After a big decline in 2022, Meta’s stock has risen 72%+ since November 3, one of the S&P 500 Index’s best-performing stocks, adding $200B+ to its market cap (Subrat Patnaik/Bloomberg)

Subrat Patnaik / Bloomberg: After a big decline in 2022, Meta’s stock has risen 72%+ since November 3, one of the S&P 500 Index’s best-performing stocks, adding $200B+ to its market cap  —  A spectacular turnaround in Meta Platforms Inc.’s stock is bringing back flashes of Big Tech heydays.

Sony announces a beta version of Discord for the PlayStation 5 in the US, Canada, Japan, and the UK, adds Variable Refresh Rate support for 1440p, and more (Tom Warren/The Verge)

Tom Warren / The Verge: Sony announces a beta version of Discord for the PlayStation 5 in the US, Canada, Japan, and the UK, adds Variable Refresh Rate support for 1440p, and more  —  Beta testers will be able to join Discord voice calls on a PS5 console in the US, Canada, Japan, and UK […]

A look at OpenAI’s open-source speech recognition software Whisper, which can transcribe speech in more than 90 languages, outperforming humans in some of them (James Somers/New Yorker)

James Somers / New Yorker: A look at OpenAI’s open-source speech recognition software Whisper, which can transcribe speech in more than 90 languages, outperforming humans in some of them  —  ChatGPT is in the spotlight, but it’s Whisper—OpenAI’s open-source speech-transcription program—that shows us where machine learning is going.

Mark Zuckerberg says Meta’s management theme in 2023 is the “Year of Efficiency” and emphasizes the role of AI in driving the company forward (Taylor Hatmaker/TechCrunch)

Taylor Hatmaker / TechCrunch: Mark Zuckerberg says Meta’s management theme in 2023 is the “Year of Efficiency” and emphasizes the role of AI in driving the company forward  —  Meta is all-in on becoming a lean, mean cash-printing machine.  —  In its Q4 earnings call on Wednesday, Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg described …

Netflix says password sharing rules for the US are not set yet and removes from its US help page rules saying users must connect to primary Wi-Fi every 31 days (Emma Roth/The Verge)

Emma Roth / The Verge: Netflix says password sharing rules for the US are not set yet and removes from its US help page rules saying users must connect to primary Wi-Fi every 31 days  —  Based on info sourced from Netflix’s support pages, The Streamable reported on Tuesday details about its upcoming anti-password sharing […]

An interview with Chris Miller, a Tufts professor and author of the book Chip War, on EUV lithography, ASML’s role in global chip manufacturing, TSMC, and more (Nilay Patel/The Verge)

Nilay Patel / The Verge: An interview with Chris Miller, a Tufts professor and author of the book Chip War, on EUV lithography, ASML’s role in global chip manufacturing, TSMC, and more  —  Professor Chris Miller’s new book Chip War explains the complicated global politics inside your iPhone.

A look at Spanish-language livestreaming growth on Twitch; the platform’s audience for Spanish, its fastest-growing language, grew sixfold from 2019 to 2022 (Cecilia D’Anastasio/Bloomberg)

Cecilia D’Anastasio / Bloomberg: A look at Spanish-language livestreaming growth on Twitch; the platform’s audience for Spanish, its fastest-growing language, grew sixfold from 2019 to 2022  —  Samantha Rivera was studying engineering in Mexico in 2020 when a group of friends convinced her she could draw an audience …

A report by the White House’s NTIA describes Apple and Google as “gatekeepers” of mobile app stores and suggests legislation to improve competition and choice (Ashley Gold/Axios)

Ashley Gold / Axios: A report by the White House’s NTIA describes Apple and Google as “gatekeepers” of mobile app stores and suggests legislation to improve competition and choice  —  A new Biden administration report describes Apple and Google as “gatekeepers” of mobile app stores and suggests legislation …

Sources: Meta executives are debating whether to relax the company’s long-standing opposition to sharing ad revenue with creators, as it seeks to boost Reels (Sylvia Varnham O’Regan/The Information)

Sylvia Varnham O’Regan / The Information: Sources: Meta executives are debating whether to relax the company’s long-standing opposition to sharing ad revenue with creators, as it seeks to boost Reels  —  When Wall Street analysts dial into an earnings call tomorrow with Mark Zuckerberg, they’re likely to pepper the Meta Platforms CEO …

Microsoft disabled multiple fraudulent, verified Microsoft Cloud Partner Program accounts for creating malicious OAuth apps used to steal customers’ emails (Bill Toulas/BleepingComputer)

Bill Toulas / BleepingComputer: Microsoft disabled multiple fraudulent, verified Microsoft Cloud Partner Program accounts for creating malicious OAuth apps used to steal customers’ emails  —  Microsoft has disabled multiple fraudulent, verified Microsoft Partner Network accounts for creating malicious OAuth applications …

EA Q3: revenue up 5% YoY to $1.88B, vs. $2.5B est., net income up 209% YoY to $204M, net bookings down 9% YoY to $2.34B, and lowers FY guidance; stock drops 5%+ (TJ Denzer/Shacknews)

TJ Denzer / Shacknews: EA Q3: revenue up 5% YoY to $1.88B, vs. $2.5B est., net income up 209% YoY to $204M, net bookings down 9% YoY to $2.34B, and lowers FY guidance; stock drops 5%+  —  The game publishing giant reduced its full year revenue expectations by about half a billion dollars in its […]

Six with ties to MIT honored as 2022 ACM Fellows

On Jan. 18, the Association for Computing Machinery (ACM) announced its 2022 fellows, those it recognizes “for significant contributions in areas including cybersecurity, human-computer interaction, mobile computing, and recommender systems among many other areas.” Included in the crop of new fellows were six distinguished scientists with ties to MIT. Constantinos Daskalakis, the Armen Avanessians (1982) […]

To decarbonize the chemical industry, electrify it

The chemical industry is the world’s largest industrial energy consumer and the third-largest source of industrial emissions, according to the International Energy Agency. In 2019, the industrial sector as a whole was responsible for 24 percent of global greenhouse gas emissions. And yet, as the world races to find pathways to decarbonization, the chemical industry […]

Blue-sky thinking and the next 150-year chair

A major aspect of sustainability — a core component in many MIT School of Architecture and Planning (SA+P) courses — is considering the future effect of any given business practice or product. Sustainability was top-of-mind for Skylar Tibbits, associate professor of design research and director of MIT’s design major and minor programs, and Jeremy Carmine […]

An in-depth analysis of Yandex’s leaked source code shows 17,854 ranking factors, scraping Google, Bing, YouTube, and TikTok, “Vital Hosts” boosts, and more (Michael King/Search Engine Land)

Michael King / Search Engine Land: An in-depth analysis of Yandex’s leaked source code shows 17,854 ranking factors, scraping Google, Bing, YouTube, and TikTok, “Vital Hosts” boosts, and more  —  Yandex isn’t Google, but there is a lot SEOs can learn about how a modern search engine is built from reviewing this codebase.

Spotify reports Q4 revenue up 18% YoY to €3.2B and a €270M loss, up from €39M YoY, as operating costs rose 44% YoY; paying subscribers were up 10M to 205M (Anna Nicolaou/Financial Times)

Anna Nicolaou / Financial Times: Spotify reports Q4 revenue up 18% YoY to €3.2B and a €270M loss, up from €39M YoY, as operating costs rose 44% YoY; paying subscribers were up 10M to 205M  —  Music streaming group adds subscribers but is hit by rise in operating expenses  —  Spotify’s losses ballooned …

Instagram launches Notes, its AIM-like text status feature, in Europe and Japan, delayed to comply with local laws, expanding on Asia, North America, and LatAm (Jay Peters/The Verge)

Jay Peters / The Verge: Instagram launches Notes, its AIM-like text status feature, in Europe and Japan, delayed to comply with local laws, expanding on Asia, North America, and LatAm  —  Instagram Notes, the social network’s recently launched text status feature that reminds me of the AOL Instant Messenger away messages …

Paying it forward

Since arriving at MIT in fall 2019, senior Sherry Nyeo has conducted groundbreaking work in multiple labs on campus, acted as a mentor to countless other students, and made a lasting mark on the Institute community. But despite her well-earned bragging rights, Nyeo isn’t one to boast. Instead, she takes every opportunity to express just […]

Payment card services company Marqeta agrees to acquire New York-based fintech infrastructure startup Power Finance for $223M, plus $52M subject to a milestone (Mary Ann Azevedo/TechCrunch)

Mary Ann Azevedo / TechCrunch: Payment card services company Marqeta agrees to acquire New York-based fintech infrastructure startup Power Finance for $223M, plus $52M subject to a milestone  —  Marqeta has agreed to acquire two-year-old fintech infrastructure startup Power Finance for $223 million in cash …

The US NLRB says comments by Apple executives and policies imposed on employees violate workers’ rights, after a 2021 complaint by former employee Ashley Gjøvik (Josh Eidelson/Bloomberg)

Josh Eidelson / Bloomberg: The US NLRB says comments by Apple executives and policies imposed on employees violate workers’ rights, after a 2021 complaint by former employee Ashley Gjøvik  —  Comments by Apple Inc. executives and policies imposed on employees have been deemed illegal by US National Labor Relations …

Sources: the US Department of Commerce told some companies it would no longer grant licenses to export US technology to Huawei, as it moves toward a total ban (Demetri Sevastopulo/Financial Times)

Demetri Sevastopulo / Financial Times: Sources: the US Department of Commerce told some companies it would no longer grant licenses to export US technology to Huawei, as it moves toward a total ban  —  White House moving closer to imposing total ban on sale of American tech to Chinese company  —  The Biden administration …