Techmeme: Docs: ByteDance used OpenAI's API to develop its own LLM, codenamed Project Seed; employees discussed “whitewashing” the evidence through “data desensitization” (Alex Heath/The Verge)

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December 16, 2023, 3:40 AM

Top News

Jay Peters / The Verge:

Adam Mosseri details Threads' fediverse plans, including following non-Threads accounts, showing replies from other platforms, and follower portability — The head of Instagram says a full integration with the fediverse could take ‘the better part of a year.’

More: Hindustan Times, Daring Fireball, Digiday, and NewsBytes

Mastodon: @Gargron@mastodon.social, @ricmac@mastodon.social, @shantini@techhub.social, @blaine@mastodon.social, @blaine@mastodon.social, and @blakereid@mastodon …

See also Mediagazer

Alex Heath / The Verge:

Docs: ByteDance used OpenAI's API to develop its own LLM, codenamed Project Seed; employees discussed “whitewashing” the evidence through “data desensitization” — TikTok's entrancing “For You” feed made its parent company, ByteDance, an AI leader on the world stage.

More: The Verge, Yahoo News, Benzinga, and Analytics India Magazine

Threads: @alexheath and @alexheath

Mastodon: @carnage4life@mas.to and @researchbuzz@researchbuzz …

X: @revhowardarson, @alexeheath, @petergyang, @iankar_, @minimaxir, and @armanddoma. Forums: Hacker News

New York Times:

A California state agency drops its 2021 sexual harassment case against Activision Blizzard, saying that no “investigation has substantiated any allegations” — The California Civil Rights Department said in a settlement agreement that no “investigation has substantiated any allegations” against the video game maker.

More: CRD, Axios, Wall Street Journal, The Information, IGN, Bloomberg, Wall Street Journal, Reuters, and The Verge

Bluesky: @docrevan.xyz. X: @michaelguimarin, @stephentotilo, and @stephentotilo

Juli Clover / MacRumors:

Apple agrees to pay $25M to settle a class action lawsuit alleging Apple misrepresented the way that third-party app subscriptions worked with Family Sharing — Apple has agreed to settle a class action lawsuit over Family Sharing, and will pay out $25 million to put an end to the case.

More: KCC Class Action Services LLC, The Economic Times, 9to5Mac, Business Times, The Verge, TechCrunch, Engadget, AppleInsider, and Cord Cutters News. Forums: MacRumors

Bradley Keoun / CoinDesk:

Polygon Labs discontinues contributions to Edge, the OSS used for Dogechain, and shifts towards the Polygon CDK, which is powered by zero-knowledge cryptography — Polygon Labs, a developer of scaling networks for Ethereum, has shifted toward “Polygon CDK,” a blockchain-development kit powered by zero-knowledge cryptography.

More: Polygon Blog, CryptoSlate, CoinGape, The Block, and Cryptopolitan

Wall Street Journal:

Sources: DocuSign is working with advisers to explore a sale; DocuSign went public in 2018 and now has a $12B+ market cap; DOCU closes up 12.46% — Suitors for the $11 billion company could include private equity and technology firms — E-signature company DocuSign is working with advisers …

More: SiliconANGLE, PYMNTS.com, The Information, CNBC, Bloomberg, Investor's Business Daily, and Reuters

Mastodon: @NIH_LLAMAS@mastodon.social. X: @joshuaogundu, @howardlindzon, and @buccocapital

David Gilbert / Wired:

Researchers: Microsoft Copilot answers some political queries in the US and other countries with conspiracies, misinformation, and out-of-date or incorrect info — Research shared exclusively with WIRED shows that Copilot, Microsoft's AI chatbot, often responds to questions about elections with lies and conspiracy theories.

More: Washington Post, AlgorithmWatch, AIForensics, Mashable, The Verge, Neowin, Cointelegraph, and TNW

X: @salv_romano, @daithaigilbert, @fabiochiusi, @algorithmwatch, @aiforensics_org, @jodyserrano, @textually, @leahfeiger, @jeffjarvis, @algorithmwatch, and @daithaigilbert

Bloomberg:

Memo: Weibo sent notices warning users to “avoid expressing pessimism about the economy” and “avoid crossing the red lines” around economic or financial topics — - The social media service sent warning notices to users — China has stepped up control on online discourse in past years

X: @haifeng_huang and @wexler. LinkedIn: Ethan Tan

Financial Times:

Sources: Elon Musk verbally guaranteed some US banks that they would not lose money on the Twitter deal; banks face serious losses on the “uninvestable” debt — Banks are facing serious losses on the debt as social media platform's business deteriorates

More: Ars Technica, Business Insider, and The Messenger

Threads: @game_m0le, @jjackyliang, @jjackyliang, @kalihays1, @esqueer_, and @jjackyliang

X: @tomcoates and @edzitron. Forums: Ars OpenForum

Bloomberg:

Sources: more Chinese government agencies and state-backed firms have ordered staff to stop bringing iPhones, Samsung phones, and other foreign devices to work — - Agencies from Beijing to Tianjin instruct staff to go local — The formal directives follow a general mandate from months ago

More: Huawei Central, Reuters, Stock Market News, 9to5Mac, AppleInsider, MacDailyNews, Sammy Fans, and Benzinga. X: @lord_fed

Adrian Kingsley-Hughes / ZDNet:

iOS 17.2 closes off Flipper Zero devices' ability to carry out DoS attacks on iPhones within a 30-foot radius by continuously sending Bluetooth pairing requests — Apple has finally closed off the ability of the Flipper Zero pen-testing tool to flood iPhones with so many popups that the handset would lock up and require a reboot.

More: 9to5Mac, iThinkDifferent, MacRumors, The Verge, Supercharged, and Gizmodo. Forums: MacRumors Forums

Malathi Nayak / Bloomberg:

Tesla's Autopilot recall threatens to hurt the company's defense in six high-profile lawsuits set for 2024 over crashes linked to the driver-assistance program — - Recall bolsters claims Autopilot is defective, plaintiffs say — Carmaker plans over-the-air update to prevent driver misuse

More: CNET, Associated Press, Electrek, The Messenger, and eeNews Europe

Threads: @gablova. X: @technology

Amanda Silberling / TechCrunch:

YouTube creators MrBeast and Chucky Appleby launch ViewStats, which uses the YouTube API to unveil detailed stats about channels for creators and fans, in beta — The top YouTuber in the U.S., MrBeast (Jimmy Donaldson) co-founded the new analytics platform ViewStats, which is now available in beta.

Mastodon: @kierkegaank@mastodon.sdf.org. X: @nickadobos, @alexisohanian, @gregisenberg, and @bria_sullivan. LinkedIn: Justin Gerrard

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From Mediagazer

CNN:

Don Lemon pleads not guilty to two federal charges stemming from his reporting at an anti-ICE protest in a Minnesota church

Dan Kennedy / Media Nation:

While announcing its sports buildup, Banner EIC Audrey Cooper noted the civic value: “At a time when so much pulls communities apart, sports bring us together”

Alexandra Steigrad / New York Post:

Source: New York Daily News is cutting six of 10 national desk staffers, one metro reporter, seven print production people, and two photo department staffers

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More News

Alex Williams / New York Times:

Vera Molnar, considered the godmother of generative art for her computer-aided paintings and drawings that started in the 1960s, died on December 7 at age 99

Josh Ye / Reuters:

CGIGC: China's video games market returned to growth in 2023 with domestic revenue up 13% YoY to ~$42.6B and the number of gamers up 0.61% YoY to a record 668M

More: Xinhua, GamesIndustry.biz, and Tech in Asia

Jordan Pearson / VICE:

Some X users report seeing ads for apps that use AI to “undress” women in photos; TikTok and Meta have started to block search terms related to “nudify” apps

More: 404 Media. Threads: @info_rosalie and @mattnavarra. Bluesky: @janety.bsky.social

X: @kevinish, @thechildweb3, @davidthewid, @athundt, @jason_koebler, @bumblejack_, @thatstarwarsgrl, @theebonymaw, @maria_antoniak, @davbatz, @neuwaves, and @eshumarneedi

James Titcomb / Telegraph:

The UK approved Google's selfie scanning tech to estimate a user's age, per the Age Check Certification Scheme registry, ahead of Ofcom's rules for adult sites

X: @serveaugustina, @mikestabile, @matthfield, and @mikestabile

Financial Times:

A look at the complex Microsoft-OpenAI alliance structure, which sources say entitles Microsoft to up to 49% of the earnings from OpenAI's for-profit subsidiary

X: @tim and @davidclinchnews

Tyler Pathe / FinTech Futures:

Toronto Stock Exchange owner TMX acquires the rest of US-based analytics company VettaFi for $848M, taking ownership after buying 22% for $175M in January 2023

More: TMX Group, FinTech Global, Pulse 2.0, and Canadian Press. X: @mebfaber

Ash Parrish / The Verge:

Days after updating its content policy to permit certain kinds of sexual content, Twitch rescinds the “artistic nudity” portion, citing “community concern”

More: Twitch, Engadget, NBC News, TweakTown, Tubefilter, PetaPixel, Neowin, PC Gamer, Decrypt, TechCrunch, PCMag, Dot Esports, Gizmodo, The Messenger, Kotaku, MSPoweruser, UPROXX, and TheGamer

X: @morgan_sung, @morgan_sung, @wonni__, and @freyaholmer. Forums: Hacker News

Earlier Picks

Jesse Hamilton / CoinDesk:

The US SEC rejects Coinbase's petition for formal digital asset rules, because the “existing securities regime appropriately governs crypto asset securities”

Eduardo Baptista / Reuters:

China proposes a four-tier, color-coded system for data security incidents; for red and orange warnings, companies must notify the government within 10 minutes

More: Metaverse Post, ITPro, Bitcoin Insider, and The Hacker News. Forums: Slashdot

Glenn Fleishman / Retool:

A look back at Yahoo Pipes, which from 2007 to 2015 let users drag and drop elements in a browser to make data feeds, influencing a generation of UI designers

More: Pixel Envy. Threads: @susanbeebe, @theromit, @chambararenaissance, @mshobe, @j_lewis, @elatable, @sugarfreejones, @pavelsurmenok, @codedrift.social, and @jank0

Mastodon: @jay@cuthrell.com and @PizzaDemon@mastodon.online

X: @panzer, @stammy, and @ryanlucas

LinkedIn: Pasha Sadri and Luke Wroblewski. Forums: Hacker News

Stacy Elliott / Decrypt:

Crypto wallet maker Ledger updates Connect Kit to remove some malicious code, live for five hours, after a former employee “fell victim to a phishing attack”

Forbes:

Google says it will no longer respond to geofence warrants after making changes to how Google Maps stores and accesses users' opt-in Location History

More: The Verge, ExtremeTech, The Register, Android Headlines, RestorePrivacy, SamMobile, Electronic Frontier Foundation, SiliconANGLE, Mashable, TechSpot, Gizmodo, MediaNama, Metro.co.uk, emptywheel, Silicon Republic, The Keyword, Bloomberg, Reason, and Bloomberg Law

Threads: @carnage4life. Mastodon: @chetwisniewski …, @Colarusso@mastodon.social, and @cfarivar@journa.host

X: @orinkerr, @orinkerr, @emptywheel, @joesphwiegand50, @bastionbucks, @cfarivar, @matthew_d_green, @daveyalba, @orinkerr, @iblametom, @iampaulgrewal, and @sarahfrier. LinkedIn: Thomas Brewster

Will Knight / Wired:

OpenAI details how its Superalignment research team is exploring ways to control stronger AI models like GPT-4 using weaker supervisor models like GPT-2

More: OpenAI, Gizmodo, BGR, The Decoder, The Messenger, Metaverse Post, SiliconANGLE, MIT Technology Review, Baseline, TechCrunch, and IEEE Spectrum

X: @miramurati, @sama, @swarnanlp, @alextmallen, @leopoldasch, @nabla_theta, @collinburns4, @gdb, @binarybits, @_akhaliq, @stephenlcasper, @openai, and @adrienle. Forums: Hacker News

Rohan Goswami / CNBC:

The US DOJ announces an indictment for four people, two of whom have been arrested, in an alleged international pig butchering crypto scam costing victims $80M+

More: US Department of Justice, The Daily Hodl, Trend Micro, The Record, CCN.com, Infosecurity, Bankless Times, SiliconANGLE, NBC News, Cryptonews, Cryptopolitan, and BleepingComputer

Mastodon: @brianstorms@mastodon.social. LinkedIn: Gary Warner

Will Douglas Heaven / MIT Technology Review:

Google DeepMind's FunSearch model cracks the unsolved cap set problem in pure mathematics, the first time an LLM has solved a long-standing scientific puzzle

More: Nature, Google DeepMind, Politico, Synced, The Independent, The Decoder, TNW, Tech Xplore, Cybernews.com, Gizchina, Silicon Republic, Simon Willison's Weblog, SiliconANGLE, Nature, The Guardian, and New Scientist

Mastodon: @dkalintsev@infosec.exchange. Bluesky: @epro.social and @lakewitchhouse.bsky.social

X: @demishassabis, @johnjnay, @barekatainamin, @googledeepmind, @mfigurnov, @sashavnovikov, @pengmingwang, @alhusseinfawzi, @pushmeet, @wtgowers, @matejbalog, @ber24, @gfodor, and @emollick

Forums: Hacker News and Slashdot