Techmeme
August 26, 2024, 9:20 PM

Top News

New York Times:
French prosecutors: Pavel Durov's arrest is part of a probe “against person unnamed” into CSAM, drug sales, and more on the app and not working with authorities  —  A case was opened last month to investigate child pornography, drug sales, fraud and other criminal activities on the platform.
Victor Goury-Laffont / Politico:
French President Emmanuel Macron says the government was not involved in the arrest of Telegram CEO Pavel Durov and “this is in no way a political decision”  —  French president condemns “false information” as Pavel Durov's detention in Paris triggers global outcry.
Bloomberg:
Elon Musk / @elonmusk:
Elon Musk says that “all things considered”, California “should probably” pass the AI safety bill  —  This is a tough call and will make some people upset, but, all things considered, I think California should probably pass the SB 1047 AI safety bill. For over 20 years, I have been an advocate for AI regulation, just as we regulate any product/technology that is a potential risk
Juli Clover / MacRumors:
Apple announces a September 9 event at Apple Park with the iPhone 16 lineup, new Apple Watch models, and AirPods 4 expected; the invitation says “It's Glowtime”  —  Apple today announced plans to hold its annual iPhone-centric event on Monday, September 9 at the Apple Park campus in Cupertino, California.
Apple:
Apple announces CFO Luca Maestri will transition from his role on January 1, 2025; Kevan Parekh, Apple's VP of Financial Planning and Analysis, will become CFO  —  CUPERTINO, CALIFORNIA Apple today announced that Chief Financial Officer Luca Maestri will transition from his role on January 1, 2025.
Kyle Wiggers / TechCrunch:
Anthropic publishes a changelog for the system prompts of its Sonnet, Opus, and Haiku models, the first major AI vendor to do so  —  Generative AI models aren't actually human-like.  They have no intelligence or personality — they're simply statistical systems predicting the likeliest next words in a sentence.
Siobhan Hughes / Wall Street Journal:
In a letter to US Rep. Jim Jordan, Mark Zuckerberg says he regrets Meta wasn't more outspoken about the Biden admin's pressure to restrict some COVID-19 content  —  Meta CEO also says he won't repeat 2020 efforts to fund local elections, which Republicans criticized as ‘Zuckerbucks’
Sarah Jacob / Bloomberg:
The Dutch Data Protection Authority fines Uber a record €290M for failing to abide by European protection standards when sending sensitive driver data to the US  —  - Uber was fined for not sufficiently protecting driver data  — The fine is the highest penalty ever issued by Dutch regulator
Anna Tong / Reuters:
OpenAI supports CA bill AB 3211 to require companies generating AI content to add watermarks; the bill passed in the state Assembly 62-0 and heads to Senate  —  ChatGPT developer OpenAI is supporting a California bill that would require tech companies to label AI-generated content …
Jesse Hamilton / CoinDesk:
Crypto platform Abra agrees to settle with the SEC over claims of unregistered securities; the SEC said the Abra Earn product had almost $500M from US investors  —  The securities regulator says Abra sold half a billion dollars in unregistered Abra Earn while also operating without registration as an investment company.

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More News

Bloomberg:

Earlier Picks

Raffaele Huang / Wall Street Journal:
Joe Supan / CNET: