Techmeme
May 16, 2023, 11:35 PM

Top News

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.
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 …
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.
Judith Bannermanquist / Cointelegraph:
Crypto wallet startup Ledger faces criticism after unveiling 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
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
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.
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 …
Ingrid Lunden / TechCrunch:
IBM acquires cloud data protection startup Polar Security, a source says for ~$60M, and plans to integrate Polar into its Guardium unit, itself acquired in 2019  —  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 acquiring Twitter, defended his inflammatory tweets, called tech workers the “laptop class 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 .
CNBC:
Google Cloud launches two AI-powered tools that aim to help biotech and pharmaceutical companies accelerate drug discovery and advance precision medicine  —  - Google Cloud launched two new AI-powered solutions that aim to help biotech and pharmaceutical companies accelerate drug discovery and advance precision medicine.
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.
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 …
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 …

Sponsor Posts

Tribe AI:
Build AI that works  —  Tribe builds tech for top AI companies.  Get in touch to learn how our bench of 500+ engineers and researchers can accelerate your roadmap.
Kulkan Security:
Hire Kulkan as your penetration testing partner  —  Kulkan prioritizes deep-dive manual security reviews, dissecting your software and infrastructure to find issues that once remediated can truly reduce security risk.
Zoho:
Cultivating creativity and innovation in the modern workspace  —  In the realm of modern business, success depends on more than just delivering products or services—it requires an environment where creativity thrives and new ideas are welcomed.
Mastodon:
Donate to Mastodon  —  Mastodon gGmbH, the non-profit behind the open-source software powering the social web, relies entirely on support from users like you.  Donate directly with a credit card or through Patreon.
The Kevin Rose Show:
How to Cultivate Everyday Dharma, Suneel Gupta (#54)
Gain unconventional wisdom and insights through conversations with top expert in AI, investing, wellness, technology, and culture.
Techmeme Ride Home:
Tue. 04/23 - Microsoft's Own LLMs and Perplexity's Big Raise
The day's tech news, every day at 5pm ET. Fifteen minutes and you're up to date.
Subscribe via Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or RSS.
 

About This Page

This is a Techmeme archive page. It shows how the site appeared at 11:35 PM ET, May 16, 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

Bloomberg:
CoinDesk:

Earlier Picks

Financial Times:
Kia Kokalitcheva / Axios:
Casey Wagner / Blockworks:
Adam Satariano / New York Times: