Techmeme
June 3, 2021, 11:00 AM

Top News

Salvador Rodriguez / CNBC:
Twitter launches its subscription service Twitter Blue in Canada and Australia for CAD $3.49 and AU $4.49/month, with features like Undo Tweet, Bookmark Folders  —  - Twitter Blue is designed for power users who are willing to pay a monthly fee for exclusive features.
WABetaInfo:
Zuckerberg says WhatsApp is working on a Disappearing Mode for messages in all threads, View Once for photos and videos, and multi device support  —  Like Love Haha Wow Sad Angry  —  WhatsApp has unexpectedly reached out to me to confirm that some important features are coming on WhatsApp!
Zoe Schiffer / The Verge:
In an email, Tim Cook says Apple employees will be asked to return to offices on Mondays, Tuesdays, and Thursdays, starting in early September  —  Employees can work remotely for up to two weeks a year  —  Apple employees are being asked to return to the office three days a week starting in early September.
Paul R. La Monica / CNN:
NortonLifeLock says it's adding an Ethereum mining function to Norton 360, its paid antivirus software, initially to a small group of customers  —  New York (CNN Business)Mining for bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies is typically done by companies that own massive server farms operating outside of the United States.
Patrick McGee / Financial Times:
Tom Warren / The Verge:
Microsoft will detail its “next generation of Windows” at an event on June 24, with significant changes, including visual enhancements, expected  —  A special Windows event is coming later this month  —  Microsoft is planning to detail its “next generation of Windows” at an event later this month.
Lucas Matney / TechCrunch:
Twitter starts rolling out Birdwatch fact checking notes on iOS, Android, and desktop, visible only to participants in its pilot program  —  Twitter is looking to crowdsource its way out of misinformation woes with its new product Birdwatch which taps a network of engaged tweeters to add notes to misleading tweets.
Shirin Ghaffary / Vox:
Some current members of Google's ethical AI team say they have been in limbo for months and have serious doubts about whether Google can rebuild credibility  —  Six months after Timnit Gebru left, Google's ethical artificial intelligence team is still in a state of upheaval.
Coco Feng / South China Morning Post:
Chinese researchers unveil WuDao 2.0, an AI model they say was trained using 1.75T parameters, 10x more than GPT-3, to simulate conversational speech and more  —  The WuDao 2. natural language processing model had 1.75 trillion parameters, topping the 1.6 trillion that Google unveiled …
Yaron Steinbuch / New York Post:
In an email to Jewish employees, Google diversity strategy lead Kamau Bobb apologizes for a 2007 post in which he said Jews have “insatiable appetite for war”  —  Google's head of diversity strategy is under fire over a 2007 blog post in which he wrote that Jews have …
Michael McSweeney / The Block:
Google says it will allow ads for cryptocurrency exchanges and wallets in the US that meet certain requirements and are certified by Google starting August 3  —  Google is expanding the scope of its crypto-related advertisement policy, the latest development in a years-long back and forth from the tech giant.
Zack Whittaker / TechCrunch:
FireEye says it is selling its products business to PE firm Symphony Technology Group for $1.2B in cash; deal splits FireEye from digital forensics arm Mandiant  —  Cybersecurity giant FireEye has agreed to sell its products business to a consortium led by private equity firm Symphony Technology Group for $1.2 billion.
Paul Sawers / VentureBeat:
Realtime Robotics, which develops tech to let industrial robots autonomously move in dynamic, fast-moving environments, raises $31.4M Series A  —  Realtime Robotics, a company developing technology that enables robots to alter their motions in dynamic, fast-moving environments, has raised $31.4 million in a series A round of funding.
Adam Janofsky / The Record:
The FBI says ransomware group REvil is behind the ongoing attack targeting meatpacking company JBS  —  The US Federal Bureau of Investigation on Wednesday confirmed reports that the well-known cybercriminal group REvil (also known as Sodinokibi) is behind the ongoing ransomware attack targeting JBS …
Dan Taylor / Tech.eu:
UK-based Babylon Health to public through a SPAC merger at a valuation of $4.2B  —  Just when you thought the SPAC had been played out, London-based healthtech Babylon confirms the rumours and announces its plan to go public via a $4.2 billion merger with Alkuri Global Acquisition Corp, formerly known as Ark Global Acquisition Corp.
Juli Clover / MacRumors:
An Apple-commissioned study says the App Store ecosystem facilitated ~$643B in billings and sales globally in 2020, up 24% YoY  —  The App Store ecosystem facilitated an estimated $643 billion in billings and sales in 2020, an increase of 24 percent year-over-year, according …
Katie Roof / Bloomberg:
Alation, which offers data intelligence services including search, discovery, governance, and analytics, raises $110M at a $1.2B valuation  —  - Co. raised $110 million in new round led by Riverwood Capital  — Alation organizes data for clients including Cisco, DocuSign
Ingrid Lunden / TechCrunch:
Facebook says it will open the Messenger API for Instagram to all businesses, after announcing a closed beta in October 2020  —  F8 Refresh, Facebook's annual developer conference with a new twist — it's more pared down than in years past, and virtual — is going to be kicking off later today …

Sponsor Posts

Subquadratic:
Subquadratic: the LLM built for 12M-token reasoning  —  SubQ can reason across entire codebases and document sets in one pass with no RAG workarounds.  Read how SubQ 1.1 Small holds near-perfect retrieval out to 12M tokens.
Cloudflare:
Cloudflare Connect 2026: The Agentic Conference  —  Stop preparing for agents.  Start running them.  100+ sessions, workshops, and speakers from OpenAI, Arm, and Cloudflare across AI, security, and performance.
Zoho:
App Spotlight: Google Sheets Magic Lookup for Zoho CRM  —  Our App Spotlight brings you hand-picked apps to enhance the power of your Zoho apps and tools.  Visit Zoho Marketplace to explore all apps, integrations …
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

Big Technology Podcast:
Special Report: Will AI Wipe Out Humanity? (And Who Profits)
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:
The Atlantic's CEO on AI, Billionaire Owners, and Moonlighting as a Creator
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.
Sources:
Mark Zuckerberg on Muse, Meta's biggest AI bet yet
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.
Lenny's Podcast:
How we built Grok Bot in a month | Roman Ugarte (SpaceXAI)
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.
Invest Like the Best:
Walter Russell Mead - How America Keeps Winning
The leading destination to learn about business and investing. We do this by showcasing exceptional talent and ideas.
Subscribe to Invest Like the Best.
Grit:
The AI Race Has a Leaderboard | Arena CEO Anastasios Angelopoulos
Grit explores what it takes to create, build and scale world-class organizations.
Subscribe to Grit.
 

About This Page

This is a Techmeme archive page. It shows how the site appeared at 11:00 AM ET, June 3, 2021.

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

Li Yuan / New York Times:

Earlier Picks

Casey Newton / Platformer:
Ben Dummett / Wall Street Journal:
Arjun Kharpal / CNBC:
Kevin Breuninger / CNBC: