Techmeme: Accenture will begin selling SynOps, a robotic process automation system that it claims was used internally to automate tasks and redeploy about 40,000 workers (Jeremy Kahn/Bloomberg)

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February 3, 2019, 12:20 PM

Top News

Jez Corden / Windows Central:

Microsoft will announce Xbox Live SDK at GDC 2019 to enable cross-platform play on iOS, Android, Switch, Xbox, and Windows PCs — At GDC 2019, Microsoft is set to debut a new cross-platform development platform with the goal of bringing Xbox Live support to games on Android, iOS, Nintendo Switch, in addition to PC and Xbox consoles.

More: GDC SF 2019, Engadget, and Neowin. Tweets: @benbajarin

Josh Dzieza / The Verge:

As machine learning algorithms get as good as humans at text, image, and speech recognition, Google's CAPTCHA are getting too hard for humans to solve — At some point last year, Google's constant requests to prove I'm human began to feel increasingly aggressive.

Tweets: @distributeddave, @charlesflehman, @bozhobg, @_am1t, and @joshdzieza

Jeremy Kahn / Bloomberg:

Accenture will begin selling SynOps, a robotic process automation system that it claims was used internally to automate tasks and redeploy about 40,000 workers — - Company unveils new system to help firms streamline work — Consulting firm says clients testing system saved millions

More: Gizmodo, Accenture Newsroom, FierceTelecom, PYMNTS.com, and ZDNet. Tweets: @accountingtoday

Jennings Brown / Gizmodo:

A look inside Blind's anonymous chat forum used by Google employees shows transphobic and racist comments and messages critical of Google's diversity efforts — In early January, Google systems reliability engineer Liz Fong-Jones announced she was leaving the company after 11 years …

More: Wired

Karl Bode / Motherboard:

AT&T lost 14% or 267K DirecTV Now subscribers in Q4 after a $5 price hike in the summer, as it struggles with managing debt from DirecTV and Time Warner deals — Massive merger debt forced company to raise rates, only driving users to cut the cord even faster.

More: SlashGear. Tweets: @trengriffin

Colin Lecher / The Verge:

Housing advocates say automated tools from companies like CoreLogic, used by landlords to screen tenants, fail to capture the complexity of criminal records — But advocates say algorithms can't capture the complexity of criminal records — Mikhail Arroyo had made it out of the coma …

Tweets: @mims

Amy Gesenhues / Marketing Land:

MediaRadar: YouTube 2018 ad revenue rose 11% YoY, as Geico and Samsung accounted for 11.5% of revenue and media and entertainment companies brought in 30%+ — YouTube ad revenues increased 11 percent year-over-year in 2018, according to MediaRadar. — YouTube saw a 51 percent ad renewal …

Bryan Menegus / Gizmodo:

Rekognition's only known law enforcement client does not use “confidence threshold”, undermining Amazon's defense against research showing the software's bias — Faced with two independent studies that found its facial recognition software returns inaccurate or biased results …

More: The Register, Wired, and Forbes

Tweets: @jovialjoy, @techworkersco, @profferguson, @lam_barrett, @sidneyfussell, and @bryandisagrees

David Canellis / The Next Web:

An Italian judge orders Francesco Firano, founder of cryptocurrency exchange BitGrail, to repay the $170M worth of cryptocurrency that went “missing” early 2018 — THAT'S IF HE EVEN HAS IT ANYMORE ... An Italian judge has reportedly ordered Francesco Firano …

More: Bitcoin News, Cointelegraph.com News, PYMNTS.com, Ethereum World News, CoinGeek, and The Block

Dan Goodin / Ars Technica:

Google bans 29 apps downloaded 4.3M+ times from the Play Store after researchers discovered they were being used to perform malicious acts like serve scam ads — The 29 apps concealed their malice and were hard for many infected users to uninstall. — Google has banned dozens …

More: Engadget, Firstpost, TrendLabs Security …, SlashGear, and Softpedia News

Tweets: @shonatiger, @seldo, and @hiep_co

Daniel Funke / Poynter:

Snopes pulls out of Facebook partnership, says Facebook's closed, manual fact-checking entry system is too labor intensive and fails to benefit the whole web — Snopes is no longer debunking misinformation in partnership with Facebook. In a statement published Friday …

More: Snopes.com, The Atlantic, BetaNews, TechSpot, CNBC, Fossbytes, BBC, The Verge, Bloomberg, ResearchBuzz, MSPoweruser, The Guardian, Notes from Silicon Valley, Quartz, Adweek, Boing Boing, Engadget, Fortune, CNET, Mashable, and TechCrunch

Tweets: @mimbsy, @shiraovide, @db, @daveleebbc, @shortformernie, @dkthomp, @alexstamos, @sarahfrier, @mantzarlis, @tarletong, @bendwalsh, and @matthewstoller

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From Mediagazer

CNBC:

James Cameron blasts Netflix's proposed acquisition of WBD, in a letter to Senator Mike Lee, calling it “disastrous for the theatrical motion picture business”

Marina Adami / Nieman Lab:

Editors and freelance journalists say AI has brought more productivity, increased expectations of speed, a need for more vetting, and sometimes job-loss fears

Hanaa' Tameez / Nieman Lab:

Substack announces new tools to help writers use Polymarket data and adds Polymarket to its sponsorship pilot, prompting questions from some journalists

More News

Yogita Khatri / CoinDesk:

The central banks of Saudi Arabia and UAE launch a trial project for a cryptocurrency called Aber, to facilitate financial settlements between the two countries

Meghan Brown / ENGINEERING.com:

DeepSolar Project, using machine learning and 1B+ satellite images, claims it found 1.47M solar installations in the US, much more than commonly cited estimates

More: SlashGear

Benedict Evans:

With 100M devices sold, Alexa has achieved some level of product-market fit, but Amazon is still looking for Alexa's strategic place within its business

More: RAIN News. Tweets: @ldignan and @valaafshar

Earlier Picks

Mikey Campbell / AppleInsider:

Report: Bill Stasior no longer in charge of Siri as team's strategy shifts from minor updates to long-term research as part new Apple AI chief's restructuring

More: The Information, Cult of Mac, iMore, MAC blog, TechCrunch, SlashGear, MacRumors, and 9to5Mac. Tweets: @aatilley

Brian Fung / Washington Post:

In day one of arguments, the FCC faced tough questions from a three-judge panel on its definition of broadband and potential issues for public safety agencies

More: Ars Technica, Reuters, New York Times, The Verge, Android Authority, and Silicon Florist. Tweets: @hshaban