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| Here's a look at today's Tech briefing: - Elon Musk sparks controversy with fiery response to X advertiser exodus.
- Big Tech CEOs to testify before Senate on child safety.
- Tesla to deliver first Cybertrucks to customers today.
Beth
p/beth-duckett | |
| 1 | | Elon Musk sparked controversy by using profanity while discussing X's advertiser boycott at the 2023 DealBook Summit in New York. Over 100 major brands, including Airbnb, Apple, and IBM, have now paused advertising on X after Musk supported a post accusing Jewish communities of spreading "dialectical hatred against whites." More: - During Wednesday's summit, Musk said, "If somebody is going to try and blackmail me with advertising, blackmail me with money? Go f---yourself."
- The billionaire then waved to the audience and added, "Hey Bob," likely referring to Disney CEO Bob Iger, who has recently discussed the company's advertising withdrawal on X.
- Musk later said, "What this advertising boycott is going to do is, it's going to kill the company."
- However, he also apologized for his controversial remarks on X and acknowledged that his support of the antisemitic conspiracy theory was "one of the most foolish if not the most foolish thing I've ever done on the platform."
Zoom out: - X CEO Linda Yaccarino later addressed Musk's comment from the event, calling the interview "wide ranging and candid" and saying that "X is enabling an information independence that's uncomfortable for some people."
- The ad withdrawals are also linked to a recent Media Matters report, which showed that ads for IBM, Apple, Oracle, and others ran alongside X posts promoting Hitler and his Nazi Party.
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| 2 | | The CEOs of Meta, TikTok, Snap, X, and Discord will field questions about the online protection of children during a U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee hearing on Jan. 31. The hearing to address online child sexual exploitation was originally scheduled for Dec. 6. More: - The executives scheduled to testify include X CEO Linda Yaccarino; Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg; TikTok CEO Shou Zi Chew; Discord CEO Jason Citron; and Snap CEO Evan Spiegel.
- Zuckerberg and Chew voluntarily agreed to testify.
- Yaccarino, Citron, and Spiegel were issued subpoenas to testify due to "repeated refusals over weeks of negotiations," according to Sens. Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) and Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.), the chair and ranking member of the Judiciary Committee.
- Big Tech companies "finally are being forced to acknowledge their failures when it comes to protecting kids," the senators wrote in a statement.
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| 3 | | Tesla will finally deliver its first batch of Cybertruck models during an event today in Austin, Texas. The event at Tesla's Texas Gigafactory will be live-streamed at 3 p.m. ET on X and possibly Tesla's YouTube channel. More: - Following production delays, Tesla said it's ready to launch its first entry in the American pickup market, two years behind schedule and four years after its concept debut.
- Tesla is expected to unveil the Cybertruck's price during the event. It was initially priced between $39,990 and $69,990 but has since been removed from the website, suggesting a higher cost.
- According to Elon Musk, the electric truck's unique angular shape and stainless steel body have posed manufacturing challenges.
- "We dug our own grave with Cybertruck," Musk told investors last month, noting that it would take 12 to 18 months for the truck to be a major cash flow contributor.
- Tesla expects to reach an annual production rate of 250,000 Cybertrucks in 2025.
Zoom out: - The Cybertruck could potentially boost Tesla's market valuation toward $1 trillion, as noted by Wedbush analyst Dan Ives, who maintains a $310 stock-price target. Business Insider estimates that Tesla's market cap would reach $996B if shares achieve the target.
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| 4 | | Meta is gearing up to launch its Threads app, which competes with X/Twitter, in the European market in December, according to The Wall Street Journal. Expanding into the EU is expected to boost Threads' global engagement, which has waned after its initial surge in July. More: - Threads debuted across most of the world in July but was delayed in the European Union due to its stricter online service regulations.
- To comply with EU rules, Meta may offer a view-only mode of the text-based app in the bloc, allowing users to see content without a profile, though they may need one to post on Threads.
- It's unclear how Meta would create personalized recommendation algorithms for a view-only experience.
Zoom out: - Threads gained 100 million users in its first week but now has around 73 million monthly global users, according to Sensor Tower.
- In contrast, X has an estimated 365 million monthly global users.
- Last month, Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg said Threads could be on track to hit 1 billion in the next few years, with the EU expansion as a potential boost.
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| 5 | | British money transfer startup Zepz announced layoffs impacting less than 2% of its workforce. The company cut 26% of its workforce earlier this year. More: - Zepz reduced its workforce by 30 positions within its HR and marketing departments.
- The company, which was last valued at $5B, first achieved profitability last year.
- It also owns the remittance platforms WorldRemit and Sendwave,
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| 6 | | An AI system developed at Google DeepMind has predicted the structures of over 2 million new materials. The breakthrough is expected to speed up the development of new materials in areas like energy storage, solar cells, and superconductor chips. More: - Researchers at Google DeepMind and Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory developed the AI tool, called GNoME, using data from the Materials Project.
- In just 17 days, GNoME pinpointed 2.2 million potentially stable inorganic crystal structures.
- Out of those candidates, DeepMind selected the 381,000 most stable materials and added them to the ISCD, the world's largest database for completely identified inorganic crystal structures, expanding the number of known stable materials by a factor of 10.
- DeepMind collaborated with external researchers to validate the stability of the predicted materials, successfully synthesizing 736 of them.
- The research was published in two papers in the scientific journal Nature, which can be accessed here and here.
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| 7 | | Quick Hits: *This is sponsored content. | | | |
 | AI and technology writer | | Beth is a contributing editor and writer of Inside's AI and Tech newsletters. She has written for notable publications like USA Today and the Arizona Business Gazette. During her time as a public policy reporter at The Arizona Republic, she received recognition with a Pulitzer Prize nomination and a First Amendment Award for her collaborative reporting on pension cost increases. Beth also authored a book on the solar photovoltaic industry in 2016. You can reach her at Beth.Duckett@yahoo.com. | | This newsletter was edited by Eduardo Garcia | |
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