Techmeme
August 23, 2023, 2:45 AM

Top News

Nilay Patel / The Verge:
An analysis of Google's policy dilemma as YouTube and UMG explore AI licensing, Google scrapes the web to train its AI, and lawsuits could upend copyright law  —  Google has made clear it is going to use the open web to inform and create anything it wants, and nothing can get in its way.
Joseph Cox / 404 Media:
A look at the dire state of Americans' privacy, worsened by credit bureaus' data policies; Telegram bots sell troves of personal info on targets for ~$15 in BTC  —  It took only a few seconds to uncover the target's entire life.  —  On the messaging app Telegram, I entered a tiny amount …
Kyle Wiggers / TechCrunch:
IBM unveils watsonx Code Assistant for IBM Z, which uses a code-generating AI model to translate COBOL code into Java, set for general availability in Q4 2023  —  COBOL, or Common Business Oriented Language, is one of the oldest programming languages in use, dating back to around 1959.
Elizabeth Napolitano / CoinDesk:
A US judge orders ex-OpenSea product head Nate Chastain to three months in prison for making ~$50K through insider trades, in the first NFT insider trading case  —  Chastain was found guilty on charges of buying and selling NFTs from collections he knew would later be featured on his former company's home page.
Kyle Wiggers / TechCrunch:
OpenAI adds fine-tuning to GPT-3.5 Turbo, letting developers, for a fee, customize models with their own data to make them perform better for their use cases  —  OpenAI customers can now bring custom data to the lightweight version of GPT-3.5, GPT-3.5 Turbo — making it easier to improve …
Scharon Harding / Ars Technica:
3D printer maker Bambu Lab blames a cloud outage for an issue that caused some of its customers' devices to start printing without their consent  —  Bambu Lab says it will help with repairs, replacement parts.  —  Imagine waking in the middle of the night to the sound of your 3D printer, printing away.
Makena Kelly / The Verge:
Meta says it remains committed to rolling out default E2EE for Messenger, which has opt-in E2EE, by the end of 2023, and shortly afterwards for Instagram DMs  —  Meta plans to roll out default end-to-end encryption for its Messenger product by the end of this year, the company confirmed in a blog post Tuesday.
Emanuel Maiberg / 404 Media:
A look at CivitAI, a site for sharing AI models that generate images mostly trained on material scraped without consent, as non-consensual AI porn proliferates  —  On CivitAI, a site for sharing image generating AI models, users can browse thousands of models that can produce any kind …
CNBC:
Ioannis Kouvakas / Just Security:
A look at the UK government's planned revisions to its Investigatory Powers Act, including potential unintended consequences like slowing down security updates  —  The United Kingdom (U.K.) government has recently unveiled plans to revise the Investigatory Powers Act 2016 (IPA) …
Sarah Frier / Bloomberg:
LinkedIn is benefiting from recent social media upheavals with a jump in sharing, leveraging its position as a place where old-school self-promotion still works  —  The professional network is benefiting from upheavals elsewhere in the social media landscape.  —  The biggest social media platforms all have their niches.
Tom Warren / The Verge:
Microsoft releases a public preview of Python in Excel, which will run Python calculations in Azure, first on Windows and then other platforms “at a later date”  —  Microsoft is bringing popular programming language Python to Excel.  A public preview of the feature is available today …
Dave James / PC Gamer:
Nvidia announces DLSS 3.5 with AI-powered Ray Reconstruction, designed to recognize patterns within a noisy image and improve clarity, available on all RTX GPUs  —  Bringing AI to bear on those noisy traced rays.  —  Nvidia has announced a gorgeous new update to its Deep Learning Super Sampling technology.

Sponsor Posts

Google:
Try Gemini 3 Pro  —  Google's newest and most intelligent AI model that helps you bring any idea to life
Shopify:
Shopify's new AI commerce stack  —  Their VP of Product digs into just-launched products to help entrepreneurs and developers build with the latest AI and tech.
Zoho:
Connecting, collaborating, and growing: Zoho Mail 2025 wrap-up  —  Your inbox has been home to a lot this year—quick updates, long threads, approvals, reminders, and the occasional late-night draft you weren't sure about.
IDrive:
Protecting your Cloud Applications Data  —  Backing up Office 365, Google Workspace, Dropbox & Box data is critical to preventing data loss or corruption, complying with laws and avoiding critical downtime in case of a disaster.

Featured Podcasts

Great Chat:
The stories we told ourselves in 2025
A podcast mostly about tech. Brought to you weekly by Angela Du, Sally Shin, Mac Bohannon, Helen Min, and Ashley Mayer.
Subscribe to Great Chat.
The Social Radars:
Jessica & Carolynn Announce Season 5!
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.
Grit:
How Brands Stay Visible When AI Decides | Profound CEO James Cadwallader
Grit explores what it takes to create, build and scale world-class organizations.
Subscribe to Grit.
Lenny's Podcast:
The coming AI security crisis (and what to do about it) | Sander Schulhoff
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.
Big Technology Podcast:
OpenAI's Potential, Google's Speedy Model, Copilot Hits Turbulence
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.
Tools and Weapons with Brad Smith:
Ted Sarandos: Netflix and how tech changed storytelling
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 2:45 AM ET, August 23, 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 Jiang / Toronto Star:
Jay Peters / The Verge:
Shubham Sharma / VentureBeat:
Katie Roof / Bloomberg:
Kyle Wiggers / TechCrunch:

Earlier Picks

Brody Ford / Bloomberg:
Jay Peters / The Verge:
Jon Porter / The Verge:
Tom Warren / The Verge:
Shaurya Malwa / CoinDesk: