Techmeme
December 5, 2023, 5:25 PM

Top News

Jacob Kastrenakes / The Verge:
Beeper debuts Beeper Mini for Android, which lets users send iMessages using E2EE, without having to use a new number or log in with an Apple ID, for $2/month  —  Earlier this year, a developer slid into Eric Migicovsky's DMs with a spectacular claim: that he had reverse engineered Apple's iMessage …
Tom Warren / The Verge:
Microsoft updates Copilot with DALL-E 3 and says GPT-4 Turbo support and a Code Interpreter feature are coming soon; Bing will get “Deep Search” functionality  —  Microsoft is detailing a number of new features coming to its Copilot service soon, including OpenAI's latest models.
Emanuel Maiberg / 404 Media:
Leaked docs show concern at OctoML about helping its customer Civitai make AI images; OctoML co-founder Thierry Moreau said some “could be categorized as” CSAM  —  Content warning: This story covers synthetic child sexual abuse images.  —  OctoML, a Seattle-based startup …
Alexandra Barinka / Bloomberg:
Meta, IBM, and over 50 other companies and organizations form the AI Alliance, a coalition to work on open-source AI, including to share tech and reduce risks  —  Meta Platforms Inc. and International Business Machines Corp. are joining more than 40 companies and organizations to create …
Bloomberg:
AT&T chooses Ericsson to modernize its wireless network with an architecture utilizing open standards, a ~$14B project over five years; ERICB closes up 6.08%  —  - Infrastructure deal aims to modernize network over five years  — Deal is a blow to Nokia, which will delay profit targets
Reuters:
Docs: Apple warned India that its EU-style charger rules will lower local production targets and on November 28 asked to exempt or delay existing iPhone models  —  Apple (AAPL.O) has told India its local production targets will be hit if New Delhi follows the European Union and requires existing iPhones …
Bill Toulas / BleepingComputer:
ESET researchers have found 18 “SpyLoan” malicious loan Android apps, which have been downloaded 12M+ times from the Google Play store alone, in 2023 so far  —  More than a dozen malicious loan apps, which are generically named SpyLoan, have been downloaded more than 12 million times …
Hannah Lang / Reuters:
OpenSecrets: crypto companies spent $18.96M on US lobbying in Q1 2023 to Q3 2023, up from $16.1M during the same period in 2022; Coinbase spent $2.16M, the most  —  The cryptocurrency industry was on track to hit a new record for federal lobbying spending, after a year in which firms scrambled …
Samantha Cole / 404 Media:
Alibaba's paper on its Animate Anyone AI model goes viral after videos show the model can replace TikTok influencers after being trained on TikTokers' videos  —  A team of researchers from Chinese retail and technology giant Alibaba released a paper this week detailing a new model, which they call “Animate Anyone.”
Andrew Cunningham / Ars Technica:
Microsoft says it will offer three additional years of Windows 10 security updates as a paid upgrade after the OS' end-of-support date on October 14, 2025  —  Windows 10 gets a version of the program that extended updates for Windows 7.  —  Windows 10's end-of-support date is October 14, 2025.
Hayden Field / CNBC:
Elon Musk's xAI files with the US SEC to raise up to $1B in an equity offering, saying the startup has raised nearly $135M from four investors since November 29  —  - X.AI, Elon Musk's artificial intelligence startup, has filed with the SEC to raise up to $1 billion in an equity offering.
Bruce Schneier / Schneier on Security:
AI chatbots' conversational nature makes them more trustworthy, which could cause problems, like “hidden exploitation”, outright fraud, and mistaken expertise  —  I trusted a lot today.  I trusted my phone to wake me on time.  I trusted Uber to arrange a taxi for me, and the driver to get me to the airport safely.
New York Times:
Interviews with 80+ sources describe how OpenAI releasing ChatGPT a year ago triggered Google, Meta, and the rest of Silicon Valley to scramble to catch up  —  ChatGPT's release a year ago triggered a desperate scramble among tech companies and alarm from some of the people who helped invent it.
Threads: @pkedroskyMastodon: @cdarwin@c.imX: @tomgara, @mikeisaac, @jessefelder, and @jordannovet
BBC:
Tesla whistleblower Łukasz Krupski says Autopilot is not safe enough to use on public roads due to its hardware and software not being “ready”  —  A former Tesla employee has told the BBC he believes the technology powering the firm's self-driving vehicles is not safe enough to be used on public roads.
Vishal Chawla / The Block:
Web3 developer platform thirdweb discloses a major vulnerability in an open-source library used by several NFT collections; thirdweb became aware on November 20  —  - Thirdweb, a web3 developer platform, disclosed a security vulnerability in its open-source library.

Sponsor Posts

Airtable:
The central nervous system of your business  —  Used by 80% of Fortune 100 companies, Airtable combines AI with the scale of an infinitely flexible, no-code system.  With all your data in one place, it's like mission control for your company.
Intel:
5G's most deployed platform  —  Powering live networks with built-in Inference across Core and RAN.  That's the power of Intel Inside®
Zoho:
AI that actually helps: Practical intelligence in Zoho Workplace  —  Lately, most AI assistants feel like that one over-eager intern who interrupts every five minutes with a suggestion you didn't ask for.At Zoho …
IDrive:
Protecting your Cloud Applications Data  —  Backing up Office 365, Google Workspace, Dropbox & Salesforce 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:
Will empathy make a comeback?
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.
Big Technology Podcast:
Pentagon Insider: What's Next For Anthropic and The Department of War — With Michael Horowitz
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.
Channels with Peter Kafka:
The World's Cup Is Coming to Trump's America, with Roger Bennett
Media and tech aren't just intersecting - they're fully intertwined. To understand how those worlds work, Peter Kafka talks to industry leaders, upstarts and observers.
Subscribe to Channels with Peter Kafka.
Invest Like the Best:
John Arnold - China, Energy Markets and Fixing America's Systems
The leading destination to learn about business and investing. We do this by showcasing exceptional talent and ideas.
Subscribe to Invest Like the Best.
The Social Radars:
Peter Reinhardt, CEO & co-founder, Charm Industrial; CEO & co-founder, Segment
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.
Tools and Weapons with Brad Smith:
His Excellency Khaldoon Al Mubarak: Investing in an AI-Driven World
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 5:25 PM ET, December 5, 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

Jon Porter / The Verge:
Jake Kanter / Deadline:
Ingrid Lunden / TechCrunch:

Earlier Picks

Wired:
Ron Amadeo / Ars Technica:
Todd Spangler / Variety:
Jon Porter / The Verge:
Cecilia D'Anastasio / Bloomberg:
Financial Times: