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    • Corporate travel startup TripActions raises $154M Series C at a $1B+ valuation led by Andreessen Horowitz with Lightspeed, Zeev, and SGVC participating (Biz Carson/Forbes)

    Biz Carson / Forbes: Corporate travel startup TripActions raises $154M Series C at a $1B+ valuation led by Andreessen Horowitz with Lightspeed, Zeev, and SGVC participating  —  Corporate travel isn’t typically seen as a rewarding experience.  TripActions, a Palo Alto, Calif.-based startup now valued … Corporate travel startup TripActions raises 4M Series C at a

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    Put an ItsyBitsy Zork in your Pocket

    Before computer games had all these fancy graphics, text based games were a very popular genre. Rather than move a character on the screen, you’d type out commands for your player in sentence form which the game would interpret; decades before the “cloud” language processing technology that the likes of Amazon and Google currently use

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    • Development of digital-accessibility maps for disabled people is being spurred by new apps but many challenges remain as most maps depend on visual/textual data (Aimi Hamraie/The Atlantic)

    Aimi Hamraie / The Atlantic: Development of digital-accessibility maps for disabled people is being spurred by new apps but many challenges remain as most maps depend on visual/textual data  —  A new breed of accessibility apps can make life easier for people with disabilities.  They can also make it harder. Development of digital-accessibility maps for

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    • Sources: Alibaba's newly formed on-demand online services unit is valued at $30B after raising $4B, with $3B coming from Alibaba and SoftBank's Vision Fund (Reuters)

    Reuters: Sources: Alibaba’s newly formed on-demand online services unit is valued at $30B after raising $4B, with $3B coming from Alibaba and SoftBank’s Vision Fund  —  HONG KONG (Reuters) – Alibaba Group’s newly formed on-demand online services unit has rocketed in value to as much as $30 billion … Sources: Alibaba's newly formed on-demand online

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    • Tesla names board member and Telstra CFO Robyn Denholm as Chairman of the Board, replacing Elon Musk; Denholm to leave Telstra to work as Tesla chair full-time (Lora Kolodny/CNBC)

    Lora Kolodny / CNBC: Tesla names board member and Telstra CFO Robyn Denholm as Chairman of the Board, replacing Elon Musk; Denholm to leave Telstra to work as Tesla chair full-time  —  – Tesla delivered its largest quarterly profit in the company’s history in the third quarter of 2018, reporting about $6.8 billion … Tesla

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    • China's Xinhua News Agency launches "composite anchors", which combine images and voices of human anchors with text via AI tech from internet company Sogou (Li Tao/South China Morning Post)

    Li Tao / South China Morning Post: China’s Xinhua News Agency launches “composite anchors”, which combine images and voices of human anchors with text via AI tech from internet company Sogou  —  – AI anchors have the ability to work 24 hours a day provided human editors keep inputting text into the system China's Xinhua

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    • Portal doesn't listen to or view video calls, which are encrypted, runs camera and sound AI locally, and processes usage info like any device with FB apps (Facebook)

    Facebook: Portal doesn’t listen to or view video calls, which are encrypted, runs camera and sound AI locally, and processes usage info like any device with FB apps  —  We know there are some questions around Portal privacy and ads, so we’d like to provide more details on these topics.  —  Privacy and Security Portal

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    • Facebook Portal and Portal Plus video chat devices go on sale on Thursday on Portal online store, Amazon, and Best Buy (Megan Wollerton/CNET)

    Megan Wollerton / CNET: Facebook Portal and Portal Plus video chat devices go on sale on Thursday on Portal online store, Amazon, and Best Buy  —  Enlarge Image  —  Facebook on Wednesday announced retail availability for its Portal Plus and Portal smart displays on the Portal online store, Amazon and Best Buy. Facebook Portal and

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    • New Congress could align around imposing privacy rules on US tech giants, and directing new funds to improve internet service in rural parts of the country (Cristiano Lima/Politico)

    Cristiano Lima / Politico: New Congress could align around imposing privacy rules on US tech giants, and directing new funds to improve internet service in rural parts of the country  —  With help from John Hendel, Ashley Gold, Nancy Scola and Margaret Harding McGill  —  Editor’s Note: This edition of Morning Tech … New Congress

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    • Facebook, others made demonstrable progress in combating misinformation during the midterms but the problem is not going away due to engagement-based algorithms (Will Oremus/Slate)

    Will Oremus / Slate: Facebook, others made demonstrable progress in combating misinformation during the midterms but the problem is not going away due to engagement-based algorithms  —  Facebook and others have gotten more serious about hoaxes, hate speech, propaganda, and foreign election interference. Facebook, others made demonstrable progress in combating misinformation during the midterms but

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