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December 7, 2023, 8:55 PM
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Top News

Kyle Wiggers / TechCrunch:
Users say Google's Gemini Pro is loath to comment on potentially controversial news topics, fails to get basic facts right, and struggles with some coding tasks  —  This week, Google took the wraps off of Gemini, its new flagship generative AI model meant to power a range of products …
Parmy Olson / Bloomberg:
Google's Gemini video demo of its multimodal capabilities wasn't carried out in real time or in voice; the model was shown still images and given text prompts  —  The tech giant's latest AI model is only marginally better than the one from OpenAI that's been out for eight months.
Wall Street Journal:
The US and UK governments jointly accuse Russia's FSB of orchestrating a wide-ranging, global hacking campaign since 2015 to interfere in British elections  —  The cyberattacks also allegedly took aim at U.S. energy networks and American spies  —  LONDON—The U.S. and U.K. governments …
Wall Street Journal:
Sources: Montenegro Justice Minister Andrej Milovic has privately said he plans to extradite Do Kwon to the US rather than South Korea to face criminal charges  —  Alexander Osipovich and Marko Vešović  —  Montenegro's top justice official has privately said he plans …
Wall Street Journal:
Microsoft says Russia-aligned propagandists duped at least seven Western celebrities via Cameo into recording videos used to attack Ukraine's President Zelensky  —  Microsoft found that celebrities were tricked into making videos used to attack Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky
Maxwell Zeff / Gizmodo:
X rolls out xAI's snarky, anti-woke chatbot Grok to X Premium+ users; X CEO Linda Yaccarino describes Grok as “the ultimate ride or die”  —  Select users with X Premium Plus received access to the AI starting Thursday.  —  Elon Musk's snarky, anti-woke chatbot, Grok …
Jay Peters / The Verge:
Sony removing Discovery content due to licensing “arrangements” and unexpectedly banning PSN accounts are timely reminders that users don't own digital content  —  In less than a week, Sony has given us two timely reminders of the tenuousness of digital “ownership” — and both reminders involve things on PlayStation.
Wall Street Journal:
Former OpenAI board member Helen Toner says the “goal in firing Sam [Altman] was to strengthen OpenAI”, but declines to say why she and others voted to fire him  —  In an interview, AI academic Helen Toner explains her posture in OpenAI's power struggle
Jay Peters / The Verge:
Meta rolls out tags on Threads, offering support for multiple words and spaces, and no # symbol; posts can only have one tag and the tag view is the search view  —  Tags — basically hashtags with a twist — are now rolling out globally on Threads, Instagram head Adam Mosseri announced on Thursday.
Ben Weiss / Fortune:
Block opens preorders for its self-custodial Bitcoin hardware wallet Bitkey in 95+ countries, coming to the US in early 2024 for $150, after a beta in June 2023  —  Block, the payments company led by former Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey, announced on Thursday that Bitkey, a physical device …
Jay Peters / The Verge:
Meta rolls out end-to-end encryption to Messenger by default for one-on-one chats and calls, fulfilling a yearslong promise; E2EE for group chats remains opt-in  —  Meta is now rolling out end-to-end encryption for one-on-one chats and calls on Messenger and Facebook, finally fulfilling …
Todd Spangler / Variety:
Spotify says CFO Paul Vogel plans to leave on March 31, 2024, and launches a search for a successor; Daniel Ek wants a CFO “with a different mix of experiences”  —  Spotify said chief financial officer Paul Vogel will leave the company next year and that it has launched a search to find a replacement.
Carly Page / TechCrunch:
Researchers detail AutoSpill, a flaw in Android that can expose users' saved credentials from 1Password, LastPass, Keeper, and other popular password managers  —  A number of popular mobile password managers are inadvertently spilling user credentials due to a vulnerability in the autofill functionality of Android apps.
Duncan Riley / SiliconANGLE:
Microsoft announces a major security leadership reshuffle as part of its Secure Future Initiative, replacing Bret Arsenault with Igor Tsyganskiy as Global CISO  —  Microsoft Corp. has announced a significant shakeup of its security team, with its long-time leader being put into a new role …
Emily Nicolle / Bloomberg:
Robinhood launches a commission-free crypto trading app, supporting 25+ cryptocurrencies, in the EU, a week after the company launched stock trading in the UK  —  - More than 25 tokens available to trade for free at launch  — Launch comes as Bitcoin's price recovers to 19-month high
Financial Times:
A profile of Chinese whistleblower Tang Mingfang, who is still paying the price for calling out injustices at a Foxconn factory making Amazon devices in 2019  —  Four years after Tang Mingfang called out the injustices he witnessed at a Foxconn factory in China, nothing has changed — except for him
Erin Griffith / New York Times:
PitchBook estimates that at least ~3,200 private venture-backed US startups, which had raised a combined $27.2B in VC funding, have gone out of business in 2023  —  After staving off collapse by cutting costs, many young tech companies are out of options, fueling a cash bonfire.

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About This Page

This is a Techmeme archive page. It shows how the site appeared at 8:55 PM ET, December 7, 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

Max Tani / @maxwelltani:
Memo: Notus plans to “dramatically expand” its coverage of national politics with a “new version of NOTUS under a new name” and will double staff from 50 to 100

Karissa Waddick / USA Today:
After Trump said some outlets wanted the US to “lose the War”, FCC Chair Carr threatened broadcasters, saying they can lose their licenses over war coverage

Catherine Shoard / The Guardian:
Warner Bros. won a record-tying 11 awards at the 98th Oscars, followed by Netflix's six; Apple, Disney, Focus, and Neon had one each, while Paramount had none

More News

Kaya Yurieff / The Information:
TikTok forms a task force to tackle hate speech and plans to open its research API to civil society groups, after complaints about viral Israel-Hamas war videos
Mike Wheatley / SiliconANGLE:
Meta announces Purple Llama, an initiative to promote responsible AI development by offering tools and evaluations for safely building open generative AI models

Earlier Picks

Jim Norman / Nintendo Life:
Nintendo cancels Nintendo Live 2024 Tokyo and delays Splatoon and Mario Kart esports events after “persistently receiving threats” against staff and spectators
Vittoria Elliott / Wired:
Meta's Oversight Board takes up two expedited cases, the first ever, related to the Israel-Hamas war, over removed and reinstated Instagram and Facebook posts
Reuters:
Reuters temporarily removes its article titled “How an Indian startup hacked the world” to comply with an Indian court order, and plans to appeal the decision
Washington Post:
How Google, Meta, and other tech giants ramped up university donations over the years, giving them influence over AI, social media, and disinformation research
Drew Harwell / Washington Post:
Apple's guidelines now say that US law enforcement can obtain a push notification token's associated Apple ID “with a subpoena”; Google requires a court order
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