Techmeme: How some authors are embracing ChatGPT and other chatbots as the latest iteration of an ancient literary conceit, a writer's “muse” (A.O. Scott/New York Times)

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December 30, 2023, 12:00 PM

Top News

Jonathan Stempel / Reuters:

Filing: US prosecutors have decided not to pursue a second trial against Sam Bankman-Fried, as much of the evidence was already presented at the first trial — U.S. prosecutors said on Friday they do not plan to proceed with a second trial against Sam Bankman-Fried, who was convicted …

Emma Roth / The Verge:

Microsoft launches Microsoft Copilot for iOS and iPadOS, a free ChatGPT-like app that supports GPT-4 and DALL-E 3, three days after its Android launch — Just days after introducing a Copilot app on Android, Microsoft has rolled out an app for its AI chatbot on iOS and iPadOS.

More: App Store, Thurrott, PCMag, Business Today, AppleInsider, Neowin, Engadget, KnowTechie, Tom's Guide, Sam Lover, Ghacks, Tabletmonkeys, Cryptopolitan, Windows Latest, and Gizmochina

Threads: @eshwarnag, @mikehos3, @thebrianpenny, @solespire.marcus, @rodchristiansen, @aulia, @carnage4life, @mikeindustries, @mikeindustries, and @daveleebbg. Mastodon: @parkerortolani@mastodon …. X: @okarisman

Gary Marcus / Marcus on AI:

OpenAI and others will likely face more copyright lawsuits as systems like DALL-E produce copyright-infringing materials without attribution or informing users — A full of spectrum of infringement — At around the same time as news of the New York Times lawsuit vs OpenAI broke …

Threads: @carnage4life and @thebrianpenny

Mastodon: @cstross@wandering.shop, @artofsoulburn@mastodon.art, and @baldur@toot.cafe

X: @zittrain, @pauljeffries, @yoda, @ceciliazin, @benlandautaylor, @ceciliazin, @antoniogm, @garymarcus, @emollick, @nelkmarge, @peterhense, @bobehayes, @venturetwins, @garymarcus, @ylecun, and @burkov

LinkedIn: Rafael Brown, Daniel, Frith Tweedie, and Jon Lam. Forums: Hacker News

See also Mediagazer

The Information:

Sources: OpenAI recently topped $1.6B in annualized revenue, up from $1.3B in mid-October; some OpenAI leaders believe OpenAI can reach a $5B ARR by 2024's end — OpenAI recently topped $1.6 billion in annualized revenue on strong growth from its ChatGPT product, up from $1.3 billion as of mid-October …

X: @amir

Rebecca Bellan / TechCrunch:

A look at Australia's maturing tech sector, which faces challenges like a shortage of late-stage capital and a scarcity of executives with scaling experience — The country has punched above its weight on a global scale for years. Can it attract the funding and talent, and become inclusive enough, to play at the top?

X: @rebeccabellan, @rebeccabellan, and @rebeccabellan

LinkedIn: David Brown and Ian Yip

Ryan McCarthy / Fast Company:

How Figma is adding AI into its products, including launching FigJam AI in public beta in November to help improve meetings with summaries, next steps, and more — By now, we've all heard the worries about artificial intelligence replacing workers and laying siege to entire industries (if not the world at large).

LinkedIn: Ryan J. McCarthy

A.O. Scott / New York Times:

How some authors are embracing ChatGPT and other chatbots as the latest iteration of an ancient literary conceit, a writer's “muse” — What happens to literature when writers embrace A.I. as their muse? — The robots of literature and movies usually present either an existential danger or an erotic frisson.

Threads: @lalatellsastory. Bluesky: @gunnardewinter.bsky.social, @seantcollins.bsky.social, @calebumbo.bsky.social, @eatyrselffitter.bsky.social, @jaegervonkramer.bsky.social, @chickentendi.bsky.social, @faeweichsel.bsky.social, @tylerking.bsky.social, @rajavlitra.bsky.social, @hern.bsky.social, @fugitivecourier.bsky.social, and @sapphire.mewmews.gay

X: @stephenmarche and @nytimesbooks

Bill Toulas / BleepingComputer:

Researchers: hackers are abusing Google OAuth endpoint “MultiLogin” to restore expired authentication cookies and log into accounts even after a password reset — Multiple information-stealing malware families are abusing an undocumented Google OAuth endpoint named “MultiLogin” …

More: DeputyDog, CloudSEK | Blog, 9to5Google, Sam Lover, Phandroid, Sammy Fans, Hackread, BankInfoSecurity.com, and Cybernews.com

Aaron Tilley / Wall Street Journal:

A profile of Joe Kiani, whose company Masimo spent ~$100M suing Apple, as some say his aggressive use of the US patent system stymies the innovation of others — Joe Kiani has taken on Apple in a patent dispute that has cost his company millions of dollars to pursue. So far he is winning, but the fight isn't over.

More: New York Post. X: @matthewfoldi

Bloomberg:

People's Bank of China lists Ant Group's Alipay as having no controller, as Ant finished removing controlling stakeholders almost a year after Jack Ma's promise — The bank now lists Ant's Alipay as a firm without an actual controller. — Ma, co-founder of Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. …

More: Reuters

Madhumita Murgia / Financial Times:

The UK's NHS deploys an AI stethoscope from Mayo Clinic spinoff Eko in 200 GP surgeries to detect heart failure, atrial fibrillation, and valvular heart disease — Rollout of stethoscope with pioneering technology could save lives and ease the strain on the NHS

X: @ft, @mihir_kelshiker, @subhaan_siddiq, @mihir_kelshiker, @mihir_kelshiker, and @mihir_kelshiker

LinkedIn: Noor Ashraf and Connor Landgraf

NBC News:

Sources: US intelligence determined that the Chinese spy balloon that flew across the US in January and February 2023 used a US ISP to communicate with China — An American intelligence assessment found that the balloon used a commercially available U.S. network to communicate, primarily for navigation, U.S. officials say.

More: Beyond Search, New York Post, Boing Boing, and The Messenger

Mastodon: @JGRW@infosec.exchange. X: @brianweeden, @stevedaines, @tanvi_madan, @matthewkeyslive, and @frankfigliuzzi1. LinkedIn: Ben Lowsen. Forums: Slashdot

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This is a Techmeme archive page. It shows how the site appeared at 12:00 PM ET, December 30, 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

Henry Blodget / Regenerator:

Bari Weiss' 60 Minutes decision may have been a way to both signal that she's serious about shifting CBS' sensibility to the right and “improve” a story

Todd Spangler / Variety:

Trump says Stephen Colbert is a “pathetic trainwreck” and “CBS should, ‘put him to sleep,’ NOW”, after CBS aired a Late Show rerun in which Colbert mocked Trump

Rebecca Rubin / Variety:

Disney crosses the $6B milestone at the box office for the first time since the COVID-19 pandemic; no other studio has managed to reach $6B since 2015

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More News

Reuters:

A look at Chinese startup SEIDA, which claims to be developing optical proximity correction chip design software to help China become self-reliant in chip tech

X: @reuters, @reuters, @reuters, and @martijnrasser

Tanya Snyder / Politico:

Lidar sensor tech is the latest flashpoint in the US-China trade war, as the US lidar industry mounts a lobbying offensive against Chinese companies like Hesai

X: @tsnyderdc, @tsnyderdc, @dunne_insights, @tsnyderdc, and @tsnyderdc

CNBC:

After a 33% plunge in 2022, the Nasdaq finished 2023 up 43%, its best year since 2020, led by Nvidia, which soared 239%, and Meta, which jumped almost 200%

More: iMore, Bloomberg, TechStartups, Associated Press, Yahoo Finance, Financial Mirror, MacDailyNews, and CNBC

Threads: @rihardjarc and @barbarosozturk. Bluesky: @s3friedman.bsky.social

X: @katie_roof, @renesellmann, @beth_kindig, and @kgreifeld. LinkedIn: Emil Protalinski

The Information:

Sources: BuzzFeed is close to selling most of Complex Networks to livestream shopping startup Ntwrk for a little above $100M, far below Jonah Peretti's target

X: @tomaxwell and @sizpatel

Earlier Picks

Usama Jawad / XDA Developers:

Microsoft disables Windows App Installer's ms-appinstaller after the URI scheme was used to spread malware; Microsoft disabled and re-enabled the scheme in 2022

More: Microsoft Security Blog, Microsoft Security …, BleepingComputer, Thurrott, BankInfoSecurity.com, Petri IT Knowledgebase, TechRadar, Cybernews.com, Ghacks, WinBuzzer, and The Hacker News

Mastodon: @GossiTheDog@cyberplace.social and @ankit_anubhav@infosec …

X: @msftsecintel, @wdormann, @fr0gger_, and @itsreallynick. LinkedIn: Omkar Gudhate. Forums: Slashdot

Amitoj Singh / CoinDesk:

Sources: India's decision to seek the blocking of the URLs of nine foreign crypto exchanges followed a request from the Indian crypto and Web3 advocacy body

John Gruber / Daring Fireball:

Apple blocking Beeper Mini, not a service unto itself but an unauthorized client for a proprietary platform that costs a lot to run, is not anticompetitive

More: The Verge and mjtsai.com

X: @lutherlowe, @antoniogm, @antoniogm, @nicholasadeleon, @gpanger, and @parkerortolani

Aria Alamalhodaei / TechCrunch:

Source: Shield AI, which makes autonomous drones and other military tech, raised $300M in equity and debt at a $2.8B valuation, bringing its Series F to $500M

More: SiliconANGLE and Shield AI. LinkedIn: Martin Rudigier

Amrita Khalid / The Verge:

LG debuts new LG Gram and Gram Pro laptops with NVMe PCIe 4.0 SSDs and an NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3050; the Pro includes Intel's AI Boost NPU for on-device AI tasks

More: Pocket-lint, LG NEWSROOM, TechSpot, SamMobile, Tom's Hardware, MSPoweruser, Phandroid, and Gizmochina

Reuters:

A US judge sides with the SEC, ruling that Terraform broke the law by not registering four cryptocurrencies, but dismisses the SEC's security-based swap claims