Techmeme
March 8, 2023, 12:05 PM

Top News

Barbara Ortutay / Associated Press:
Elon Musk apologizes after mocking laid-off disabled Twitter employee Haraldur Thorleifsson, who joined in 2021 after Twitter acquired his startup Ueno  —  If you're not told you are fired, are you really fired?  At Twitter, probably.  And then, sometimes, you get your job back — if you want it.
More: BBC, The Guardian, TechCrunch, Ethan Zuckerman, BBC, San Francisco Business Journal, Washington Post, Daring Fireball, New York Times, Gizmodo, Mashable, Axios, Forbes, CNBC, Insider, Newser, TweakTown, RTÉ, Bloomberg, Fortune, and CNN
Bloomberg:
A look at Google's scramble to add generative AI to its products, reminding some employees of the rush to infuse Google+ into every key service starting in 2011  —  Artificial intelligence was supposed to be Google's thing.  The company has cultivated a reputation for making long-term bets …
Wall Street Journal:
Sources describe how Google stalled the release of a powerful chatbot for years due to the risk AI demos could pose to its reputation and search ads business  —  Researchers developed a powerful chatbot years before rival ChatGPT went viral.  After management stalled its release, they quit.
Thomas Germain / Gizmodo:
DuckDuckGo launches OpenAI- and Anthropic-powered DuckAssist in beta, using Wikipedia, Encyclopedia Britannica, and other sources to summarize answers  —  The new DuckAssist tool will source answers from Wikipedia for quick, conversational responses to some questions.
Politico:
TikTok announces Project Clover, outlining its plan to charm European regulators, including keeping user data on servers in Europe and allowing an audit  —  BRUSSELS — TikTok has launched its European counteroffensive to assuage politicians' fears over Chinese surveillance.
Adi Robertson / The Verge:
Twitter lets the certificate for its Tor onion site expire, effectively killing off the privacy-preserving and speech-protecting service after one year  —  Twitter has allowed the certificate for its Tor onion site to expire, effectively killing off a privacy- and speech-protecting service that it introduced last year.
James Hunt / The Block:
Coinbase announces a “Wallet-as-a-Service” product, offering APIs to help companies create customizable wallets for their apps more easily  —  - Coinbase has announced a product called Wallet-as-a-Service (WaaS), designed to let companies build web3 experiences that have simple wallet onboarding.
Ryan Tracy / Wall Street Journal:
Documents: the FTC demanded Twitter turn over internal messages on Elon Musk, details about layoffs, and the names of journalists with access to company records  —  Documents obtained by a House panel shed light on the probe into Twitter's compliance with settlement
Abner Li / 9to5Google:
Google schedules I/O 2023 with a “limited live audience” for May 10, when Android 14 details, Pixel 7a's debut, and a Pixel Tablet launch date are expected  —  Following the literal input/output puzzle this morning, Google has announced that I/O 2023 is taking place Wednesday, May 10.
Mitchell Clark / The Verge:
YouTube plans to ease its restrictions on swearing in videos after finding its rules from November 2022 “resulted in a stricter approach than we intended”  —  YouTube will ease its restrictions on swearing in videos after an update it rolled out in November sparked backlash from several creators …
Benj Edwards / Ars Technica:
Google and the Technical University of Berlin unveil PaLM-E, a visual language model with 562B parameters, integrating vision and language for robotic control  —  ChatGPT-style AI model adds vision to guide a robot without special training.  —  On Monday, a group of AI researchers from Google …
More: PaLM-ETweets: @dannydriess, @_akhaliq, @dergnz, and @suhail
Harry McCracken / Fast Company:
An oral history of LinkedIn, which turns 20 in May, as told by Reid Hoffman and its co-founders, current executives, Satya Nadella, Richard Branson, and others  —  Social media, for work?  The world was skeptical.  But 20 years and a few white-knuckle moments later, LinkedIn has become synonymous …
Ellen Huet / Bloomberg:
How Silicon Valley became obsessed with effective altruism, championed by SBF before he dismissed it as a dodge, and doomsday scenarios like killer rogue AI  —  Sonia Joseph was 14 years old when she first read Harry Potter and the Methods of Rationality, a mega-popular piece of fan fiction …
Tom McKay / Rolling Stone:
At CPAC 2023, Google, Meta, Twitter, and other tech giants remained central villains, including a Section 230 repeal panel; Truth Social and GETTR were absent  —  CPAC showed how the MAGA movement still can't decide whether its problem is too much Silicon Valley or not enough faves
CoinDesk:
A New York bankruptcy judge says Voyager Digital can sell its $1B+ worth of assets to Binance.US, overruling objections by the US SEC and state regulators  —  The bankruptcy judge in the Voyager Digital case chose to allow the deal with Binance.US over objections from the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission and state regulators.

Sponsor Posts

ElevenLabs:
ElevenAgents by ElevenLabs  —  You know us for voice.  Now meet ElevenAgents — featuring Expressive Mode, our most human-sounding AI voice technology in 70+ languages with ultra-low latency.  Hear it for yourself.
Niantic Spatial:
World models need real-world data  —  Scaniverse is the gateway to spatial services — self-serve and built for AI and robotics.  Large-area 3D reconstruction from 360° cameras and precise localization, anywhere machines operate.
Zoho:
Introducing the Zoho Vault desktop app for Windows and Mac  —  You asked—we delivered.  We're thrilled to announce the launch of the brand-new Zoho Vault desktop app for Windows and Mac.
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

Uncapped with Jack Altman:
Max Mullen from Instacart
Conversations with people I admire about things I'm genuinely interested in.
Subscribe to Uncapped with Jack Altman.
Access:
Canva's CEO on what happens when AI does the design
A show about the tech industry's inside conversation, hosted by tech reporter Alex Heath and founder whisperer Ellis Hamburger.
Subscribe to Access.
The Upstarts Podcast:
Cohere's Aidan Gomez: The Canadian Founder Taking AI Models To The World, Not Just Big Tech
Veteran tech reporter Alex Konrad sits down with breakout entrepreneurs taking on the status quo to shake up their fields in AI, design, nuclear energy, space, and more.
Subscribe to The Upstarts Podcast.
The Nick, Dick and Paul Show:
Data Centers...IN SPACE!!
Nick Bilton, Dick Costolo, and Paul Kedrosky pull back the curtain on AI, startups, and the future rushing toward us, all with healthy dose of irreverence.
Subscribe to The Nick, Dick and Paul Show.
Big Technology Podcast:
The Pentagon's AI Plan + Behind the Anthropic Fight — With Under Secretary of War Emil Michael
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.
Tools and Weapons with Brad Smith:
Ryan Roslansky: Turning AI Anxiety into Skills for the Future of Work
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 12:05 PM ET, March 8, 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

Earlier Picks

Bloomberg:
Brian Fung / CNN:
Cat Zakrzewski / Washington Post:
Todd Spangler / Variety: