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August 15, 2024, 12:55 PM
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Top News

Kenrick Cai / Reuters:
Google expands AI Overviews in Search to Brazil, India, Indonesia, Japan, Mexico, and the UK in local languages, and adds links beside the AI-generated answers  —  Google parent Alphabet (GOOGL.O) said on Thursday it was expanding its AI-generated summaries for search queries to six new countries …
Bloomberg:
Some website publishers say they can't block the Googlebot crawler that covers AI Overviews, as the crawler also covers Search, hampering sites' discoverability
Financial Times:
Sources: SoftBank held talks with Intel about making an AI chip to compete with Nvidia, but Intel couldn't meet the requirements; SoftBank is talking to TSMC  —  Son hopes to put Japanese group at centre of artificial intelligence boom but talks with US chipmaker failed to progress
Joseph Menn / Washington Post:
Google says it will remove Showcase.apk from Pixel devices “out of an abundance of precaution”, after iVerify said hackers could use the dormant app to spy  —  Discovery prompted one intelligence contractor to stop issuing Android phones to employees.
Andy Greenberg / Wired:
Google says Iran-backed hacking group APT42 has targeted the Trump and Biden campaigns, as well as Israeli military, government, and diplomatic organizations  —  APT42, which is believed to work for Iran's Revolutionary Guard Corps, targeted about a dozen people associated with both Trump …
Bill Toulas / BleepingComputer:
Unit 42: open-source projects from Google, Microsoft, AWS, Red Hat, and others leaked GitHub auth tokens via GitHub Actions; GitHub chose not to fix the issues  —  Multiple high-profile open-source projects, including those from Google, Microsoft, AWS, and Red Hat, were found …
Reuters:
New Zealand signs an extradition order for Kim Dotcom to the US, where he faces criminal charges related to Megaupload; Dotcom has fought extradition since 2012  —  Kim Dotcom, who is facing criminal charges relating to the defunct file-sharing website Megaupload, will be extradited …
Joseph De Avila / Wall Street Journal:
Eric Schmidt says he “misspoke” when he said Google was losing the AI race because the company decided that “working from home was more important than winning”  —  Ex-Google CEO had said the tech company's work-life balance was ‘more important than winning’
Ben Thompson / Stratechery:
Q&A with Google SVP Rick Osterloh on the Pixel 9 devices, Android, the smartphone's history, smartphone integration, AI smartphones, Pixel trade-offs, and more  —  An interview with Google SVP Rick Osterloh about the Made with Google event, and understanding the company's approach …
Danny Gallagher / Engadget:
The US FTC announces a final rule banning the sale of fake reviews and testimonials, including AI-generated ones, with fines as high as $50K per violation  —  The new rules prohibit the selling of fake and AI-generated reviews and testimonials in several forms.
Chris Welch / The Verge:
Sources: Sonos is considering relaunching its previous mobile app as it works to improve the redesigned version, which launched in May 2024 to negative feedback  —  Sonos has explored the possibility of rereleasing its previous mobile app for Android and iOS — a clear sign of what an ordeal the company's hurried redesign has become.
Adi Robertson / The Verge:
Images generated by Grok, like Barack Obama doing cocaine and Donald Trump and Kamala Harris with guns, go viral on X, raising questions about Grok's guardrails  —  xAI's Grok chatbot now lets you create images from text prompts and publish them to X — and so far, the rollout seems as chaotic …
Emilia David / VentureBeat:
Anthropic adds prompt caching in public beta to its API, letting developers cache often used context between API calls on Claude 3.5 Sonnet and Claude 3 Haiku  —  Anthropic introduced prompt caching on its API, which remembers the context between API calls and allows developers to avoid repeating prompts.
Aisha Counts / Bloomberg:
A survey of 430 first-time US Gen Z voters: 60%+ oppose requiring under-16s to get parental consent to use social media and 85%+ oppose notification time limits  —  - Survey polled 430 first-time voters from across the US  — Lawmakers have criticized Instagram, TikTok over child safety
Sean Hollister / The Verge:
Epic v. Google: in the final hearing after Epic's antitrust win, the judge says he'll “tear the barriers down” on the Play Store, but won't “micromanage” Google  —  Judge James Donato just made it crystal-clear: Google will pay.
Ryan Browne / CNBC:
Klarna rolls out a checking account-like product and a cashback offering in 12 markets including the US and across Europe, as it prepares for a US IPO  —  Financial technology firm Klarna is pushing deeper into banking with its own checking account-like product and a cashback offering that rewards users for shopping via its app.
Ari Levy / CNBC:
Cisco reports Q4 revenue down 10% YoY to $13.64B, vs. $13.54B est., and says it's cutting 7% of its workforce, after cutting 5% in February 2024; CSCO jumps 5%+  —  Cisco shares popped in extended trading on Wednesday after the networking company said it's cutting 7% of its global workforce …
CNN:
A look at the five-person Gen Z team running Kamala Harris' TikTok account @KamalaHQ, capitalizing on the VP's viral moments and averaging 6M views per post  —  Vice President Kamala Harris, quoting her mother, told a group of newly sworn-in commissioners for a White House initiative …

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This is a Techmeme archive page. It shows how the site appeared at 12:55 PM ET, August 15, 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.

From Mediagazer

Benjamin Mullin / New York Times:
Arkansas PBS severs ties with the PBS network, the first state public TV system to do so since Congress cut CPB funds, citing the annual $2M+ membership cost

Pamela McClintock / The Hollywood Reporter:
Disney's Zootopia 2 surpasses $1B at the global box office, the fastest PG-rated film to do so after just 17 days in release

Sam Roberts / New York Times:
Arthur L. Carter, who started a Connecticut newspaper in 1981, bought and sold The Nation, and founded the New York Observer in 1987, has died at 93

More News

Zheping Huang / Bloomberg:
Alibaba reports Q1 revenue up 4% YoY to ~$34B, below ~$34.9B est., and net income down 27% YoY to ~$3.4B, after aggressive promotions failed to drive spending

Earlier Picks

Reuters:
CFIUS fines T-Mobile a record $60M for allegedly failing to prevent and report unauthorized access to sensitive data after its Sprint merger in 2020
Maxwell Zeff / TechCrunch:
A look at Germany-based Black Forest Labs, which recently emerged from stealth with a $31M seed led by a16z and whose FLUX.1 model powers Grok's image generator
Amanda Silberling / TechCrunch:
President Biden speaks at the first White House Creator Economy Conference, with about 100 startup founders, industry stakeholders, and creators in attendance
Mark Gurman / Bloomberg:
Sources: Apple is prioritizing developing a tabletop home device with an iPad-like display and a robotic limb, aiming for a release in 2026 or 2027 for ~$1,000
Joseph Menn / Washington Post:
Access Now and Citizen Lab: Russian spy agencies are using deep knowledge about opponents, reporters, and human rights groups to target them via phishing emails
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