Techmeme
April 14, 2024, 9:50 AM

Top News

TechCrunch:
Meta says it is testing its Meta AI chatbot with WhatsApp, Instagram, and Messenger users in India and parts of Africa  —  Meta has confirmed to TechCrunch that it is testing Meta AI, its large language model-powered chatbot, with WhatsApp, Instagram and Messenger users in India and parts of Africa.
Wes Davis / The Verge:
Bluesky says it is now allowing heads of state to sign up, and adds features including hashtags in profile bios and the ability to long press a link to share  —  Bluesky is apparently ready for a bigger challenge.  It says it's allowing heads of state to sign up now, a little over two months after it opened for general signups.
Anuj Ahooja / augment:
An experiment to see how a Threads feed would work on Mastodon, using lists and testing third-party clients, which shows the bright future of the fediverse  —  This is my journey that started as an experiment to see how my Threads feed would look like on Mastodon and ended with me finding experiences …
Ken Yeung / VentureBeat:
Elon Musk's xAI previews Grok-1.5 Vision, its first multimodal model, and says the AI model will be available soon to “early testers and existing Grok users”  —  Elon Musk's OpenAI rival has introduced its first multimodal model.  Not only can it understand text …
Cristiano Lima-Strong / Washington Post:
Sources detail how Senate Commerce Committee chair Maria Cantwell, who recently proposed a privacy bill, has undermined privacy negotiations for years  —  Many aides say Maria Cantwell, a powerful Democratic leader, has repeatedly upended privacy negotiations.
Tsubasa Suruga / Nikkei Asia:
A look at chip design companies like Oppstar that aim to push Malaysia, the world's sixth-largest semiconductor exporter, to the higher end of the value chain  —  Former Intel engineers attempt to push Penang to higher end of value chain  —  PENANG, Malaysia — When chip design company Oppstar listed …
Reshmi Basu / Bloomberg:
Analysis: software and services companies have almost $30B of debt that's classed as distressed, the most in any industry apart from real estate  —  - Software and services nears $30 billion of distressed debt  — Percentage of companies defaulting more than once is rising
Pilita Clark / Financial Times:
An analysis of 200M+ student papers submitted over the past year: ~11% of papers showed signs of AI help and ~3% of papers contained at least 80% AI writing  —  Students who outsource their thinking to AI tools pose a risk to future employers and more  —  The other day I met a British academic …
Zoë Schiffer / Platformer:
A look at the book The Anxious Generation, as some say author Jonathan Haidt falls short in showing that social media is causing a teen mental health crisis  —  Jonathan Haidt wrote a best-selling book about teens and social media.  Not everyone buys its thesis  —  I.
More: NPR, Vox, and Washington Post
Threads: @crumblerX: @mausellmoli, @derekeb, and @binarybitsLinkedIn: Bob Gower
New York Times:
Q&A with Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei about AI models costing ~$10B to train, why AI models are close to being “able to replicate and survive in the wild”, more  —  Every Tuesday and Friday, Ezra Klein invites you into a conversation about something that matters, like today's episode with Dario Amodei.
Anthony Ha / TechCrunch:
Airchat, Naval Ravikant's social media app built around audio recordings, which the app transcribes, relaunches on iOS and Android; it is currently invite-only  —  Airchat is a new social media app that encourages users to “just talk.”  —  A previous version of Airchat was released last year …

Sponsor Posts

Google:
Try Gemini 3 Pro  —  Google's newest and most intelligent AI model that helps you bring any idea to life
Shopify:
Shopify's new AI commerce stack  —  Their VP of Product digs into just-launched products to help entrepreneurs and developers build with the latest AI and tech.
Zoho:
Connecting, collaborating, and growing: Zoho Mail 2025 wrap-up  —  Your inbox has been home to a lot this year—quick updates, long threads, approvals, reminders, and the occasional late-night draft you weren't sure about.
IDrive:
Protecting your Cloud Applications Data  —  Backing up Office 365, Google Workspace, Dropbox & Box data is critical to preventing data loss or corruption, complying with laws and avoiding critical downtime in case of a disaster.

Featured Podcasts

Great Chat:
The stories we told ourselves in 2025
A podcast mostly about tech. Brought to you weekly by Angela Du, Sally Shin, Mac Bohannon, Helen Min, and Ashley Mayer.
Subscribe to Great Chat.
The Social Radars:
Jessica & Carolynn Announce Season 5!
Come be a fly on the wall as Y Combinator's Jessica Livingston and Carolynn Levy talk to some of the most successful founders in Silicon Valley about how they did it.
Subscribe to The Social Radars.
Grit:
How Brands Stay Visible When AI Decides | Profound CEO James Cadwallader
Grit explores what it takes to create, build and scale world-class organizations.
Subscribe to Grit.
Lenny's Podcast:
The coming AI security crisis (and what to do about it) | Sander Schulhoff
Interviews with world-class product leaders and growth experts to uncover actionable advice to help you build, launch, and grow your own product.
Subscribe to Lenny's Podcast.
Big Technology Podcast:
OpenAI's Potential, Google's Speedy Model, Copilot Hits Turbulence
The Big Technology Podcast takes you behind the scenes in the tech world featuring interviews with plugged-in insiders and outside agitators.
Subscribe to Big Technology Podcast.
Tools and Weapons with Brad Smith:
Ted Sarandos: Netflix and how tech changed storytelling
Microsoft Vice Chair and President Brad Smith speaks with leaders in government, business, and culture to explore the most critical challenges at the intersection of technology and society.
Subscribe to Tools and Weapons with Brad Smith.
 

About This Page

This is a Techmeme archive page. It shows how the site appeared at 9:50 AM ET, April 14, 2024.

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.

More News

Earlier Picks