Top stories today:

1. TikTok ban bill supported by White House
2. Epic sees iOS developer account terminated
3. 20-inch foldable MacBook has 2027 ETA: top analyst
4. OpenAI discussed board seat with YC CEO Garry Tan

0. Data and calendar

1. TikTok ban bill supported by White House

38% of Americans supported it in Dec., from 50% in Mar. 2023:

• ByteDance would be forced to sell TikTok in 180 days, or face a ban in the U.S.

• “This bill is important, we welcome this step,” said White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre.

• Current bill is bipartisan, co-authored by Reps. Michael Gallagher (R-Wis.) and Raja Krishnamoorthi (D-Ill.).

• 2022: TikTok government phone ban bill was signed by Biden.

2. Epic sees iOS developer account terminated, stopping plans to launch Fortnite with alternate app store in EU

Apple argued Epic's public criticism of the company suggests it will fail to comply with the new rules:

• The EU is already asking Apple questions.

Epic CEO Tim Sweeney continued to criticize Apple, in what will likely turn into more litigation

Relatedly, Google followed Apple and announced up to 27% fees for payments done outside its Play Store in the EU

• The main difference with Apple is that Google only charges those fees if the app was originally downloaded through Google's Play Store.

  • Apple charges fees for apps on all app stores, including the new 3rd-party ones that should be launching in the EU shortly.

4. 20-inch foldable MacBook has ”clear development schedule”, ETA 2027: top analyst

• Rumored to be 100% touchscreen, potentially useful as a laptop, iPad, and 4K monitor.

5. OpenAI discussed board seat with YC CEO Garry Tan

• “Early this year”: when the discussions happened.

• Strong ally of Sam Altman, who himself was the President of Y Combinator from 2014 to 2019.

• Coming weeks: the board is expected to announce new members and the results from the legal probe of Sam Altman's firing and rehiring in November.

6. GPT-4 top model for reciting books verbatim: study

Courts have not fully ruled at which point reciting books goes from fair use to a violation of copyright

Fair use is generally seen as a balancing test of 4 criteria:

1. Purpose of use (commercial vs. non-commercial).

2. Nature of copyrighted work (creative, fiction work generally more protected).

3. Amount of the portion used.

4. Effect on the market or value of work (will people really stop buying books because ChatGPT can recite a passage?).

7. Cyber crimes potential losses +22% to $12.5B in 2023 in U.S., says FBI

The largest categories were investment crimes (mostly crypto) and business email compromise (BEC)

8. Interesting videos, posts, and memes

9. Other headlines

AI

• Meta building giant AI model to power “entire video” recommendations.

• Salesforce's no-code AI tool Einstein 1 Studio available to public.

Tech

• a16z nears raise of $6.9B in new funds.

• Robinhood: 25% of volume coming from outside trad. market hours.

• Apple gave up on building its Car as Level 5 autonomy couldn't be reached.

• SpaceX to launch Starship for 3rd time on Mar. 14.

• Apple spent $700M on top 3 movies, grossed $466M just on cinemas.

• citizenM has 14 tech-ready hotels stateside for the best night's sleep of your life.*

• BetterHelp: professional online therapy to help you win at work.*

• HubSpot: download the 2024 State of Marketing Report, for free.*

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Tech & law

• Ex-Googler charged with stealing AI trade secrets for China.

• U.S. pressures allies to further tighten restrictions on China.

• WhatsApp, Messenger to become interoperable via Signal protocol.

• Beijing's ‘Document 79’ details plan to replace U.S. with local alternatives.

Biotech

• FDA approves 1st OTC constant glucose monitor.

• Weight loss drugs also appear to reduce depression, anxiety.

Business

• Powell suggests reconsidering new Basel III banking rules seen as harsh.

• ADP employment report sees +140K new jobs, +5.1% in annual pay in Feb.

• NY Community Bancorp gets $1B cash injection from Mnuchin.

Crypto

• FTX asks for bids for Anthropic's 7.84% stake, min. valuation $15B.

• BlockFi, FTX reach settlement: BlockFi to receive $874M claim.

• Worldcoin banned in Spain for 3 months over privacy concerns.

• DCG files for dismissal of NYAG's lawsuit.

• Uniswap: making it easier to buy, sell and trade tokens on Ethereum.*

• tea Protocol: click to subscribe to tea's newsletter and learn more about how to get rewards for your open-source contributions.*

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U.S. politics

• Biden's SOTU address (9 PM ET) to include corporate tax hike proposal.

• Biden to request 1% nominal increase to defense budget, $850B.

• House passes another bill to avert partial shutdown, 339-85.

• Trump again challenges Biden to debate, “anytime.”

• McConnell announces support for Trump for president.

• Alec Baldwin-linked armorer convicted of manslaughter, facing 1.5 years.

World

• Houthi missile kills 3 in civilian ship near Yemen.

• Biden admin may impose “conditionality” on Israeli weapons use.

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