Techmeme
May 16, 2023, 10:45 PM

Top News

Cat Zakrzewski / Washington Post:
A recap of the testimony from OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, IBM VP Christina Montgomery, and professor Gary Marcus at a US Senate Judiciary subcommittee hearing  —  OpenAI CEO Sam Altman will testify to Congress on AI like ChatGPT as regulations and oversight are being considered.
Financial Times:
Sam Altman tells Congress that AI regulation is “essential” but must let companies adapt to new tech, suggests safety measures and a licensing regime, and more  —  OpenAI's chief executive Sam Altman called on US lawmakers to regulate fast-advancing artificial intelligence technology …
Abner Li / 9to5Google:
Google updates its inactivity policy: accounts inactive for at least two years will be deleted, except for those with YouTube videos, starting in December 2023  —  In 2020, Google said it would remove content stored in an inactive account (but not the account itself) to preserve storage space.
Amanda Silberling / TechCrunch:
Apple unveils new cognitive, vision, and speech accessibility features for iOS, iPadOS, and macOS, like an AI voice that sounds like the user's, coming in 2023  —  Apple previewed a suite of new features today to improve cognitive, vision and speech accessibility.
Sarah Perez / TechCrunch:
Apple rolls out new concert discovery features, including Set Lists in Apple Music for select artists and Guides to local venues in Apple Maps for select cities  —  Apple is bringing concert discovery to two of its flagship apps, Apple Music and Apple Maps, the company announced today.
Chance Miller / 9to5Mac:
Apple touts $2B+ in App Store fraud stopped in 2022, nearly 3.9M stolen credit cards blocked, 147M+ ratings/reviews removed, and 428K developer accounts closed  —  Apple is out with a new press release today touting the success of the App Store's ability to prevent fraud.
Judith Bannermanquist / Cointelegraph:
Crypto wallet company Ledger faces criticism after it unveiled an optional seed phrase recovery subscription service that some security experts say is insecure  —  Many members of the crypto community believe Ledger's latest seed phrase recovery feature is a bad idea.  —  362 Total views
Rohan Goswami / CNBC:
The US DOJ alleges former Apple engineer Weibao Wang stole Apple's autonomous tech, including source code, for a Chinese company working on a self-driving car  —  - Weibao Wang was charged with six counts of theft or attempted theft by prosecutors, who allege he stole troves of source code …
Washington Post:
The US announces charges, sanctions, and a $10M reward for info leading to the arrest of Russian national Mikhail Matveev, a Babuk ransomware campaign suspect  —  The Justice, Treasury and State departments announced a crackdown on suspect Mikhail Matveev, with economic sanctions and a $10 million reward for his arrest
Ingrid Lunden / TechCrunch:
IBM says it has acquired cloud data protection company Polar Security, a source says for around $60M, and plans to integrate Polar into its Guardium unit  —  Update: IBM has now confirmed the news and said Polar will be integrated into its Guardium unit (itself based on an acquisition from way back in 2009).
CNBC:
In an interview, Elon Musk discussed buying Twitter, defended his inflammatory tweets, called tech workers the “laptop classes living in la-la-land”, and more  —  Tesla CEO Elon Musk sat down for a sprawling interview with CNBC anchor David Faber on Tuesday following .
Ingrid Lunden / TechCrunch:
Meta spins out Kustomer, after acquiring the CRM startup for ~$1B in a deal that closed in 2022; Kustomer raises $60M at a reported $250M valuation  —  Meta's grand experiment in building an enterprise-ready customer service platform has come to a close: the parent of Facebook has officially spun …
Emma Roth / The Verge:
Zoom plans to add Anthropic's AI chatbot Claude across its platform, starting with Contact Center; the company didn't detail the integration for other areas  —  Zoom is partnering with Anthropic to integrate the company's AI assistant across its productivity platform.
Bill Peters / Marketwatch:
Rumble acquires podcasting and livestreaming service Callin; former PayPal COO and Callin's co-founder David Sacks plans to join Rumble's board of directors  —  'I strongly support Rumble's unwavering commitment to free speech in the face of growing censorship and government overreach …
CoinDesk:
The EU's Council approves the Markets in Crypto Assets rules, making the EU the first major jurisdiction with a crypto licensing regime, taking effect in 2024  —  The landmark Markets in Crypto Assets regulation was given final approval by the EU's Council, which also agreed a new law for sharing data on crypto tax holdings.
Kyle Wiggers / TechCrunch:
Hippocratic AI, which is building an LLM for health care, raised a $50M seed co-led by General Catalyst and a16z at a valuation in the “triple digit millions”  —  AI, specifically generative AI, has the potential to transform healthcare.  —  At least, that sales pitch …

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Earlier Picks

Alexander Osipovich / Wall Street Journal:
Kia Kokalitcheva / Axios:
Ciara O'Brien / The Irish Times:
Casey Wagner / Blockworks:
Adam Satariano / New York Times: