Techmeme
June 21, 2023, 10:00 AM

Top News

Will Douglas Heaven / MIT Technology Review:
A look at the recent debates in the AI industry over existential risks, as what were once considered extreme views have now become mainstream talking points  —  “Ghost stories are contagious.”  —  Who's afraid of the big bad bots?  A lot of people, it seems.
Jeremy Diamond / CNN:
A look at the White House's urgent push for AI regulation, as Biden meets with a group of AI experts for a non-industry perspective on risks and opportunities  —  President Joe Biden huddled in the Oval Office with several of his top advisers in early April as an aide typed prompts into ChatGPT …
Josh Dzieza / The Verge:
A look at the vast and mostly hidden “tasker” underclass, including subject-matter experts, hired by companies like Scale AI to annotate data for AI training  —  As the technology becomes ubiquitous, a vast tasker underclass is emerging — and not going anywhere.
Todd Bishop / GeekWire:
Amazon plans to hold Prime Day on July 11 and July 12 and introduce an invite-only Prime Days deals program; an Indian version will be held “later this summer”  —  Amazon will hold its 2023 Prime Day sales event on Tuesday, July 11, and Wednesday, July 12, the Seattle-based e-commerce giant announced tonight.
Kana Inagaki / Financial Times:
Masayoshi Son says SoftBank plans to go on the “counteroffensive” soon by resuming AI investments; the group has $35B+ after halting investments in recent years  —  Billionaire chief talks up AI and reveals he had breakdown in October where he questioned his achievements as an entrepreneur
Sawdah Bhaimiya / Insider:
Jay Peters / The Verge:
Reddit suspended some moderators after they changed their subreddits to NSFW; Reddit says the mods violated its policy by incorrectly marking subreddits as NSFW  —  Reddit has started removing moderator teams managing subreddits that switched the labeling on their communities to Not Safe For Work …
Taylor Hatmaker / TechCrunch:
Twitch plans to require streamers to add new content labels for streams with sexual themes, graphic violence, drug use, gambling, or “significant” vulgarity  —  Twitch is rethinking the way it flags mature content, swapping its existing toggle for a more granular set of topic-specific labels.
Kat Bailey / IGN:
In a reorganization, EA splits EA Games and EA Sports, renaming the former as EA Entertainment, hinting at the company's possible expansion beyond games  —  EA is undergoing a major internal reorganization, with EA Games being renamed “EA Entertainment.”  —  Electronic Arts is undergoing …
Xinghui Kok / Reuters:
Memo: Grab CEO Anthony Tan tells staff the company plans to cut 1,000 jobs, or 11% of its workforce, citing costs and a need to ensure more affordable services  —  Singapore-based Grab Holdings (GRAB.O), Southeast Asia's leading ride-hailing and food delivery app, is cutting 1,000 jobs or 11% …
Tom Warren / The Verge:
Microsoft's Satya Nadella, Activision's Bobby Kotick, and Sony's Jim Ryan plan to testify in court over the FTC's bid to block the Microsoft-Activision deal  —  Microsoft is sending CEO Satya Nadella, Xbox chief Phil Spencer, and many other Xbox executives to defend against its Federal Trade Commission …
David Pierce / The Verge:
Dropbox launches two AI tools: one to summarize documents and Dash, an ambitious universal search engine that aims to be “Google for your personal stuff”  —  Dropbox is launching two different but related AI-powered services into its platform.  The first is simple and obvious: a tool for summarizing and querying documents.
Rick Porter / The Hollywood Reporter:
Netflix tweaks its weekly top 10 rankings to include “views”, calculated by dividing the total time spent watching a film or a show in a week by running time  —  The streamer's weekly rankings will now show the most popular titles by number of accounts watching as well as total time.
Associated Press:
Bernie Sanders opens a Senate investigation into Amazon's warehouse safety practices and writes to Andy Jassy over “egregious health and safety violations”  —  Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders has opened a Senate investigation into Amazon's warehouse safety practices …
Dylan Tokar / Wall Street Journal:
Google Cloud launches Anti Money Laundering AI, an API used by HSBC and others that relies on AI instead of the industry standard rules-based system  —  The company is looking to set itself apart from a crowded field of surveillance platforms by reducing the amount of human input in the process of screening for money-laundering risks
More: Finbold
Martin Matishak / The Record:
The US DOJ announces NatSec Cyber, a new section within its National Security Division that will focus on prosecuting malicious foreign cyber activity  —  The U.S. Department of Justice is adding a new section to its National Security Division that will focus on prosecuting malicious foreign cyber activity …
Jesse Levine / Bloomberg:
A profile of Alibaba's next Chairman Joseph Tsai, a longterm Jack Ma ally who has become a prominent blockchain investor since co-founding the ecommerce company  —  Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. is bringing back Joseph Tsai, who has become a prominent blockchain proponent and owner …

Sponsor Posts

Airtable:
The central nervous system of your business  —  Used by 80% of Fortune 100 companies, Airtable combines AI with the scale of an infinitely flexible, no-code system.  With all your data in one place, it's like mission control for your company.
Intel:
5G's most deployed platform  —  Powering live networks with built-in Inference across Core and RAN.  That's the power of Intel Inside®
Zoho:
Why work stalls before it begins—and how the Action Panel helps users orient  —  On most workdays, execution is not the hardest part.  The difficulty appears earlier, when people are trying to process what requires …
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

The Social Radars:
Peter Reinhardt, CEO & co-founder, Charm Industrial; CEO & co-founder, Segment
Come be a fly on the wall as Y Combinator's Jessica Livingston and Carolynn Levy talk to some of the most successful founders in Silicon Valley about how they did it.
Subscribe to The Social Radars.
Uncapped with Jack Altman:
Garry Tan, Harj Taggar, and Jared Friedman from YC
Conversations with people I admire about things I'm genuinely interested in.
Subscribe to Uncapped with Jack Altman.
Acquired:
Formula 1
Learn the playbooks that built the world's greatest companies - and how you can apply them as a founder, operator, or investor.
Subscribe to Acquired.
Big Technology Podcast:
Dario's Choice and Anthropic's Future, Apple's AI Devices, Netflix Loses WBD
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.
Lenny's Podcast:
The design process is dead. Here's what's replacing it. | Jenny Wen (head of design at Claude)
Interviews with world-class product leaders and growth experts to uncover actionable advice to help you build, launch, and grow your own product.
Subscribe to Lenny's Podcast.
Tools and Weapons with Brad Smith:
His Excellency Khaldoon Al Mubarak: Investing in an AI-Driven World
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 10:00 AM ET, June 21, 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

Kevin Purdy / Ars Technica:

Earlier Picks

Kyle Wiggers / TechCrunch:
Aisha Malik / TechCrunch:
Neesha A. Tambe / TechCrunch:
Tom Warren / The Verge:
Ashley Capoot / CNBC: