. In a statement on its website, TikTok explained that the accounts associated with TV-Novosti and Rossiya Segodnya, the parent organizations of the RT television network and the Russian news agency Sputnik, had violated its community guidelines, in particular its ban on deceptive behavior. “Previously, these accounts were restricted in the EU and UK,” the statement explained. “Globally, under our state-affiliated media policy, their content was also ineligible for the ‘For You’ feed to limit attempts to influence foreign audiences on topics of global events and affairs, and their accounts were labeled as state-controlled media to provide important context about the source of the content. Russian state media on social media TikTok is not the only social media platform to ban certain Russian state media accounts, with Meta also making the same decision the week before.

Sony is expanding the reach of its wearable product Bravia Theater U as it launched in India on Monday (September 23). Bravia Theater U is a neckband that has been dubbed by the technology company as being able to provide “wearable cinematic bliss.” It’s essentially a wireless speaker for movies and music that sits around the neck and it is now available in India for the price of Rs 24,990 (approximately $298). The company claims the device has a 12-hour battery life, along with a multipoint connection which means it can connect to and switch between two devices simultaneously.

On Monday (Sep, 23) a new initiative was announced by the United States government, with eight of the biggest AI companies involved. The Secretary of State Antony Blinken launched the Partnership for Global Inclusivity on AI  to “harness the rapid advancement of artificial intelligence (AI) to advance sustainable development globally.” The scheme will bring together the Department of State, Amazon, Anthropic, Google, IBM, Meta, Microsoft, Nvidia, and OpenAI. Over $100 million has been committed by the organizations involved to “unlock AI’s potential as a powerful tool for sustainable development and improved quality of life in developing countries, while maintaining an unwavering commitment to safety, security, and trustworthiness in AI systems.” The partnership will focus on three areas.

The American cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase faced off with the U. S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) in a federal appeals court on Monday (Sep. 23) over crypto regulations. This back-and-forth started when Coinbase filed a lawsuit against the SEC in 2023. The company asked them to act on its 2022 petition which requested the Commission to “propose and adopt rules to govern the regulation of securities that are offered and traded via digitally native methods, including potential rules to identify which digital assets are securities.” The petition was then denied by the SEC in December of 2023, with the crypto exchange asking, on Monday, a federal appeals court to overturn that denial. Three-judge appeals court heard arguments from Coinbase and US SEC According to Reuters, Eugene Scalia who is a lawyer for Coinbase, told the three-judge appeals court that the SEC had been arbitrary and capricious in not giving Coinbase more answers on how to register with the agency and comply with U.

Polymarket is aiming to raise an extra $50 million in new capital amongst expected plans of a new token launch. Blockchain-based betting platform Polymarket is aiming to raise $50 million in new capital through a fresh funding round, with investors issuing token warrants. This will give them the right to purchase tokens if Polymarket decides to launch them in the future, according to sources close to the company as reported by The Information. This comes after the company raised $70 million in two investment rounds this year, split between $25 million in a Series A led by General Catalyst and another $45 million in Series B led by Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin.