Techmeme
March 31, 2024, 1:10 PM

Top News

Mike Larkin / Security Boulevard:
Microsoft engineer Andres Freund accidentally found the malicious code in versions of the XZ Utils compression tool, likely preventing thousands of infections  —  Yesterday's discovery of the xz backdoor was an accident.  But what a fortunate accident it was.
Zack Whittaker / TechCrunch:
AT&T confirms data dumped online appears to be from 2019 or earlier and has personal data of 7.6M current and 65.4M former account holders, resets passcodes  —  US telco giant takes action after 2019 data breach  —  Phone giant AT&T is reseting customer account passcodes after a huge cache …
Taylor Lorenz / Washington Post:
MrBeast's “retention editing”, which uses quick cuts and loud sounds, took over social media, but may fade away as the YouTuber shifts to slower, focused videos  —  The popularity of so-called retention editing made a generation of creators go viral, but when every video looks the same it's harder than ever to stand out
More: Forbes
Pranav Dixit / Engadget:
How WhatsApp became the world's default communication app, including as a political propaganda tool, a business tool, and a private social network  —  What was once a texting platform now runs the lives, businesses and political machinery of billions.  —  In 2014, WIRED asked me to write …
Wall Street Journal:
Discord plans to start showing gaming ads from next week, called Sponsored Quests and offering rewards for in-game tasks; users can turn them off in settings  —  The chat platform, which has long avoided advertising, is latest tech company to lean into paid promotions
Mariella Moon / Engadget:
X says it is funding a lawsuit filed by Chloe Happe against her ex-employer Block, after being allegedly fired for her X posts about refugees and trans people  —  Happe accused Block of terminating her for expressing views Block didn't agree with.  —  X is funding a lawsuit filed by Chloe Happe …
Benj Edwards / Ars Technica:
Victoria Song / The Verge:
As Gmail turns 20 on April 1, a look at its impact on online communication and its future as other messaging apps have come to dominate how we communicate  —  Gmail revolutionized email with fast search and a whole gigabyte of storage.  But where's it headed next?
Podnews:
Survey of Americans aged 12+: 47% of have listened to a podcast in the last month, up 12% YoY, 76% listened to online audio in the past month, and more  —  The portion of Americans who listen to any kind of online audio, and the portion who listen to podcasts, have both reached new record highs …

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Featured Podcasts

Big Technology Podcast:
Meta & Microsoft's Claude Slowdown, His Agent Leaked His Banking Info, Don't Bully Your AI
The Big Technology Podcast takes you behind the scenes in the tech world featuring interviews with plugged-in insiders and outside agitators.
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Sources:
Qualcomm's CEO on the coming AI phone supercycle
Candid conversations with the leaders shaping what's next in AI and the broader tech industry. Hosted by Alex Heath, who has covered Silicon Valley for more than a decade.
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The Upstarts Podcast:
Bringing Back Mammoths And Building Noah's Ark 2.0 | Colossal's Ben Lamm
Veteran tech reporter Alex Konrad sits down with breakout entrepreneurs taking on the status quo to shake up their fields in AI, design, nuclear energy, space, and more.
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Great Chat:
The launch industrial complex
A podcast mostly about tech. Brought to you weekly by Angela Du, Sally Shin, Mac Bohannon, Helen Min, and Ashley Mayer.
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Channels with Peter Kafka:
Larry Ellison's Media Ambitions & Kevin Roose on AI's Biggest Gamble
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.
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Training Data:
Google's AI Infrastructure Chief, Amin Vahdat, on the Physics & Economics of Frontier AI
Sequoia Capital partners host conversations with leading AI builders and researchers to develop a deeper understanding of the evolving technologies and their implications.
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More News

Washington Post:
Ben Cohen / Wall Street Journal:
Ellen Huet / Bloomberg:
Knowing Machines:
Candice L. Odgers / Nature:
Eric Benjamin Seufert / Mobile Dev Memo:

Earlier Picks

Christopher Mims / Wall Street Journal:
Frank Landymore / Futurism:
Alex Heath / The Verge:
Keumars Afifi-Sabet / LiveScience:
Kyle Wiggers / TechCrunch: