10 things in tech you need to know today (GOOG, AAPL, SNAP, FB, AMZN)

jeff bezos
jeff bezos

Steve Jurvetson / Wikimedia Commons

Good morning! Here's the technology news you need to know this Thursday.

1. Google DeepMind's AlphaGo artificial intelligence agent is now smarter than ever and taught itself how to play Go. The new agent, named AlphaGo Zero, beat the previous agent 100 games to 0 after just three days of practice.

2. Apple has new self-driving car hardware covered with iPod-style white plastic. The cars have a lot of different sensors, including six Velodyne lidar sensors.

3. A former Uber executive was dropped from a lawsuit involving a woman who was allegedly raped by a driver. Emil Michael, Uber's former senior vice president of business who resigned in June, is no longer a defendant.

4. Google put a custom, self-designed chip inside its latest flagship smartphone. For now, Google's IPU is dormant inside the Pixel 2 devices.

5. BTIG analysts apologised for being too optimistic about Snapchat. "We were wrong to not have a SELL rating," analyst Richard Greenfield said.

6. Some of the fake Facebook accounts tied to Russia also used the Messenger app. "My understanding at this stage is that it's a small number," said David Marcus, VP of Messenger.

7. New York City will be bathed with orange light in support of its bid for Amazon's $5 billion (£3.7 billion) headquarters. Many of the city's landmarks will be lit up in orange.

8. Games publisher EA has shut down the studio Visceral Games. The future of the unreleased 'Star Wars' game the studio was working on is now uncertain.

9. Google admitted its AI is making errors when deleting terrorist content off YouTube. "As we have increased the volume of videos for review by our teams, we have made some errors," the company wrote.

10. The Guardian is launching a £42 million venture capital fund to invest in startups. GMG Ventures will invest in "early stage businesses focused on developing the next generation of media technology."

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