Techmeme
July 12, 2024, 1:00 PM

Top News

Zack Whittaker / TechCrunch:
AT&T says it will begin notifying consumers about a data breach where cybercriminals stole phone records of “nearly all” of its cellular and landline customers  —  Stolen data includes millions of AT&T customer phone numbers, calling and text records, and location-related data.
Javier Espinoza / Financial Times:
Preliminary findings: the European Commission says X's paid blue checkmark deceives users and breaches the DSA; X could be fined up to 6% of its global revenue  —  Brussels regulators use new digital powers to threaten social media company with huge fines over transparency issues
Sarah Perez / TechCrunch:
Amazon says its AI shopping assistant Rufus is live in the Amazon mobile app for all US customers, after launching in beta for select customers in February 2024  —  Amazon's AI-powered shopping assistant, named “Rufus,” is now live for all U.S. customers in the Amazon mobile app, the retailer announced on Friday.
Financial Times:
Some developers remain optimistic as Apple seeks a Vision Pro “killer app”; Appfigures: the number of new Vision Pro apps has fallen since January and February  —  Tech giant is struggling to attract content from developers for innovative device that goes on sale in Europe this week
Tim Hardwick / MacRumors:
Financial Times:
SoftBank acquires struggling UK-based chipmaker Graphcore with US and UK approvals; sources: the deal is valued at $600M+ but below Graphcore's ~$700M funding  —  Deal will give Bristol-based company a resource boost while advancing the ‘next big bet’ of Masayoshi Son's group
Cecilia D'Anastasio / Bloomberg:
Saudi Arabia will host the inaugural Olympic Esports Games in 2025, as part of a newly announced 12-year partnership with the Olympic Committee  —  Saudi Arabia will host the inaugural Olympic Esports Games in 2025 under an agreement announced Friday by the International Olympic Committee and the kingdom.
Rachel Metz / Bloomberg:
OpenAI comes up with five levels to track its progress toward AGI: Chatbots, Reasoners, Agents, Innovators, and Organizations, and says it's nearly at Level 2  —  The company believes its technology is approaching the second level of five on the path to artificial general intelligence
Lawrence Abrams / BleepingComputer:
Signal plans to roll out a desktop app beta that uses Electron's safeStorage API instead of storing encryption keys in plain text, after downplaying the issue  —  Signal is finally tightening its desktop client's security by changing how it stores plain text encryption keys for the data store after downplaying the issue since 2018.
Natasha Lomas / TechCrunch:
The EU publishes the EU AI Act's final text, which comes into force on August 1, 2024; most companies have until August 2026 to comply with transparency rules  —  The full and final text of the EU AI Act, the European Union's landmark risk-based regulation for applications of artificial intelligence …

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Earlier Picks

Zack Whittaker / TechCrunch:
Andrew Cunningham / Ars Technica:
Olga Kharif / Bloomberg: