Techmeme
February 4, 2023, 3:25 PM

Top News

Reed Albergotti / Semafor:
A viral tweet alleges bias as ChatGPT refuses to write a poem about positive attributes of Trump but writes one about Biden; sources: OpenAI doesn't know why  —  Even ChatGPT's creators can't figure out why it won't answer certain questions — including queries about former U.S. President Donald Trump …
Bloomberg:
The LockBit ransomware gang claims ION Trading UK paid a ransom after the group's cyberattack on the software firm upended derivatives trading around the world  —  The hacking group behind the attack on ION Trading UK — the software firm that was struck by a cyberattack earlier this week …
Lawrence Abrams / BleepingComputer:
Background check services TruthFinder and Instant Checkmate confirm a data breach after hackers leak a 2019 database allegedly containing the info of 20M users  —  PeopleConnect, the owners of the TruthFinder and Instant Checkmate background check services, confirmed they suffered a data breach …
Steven Levy / Wired:
A look at T2, a Twitter alternative founded by a former employee of Google's Area 120 to offer a “2007 Twitter” vibe that Musk's platform no longer supplies  —  Cofounder Gabor Cselle says his upstart social network can offer a “2007 Twitter” community vibe that Elon Musk's platform no longer supplies.
Ryan Gallagher / Bloomberg:
Interviews detail the Conti ransomware group's 2021 attack on Ireland's public health system; Conti seemingly called off the hack without receiving a ransom  —  At first the attack on Ireland's public-health system fell into a depressingly familiar pattern.
Wall Street Journal:
Sources: the US is weighing sanctions on Tiandy, Uniview, and other Chinese surveillance tech makers over sales to Iran in 2022 as protests swept the country  —  Beijing's exports of video recorders to Iran more than doubled in 2022 as protests swept the country
Donal Griffin / Bloomberg:
A look at little-known UK-based fintech Transactive, which processes €1B+ monthly and has UK and Lithuania licenses, and questions about staff ties to scammers  —  In the space of just five years, a little-known company on the outskirts of London has grown into a payments-industry powerhouse …
Nilesh Christopher / Rest of World:
Myntra, the Indian fashion retailer owned by Flipkart, penalizes users who return items too often; studies: Indians return ~25% to 40% of clothes bought online  —  Across India, e-commerce giants like Myntra and Flipkart are canceling free returns to boost profits.  —  • BENGALURU, INDIA
Kelsey Weekman / BuzzFeed News:
After YouTuber MrBeast made a video about paying for 1,000 blind people's eye surgery, critics raise questions about “stunt philanthropy” and “charity porn”  —  Is it stunt philanthropy or self-funded charity in the YouTube age?  —  A YouTuber just helped treat 1,000 people with blindness and low vision.
New York Times:
Alphabet, Amazon, Meta, and other tech firms begin 2023 by championing austerity after facing the worst tech year on Wall Street since the 2008 financial crisis  —  After years of expansion and billions in profits, Big Tech is pulling back from its famously lavish spending as a long boom finally ends.
BuzzFeed News:
Twitter ending free API access could have the unfortunate side effect of killing many useful bots, like @MakeItAQuote, @BigTechAlert, @_weather_bot_, and more  —  “I'm not paying a dime to Elon lol.”  —  Pranav Dixit  —  One of the most popular bots on Twitter is @MakeItAQuote, which has more than 565,000 followers.
Mike Masnick / Techdirt:

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.
Equals:
Stop vibe coding analytics  —  Equals AI turns questions about your business into auditable spreadsheet models and dashboards.  Build once, iterate for years.
Zoho:
App Spotlight: Grow Payments for Zoho CRM  —  App Spotlight brings you hand-picked solutions that enhance your Zoho apps and tools.  Visit Zoho Marketplace to explore all of our 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

Access:
The AI writing app fighting AI slop
A show about the tech industry's inside conversation, hosted by tech reporter Alex Heath and founder whisperer Ellis Hamburger.
Subscribe to Access.
Lenny's Podcast:
Adam Mosseri: AI is a tailwind for authenticity
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.
Great Chat:
SPVs have a brand problem
A podcast mostly about tech. Brought to you weekly by Angela Du, Sally Shin, Mac Bohannon, Helen Min, and Ashley Mayer.
Subscribe to Great Chat.
Big Technology Podcast:
Meta CTO Andrew Bosworth: Our Path To Frontier AI, Renting Models, Consumer AI's Struggles
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:
"We're in a Race Against Time," Joe Kahn on Running the New York Times in the Age of AI Slop
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:
Connecting the Unconnected: Doreen Bogdan-Martin
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 3:25 PM ET, February 4, 2023.

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

Mike Masnick / Techdirt:
Diane Bartz / Reuters:
CNBC:

Earlier Picks

Mitchell Clark / The Verge:
Kevin Roose / New York Times:
Rohan Goswami / CNBC:
Amitoj Singh / CoinDesk: