Techmeme
August 1, 2023, 4:05 PM

Top News

Financial Times:
Source: Meta plans to release AI chatbots dubbed “personas” that exhibit personalities, including Abraham Lincoln, as soon as September, to boost engagement  —  Facebook owner seeks to seize on hype for AI while challenging rivals such as OpenAI, Snap and TikTok
Bryan Pietsch / Washington Post:
X sues the Center for Countering Digital Hate, alleging that researchers violated its terms of service and the CFAA while studying hate speech on the platform  —  X, the company formerly known as Twitter, sued a research group that had investigated hate speech on the social media platform …
Ivan Mehta / TechCrunch:
Carly Page / TechCrunch:
Halcyon: Cloudzy, a Wyoming-registered web hosting firm likely operating out of Tehran, is acting as a command-and-control provider for state-backed hackers  —  A little-known cloud company provided web hosting and internet services to more than two dozen different state-sponsored hacking groups …
Preetika Rana / Wall Street Journal:
Uber reports Q2 revenue up 14% YoY to $9.23B, gross bookings up 16% YoY to $33.6B, and a $394M net income, up from a $2.6B loss in Q2 2022, its first profit  —  Ride-hailing and delivery businesses grew in the second quarter, though freight shrank  —  Uber Technologies posted …
Annie Palmer / CNBC:
Amazon rolls out Amazon Clinic to all 50 US states and DC, available via video visits; message-based chat is only available in 34 states  —  - Amazon is expanding its virtual clinic service nationwide.  — The company launched Amazon Clinic last November as a way for patients to connect …
Dean Takahashi / VentureBeat:
Adobe, Apple, Autodesk, Nvidia, Pixar, and the Linux Foundation form the Alliance for OpenUSD, aiming to standardize Pixar's Universal Scene Description  —  Five major companies in the 3D content industry — Adobe, Apple, Autodesk, Nvidia and Pixar — have come together to form the Alliance for OpenUSD (AOUSD).
Bloomberg:
After Curve disclosed a hack, CRV dropped by ~25% in three days, prompting fears of wider market turbulence; DefiLlama: crypto using Curve fell ~50% to $1.9B  —  - Curve's native CRV coin posted three-day, 25% slump after hack  — Drop raised concerns about wider fallout from platform's woes
Chavi Mehta / Reuters:
Meta says it has begun ending access to news on Facebook and Instagram in Canada, following a new law that would force it to negotiate deals to pay publishers  —  Meta Platforms (META.O) said on Tuesday it has begun the process to end access to news on Facebook and Instagram for all users in Canada.
Sam Schechner / Wall Street Journal:
Under EU pressure, Meta offers to seek user consent in Europe for targeted ads based on users' activity to comply with GDPR, sources say as soon as October 2023  —  Under pressure from regulators, the Facebook and Instagram owner proposes asking users to opt in before targeting ads with their digital activity
Jeremy Hill / Bloomberg:
Court filings: FTX Group details a draft plan to repay creditors, including settling claims in USD and wiping out FTT; seven classes of creditors can now vote  —  - Customer claims to be valued in US dollars as of bankruptcy  — Company hasn't ruled out rebooting offshore exchange
Bloomberg:
Sources: senior EU and US officials are concerned about China's accelerated push into the production of older-generation chips made with 28nm equipment or above  —  - China is building more plants than others despite US sanctions  — Officials are worried about impact on domestic chip plans
More: Tom's Hardware and The Hill
Twitter: @zschneeweiss, @byron_wan, @parismarx, and @pelstromForums: Slashdot
Christian Davies / Financial Times:
New York Times:
The FBI says a contractor misled the agency and used NSO's Landmark to track people in Mexico without consent; the FBI terminated the contract in April 2023  —  After a Times report, the bureau canceled its contract with a government contractor that used the tool on its behalf.  But questions remain.

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Featured Podcasts

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More News

Bloomberg:
Ingrid Lunden / TechCrunch:

Earlier Picks

Joe McDonald / Associated Press:
Emma Roth / The Verge:
Andy Robinson / Video Games Chronicle:
Nikhilesh De / CoinDesk:
Decrypt:
Yogita Khatri / The Block: