Techmeme
November 27, 2019, 7:10 AM

Top News

Chris Welch / The Verge:
Twitter says accounts that have not been logged into for six months leading up to Dec. 11 will be removed, likely freeing up a large number of usernames  —  No exact date for when usernames will be available  —  Twitter is sending out emails to owners of inactive accounts with a warning …
Lucas Matney / TechCrunch:
Facebook buys the VR studio behind Beat Saber, one of virtual reality's biggest titles with over 1M copies sold since May 2018  —  Virtual reality doesn't have many hit games yet, but Facebook is buying the studio behind one of the platform's biggest titles.
CNBC:
Sources: Facebook made several bids to acquire Fitbit, including a final offer of $7.30/share, below Google's announced offer of ~$2.1B in cash at $7.35/share  —  - Facebook is “Party A,” the company that bid against Google to acquire Fitbit, according to sources familiar with the matter.
Sarah Perez / TechCrunch:
Amazon partners with pharmacy chain Giant Eagle to bring to Alexa prescription medication reminders and the ability to request refills  —  As Amazon moves further into the healthcare market, the company today is rolling out a medication management feature for Alexa owners.
Leo Kelion / BBC:
US teen says TikTok blocked her from posting after she accused China of putting Muslims into concentration camps; TikTok blames other reasons for the suspension  —  A US teenager's TikTok video clip accusing China of putting Muslims into “concentration camps” has gone viral on the Chinese-owned social network.
Frank Pasquale / Law and Political Economy:
A look at the state of AI accountability research, which is focused not just on improving existing systems but also on whether such systems should ever be used  —  Over the past decade, algorithmic accountability has become an important concern for social scientists, computer scientists, journalists, and lawyers.
Kate Clark / TechCrunch:
NYSE files paperwork with SEC that proposes letting companies raise fresh capital as part of direct listings on the exchange, a method used by Slack and Spotify  —  The New York Stock Exchange filed paperwork this morning with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission to allow companies to raise capital as part of a direct listing.
Steven Scheer / Reuters:
Facebook sued by NSO Group employees who claim their private Facebook and Instagram accounts were unfairly blocked after WhatsApp had sued NSO Group last month  —  JERUSALEM (Reuters) - A group of employees from Israeli surveillance firm NSO Group filed a lawsuit against Facebook Inc on Tuesday …
Zack Whittaker / TechCrunch:
Kasada, which has developed tech to fight bot-powered attacks, says it has closed $7M Series A, which includes funding from its newest investor In-Q-Tel  —  Kasada, an anti-bot startup we profiled earlier this year, has raised $7 million in its Series A with In-Q-Tel, the non-profit venture arm …
More: Kasada

Sponsor Posts

Command Line:
Bringing local models and sandboxed tools to Windows and GitHub Copilot  —  GitHub Copilot will soon determine when a task is best handled by on-device AI and when it needs cloud-scale models.
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Featured Podcasts

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Meta & Microsoft's Claude Slowdown, His Agent Leaked His Banking Info, Don't Bully Your AI
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Sources:
Qualcomm's CEO on the coming AI phone supercycle
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The Upstarts Podcast:
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Great Chat:
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Channels with Peter Kafka:
Larry Ellison's Media Ambitions & Kevin Roose on AI's Biggest Gamble
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Training Data:
Google's AI Infrastructure Chief, Amin Vahdat, on the Physics & Economics of Frontier AI
Sequoia Capital partners host conversations with leading AI builders and researchers to develop a deeper understanding of the evolving technologies and their implications.
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More News

David Dayen / American Prospect:
David Streitfeld / New York Times:

Earlier Picks

Kurt Wagner / Bloomberg:
Maya Kosoff / GEN:
Bloomberg:
Kyle Wiggers / VentureBeat:
Bryan Menegus / Gizmodo:
Jon Fingas / Engadget: