Techmeme
February 15, 2023, 1:20 AM

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:
Andrew Griffin / The Independent:
Some users report that “new Bing” is questioning its existence, outright lying, and responding with “unhinged”, aggressive, and nearly incomprehensible messages  —  System appears to be suffering a breakdown as it ponders why it has to exist at all  —  Microsoft is adding Chat GPT tech to Bing
Mark Gurman / Bloomberg:
Sources: Apple plans to evaluate Pay Later borrowers based on spending history, the Apple devices they own, whether they applied for an Apple Card, and more  —  With Apple Inc. pushing into the lending business with a “buy now, pay later” service, the company is laying out rules for how it will approve transactions.
Lawrence Abrams / BleepingComputer:
Microsoft releases 77 security fixes, patching three actively exploited zero-day flaws in Windows and Office, and nine critical RCE vulnerabilities  —  Today is Microsoft's February 2023 Patch Tuesday, and security updates fix three actively exploited zero-day vulnerabilities and a total of 77 flaws.
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 …
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.
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 …
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.
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
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.
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.
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 …
South China Morning Post:
At a recent event, senior executives at gaming firms like Tencent and NetEase said they are looking to better promote China's culture, as regulations ease up  —  China's major video gaming companies are looking to better promote the nation's culture and uphold social values …
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
Sarah Perez / TechCrunch:
Following Facebook, Instagram plans to shut down live shopping on March 16, 2023, and focus on ads that 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 …

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More News

Shubham Agarwal / Wired:
Ingrid Lunden / TechCrunch:
Yogita Khatri / The Block:
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Earlier Picks

Alexander Burns / Politico:
Will Knight / Wired:
Rosie Perper / CoinDesk:
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Varsha Bansal / Wired:
Aaron Mok / Insider: