Texas Sues Meta Over Facial-Recognition Practices

Plus: Snapchat will put ads and share the money with creators, and more ...

Good Morning! Here is what’s on today’s edition:

• Texas Sues Meta Over Facebook's Facial-Recognition Practices. (John D. McKinnon via Wall Street Journal)

• Snapchat will put ads within stories and share the money with creators. (Mia Sato via The Verge)

• People Are Going Out Again, but Not to the Office. (Peter Grant via Wall Street Journal)

• Are lifelike digital humans the future of customer experience? (Rebecca Bellan via TechCrunch)

• Buffett bought $1bn stake in Activision weeks before Microsoft deal.(Eric Platt via Financial Times)

• How 5 women started the 'crypto coven,' a collection of NFT witches selling for over $6,000 each that's catching fire with women in VC. (Melia Russell via Business Insider)

• Tech Companies' Super Bowl Ads Leaned Into Dystopia. (Angela Watercutter via WIRED)

That’s it for today, see you tomorrow!

— Jose Montes de Oca

P.S. Was this forwarded to you? Sign up here.

---

Today’s pick

Texas Sues Meta Over Facebook's Facial-Recognition Practices

(John D. McKinnon via Wall Street Journal) The Texas attorney general filed a suit against Facebook parent Meta Platforms Inc. on Monday, charging that the social-media giant's longstanding and now discontinued use of facial-recognition technology violated that state's privacy protections for personal biometric data. Read More.

Allie Morris 🌟 @MorrisReports

AG @KenPaxtonTX is suing Facebook over its facial-recognition practices & today held a press conference in Marshall, where the suit is being filed. The @WSJ got an advanced copy: wsj.com/articles/texas… #txlege

wsj.comTexas Sues Meta Over Facebook’s Facial-Recognition PracticesThe state says the social-media giant violated privacy protections in a lawsuit, seeking civil penalties that a person familiar with the matter says range in the hundreds of billions of dollars.

---

Snapchat will put ads within stories and share the money with creators

(Mia Sato via The Verge) Snapchat is introducing a new way for creators on the app to earn money. The platform is testing mid-roll ads that appear in the Stories of a small group of US creators, with a wider rollout happening in the coming months. Read more.

The Verge @verge

Snapchat will put ads within stories and share the money with creators trib.al/VpOkJ5m

---

People Are Going Out Again, but Not to the Office

(Peter Grant via Wall Street Journal) Americans are dining again in restaurants, attending sporting events, and flying throughout the country. But most are still steering clear of their office building, a sign that more than health concerns are keeping workers away. Read more.

Helaine Olen @helaineolen

As I said a few weeks ago, the overlap between "too scared to go to an office" and "not too scared to go out to dinner, travel, etc." is not exactly a small one.

wsj.comPeople Are Going Out Again, but Not to the OfficeOnly a third of U.S. employees have returned to the office, as workers prefer remote work and companies fear ordering them back.

---

Are lifelike digital humans the future of customer experience?

(Rebecca Bellan via TechCrunch) Soul Machines, a New Zealand-based company that uses CGI, AI and natural language processing to create lifelike digital people who can interact with humans in real time, has raised $70 million in a Series B1 round. Read more.

TechCrunch @TechCrunch

Are lifelike digital humans the future of customer experience? tcrn.ch/34VamMK by @RebeccaBellan

tcrn.chAre lifelike digital humans the future of customer experience? – TechCrunchSoul Machines, a New Zealand-based company that uses CGI, AI and natural language processing to create lifelike digital people who can interact with humans in real time, has raised $70 million in a Series B1 round, bringing its total funding to $135 million. The startup will put the funds toward en…

---

Buffett bought $1bn stake in Activision weeks before Microsoft deal

(Eric Platt via Financial Times) Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway purchased a nearly $1bn stake in Activision Blizzard in the fourth quarter of 2021, weeks before the video game maker agreed to sell itself to Microsoft for $75bn. Read more.

Financial Times @FinancialTimes

Warren Buffett bought $1bn stake in Activision weeks before Microsoft deal

on.ft.comSubscribe to read | Financial TimesNews, analysis and comment from the Financial Times, the worldʼs leading global business publication

---

How 5 women started the 'crypto coven,' a collection of NFT witches selling for over $6,000 each that's catching fire with women in VC

(Melia Russell via Business Insider) The crypto coven is a set of 9,906 digital images of witches minted as NFTs. The project has struck a chord with women in Web3. Read more.

Melia Russell @meliarobin

I spoke to the female tech workers behind @crypto_coven, a collection of NFT witches that has carved a magical space in web3 for women and non-binary people. 🧹 businessinsider.com/crypto-coven-n…

businessinsider.comA collection of witch NFTs is catching fire with women, generating over $20 million in sales. Here’s how 5 friends created the ‘crypto cove…The crypto coven is a set of 9,906 digital images of witches minted as NFTs. The project has struck a chord with women in Web3.

---

Tech Companies' Super Bowl Ads Leaned Into Dystopia

(Angela Watercutter via WIRED) If Sunday’s Big Game commercials had any message, it was that corporations have a disconcerting vision for our future. Read more.

Angela Watercutter @WaterSlicer

“...if these companies aren’t two of the fiddlers playing while Rome burns, I’ll eat my hat. (This will be easy because the hat will be non-fungible and attached to my avatar in Horizon Worlds.)"

wired.comTech Companies’ Super Bowl Ads Leaned Into DystopiaIf Sunday’s Big Game commercials had any message, it was that corporations have a disconcerting vision for our future.

---

Thanks for reading to the bottom and soaking in our Newslit fuelled highlights for your morning.

I hope you found it interesting and, needless to say, if you have any questions or feedback let me know by hitting reply or on Twitter.

Take care,

Jose