Techmeme
September 21, 2023, 3:42 AM

Top News

Kevin Roose / New York Times:
Hands-on with Bard Extensions, which lets the chatbot use data from Gmail, Docs, and Drive: the feature hallucinated emails, made wrong travel plans, and more  —  The chatbot now pulls information from a user's Gmail, Google Docs and Google Drive accounts.  The feature leaves a lot to be desired.
The Verge:
Everything Amazon announced at its product event: Alexa Emergency Assist for $6/month, the Alexa Eye Gaze accessibility feature, the $50 Echo Pop Kids, and more  —  Amazon is kicking off its annual fall product announcements at its HQ2 campus in Arlington, Virginia.
Jennifer Pattison Tuohy / The Verge:
Kyle Wiggers / TechCrunch:
Brian Heater / TechCrunch:
Sarah Perez / TechCrunch:
Ina Fried / Axios:
Allison Johnson / The Verge:
Apple's FineWoven accessories and iPhone cases are really bad: they're expensive, quickly show wear, and scratch very easily, leaving seemingly permanent marks  —  Apple's new FineWoven iPhone cases and accessories are bad.  Like, really bad.  I've been puzzling over them for the past week, looking at them from different angles.
Ben Weiss / Fortune:
PayPal says select Venmo users can now purchase its stablecoin PYUSD, with a rollout to more users in the coming weeks, in addition to BTC, ETH, BCH, and LTC  —  PayPal announced on Wednesday that Venmo users will be able to buy PayPal's new stablecoin, PayPal USD, increasing the number …
Keisha Oleaga / nft now:
A look at AI-generated geometric art crafted using Stable Diffusion and ControlNet, a neural network structure that adds extra conditions to diffusion models  —  This past weekend, a new kind of artwork made waves across the Internet: AI-generated spiral art.
Frederic Lardinois / TechCrunch:
GitHub expands Copilot Chat beta in Visual Studio and VS Code to individual subscribers, after launching the tool for business users in July 2023  —  Three months ago, GitHub launched Copilot Chat, its ChatGPT-like programming-centric chatbot, out of private preview by making it available …
Dana Mattioli / Wall Street Journal:
In its Prime lawsuit, the FTC alleges three Amazon executives played key roles in enrolling customers unwittingly and making it hard to cancel subscriptions  —  Federal agency alleges Amazon executives were aware of enrolling customers unwittingly and erecting intentional hurdles to cancellation
Wired:
Documents show that up to a dozen of Neuralink's primate subjects were euthanized after suffering complications; Elon Musk says no primates died due to implants  —  Elon Musk says no primates died as a result of Neuralink's implants.  A WIRED investigation now reveals the grisly specifics …
Mariam Sunny / Reuters:
Andrew Throuvalas / Decrypt:
The developer behind AstroPepeX details using ChatGPT to name and launch the ERC-20 memecoin, which has raked in $12.9M in trading volume over the past 24 hours  —  An anonymous Ethereum developer has released code that he says instructs artificial intelligence tools to deploy new ERC-20 tokens.
Wall Street Journal:
Sources: Apple spent billions of dollars developing a modem chip for the new iPhones to cut ties with Qualcomm, but the chip was slow and prone to overheating  —  The company set out to design a silicon chip that would allow it to cut ties with Qualcomm, a longtime supplier and bitter foe
Bloomberg:
Klaviyo closes up 9.2% in its New York Stock Exchange debut, valuing the Shopify-backed e-commerce marketing company at $9.9B on a fully diluted basis  —  - Email software firm closes debut at $9.9 billion valuation  — Founder Bialecki's fortune rises to $3.4 billion with IPO
Mary Ann Azevedo / TechCrunch:
With blistering public attacks against a lesser-known accelerator and investors, Y Combinator appears curiously on the defensive lately  —  Y Combinator has been on the defense as of late.  —  This past weekend, leaders from the popular accelerator were vocal on X (formerly known as Twitter) …
Andrew J. Hawkins / The Verge:
Uber plans to accept the US food stamps EBT card and health insurance-issued FSA and flex cards for Uber Eats grocery delivery orders, starting in 2024  —  Uber Eats will start accepting food stamps and healthcare benefits as payment for grocery delivery orders, the company announced Wednesday.

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

BG2 Pod:
AI Enterprise - Databricks & Glean
Open-source podcast on all things tech, markets, investing, and capitalism, hosted by Brad Gerstner.
Subscribe to BG2 Pod.
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.
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 3:42 AM ET, September 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

Earlier Picks

Victoria Song / The Verge:
CNBC:
Qianer Liu / Financial Times:
BBC:
Nikkei Asia:
Ivan Mehta / TechCrunch: