Techmeme
November 27, 2019, 9:30 AM

Top News

Chris Welch / The Verge:
Twitter says accounts that have not been logged into for six months leading up to Dec. 11 will be removed, likely freeing up a large number of usernames  —  No exact date for when usernames will be available  —  Twitter is sending out emails to owners of inactive accounts with a warning …
Lucas Matney / TechCrunch:
Facebook buys the VR studio behind Beat Saber, one of virtual reality's biggest titles with over 1M copies sold since May 2018  —  Virtual reality doesn't have many hit games yet, but Facebook is buying the studio behind one of the platform's biggest titles.
CNBC:
Sources: Facebook made several bids to acquire Fitbit, including a final offer of $7.30/share, below Google's announced offer of ~$2.1B in cash at $7.35/share  —  - Facebook is “Party A,” the company that bid against Google to acquire Fitbit, according to sources familiar with the matter.
Leo Kelion / BBC:
US teen says TikTok blocked her from posting after she accused China of putting Muslims into concentration camps; TikTok blames other reasons for the suspension  —  A US teenager's TikTok video clip accusing China of putting Muslims into “concentration camps” has gone viral on the Chinese-owned social network.
Steven Scheer / Reuters:
Facebook sued by NSO Group employees who claim their private Facebook and Instagram accounts were unfairly blocked after WhatsApp had sued NSO Group last month  —  JERUSALEM (Reuters) - A group of employees from Israeli surveillance firm NSO Group filed a lawsuit against Facebook Inc on Tuesday …
Frank Pasquale / Law and Political Economy:
A look at the state of AI accountability research, which is focused not just on improving existing systems but also on whether such systems should ever be used  —  Over the past decade, algorithmic accountability has become an important concern for social scientists, computer scientists, journalists, and lawyers.
Sarah Perez / TechCrunch:
Amazon partners with pharmacy chain Giant Eagle to bring to Alexa prescription medication reminders and the ability to request refills  —  As Amazon moves further into the healthcare market, the company today is rolling out a medication management feature for Alexa owners.
Zack Whittaker / TechCrunch:
Kasada, which has developed tech to fight bot-powered attacks, says it has closed $7M Series A, which includes funding from its newest investor In-Q-Tel  —  Kasada, an anti-bot startup we profiled earlier this year, has raised $7 million in its Series A with In-Q-Tel, the non-profit venture arm …
More: FinSMEs and Kasada

Sponsor Posts

Command Line:
Bringing local models and sandboxed tools to Windows and GitHub Copilot  —  GitHub Copilot will soon determine when a task is best handled by on-device AI and when it needs cloud-scale models.
Will Reed:
The best sales leaders aren't job hunting.  Here's how to reach them without months of cold outreach.  —  Our team came from Box, Square, and Brex, so we already know the GTM leaders worth meeting.
Zoho:
Zoho Books now supports CT600 & Final Accounts Filing as an add-on in the FREE plan  —  Managing end-of-year filing for limited companies in the UK is often expensive and multi-layered.
IDrive:
Protecting your Cloud Applications Data  —  Backing up Office 365, Google Workspace, Dropbox & Salesforce data is critical to preventing data loss or corruption, complying with laws and avoiding critical downtime in case of a disaster.

Featured Podcasts

Sources:
Qualcomm's CEO on the coming AI phone supercycle
Candid conversations with the leaders shaping what's next in AI and the broader tech industry. Hosted by Alex Heath, who has covered Silicon Valley for more than a decade.
Subscribe to Sources.
The Upstarts Podcast:
Bringing Back Mammoths And Building Noah's Ark 2.0 | Colossal's Ben Lamm
Veteran tech reporter Alex Konrad sits down with breakout entrepreneurs taking on the status quo to shake up their fields in AI, design, nuclear energy, space, and more.
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Great Chat:
The launch industrial complex
A podcast mostly about tech. Brought to you weekly by Angela Du, Sally Shin, Mac Bohannon, Helen Min, and Ashley Mayer.
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Big Technology Podcast:
Can AI Keep Growing Exponentially? Let's Ask SemiAnalysis — With Dylan Patel and Jordan Nanos
The Big Technology Podcast takes you behind the scenes in the tech world featuring interviews with plugged-in insiders and outside agitators.
Subscribe to Big Technology Podcast.
Channels with Peter Kafka:
Larry Ellison's Media Ambitions & Kevin Roose on AI's Biggest Gamble
Media and tech aren't just intersecting - they're fully intertwined. To understand how those worlds work, Peter Kafka talks to industry leaders, upstarts and observers.
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Training Data:
Google's AI Infrastructure Chief, Amin Vahdat, on the Physics & Economics of Frontier AI
Sequoia Capital partners host conversations with leading AI builders and researchers to develop a deeper understanding of the evolving technologies and their implications.
Subscribe to Training Data.
 

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More News

David Dayen / American Prospect:
Kate Clark / TechCrunch:

Earlier Picks

David Streitfeld / New York Times:
Kurt Wagner / Bloomberg:
Bloomberg:
Kyle Wiggers / VentureBeat: