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Techmeme
February 14, 2023, 10:00 PM
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Top News

Platformer:
Sources: Twitter's engineers built a system to boost Elon Musk's tweets over everyone else's after Musk complained Biden's Super Bowl tweet outperformed his  —  After his Super Bowl tweet did worse numbers than President Biden's, Twitter's CEO ordered major changes to the algorithm
New York Times:
Over 30 prominent Chinese dissidents and activists report problems with their Twitter accounts, including disappearing from search or unexplained suspensions  —  As the Elon Musk-owned social media service encounters interruptions and bugs, Chinese dissidents and activists said they feared they were being muzzled.
Bloomberg:
US financial regulators are rapidly closing crypto's key doors to the banking system, pushing the crypto industry to the fringes of finance  —  Crypto's free pass is getting yanked as the most powerful US financial regulators rapidly close key doors to the country's banking system.
Frederic Lardinois / TechCrunch:
Copilot for Business, GitHub's enterprise AI-powered code completion tool for $19 per month, hits general availability after the beta launch in December 2022  —  GitHub today announced that Copilot for Business, the company's $19/month enterprise version of its AI-powered code completion tool …
Andrew J. Hawkins / The Verge:
Hyundai and Kia are offering free anti-theft software updates for 8M+ vehicles, after hundreds of car thefts inspired by the viral “Kia Challenge” on TikTok  —  Hyundai and Kia are offering free software updates for millions of their cars in response to a rash of car thefts inspired …
Mitchell Clark / The Verge:
Primate Labs releases Geekbench 6 with new and updated hardware and app tests that use datasets meant to be more representative of real-world workloads  —  According to its developer, Primate Labs, Geekbench 6 has new and updated tests that are meant to fully test modern hardware …
Nicole Farley / Search Engine Land:
Meta updates Facebook's “Why am I seeing this ad?” tool to include information about how users' on- and off-platform activity informs its ML models for ads  —  Facebook has just launched an updated version of its “Why am I seeing this ad?” tool which now includes information on how they use machine learning to deliver ads.
Chloe Xiang / VICE:
DARPA says its Air Combat Evolution developers used AI to successfully fly a modified F-16 test aircraft multiple times over several days in early December 2022  —  The fighter aircraft that was first introduced in 1978 has now seemingly evolved into an autonomous plane.  —  Chloe Xiang
Thomas Germain / Gizmodo:
Google launches Privacy Sandbox for Android in beta, starting with a “small percentage” of Android 13 devices, similar to Apple's App Tracking Transparency  —  Here's a preview of the Privacy Sandbox, the newfangled way companies will follow you around the web that's supposed to be better for your privacy.
Nilay Patel / The Verge:
Q&A with Mozilla CEO Mitchell Baker on the company's history, battling Microsoft, working with rivals, generative AI, WebKit, iOS, Chrome, Mastodon, and more  —  Mozilla chair Mitchell Baker on competing — and cooperating — with Google, Apple, and the rest of Big Tech.
Levi Sumagaysay / MarketWatch:
Airbnb reports Q4 revenue up 24% YoY to $1.9B, vs. $1.86B est., $319M net income, up from $55M YoY, and says 2022 was its first profitable year; ABNB jumps 9%+  —  Record profit in the holiday quarter leads to earnings of nearly $2 billion for the year, but executives also suggest price cuts are coming
Jane Lanhee Lee / Reuters:
SandboxAQ, a startup spun out of Alphabet that is developing post-quantum cryptography and simulation software for drug and material development, raised $500M  —  Sandbox AQ, a startup spun off from Alphabet Inc (GOOGL.O) last year, said on Tuesday it raised $500 million as it helps customers prepare for a quantum computing future.
Varsha Bansal / Wired:
A look at the Modi administration's attempts to strengthen government control over the internet in India and its battle with Big Tech, which keeps giving in  —  The Modi administration keeps giving itself new powers, and Big Tech keeps giving in.  —  Akash Banerjee isn't sure whether he's allowed …
Ingrid Lunden / TechCrunch:
BuzzFeed launches Infinity Quizzes, which asks users questions so that Buzzy the Robot, an AI based on OpenAI's public API, can write a personalized narrative  —  BuzzFeed — the media site that made its name (literally) spinning out viral content — landed in the middle of the buzz itself …
Dave Lee / Financial Times:
Andy Jassy says Amazon plans to “go big” on physical retail stores in 2023, blaming a lack of “normalcy” during the pandemic for the company's stumbles  —  Andy Jassy says ecommerce giant will double down on grocery despite recent stumbles
Will Knight / Wired:
A look at the Eric Schmidt-backed startup Istari, which uses ML to virtually assemble and test war machines using computer models of the individual components  —  The former Google CEO is on a mission to rewire the US military with cutting-edge artificial intelligence to take on China.

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About This Page

This is a Techmeme archive page. It shows how the site appeared at 10:00 PM ET, February 14, 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.

From Mediagazer

Ashley Carman / Bloomberg:
Bill Simmons and Spotify canceled a ChatGPT partnership after audience backlash; Ringer hosts Sean Fennessey and Amanda Dobbins had voiced unease on air

Brian Steinberg / Variety:
Source: NBC News will stop airing one hour of primetime programming on the NBC News Now streaming service, eliminating the Stay Tuned show and a handful of jobs

Rajeev Syal / The Guardian:
A UK jury convicts two Iranians of assisting Iranian intelligence in a plan to “eliminate” journalists at London-based Persian broadcaster Iran International

More News

Shubham Agarwal / Wired:
After a backlash, Spotify removes a clause that let Apple use audiobooks from Findaway Voices to train synthetic voices; Spotify acquired Findaway in June 2022
Yogita Khatri / The Block:
Monad Labs, co-founded by former Jump Trading developers to build an Ethereum virtual machine-compatible Layer 1 blockchain, raised a $19M seed led by Dragonfly
Aisha Malik / TechCrunch:
Otter.ai announces OtterPilot, an AI assistant that summarizes meetings, captures images of shared slides, and more, rolling out to all users in the coming days
Alexander Burns / Politico:
During Nancy Pelosi's Taiwan trip, TSMC founder Morris Chang criticized the $52B CHIPS Act, saying a one-time cash infusion won't build chip self-sufficiency

Earlier Picks

Peter Blumberg / Bloomberg:
US prosecutors say Sam Bankman-Fried twice recently used a VPN, raising concerns he his hiding online activities after a judge rejected an encrypted chat deal
Rosie Perper / CoinDesk:
NFT marketplace Magic Eden partners with payments service MoonPay to let users buy digital collectibles using credit or debit cards, Apple Pay, or Google Pay
Yogita Khatri / The Block:
Geneva-based Taurus, which offers digital asset infrastructure to European financial institutions, raised a $65M Series B led by Credit Suisse
Financial Times:
Sources: Apple's India expansion has been slow due to logistics, tariffs, and infrastructure, as the company tries to replicate its China playbook in India
Edward Ludlow / Bloomberg:
Amazon's Zoox says its fully autonomous vehicle carried staff between its two main buildings in Foster City, California on public roads for the first time
Aaron Mok / Insider:
Report: TikTok is planning to let creators charge $1 or more for videos and is working on the Creator Fund 2.0, which could pay creators with 100K+ followers
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