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Techmeme
July 21, 2023, 4:45 PM
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Top News

Makena Kelly / The Verge:
OpenAI, Microsoft, Meta, Google, Amazon, Anthropic, and Inflection make voluntary AI promises to the White House, like cybersecurity investment and watermarking  —  The White House is bringing in AI's top seven companies Friday to make a series of voluntary promises to protect users.
Lindsey Choo / Wall Street Journal:
Sensor Tower: Threads' DAUs declined to 13M, down 70% from the July 7 peak; Similarweb: the average time spent in the app has decreased from 19 minutes to four  —  Data show user engagement has fallen 70% as executives focus on options such as a chronological feed
Jay Peters / The Verge:
Reddit removes three moderators and takes charge of r/malefashionadvice, one of the biggest subreddits to close in protest of the platform's API pricing changes  —  Reddit is now in charge of r/malefashionadvice, which for a time was the biggest subreddit still closed in protest of the platform's API pricing changes.
Rich Stanton / PC Gamer:
Troy Hunt: the sensitive info of almost 4,000 Roblox Developer Conference attendees from 2017 to 2020 was leaked in 2021; Roblox disclosed the leak this week  —  This may cost the company a few Robux.  —  The major gaming platform Roblox has suffered a major data breach …
Julie Coleman / CNBC:
Digital World Acquisition Corp., which is seeking to take Truth Social public via a SPAC merger, settles fraud charges with the US SEC for $18M; DWAC is up 50%+  —  - Shares of Digital World Acquisition Corp. soared more than 50% on Friday after the company reached an $18 million dollar fraud settlement with the SEC.
Steve Dent / Engadget:
Telegram launches Stories, initially for its Premium subscribers, letting users control who can see their stories and how long they last before disappearing  —  You can display them forever or make them disappear at various times up to 48 hours.  —  Telegram's new Stories feature is here as promised …
Kevin Collier / NBC News:
NYC's MTA used AI-powered surveillance software at seven subway stations in May 2023 to track fare evaders, and plans to expand to ~12 more by the end of 2023  —  An MTA spokesperson said the software doesn't flag fare evaders to New York police but declined to comment on whether that policy could change.
Wall Street Journal:
Sources: in recent months, Sergey Brin increased his Google visits to three to four days a week, working with researchers on Gemini, an AI model to rival GPT-4  —  Co-founder is working alongside AI researchers at tech giant's headquarters, aiding efforts to build powerful Gemini system
Zack Whittaker / TechCrunch:
How Vietnam-based 1Byte, which sells TheTruthSpy stalkerware, created networks of fake sellers with forged US passports to evade detection and funnel payments  —  A network of fake sellers allowed a global phone surveillance ring to operate under the radar for years

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About This Page

This is a Techmeme archive page. It shows how the site appeared at 4:45 PM ET, July 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.

From Mediagazer

April Rubin / Axios:
Journalists Don Lemon and Georgia Fort were arrested by federal agents on Jan. 29 and Jan. 30, respectively, for their coverage of a Minnesota church protest

Wall Street Journal:
Sources: Bob Iger has told associates that he plans to step down as Disney CEO before December 31; the board plans to vote on his replacement next week

Andrew Marchand / The Athletic:
ESPN closes the deal to acquire multiple NFL Media assets after receiving US regulatory approval; NFL will get a 10% stake in ESPN as part of the agreement

More News

Erin Woo / The Information:
Letter: the US SEC subpoenaed Bolt and sent a notice to former CEO Ryan Breslow in 2022 over their past misleading statements to current and potential investors
Dylan Tokar / Wall Street Journal:
The US DOJ merges its crypto enforcement team, formed in 2021, into the department investigating computer-related crimes, giving crypto crimes more resources

Earlier Picks

David Heaney / UploadVR:
Meta rolls out Quest v56, featuring Hand Tracking 2.2, which the company claims reduces latency by up to 40% in typical usage and up to 75% during fast movement
Jonathan Stempel / Reuters:
FTX sues Sam Bankman-Fried, Caroline Ellison, Gary Wang, and Nishad Singh for the $1B+ they allegedly misappropriated for “pet projects” before FTX's bankruptcy
Leah Nylen / Bloomberg:
Filing: the US FTC suspends its in-house trial against Microsoft's Activision Blizzard acquisition set for August 2023, opening the door to settlement talks
Wall Street Journal:
Sources: in a recent Microsoft breach, China-linked hackers accessed the emails of the US ambassador to China and the assistant secretary of state for East Asia
David Pierce / The Verge:
OpenAI adds opt-in “custom instructions”, or a user's details that ChatGPT should remember, in beta for ChatGPT Plus subscribers everywhere but the UK and EU
Annie Palmer / CNBC:
Amazon plans to roll out its Amazon One palm scanning payment tech to all 500+ US Whole Foods stores by the end of 2023; 200+ locations already have Amazon One
Hannah Lang / Reuters:
The US Federal Reserve launches FedNow, its long-awaited real-time payments system that will eventually let individuals and businesses transfer money in seconds
Nikkei Asia:
TSMC reports Q2 revenue down 10% YoY to ~$15.68B and net income down 23.3% YoY to ~$5.9B, the first quarterly decline since 2019, as all non-AI chip sales slump
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