Techmeme
July 13, 2023, 3:50 AM

Top News

Rachel Metz / Bloomberg:
Elon Musk forms xAI, a startup he will lead to “understand the true nature of the universe”; the staff has worked at Google, Microsoft, Tesla, OpenAI, and more  —  Elon Musk announced a new AI company today, xAI. all the team members listed on the website appear to be men.
The Verge:
The FTC files to appeal a US court ruling that cleared the way for Microsoft to acquire Activision Blizzard; the existing TRO expires at 11:59pm PT on July 14  —  The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) says it is appealing a recent US federal court order that cleared the way for Microsoft to purchase Activision Blizzard.
Ash Parrish / The Verge:
Xbox tests reactive voice chat moderation, letting Xbox Insiders report 60-second audio clips of inappropriate voice messages for the Xbox safety team to review  —  Rolling out today to Xbox Insiders, the new reporting feature will allow players to capture and submit 60-second audio clips …
Toby Bochan / CoinDesk:
In a major policy shift, Google Play now lets developers incorporate tokenized digital assets, such as NFTs, into their Android apps and games  —  The company is opening up the ability for developers to let users buy, sell or earn digital assets in apps as long as they maintain transparency and adhere to other rules.
Jay Peters / The Verge:
Meta says Roblox is coming to Meta's Quest 2, Quest Pro, and Quest 3, starting with an open beta on App Lab “in the coming weeks”, with cross-platform support  —  / It's launching in open beta in the ‘coming weeks.’  —  Roblox will be coming to Meta's Quest VR headsets starting …
Washington Post:
In June, the US State Department told Microsoft that its emails in the company's cloud were hacked; attackers stole a Microsoft key and hacked ~25 orgs' emails  —  The State Department discovered the Microsoft vulnerability, which affected unclassified government systems, last month
New York Times:
Colin Lecher / The Markup:
Richard MacManus / The New Stack:
A look at Meta's plan to adopt ActivityPub for Threads, how ActivityPub suits Meta's goals, and the technical challenges and social pressure facing the company  —  From a developer point of view, the fact that Meta's Threads app has quickly gone over 100 million sign-ups isn't the most interesting part of this latest Twitter clone.
Davey Alba / Bloomberg:
Sources reveal how contractors audit Bard's answers in subjects ranging from medication doses to state laws, sometimes with deadlines as short as three minutes  —  Google's Bard artificial intelligence chatbot will answer a question about how many pandas live in zoos quickly, and with a surfeit of confidence.
Alex W. Palmer / New York Times:
A look at the US Bureau of Industry and Security, which employs ~350, had a $140M+ budget in 2022, and is a key tool in cutting China off from advanced chips  —  The Biden administration thinks it can preserve America's technological primacy by cutting China off from advanced computer chips.
More: Tech Monitor and TNW
Aaron Holmes / The Information:
Cloud security startup Orca sues Israeli competitor Wiz in the US for allegedly illegally copying patented software that monitors data stored on cloud servers  —  Fierce competition between two of the hottest and most highly valued security startups has turned into a legal battle.

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Featured Podcasts

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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.
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More News

Chainalysis:

Earlier Picks

Shira Ovide / Washington Post:
More: New York PostTwitter: @greta, @ajlamesa, @pettypropolis, and @evan_greerForums: r/Columbus
Reuters:
Heather Haddon / Wall Street Journal:
Jack Schickler / CoinDesk:
Foo Yun Chee / Reuters:
Andrew Deck / Rest of World:
Ben Thompson / Stratechery: