Re/code Daily - Google Is Working On an AI-Powered Messaging Service

Read Now

•	Google is working on a messaging service that will use artificially intelligent chatbots to let users do things like make restaurant reservations or hail a cab. Google is locked in a battle for AI dominance with Facebook, which unveiled its own AI- and human-powered prototype chatbot for Messenger, M, a few months ago. [Alistair Barr \| The Wall Street Journal]
•	Foursquare, the location check-in service with 50 million monthly active users, has struggled to grow in the last couple years. That's why the company is in talks to raise between $20 million and $40 million at a $250 million valuation, less than half of what it was worth in 2013. Foursquare is also talking to potential buyers about a sale. [Peter Kafka \| Re/code]
•	YouTube says T-Mobile is throttling its traffic, reducing the quality of streams as part of the cell carrier's controversial "Binge On" program. "Binge On" waives data fees for T-Mobile customers who watch videos via some services, and YouTube isn't a T-Mobile Partner. [John D. McKinnon and Thomas Gryta \| The Wall Street Journal]
•	Disney is in talks with Univision to sell its stake in Fusion, the online media venture jointly funded by both companies. Fusion has struggled to develop an audience, and a New York Times article from earlier this year described a rudderless and toxic executive culture. Disney, feeling the cord cutting squeeze, recently doubled its stake in an ostensible Fusion rival, Vice. [Emily Steel \| The New York Times]
•	Amazon is leasing planes, buying trucks and doing everything it can to wean itself off the shipping infrastructure of its longtime partner UPS. The relationship has become strained over the last couple years as Amazon has grown its own shipping network. [Laura Stevens and Greg Bensinger \| The Wall Street Journal]