 | Dec 12, 2024 | | | | Supported by  | | | | | Happy Thursday! Google announces the second generation of its Gemini AI models. TikTok's e-commerce platform, TikTok Shop, becomes available in Spain and Ireland. A teardown reveals Huawei's chipmaking technology has stalled.
| | | | Google announced the second generation of its Gemini conversational AI on Wednesday, making a new, experimental version of Flash, its smaller and cheaper AI, available to developers. A generally available version of the model, which will be able to process and output text, images and audio, will come in January, the company said. Google also announced updates to Project Astra, its AI assistant for phones. The updates allow the assistant to understand multiple languages and access Google Search and Maps when responding to user questions. The company separately announced Project Mariner, a computer-using agent that can take actions on users' browsers, and an AI coding assistant called Jules. The Information first reported in October on Google's computer-using agent and the company's plan to announce the agent and Gemini 2.0 in December. The company additionally announced "Deep Research," an AI assistant available through Gemini Advanced that can conduct deeper research for users by browsing the web and compiling relevant information and links in a Google Doc. Google also said that its sixth generation AI chip, which was first announced in May, would now be generally available. | | | | TikTok's e-commerce platform, TikTok Shop, became available in Spain and Ireland as the video app tries to expand its business in Europe. The move in Europe comes at a time when TikTok is facing a crisis in the U.S. Last week, a court ruling upheld a U.S. law that will force a ban of the app on Jan. 19 if it doesn't sever ties with its Chinese parent company ByteDance. TikTok this week asked for a temporary injunction to suspend the January ban as it appeals the case to the Supreme Court. Given the growing possibility that TikTok will be forced to shut down in the U.S., other regions such as Europe could become more important for TikTok. While TikTok Shop has been available in the U.K. for a few years, the app's plans to expand the e-commerce business into other European markets have faced delays. Other than Spain and Ireland, TikTok Shop has also been looking into Germany, France and Italy as it plots further expansion in the continent, according to employees. | | | | The main chip in Huawei's newest flagship smartphone is only an incremental upgrade over its predecessor, according to a teardown by research firm TechInsights. The small update to the processor suggests that advancements in China's chip-making abilities have slowed. Huawei surprised the U.S. government and semiconductor analysts last September when it released a smartphone with a chip that used an advanced manufacturing process it had been banned from accessing since 2020. Although the chip was several generations behind the world's most cutting-edge chip fabrication techniques, it still was a milestone for China's leading chipmaker, Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corp. However, the chip in Huawei's flagship Mate 70 Pro+ smartphone, which was released in November, still uses the same manufacturing process as last year's chip. The use of last year's technology is likely because Huawei ran into production problems with a more advanced chip-making process that had been initially planned. The issue delayed the smartphone's release by several months, The Information previously reported. | | | | Stitch Fix shares surged more than 47% on Wednesday, after the online styling service reported net revenue for the quarter ended in November of $318.8 million, a 12.6% drop from the year ago period but a smaller decline than the company had projected. The company's revenue has been shrinking since mid-2022, and in response, Stitch Fix has been cutting costs to try to turn profitable. The company also boosted its revenue outlook for its current fiscal year, which began in August, to between $1.14 billion and $1.18 billion, a decrease between 12% and 15% from the prior year. Stitch Fix had previously projected that revenue would decline between 13% and 17% in the current fiscal year. Stitch Fix's number of active clients continued to decrease, but the company has boosted its average revenue per customer and its gross margins by improving its inventory planning and adding a wider variety of styles. CEO Matt Baer told analysts on Tuesday that Stitch Fix planned to return to revenue growth by the end of fiscal 2026. | | | | Echo AI, whose generative artificial intelligence tools allow companies to analyze customer conversations, has been bought by Calabrio, a maker of software for contact centers that's owned by private equity firm Thoma Bravo, according to Echo CEO Alexander Kvamme. Seven-year-old Echo was one of 78 startups included on The Information's list of generative AI startups that were likely acquisition targets because they had not raised money in at least two years or because they were developing cost-intensive products like foundation models or robots. Echo, with 40 employees, had raised $35 million from investors including Kleiner Perkins, Insight Partners and Quiet Capital, most recently in April 2021. Echo's employees started integrating their technology into Calabrio's offerings this week, said Kvamme on LinkedIn. Terms of the buyout weren't disclosed. | | | | Stablecoin issuer Circle and crypto exchange Binance announced a partnership on Wednesday to expand adoption of Circle's USDC stablecoin, by making it more "extensively available" across Binance's trading products and other services. The announcement is notable given the previously frosty relationship between the two firms. In 2022, Binance decided to automatically convert users' USDC on its platform into Binance's BUSD stablecoins, hurting Circle's market share. But in 2023, New York regulators ordered a winddown of Binance's BUSD. The new partnership could help Circle catch up with Tether, which is the world's biggest stablecoin and commonly used on Binance. Binance will also hold Circle's USDC, which is backed by cash and government debt and designed to maintain a peg to the U.S. dollar, for its own corporate treasury. Circle declined to disclose terms of the partnership with Binance, including whether there's a revenue-sharing agreement. Circle currently shares a portion of the interest income generated by stablecoin reserve assets with Coinbase, its main distribution partner. | | | | | Popular articles By Wayne Ma and Qianer Liu
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