Techmeme
July 19, 2020, 6:25 AM

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 …
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
Nikhil Basu Trivedi / next big thing:
A look at the bifurcation of the VC industry between agglomerators, who invest at every stage and across every sector, and specialists, who focus on one  —  Welcome to issue #10 of next big thing.  —  On one side of the venture capital industry are the agglomerator firms.
More: Protocol
Kari Soo Lindberg / Bloomberg:
Trump campaign urges supporters to sign a petition to ban TikTok, saying TikTok has been caught “red handed by monitoring what is on your phone's Clipboard”  —  - Ads are targeting supporters in battleground election states  — Teens on TikTok signed up to Trump rally with no plans to go
Niall Firth / MIT Technology Review:
Critics contend that predictive policing algorithms need to be dismantled due to biased training data, even as advocates say that algorithms can be made fair  —  Lack of transparency and biased training data mean these tools are not fit for purpose.  If we can't fix them, we should ditch them.
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.
Sean Hollister / The Verge:
New York Times:
South China Morning Post:
CloudMinds CEO, a Chinese engineer who started the cloud-based robotics company in SV, says he will not consider US listing after sanctions hurt the business  —  CloudMinds lost almost 75 per cent of orders in the US and cut 80 per cent of its US workforce after Washington imposed sanctions …
Jennifer Miller / New York Times:
A look at startups that provide end-of-life services, from estate planning to online forums for grieving virtually, amid a surge in interest during the pandemic  —  The coronavirus pandemic has drawn new business to start-ups that provide end-of-life services, from estate planning to a final tweet.
Erin Griffith / New York Times:
Current and former employees provide an inside look at Airbnb amid layoffs, as its warm and fuzzy office culture met with the business realities of a pandemic  —  What happens when a kumbaya office culture meets the business realities of a pandemic?  —  SAN FRANCISCO — On May 5 …

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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

The Nick, Dick and Paul Show:
When AI Kills
Nick Bilton, Dick Costolo, and Paul Kedrosky pull back the curtain on AI, startups, and the future rushing toward us, all with healthy dose of irreverence.
Subscribe to The Nick, Dick and Paul Show.
Big Technology Podcast:
OpenAI vs. Anthropic's Direct Faceoff + Future of Agents — With Aaron Levie
The Big Technology Podcast takes you behind the scenes in the tech world featuring interviews with plugged-in insiders and outside agitators.
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Great Chat:
OpenAI's new media M&A and old media exposé
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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Invest Like the Best:
Alan Waxman - Private Credit and the Modern Financial System
The leading destination to learn about business and investing. We do this by showcasing exceptional talent and ideas.
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Channels with Peter Kafka:
What Happens When a "Succession" Writer Takes on Silicon Valley
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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Tools and Weapons with Brad Smith:
Ryan Roslansky: Turning AI Anxiety into Skills for the Future of Work
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.
 

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