Techmeme
April 19, 2024, 4:05 PM

Top News

Wall Street Journal:
Apple removes WhatsApp, Threads, Signal, and Telegram from its App Store in China, after orders from the country's regulators citing national security concerns  —  China ordered Apple AAPL -1.17%decrease; red down pointing triangle to remove some of the world's most popular chat messaging apps …
Emma Roth / The Verge:
Post.News, the news-focused social platform launched in 2022 that offered micropayments to publishers, is shutting down after failing to grow “fast enough”  —  Post News, a Twitter alternative that emerged in the wake of Elon Musk's takeover, is shutting down.
Ryan Morrison / Tom's Guide:
Microsoft researchers introduce VASA-1, an AI model that can create a realistic talking face video from a portrait photo and an audio file, in research preview  —  Impressive lip-syncing  —  A new AI research paper from Microsoft promises a future where you can upload a photo …
Emanuel Maiberg / 404 Media:
A look at Salad, which pays gamers in Fortnite skins and Roblox gift cards to rent their GPUs remotely to AI companies, including those making AI-generated porn  —  Salad, a company that pays gamers in Fortnite skins and Roblox gift cards to rent their idle GPUs remotely to generative AI companies …
Zaheer Kachwala / Reuters:
Google says it will consolidate teams that focus on building AI models across Research and DeepMind, and move its Responsible AI teams from Research to DeepMind  —  Alphabet-owned Google (GOOGL.O) said on Thursday it would consolidate teams that focus on building artificial intelligence models across …
Zack Whittaker / TechCrunch:
Hacking group GhostR claims it stole 5.3M records from World-Check's screening database, used for KYC checks for sanctions and financial crime links, in March  —  The stolen database contains 5.3 million records  —  A financially motivated criminal hacking group says it has stolen …
James Reddick / The Record:
Sophos researchers find “crude” ransomware starter kits sold on the dark web from $20 to ~$13K, enabling inexperienced freelancers to easily launch attacks  —  Cheap ransomware is being sold for one-time use on dark web forums, allowing inexperienced freelancers to get into cybercrime without …
Ryan Browne / CNBC:
Telegram partners with Tether to let the messaging app's ~900M users send USDT to each other through The Open Network blockchain  —  Stablecoin Tether and Circle's USDC dominate the market.  —  Telegram users can now start making stablecoin USDT payments to each other through the encrypted messaging service's linked blockchain.
New York Times:
Sources describe Nigeria's detention of two Binance officials, including US compliance officer Tigran Gambaryan, on charges of tax evasion and money laundering  —  Tigran Gambaryan, an American compliance official for the giant cryptocurrency exchange Binance, flew to Nigeria in February for a planned two-day business trip.
Mike Butcher / TechCrunch:
Midas, which lets users in Turkey invest in US and Turkish equities, raised a $45M Series A, after a $11M seed in 2022, and plans crypto trading and more  —  Midas, a fintech startup that allows people in Turkey to invest in U.S. and Turkish equities, says it has raised $45 million in a funding round led by Portage Ventures of Canada.

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More News

Wall Street Journal:
Dwarkesh Patel / Dwarkesh Podcast:
Bloomberg:

Earlier Picks

Kris Holt / Engadget:
Sarah Whitten / CNBC:
Crystal Kim / Axios:
Emma Roth / The Verge:
New York Times:
Bill Toulas / BleepingComputer: