Techmeme
July 19, 2020, 5:40 PM

Top News

Delian Asparouhov / Operators & Delian's Ramblings:
Despite its limitations, GPT-3, OpenAI's text-generating AI, excels at producing follow-on thoughts to input text and could thus succeed as a “writing buddy”  —  OpenAI, an AI research foundation started by Elon Musk, Sam Altman, Greg Brockman, and a few other leaders in ML …
Kira Tebbe / OneZero :
In 2019, Facebook, Apple, Amazon, Microsoft, and Google were collectively granted ~27,000 H-1B visas, over 30% of total visas available to private companies  —  Five tech companies use nearly 30,000 H1-B visas, while over 50% of graduate STEM degrees are earned by international students
Christopher Mims / Wall Street Journal:
Retail stores, which were closing due to declining foot traffic even before the pandemic, are now increasingly being turned into online fulfillment centers  —  As the demand for in-person shopping diminishes, landlords, startups and retailers are converting abandoned stores into online fulfillment centers
Suzanne Vranica / Wall Street Journal:
Sources: Disney has dramatically cut ad spending on Facebook and Instagram; Disney was Facebook's top US advertiser for H1 2020, per an estimate  —  Hundreds of advertisers have paused spending on the social network due to concerns about hate speech, divisive content
Shaun Nichols / The Register:
Researchers say seven Hong Kong-based “no log” VPNs have left 1TB+ of user logs and personally identifiable info exposed on the internet  —  Maybe it was the old Lionel Hutz play: 'No-logging VPN?  I meant, no!  Logging VPN!'  —  BIO EMAIL TWITTER
Olivia Solon / NBC News:
Profile of Child Rescue Coalition, whose tech is used in 96 countries including the US to help police triage child porn cases, as experts raise privacy concerns  —  BOCA RATON, Fla. — In December 2016, law enforcement agents seized computers and hard drives from the home of Tay Christopher Cooper …
Twitter:
Twitter provides an overview of what it knows about Wednesday's hack so far: how it happened, what the attackers accessed, how it reacted, and the next steps  —  As we've been informing via the @TwitterSupport account, on Wednesday, July 15, 2020, we detected a security incident at Twitter and took immediate action.
New York Times:
Sean Hollister / The Verge:

Sponsor Posts

Google:
Try Gemini 3 Pro  —  Google's newest and most intelligent AI model that helps you bring any idea to life
Shopify:
Shopify's new AI commerce stack  —  Their VP of Product digs into just-launched products to help entrepreneurs and developers build with the latest AI and tech.
Zoho:
Zoho People in 2025: A year in review  —  As we wrap up 2025, we're taking a moment to look back on a year filled with progress and transformation at Zoho People.  Our team has been constantly pushing boundaries …
IDrive:
Protecting your Cloud Applications Data  —  Backing up Office 365, Google Workspace, Dropbox & Box data is critical to preventing data loss or corruption, complying with laws and avoiding critical downtime in case of a disaster.

Featured Podcasts

Lenny's Podcast:
The coming AI security crisis (and what to do about it) | Sander Schulhoff
Interviews with world-class product leaders and growth experts to uncover actionable advice to help you build, launch, and grow your own product.
Subscribe to Lenny's Podcast.
Big Technology Podcast:
OpenAI's Potential, Google's Speedy Model, Copilot Hits Turbulence
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.
Hard Fork:
Why Roomba Died + Tech Predictions for 2026 + A Hard Forkin' Xmas Song
The future is already here. Each week, journalists Kevin Roose and Casey Newton explore and make sense of the latest in the rapidly changing world of tech.
Subscribe to Hard Fork.
Access:
Betting on reality with Kalshi CEO Tarek Mansour
A show about the tech industry's inside conversation, hosted by tech reporter Alex Heath and founder whisperer Ellis Hamburger.
Subscribe to Access.
Channels with Peter Kafka:
"Neither Side Is Used to Losing." Lucas Shaw on What's Next for Netflix and Paramount in the Battle for Warner Bros.
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.
Subscribe to Channels with Peter Kafka.
Tools and Weapons with Brad Smith:
Ted Sarandos: Netflix and how tech changed storytelling
Microsoft Vice Chair and President Brad Smith speaks with leaders in government, business, and culture to explore the most critical challenges at the intersection of technology and society.
Subscribe to Tools and Weapons with Brad Smith.
 

About This Page

This is a Techmeme archive page. It shows how the site appeared at 5:40 PM ET, July 19, 2020.

The most current version of the site as always is available at our home page. To view an earlier snapshot click here and then modify the date indicated.

More News

Jennifer Miller / New York Times:

Earlier Picks

Dave Furness / eSellerCafe:
Kari Soo Lindberg / Bloomberg: