(WSJ) What are venture fund portfolios worth now? There is little agreement on that question today, an issue that is slowing down an already sedate venture fundraising market.  Once all the data is tallied, 2023 is expected to be the worst year for venture fundraising globally since 2015, according to both research firms Preqin and…

(NYT) The New York Times sued OpenAI and Microsoft for copyright infringement on Wednesday, opening a new front in the increasingly intense legal battle over the unauthorized use of published work to train artificial intelligence technologies. The Times is the first major American media organization to sue the companies, the creators of ChatGPT and other…

(TechCrunch) Should I go public with the story about the time I was told I can’t be promoted for being a white man?” Shaun Maguire, a partner at Sequoia Capital, tweeted recently. The responses to his tweet are split between the two factions that have appeared within venture in recent years: those who support diversity, equity and inclusion…

(The Information) Last month, OpenAI fired and then rehired CEO Sam Altman. When the dust settled, Open AI emerged looking even more like a for-profit corporation than a nonprofit, with a board that is indistinguishable from those of other tech startups—right down to the lack of diversity. This is a clear departure from the company’s 2015 origins…

(Bloomberg) Rite Aid Corp. must stop using facial recognition for the next five years as part of a privacy settlement with the US Federal Trade Commission, which said the pharmacy chain misused the technology to mistakenly tag consumers as shoplifters. In a complaint filed in federal court Tuesday, the FTC said Rite Aid used a facial recognition…

(WSJ) Elon Musk’s social-media platform X will face a formal probe in Europe over its handling of illegal content and disinformation in a first test of the European Union’s new online-content law. The European Commission, the bloc’s executive arm, said Monday it opened a formal infringement proceeding against X, the platform formerly known as Twitter,…

(Axios) The divide among venture capitalists over the development of artificial intelligence is becoming increasingly crystalized. Why it matters: “It’s the new internet,” VCs say, regardless of which camp they fall into. Driving the news: On Thursday, venture firm Andreessen Horowitz announced it plans to start donating to members of Congress who are aligned with its pro-technology aims. Read more here.

(TechCrunch) A growing number of venture firms may be uncorking champagne ahead of the New Year. Today, a handful of investment firms announced new funds: Artis Ventures, BoxGroup, Playground Global and Singular all closed on funds, while Partech said it was launching a €360 million venture fund. Against a backdrop of layoffs and continuing economic uncertainty, the announcements — particularly in such quick…

(Amnesty International) Leading venture capital (VC) firms are failing in their responsibility to respect human rights, especially in relation to new Generative AI technologies, warned Amnesty International USA (AIUSA) and the Business & Human Rights Resource Centre in research released today. Leading VC firms have refused to implement basic human rights due diligence processes to ensure the companies and technologies they…

(Bloomberg) European Union negotiators backed a deal to potentially reclassify millions of people working for ride-hailing and food-delivery apps as employees in a set of rules that could cost the industry billions of euros each year. The provisional deal could require platforms to give full status to the estimated 5.5 million workers who meet at least two…