Techmeme
September 6, 2018, 3:50 PM

Top News

The Intercept:
Interviews and documents show IBM used NYPD surveillance footage in 2012 to develop object identification tech that could search by skin color and more  —  In the decade after the 9/11 attacks, the New York City Police Department moved to put millions of New Yorkers under constant watch.
Ellen Nakashima / Washington Post:
DOJ announces hacking charges against a North Korean government spy, linked to the Lazarus Group, in connection with the 2014 Sony hack  —  The Justice Department will announce computer hacking charges Thursday against a North Korean government spy in connection with the 2014 attack …
Peter Kafka / Recode:
A recap of Facebook and Twitter hearings: Republican claims of bias, Democratic claims of political manipulation, and appearances by Alex Jones and Laura Loomer  —  A capsule review of tech's visit to Washington: The Senate seemed serious, the House did not, and Republicans aren't done complaining about bias.
Kris Holt / Engadget:
Josh Constine / TechCrunch:
Washington Post:
Mehedi Hassan / Thurrott.com:
Microsoft begins testing Cortana and Alexa support for the Xbox One, letting users power the console on and off and start games and apps  —  Microsoft's Xbox One is getting a whole lot easier to use.  The company today announced a new Xbox Skill for Cortana and Amazon Alexa …
Ben Sisario / New York Times:
Sources detail how Spotify has quietly signed direct licensing deals with some artists, a move that is worrying major record labels  —  For decades, the path to stardom in the music industry has usually gone through a major record company.  —  Almost every artist today who reaches the top of the charts …
Paul Sawers / VentureBeat:
MasterClass, which offers online classes from well known experts for a $180 annual fee, raises $80M Series D led by IVP  —  Filmmaking taught by Martin Scorsese?  Comedy taught by Steve Martin?  Chess taught by Garry Kasparov?  Tennis taught by Serena Williams?  Cooking taught by Gordon Ramsay?
Erin Griffith / New York Times:
A look at the rise of smart home fitness equipment startups, such as Mirror, which recently raised $25M, and Tonal, which makes a weight-lifting machine  —  Paul Wright, a smiling, impeccably jacked personal trainer, stared at me from the large screen mounted to the wall.
Jonathan Shieber / TechCrunch:
Insight Venture Partners buys content management platform Episerver for $1.1B from the private equity firm Accel-KKR  —  Episerver, the Irvine, California-based company which provides services for marketers to manage content, was bought by Insight Venture Partners for a cool $1.1 billion from the private equity firm Accel-KKR.
Fathin Ungku / Reuters:
Facebook says it will invest more than $1B to build its first Asian data center in Singapore, slated to open in 2022  —  SINGAPORE (Reuters) - Facebook (FB.O) said on Thursday it will invest more than $1 billion to build its first data centre in Asia in Singapore, slated to open in 2022.
Jon Russell / TechCrunch:
Singapore-based GreyOrange, which wants to develop fully-autonomous warehouse robots, raises $140M Series C led by Peter Thiel's Mithril Capital  —  GreyOrange, a Singapore-headquartered firm that develops robots for warehouses, has pulled in a $140 million Series C funding round as it targets more expansion and growth.
More: CNBC and VentureBeat
Eudora Wang / China Money Network:
Chinese fresh produce e-commerce platform MissFresh raises $450M Series D led by Goldman Sachs and Tencent  —  Goldman Sachs Investment Partners and Chinese internet giant Tencent Holdings Limited lead a US$450 million financing round in Chinese fresh produce e-commerce platform MissFresh.

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Featured Podcasts

Hard Fork:
The White House's Secret A.I. Rules + The State of Model Alignment With METR's Chris Painter + The Final Hot Mess Express
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Bryan Menegus / Gizmodo:
James Vincent / The Verge: