Techmeme: 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 (Malathi Nayak/Bloomberg)

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December 16, 2023, 12:45 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, and Digiday

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

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: Analytics India Magazine, The Verge, and Benzinga

Threads: @alexheath and @alexheath

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

X: @iankar_, @revhowardarson, @alexeheath, @petergyang, @minimaxir, and @armanddoma

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Microsoft Copilot answers some political queries in the US and other countries with conspiracies, misinformation, and out-of-date or incorrect info — Research shared exclusively with WIRED shows that Copilot, Microsoft's AI chatbot, often responds to questions about elections with lies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

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, Bloomberg, Reuters, The Information, The Verge, IGN, and Wall Street Journal

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, 9to5Mac, TechCrunch, Business Times, The Verge, Engadget, AppleInsider, and Cord Cutters News. Forums: MacRumors

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

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

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

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

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

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

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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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

Todd Spangler / Variety:

Trump names Danielle Thumann, an adviser to FCC Chairman Brendan Carr, to serve as an FCC commissioner; if confirmed, she'd bring the Republican majority to 3-1

Dade Hayes / Deadline:

Scripps' CEO says the company is adopting a streaming news model enabled by AI, including cutting 12% of staff, and praises the FCC's lift of the ownership cap

Ted Johnson / Deadline:

A federal judge has dismissed an antitrust challenge to Paramount's WBD acquisition brought by a group of consumers, but allows them to file a revised complaint

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More News

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: @davidclinchnews and @tim

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

Nicholas Sutrich / Android Central:

Microsoft launches its basic Office suite on the Meta Quest store for free, letting all Quests run Word, Excel, and PowerPoint in a mixed reality environment

More: Thurrott, The Verge, MSPoweruser, WinBuzzer, Windows Central, Neowin, UploadVR, and Nick Sutrich on YouTube

Threads: @darthmcdo and @noise.in.vacuum

X: @arielledundas, @swiftonsecurity, @lunayian, @cixliv, @richgel999, @pashkaplays, @tomwarren, @gwanatu, @cixliv, and @generalkidd

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, and Bitcoin Insider. 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

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

Mastodon: @jay@cuthrell.com, @PizzaDemon@mastodon.online, and @glennf@twit.social

X: @panzer, @stammy, and @ryanlucas

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

Saritha Rai / Bloomberg:

Krutrim, an AI startup founded by Ola Group CEO Bhavish Aggarwal, unveils India's first multilingual LLM, capable of generating text in 10 Indian languages

More: PYMNTS.com, TechCircle, Metaverse Post, MediaNama, Inc42 Media, and Business Today. X: @pranavdixit

Earlier Picks

Joseph Cox / 404 Media:

Cox Media Group claims it can listen to consumers' conversations through microphones in smartphones, smart TVs, and other devices and use the data to target ads

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

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, The Decoder, The Messenger, Metaverse Post, MIT Technology Review, 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, 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, The Independent, Politico, Synced, The Decoder, TNW, Tech Xplore, Cybernews.com, Gizchina, Silicon Republic, Simon Willison's Weblog, Nature, SiliconANGLE, 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

Abner Li / 9to5Google:

Google launches a Pixel Diagnostic App and repair manuals in English in the US, the UK, Canada, Australia, and European countries where Pixel devices are sold

More: The Keyword, TechRadar, Android Headlines, The Register, ZDNet, Gizmodo, Tom's Guide, ExtremeTech, T3, PhoneArena, iThinkDifferent, Android Authority, and The Verge. LinkedIn: Nancy Roitz

Aria Alamalhodaei / TechCrunch:

Amazon validates Project Kuiper's optical inter-satellite links, which use infrared lasers to move data around 30% faster than terrestrial fiber optical cables

More: About Amazon, TechSpot, Engadget, Silicon Republic, SiliconANGLE, CircleID, and Bloomberg

X: @richontech and @ajassy. LinkedIn: Tim Kilbride