Techmeme
February 14, 2023, 1:50 PM

Top News

Bloomberg:
US financial regulators are rapidly closing crypto's key routes to the banking system, accelerating since FTX collapsed, pushing the industry to the fringes  —  Crypto's free pass is getting yanked as the most powerful US financial regulators rapidly close key doors to the country's banking system.
Emma Roth / The Verge:
Some Twitter users, even those who do not follow Elon Musk, say their For You feed was full of his tweets and replies after changes made over the weekend  —  For many of us, Twitter's “For You” is full of tweets and replies to tweets from Elon Musk.  Not everyone is getting the Elon-first feed …
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.
Wesley Hilliard / AppleInsider:
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 …
Sarah Perez / TechCrunch:
Instagram plans to shutter live shopping on March 16, 2023, following Facebook, and will focus on ads to help users discover businesses and shops on Instagram  —  As Meta gears up for its “year of efficiency,” the company announced today it's exiting the livestream shopping business on Instagram …
Financial Times:
Sources: Apple's India expansion has been slow due to logistics, tariffs, infrastructure, suppliers and officials lacking a “sense of urgency”, and other issues  —  Apple is hitting stumbling blocks in its effort to increase production in India, as the US tech giant faces pressure to cut its manufacturing reliance on China.
Mitchell Clark / The Verge:
Primate Labs releases Geekbench 6 with new and updated tests for hardware and apps using datasets that are 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 …
Dave Lee / Financial Times:
Dmitri Brereton / DKB Blog:
At Microsoft's demo last week, the “new Bing” incorrectly summarized Gap's Q3 2022 earnings and provided wrong info on a pet vacuum and Mexico City nightlife  —  Microsoft knowingly released a broken product for short-term hype  —  Bing AI got some answers completely wrong during their demo.
Will Knight / Wired:
A look at Eric Schmidt-backed startup Ishtari, which uses machine learning to virtually assemble and test war machines from computer models of each component  —  The former Google CEO is on a mission to rewire the US military with cutting-edge artificial intelligence to take on China.
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  —  Zoox Inc., the self-driving startup owned by Amazon.com Inc., carried passengers in its fully autonomous vehicle on public roads for the first time.
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 …
Aisha Malik / TechCrunch:
Otter.ai announces OtterPilot, an AI assistant that summarizes meetings, captures images of slides, and more, rolling out to all users in the coming days  —  AI-powered voice transcription service Otter.ai is launching a new AI meeting assistant called OtterPilot, the company announced on Tuesday.
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  —  - TikTok creators could soon start charging fans to watch their videos, per The Information.  — The company hopes a paywall …
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  —  After a backlash, Spotify has removed a clause that allowed Apple to train machine learning models on some audiobook files.
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  —  Nancy Pelosi arrived in Taiwan like a juggernaut.  She defied threats from the Chinese regime in order to visit the island …
Yogita Khatri / The Block:
Sarah Nassauer / Wall Street Journal:
Memo: Walmart plans to close its Austin, Portland, and Carlsbad, California tech hubs, telling staff to move and be in the office twice a week to stay employed  —  Retail giant is closing offices in Austin, Portland and Carlsbad and telling hundreds of staff they must relocate to keep their jobs
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  —  MoonPay has a similar partnership in place with NFT marketplace LooksRare.  —  Join the most important conversation in crypto …
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 …
More: TechCrunch
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.

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Earlier Picks

Ian Hamilton / UploadVR:
Wesley Hilliard / AppleInsider:
Sergiu Gatlan / BleepingComputer: