Techmeme
January 20, 2020, 12:45 AM

Top News

Kashmir Hill / New York Times:
A look at Clearview AI, a facial recognition app claiming it scraped 3B+ images from sites like Facebook, YouTube, and that 600+ law enforcement agencies use it  —  A little-known start-up helps law enforcement match photos of unknown people to their online images — and “might lead to a dystopian future or something,” a backer says.
Sundar Pichai / Financial Times:
Google CEO Sundar Pichai says AI is too important not to be regulated and there are real concerns about the potential negative consequences of AI  —  The writer is chief executive of Alphabet and Google  —  Growing up in India, I was fascinated by technology.  Each new invention changed my family's life in meaningful ways.
More: 9to5Google
Manish Singh / TechCrunch:
The Verge:
Profile of Armslist, the “Craigslist of guns” that offers nearly any kind of gun imaginable and where all transactions are done peer to peer  —  Inside Armslist, the online ‘gun show that never ends’  —  Thomas Caldwell was a veteran in his 60s with a soft physique, oval glasses …
Josh Constine / TechCrunch:
Instagram removes the IGTV button from its home page; Sensor Tower: IGTV's standalone app was downloaded 1.1M times in the US since its launch in June 2018  —  TikTok saw 80X more installs  —  At most, 7 million of Instagram's 1 billion-plus users have downloaded its standalone IGTV app in the 18 months since launch.
Nathaniel Popper / New York Times:
An analysis of 40 studies finds that the link between social media use and both depression and anxiety among adolescents is small and inconsistent  —  A growing number of academics are challenging assumptions about the negative effects of social media and smartphones on children.
Hindenburg Research:
Research: Opera, known for its web browser, allegedly issues predatory loans in Kenya, Nigeria, and India via Android apps, likely violating Play Store policies  —  GET OUR LATEST REPORTS DELIVERED TO YOUR INBOX  —  Summary (NASDAQ: OPRA)  — Opera went public in mid-2018 based largely on prospects for its core browser business.
Dave Gershgorn / OneZero:
US Army contracted two firms for $4.5M to create a facial recognition system that analyzes infrared images to identify people at a distance of 10 to 500 meters  —  Infrared cameras recognize the heat emitted from your face  —  he U.S. military is spending more than $4.5 million …

Sponsor Posts

Subquadratic:
Subquadratic: the LLM built for 12M-token reasoning  —  SubQ can reason across entire codebases and document sets in one pass with no RAG workarounds.  Read how SubQ 1.1 Small holds near-perfect retrieval out to 12M tokens.
Cape:
Most carriers track everything.  Cape doesn't.  —  Unlimited talk, text & data, 24-hr metadata deletion, network ID rotation, SIM-attack defense, and more.  Switch today and get 29% off for life.
Zoho:
Meet Zoho Social MCP: Your AI assistant can now help run social media  —  Social media management has come a long way from simply publishing posts.Today, marketers are expected to create content …
IDrive:
Protecting your Cloud Applications Data  —  Backing up Office 365, Google Workspace, Dropbox & Salesforce data is critical to preventing data loss or corruption, complying with laws and avoiding critical downtime in case of a disaster.

Featured Podcasts

Channels with Peter Kafka:
Joanna Stern on the New Siri, OpenAI's Weird Gadget, and Life After the Wall Street Journal
Media and tech aren't just intersecting - they're fully intertwined. To understand how those worlds work, Peter Kafka talks to industry leaders, upstarts and observers.
Subscribe to Channels with Peter Kafka.
Big Technology Podcast:
Here's How The AI Bubble Bursts — With Paul Kedrosky
The Big Technology Podcast takes you behind the scenes in the tech world featuring interviews with plugged-in insiders and outside agitators.
Subscribe to Big Technology Podcast.
Invest Like the Best:
Eric Vishria - A Decade of Lessons Investing in Software & Hardware
The leading destination to learn about business and investing. We do this by showcasing exceptional talent and ideas.
Subscribe to Invest Like the Best.
The Talk Show With John Gruber:
'Getting the Snack Right', With Chance Miller
The director's commentary track for Daring Fireball. Long digressions on Apple, technology, design, movies, and more.
Subscribe to The Talk Show With John Gruber.
Grit:
Booking.com CEO on AI and the Future of Travel
Grit explores what it takes to create, build and scale world-class organizations.
Subscribe to Grit.
Tools and Weapons with Brad Smith:
Connecting the Unconnected: Doreen Bogdan-Martin
Microsoft Vice Chair and President Brad Smith speaks with leaders in government, business, and culture to explore the most critical challenges at the intersection of technology and society.
Subscribe to Tools and Weapons with Brad Smith.
 

About This Page

This is a Techmeme archive page. It shows how the site appeared at 12:45 AM ET, January 20, 2020.

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.

More News

The Intercept:
Zack Whittaker / TechCrunch:
AnnaMaria Andriotis / Wall Street Journal:
Cameron Faulkner / The Verge:

Earlier Picks

Sarah E. Needleman / Wall Street Journal:
Sean Gallagher / Ars Technica:
Asif Iqbal Shaik / MySmartPrice:
Tony Romm / Washington Post:
Samuel Stolton / EURACTIV.com: